I first heard Free as a boy near the end of Junior School. We had this tradition of miming to songs for the Christmas party and one group chose to do All Right Now, which has a great riff but is rather aggressive for my liking. I later heard My Brother Jake, which another boy owned. I eventually persuaded him to sell it to me and for the last 20 years or so it has been my favourite song of all time. I'm not sure quite why. I've tried to analyse it and all I can come up with is that it builds and may be the mellotron is doing something subliminal.
I always wanted a copy of The Free Story LP but never got to own one. More recently I bought this best of CD of 14 tracks All Right Now. There is a certain sameness about several of the other tracks, which is not necessarily a criticism. I know little about the group but I always feel somehow that a more upbeat and vocally gifted Paul Rogers is singing to the guitarist Paul Kossoff (who eventually committed suicide) and trying to help him on. An attempted ordering of faves would be
1. My Brother Jake
2. All Right Now
3. Little Bit of Love
4. Wishing Well
5. Fire and Water
6. Travellin' in Style
7. Come Together in the Morning
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