Free: Free Forever

Free was one of the most distinctive bands to emerge from the British blues-rock boom of the late 1960s, albeit a one-hit wonder to the audience that enjoyed its biggest mainstream success, "All Right Now." The full-length version of that single appeared on Fire And Water (A&M, 1970), the disc that was three albums in for the quartet which continued, somewhat haltingly, through three more albums before finally calling it quits in 1973. From its die-cut slipcase to its multiple special features—including interviews, conceptual videos and live performance footage—the two-DVD package Free Forever is as ornate as it is comprehensive.

The combination of studio and live performance footage by and large does justice to the band as it illustrates the development of a precocious young lineup that could hold its own with its more celebrated contemporaries, including bands led by singer and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall (with whom bassist/composer Andy Fraser played briefly), Cream and the original Jeff Beck Group. Unremittingly raw in its early stages, Free refined its sound to fashion a unique fusion blues and rock, maintaining a simplicity rooted in the former and harnessing the dynamics at the heart of the latter.

As displayed in the excerpts from TV's Beat Club, Free didn't rely on volume as much as a minimalist style all the more explosive for its restraint. Even more rare for a band with such an individual approach, the sound of Free was at once greater and lesser than the sum of its parts; emblematic of this was how, after the breakup of the band, individual members of the group went on to form their credible own groups.

Bassist Fraser was no showoff but nevertheless refused just to keep time with the elemental drumming of Simon Kirke. Paul Kossoff was not an eloquent guitarist but a player whose solos were emotional exorcisms (when he wasn't trying to see how delicately he could play). Paul Rodgers too was unlike the lead singers of his era, never resorting to histrionics but rather stretching his gusy tenor into a new and modern form of blues singing underlined with natural soul (hear the Otis Redding and James Brown in his phrasing). "Mr Big" and "Fire and Water" look dated with the overlay of visual effects on the spare stage setup, but the music remains fresh and vibrant.

Free's one flirtation with the mainstream remains an old-school FM radio format classic, in part because it's representative of composers Fraser's and Rodgers' savvy about songwriting. The duo knew strong material required more than just a good riff, and the chord changes mirrored an intelligent (though hardly profound) approach to lyrics grounded in straightforward expressions of longing, despair and jubilation. From Rodgers' honest soul to Kossoff's economical approach, Fraser's melodic innovative style and Kirke's bedrock bottom, the lineup of Free stood as its own best metaphor. The band never resorted to twelve-bar jams or static shuffles as did so many of its contemporaries.

Procured from a variety of sources covering the band's entire career, the content of Free Forever varies in quality even if the subject does not. In a reflection of their bare-bones approach to music, the band eschewed flashy stage attire as well as lavish concert production. Excerpts from Britain's Granada television are highly professional on every front: video as well as audio is clean and clear, while the editing, done in sync with the playing, enhances the motion within the music. In contrast, Free lip-syncs in some grainy promotional pieces, not even appearing in a piece from the final album Heartbreaker (Island, 1973) which trades in trite images even as the song itself, "Wishing Well," retains the basic signature of the band (at that late juncture of their history, without Fraser in the lineup).

A photo montage dedicated to Kossoff, who died in 1976 after a string of personal mishaps and problems, reaffirms the affection he engendered in his band mates. The tribute eschews sentimentality, as does Rodgers' written reminiscence on an insert that, instead of the usual color booklet resplendent with photos and essays, comes in the form of a large fold-out poster, inside the triple-fold case enclosing the two DVDs.

Disc two is devoted to Free's entire performance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. As on its counterpart, material such as "The Stealer" reappears, but "The Hunter" and "Ride on Pony" serve to round out the repertoire. Alas, only three cuts captured by Murray Lerner (who filmed Bob Dylan's watershed Newport Folk Festival performances as well as The Who's epic appearance at this same festival) include video as well as audio, but the DVD offers the option to watch each camera angle in isolated form. Similarly, Kossoff's brother Simon's footage of a college gig has no sound either: mere curiosity to a non-hardcore fan perhaps, this footage highlights the ominous air that permeated Free's music, especially that portion shot after dark, when the lightning lends a fiery glow to the images of the band.

Inclusion of content with these relatively minor blemishes ultimately serves to reaffirm the fierce loyalty Free elicited, so that the picture that's drawn over the course of the two discs is that of a potent band, firmly rooted in its time and place but not mired in it. Even the interviews done in 2006 (when the package was originally released in England) find the three surviving bandmembers, plus the late guitarist's sibling, echoing each other's sentiments in eerily similar, but generally positive tone.

The creativity and attention to detail behind Free Forever, not to mention the enthralling subject matter itself, suggests Free captured a fleeting time in rock history as vividly, if not more so, than better known and more highly celebrated units of that era.

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