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Product Description
Album Description
Free's 3rd album was originally released in June 1970 and has now been expanded with 23 bonus tracks.
Disc One contains the original album digitally remastered by Peter Mew at Abbey Road plus 3 songs recorded in session for the BBC plus 4 songs recorded live for John Peel's Sunday Live in Concert programme for the BBC.
Disc Two gathers together 16 alternative versions of songs from the album including a previously unreleased version of Fire and Water and previously unreleased versions of All Right Now recorded for the video.
"While it may seem excessive to close the set with three versions of the same song we felt that these are so good, and all quite different performances, that it would be absurd not to let you hear them and simply leave them languishing in the vaults."
David Clayton - Winter 2007
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I really can't speak highly enough about this fabulous album. How on earth could such brilliantly original material be created by such a young group? It's truly staggering. The more I delve into Fire and Water, the more I'm struck by the subtlety and beauty, as well as the obvious power and technique. Check out Kossoff's gentle solo's on Remember and Heavy Load and you'll begin to appreciate there's so much more to enjoy than 'just' the acclaimed classics on this album. It speaks volumes that, although Free are remembered mainly for All Right Now, Fire and Water maintains a level of quality throughout the album that's astonishing. Rodgers and Kossoff contribute to so many glorious moments on this album, supported by the ever reliable Kirke, but for me, the genius of Free had more to do with Andy Fraser than people realise. Barely 18 at the release of Fire and Water and he'd already co-wrote much of Free's material, including the music for All Right Now. Wow! Buy it, revel in it, and then tell your mates to buy it.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Let's get one or two things straight. Free, one of the most underrated bands of the late 60s? Oh, yes. Fire and Water, a masterpiece? No, of course not. At the time this short record represented an advance on the previous album, "Free", which itself was both an advance on the first album (Tons of Sobs) and a change of direction. Here on Fire and Water we see the band moving further outward from their blues origins, becoming now much more interested in original songwriting. The key here is heard in the burgeoning talent of Andy Fraser, 15 years of age when he became a founding member of the band in 1968, a true prodigy. The composer to Rogers lyricist, on this album he wrote three outstanding pieces: the title track, the monster single and true genre classic, All Right Now and Don't Say You Love Me. For these, Fire and Water is worth any amount of money you want to pay.
Don't Say You Love Me is probably the most widely unknown work of greatness of the whole 1966-1976 period. It's structure and elegant melody are so memorable, the piece has the immediate sound of an established R n B classic ballad: "It's a cover, isn't it?" you think. No. The fact that the song is missing from first compilation The Free Story probably explains its obscurity. The elegance of the chord structure, the simplicity of its arrangement - a constant Free trademark -and Paul Rogers's brilliant, understated vocal make this one of the progressive rock movement's outstanding creations.
Fire and Water represents the commercial breakthrough for the band thanks to the stupendous sales of All Right Now. However, artistically it's a stepping stone on the path to one of the greatest albums of modern music, ironically one almost totally unheralded: Highway. This was, and remains, Free's masterpiece.
CT
Don't Say You Love Me is probably the most widely unknown work of greatness of the whole 1966-1976 period. It's structure and elegant melody are so memorable, the piece has the immediate sound of an established R n B classic ballad: "It's a cover, isn't it?" you think. No. The fact that the song is missing from first compilation The Free Story probably explains its obscurity. The elegance of the chord structure, the simplicity of its arrangement - a constant Free trademark -and Paul Rogers's brilliant, understated vocal make this one of the progressive rock movement's outstanding creations.
Fire and Water represents the commercial breakthrough for the band thanks to the stupendous sales of All Right Now. However, artistically it's a stepping stone on the path to one of the greatest albums of modern music, ironically one almost totally unheralded: Highway. This was, and remains, Free's masterpiece.
CT
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This, the third Free album, represents a step forward for the band's music, as they steer away from writing around traditional blues forms, and into their own, more rock-based songwriting. Rockers such as "Mr Big" and the grinding "Fire and Water" contrast with softer material like "Oh I Wept" and the heartrending "Don't Say You Love Me." And, of course, there's "All Right Now," the classic track guitarist Paul Kossoff dismissed as "frivolous." As a bonus, this reissued CD features another six songs, with alternate versions of "Fire and Water," "All Right Now" and "Oh I Wept" included. The sound quality is faultless, this disc being remastered, and the price sets the seal on this disc. A fine issue of a fine album.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fabulous album, awful remaster
I've been listening to this album since the middle seventies - I love Free, I love this album - I love most of the Free albums, barring the last couple (and they are still pretty... Read more
Published 27 days ago by Dt Smith
Free Remastered Albums
I have bought three Free cds Fire and Water, Heartbreaker and Free all because mainly I wanted the extra songs that I did not have on my Chronicles The Very Best of Free cds. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Just.B
Fire and Water, Free (2001 Island Remaster) - Crowning achievement of...
Free came out of the blocks with an impressive debut album, Tons of Sobs, and quickly followed up with the quality Free, but it was their third album, Fire and Water, that was... Read more
Published on 8 April 2010 by Victor
Deluxe?
To choose one Free album to release a Deluxe Edition of based on one hit wouldn't have been my first choice. Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2009 by Jason Smith
Surely there were other outtakes...?
I bought my copy of this set last spring--I previously owned the single-disc remaster, and even there, I had to wonder at the lack of songs that were never released from these... Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2009 by William M. Feagin
A must for all Free fans.
As a long standing Free fan (probably one of the oldest!) I was really surprised to find an album I had not got. Well, I have now and it is superb. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2008 by spanishlady
A great buy - if you want NINE versions of All Right Now!!!
30 tracks spread over two CDs - how could any Free fan resist? Oh, hang on a minute - it's the same seven songs repeated ad nauseum. Read more
Published on 9 May 2008 by Steven Roberts
FREE's 1970 3rd Album Masterpiece Given A STUNNING SOUND UPGRADE &...
FREE were:
PAUL RODGERS - Vocals [ex Brown Sugar]
PAUL KOSSOFF - Guitar & Piano [ex Black Cat Bones]
ANDY FRASER - Bass
SIMON KIRKE - Drums [ex John Mayall's... Read more
PAUL RODGERS - Vocals [ex Brown Sugar]
PAUL KOSSOFF - Guitar & Piano [ex Black Cat Bones]
ANDY FRASER - Bass
SIMON KIRKE - Drums [ex John Mayall's... Read more
Published on 8 April 2008 by Mark Barry, Reckless Records, London
best album 2 start with
Free have released so much material that its hard to decide which album highlighted such quality from such a group and Fire and Water is definitley the best of them all and the... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2008 by spike
What's wrong? What's right?
Free were undoubtedly a band with great musical aptitude, and at the top of their genre (real R'n'B, not the crypto-pop stuff we get nowadays). Read more
Published on 27 May 2006 by Nord
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