FREE - First 3 albums

Free were an English rock band, formed in London in 1968 and best known for their popular song "All Right Now". Lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become lead singer of the rock band Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums, while lead guitarist Paul Kossoff, a much revered blues-rock guitarist, was to die from a drug-induced heart failure at the age of 25 in 1976. The band was famed for their sensational live shows and nonstop touring, although their early studio albums sold slowly until the release of "Fire and Water" which featured the massive hit "All Right Now". This song helped secure them a place at the huge Isle of Wight Festival 1970 where they played to 600,000 people. For a short period, scenes reminiscent of Beatlemania broke out. But as surviving band members ruefully admit, personal problems got in the way and they broke up on the brink of something big, perhaps never realising their true potential. Paul Rodgers has since joined a reformed Queen.
Most remarkable about the birth of Free was the young age of the band members who first came together to rehearse at the Nag's Head pub in Battersea, London, on April 19, 1968. Bass player Andy Fraser (born August 7, 1952), was only 15 years old while lead singer Paul Rodgers (born December 17, 1949), lead guitarist Paul Kossoff (September 14, 1950 - March 19, 1976), and drummer Simon Kirke (born July 28, 1949), were also still teenagers. By November of that year they had recorded their first album Tons Of Sobs for Island Records and, although it was not released until the following year, the album documents their first six months together and contains studio renditions of much of their early live set.
Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke first became friends in the R&B band Black Cat Bones but they wanted to move on and saw vocalist Paul Rodgers singing with Brown Sugar while visiting the "Fickle Pickle", an R&B club in London's Finsbury Park. They were immediately impressed, and the three were soon jamming, forming Free with the addition of Andy Fraser, who at the tender age of 15 had already been playing with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.
Free are still cited as one of the definitive bands of the British blues boom of the late 1960s with the release of Tons of Sobs in 1969, but this is the only album that can strictly be called blues-rock. The next album, Free, released in 1969, has a marked difference in the musicianship of the band as well as Paul Rodgers's voice.
Unlike their previous albums Tons of Sobs and Free, Fire and Water - released in 1970 - was a huge success, largely due to the album containing the hit single "All Right Now" that reached #1 on the UK rock music charts and #4 on the U.S. charts. The album reached #2 in the UK charts and #17 on the U.S charts making it the most successful Free album.


Tracks
Tons Of Sobs
1. Over the Green Hills (Pt. 1)
2. Worry
3. Walk in My Shadow
4. Wild Indian Woman
5. Goin' Down Slow
6. I'm a Mover
7. Hunter
8. Moonshine
9. Sweet Tooth
10. Over the Green Hills (Pt. 2)


Free
1. Ill Be Creepin
2. Songs Of Yesterday
3. Lying In The Sunshine
4. Trouble On Double Time
5. Mouthful Of Grass
6. Woman
7. Free Me
8. Broad Daylight
9. Mourning Sad Morning


Fire And Water
1. Fire And Water
2. Oh How I Wept
3. Remember
4. Heavy Load
5. Mr. Big
6. Don't Say You Love Me
7. All Right Now


LINKS:

Tons Of Sobs
h!!p://www.megaupload.com/?d=0DWQZHV4

Free
h!!p://www.megaupload.com/?d=6OR0BUIC

Fire And Water
h!!p://www.megaupload.com/?d=4J0IIBIM


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