After the rise and nearly immediate collapse of Blind Faith, one
\nwould have thought that musicians would have been scared off of the
\nidea of supergroups. Combining so much diverse talent into one band
\nwas a great idea on paper, but could it be too volatile a mix to
\nwork?<\/p>\n
Then again, Led Zeppelin was successful, though one could argue
\nif they fell under the term “supergroup”, as the only member who
\nwas well-known at the time was Jimmy Page. But enough bands saw the
\nglimmer of promise in the concept of supergroups – a glimmer that
\nled former members of King Crimson, Free and Mott The Hoople to
\nform Bad Company.<\/p>\n
Vocalist Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs, bassist Boz
\nBurrell and drummer Simon Kirke were the first act ever to be
\nsigned to Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label. And while there are
\ndefinite signs of aging on their self-titled debut, there are still
\nmoments that make the experience all worthwhile.<\/p>\n
The one thing that strikes me about this album is that the
\nproduction quality is very rough. There is not a lot of treble or
\nbass in the mix, leaving the sound raw and a little uncomfortable
\nat times. (I don’t know if this was fixed when the album was
\nremastered for CD; I’m still working off my old vinyl copy.) But
\nfor certain songs, this atmosphere is perfect.<\/p>\n
About half of this album gets regular play – or overplay,
\ndepending on your point of view – on radio today. “Can’t Get
\nEnough,” the album’s opener, is the perfect shot needed to both
\nintroduce the band to the listener and to suck them in for the
\nremainder of the journey. The track is a combination of controlled
\norder and frantic energy, a yin-yang that makes this track into a
\nclassic. Even now, 25 years after this song was released, I still
\ndon’t get tired of it.<\/p>\n
Of the remaining rockers on
\nBad Company<\/i>, only “Rock Steady” fails to please completely.
\nI found myself wishing that the basic rhythm and melody of the song
\nhad been worked on a little more; it comes off sounding very
\nsimplistic, something one would not expect from Bad Company. The
\nother tracks, “Movin’ On” and the title track, both are fun numbers
\nto listen to, the latter almost sounding like a sinister track from
\na Western movie, with the build from piano and vocals to full
\nband.<\/p>\n
But Bad Company, throughout their history, had a habit of mixing
\nthe rockers with soft, slow ballads – something I can’t say I
\nalways enjoyed. “Ready For Love” is one that still gets airplay,
\nand is one that takes a long time to build into anything
\nrespectable. “Don’t Let Me Down” and “The Way I Choose” are not
\nmuch better in this department.<\/p>\n
Then, there is “Seagull,” a track that was supposed to show the
\nband’s sensitive side. (What the hell was
\nwith<\/i> this bird in the ’70s, anyway? I mean, there’s this
\ntrack, Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Lesbian Seagull” and the book and
\nfilm
\nJonathan Livingston Seagull<\/i>? I had to read that book in high
\nschool; it was a nasty drug trip.) Instead, it showcases Rodgers as
\na vocalist, and it doesn’t do a bad job of that. What is annoying,
\nhowever, is that Ralph’s guitar is slightly out of tune on the high
\n“E” string, something that is painfully noticeable during the
\nchoruses.<\/p>\n
The funny thing is that half of
\nBad Company<\/i> – the best half – is reprised on
\n10 From 6<\/i>, the obligatory “greatest hits” compilation. And
\nwhile this album is one that you may want to check out if you want
\nto get past the radio-friendly material, you’re almost better off
\nbuying the best-of instead.
\nBad Company<\/i> painted a picture of a band whose formula would
\nnot change too much over the course of their career: good songs
\nmixed with weaker. Worth checking out, but approach it with
\ncaution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5720],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36206","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bad-company","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36206"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36206"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}