Fire and Water

Fire and Water
Studio album by Free
Released	June 1970 October 2001 (reissue)
Recorded	January - June 1970 at Trident and Island Studios, London
Genre	Rock
Length	61:39 (2001 reissue)
Label	Island, A&M and Polydor
Producer	Free and John Kelly
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
Free chronology
Free (1969) Fire and Water (1970) Highway (1970)

Fire and Water was the third studio album released by English rock group Free. Unlike their previous albums Tons of Sobs and Free it was a success, reaching #2 in the UK charts and #17 in the American, making it the most successful Free album. This is due to the album containing the hit single "All Right Now" which they later played to a crowd of over 600,000 people at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, which generated them popularity. To this date it is the only Free album to have seen a CD reissue in America.

Line up

• Paul Rodgers - vocals
• Paul Kossoff - guitar
• Andy Fraser - bass
• Simon Kirke - drums

Reception

The album and single were both successesful. Fees for live shows rose to £1000 (a considerable amount in 1970) and they began to be featured in radio station and music magazines.

Track listing

(All tracks written by Fraser/Rodgers unless otherwise stated)

Original tracks

1. "Fire and Water" 3:57
2. "Oh I Wept" (Rodgers/Kossoff) 4:26
3. "Remember" 4:23
   • "Remember" is a reworking of an unused song "Woman by the Sea" from the Tons of Sobs recording sessions in 1968.
4. "Heavy Load" 5:19
5. "Mr. Big" (Fraser/Rodgers/Kirke/Kossoff) 5:55
   • They performed this track on a televised session that can be seen on the Let It Rock - Vol. 2 DVD released in the UK in 2003.
6. "Don't Say You Love Me" 6:01
7. "All Right Now" 5:32
   • Free's best known track. The version on the album is longer than the single release: the second verse is repeated and the guitar solo is longer.

Extra tracks

Unusually the album's extra tracks consist only of alternate versions of songs already on the album. They include an alternate vocal take of "Oh I Wept" and a remix of "Fire and Water" to correct many of the production deficiencies that the original contains. This version of the song does not fade out; instead Simon Kirke's final drum solo is performed to the end resulting in this version being twenty-one seconds longer than the album version. A BBC Session of this song is also included.

The extra tracks also include three different versions of "All Right Now": one is a BBC session recorded at the same time as the one for the title track; one is the edited version that was released as a single. It runs at 4:18, one minute and fourteen seconds less than the album version: the final verse is gone and the guitar solo is heavily cut down, a fact that Kossoff disliked. The final version of the song is an early take that was never used.

References

• Clayton, David and Smith, Todd K. Heavy Load: The Story of Free. Moonshine Publishing 2002
• Strong, Martin C. The Great Rock Discography, 6th edition. Edinburgh: Canongate Books 1994, 2002. pp. 392-3.
• Sutcliffe, Phil. Notes to Fire and Water by Free. Universal Island Records Ltd. 1970, 2001.

External links