Fire and Water (Deluxe Edition)

When Free’s debut album was released in July 1970, no one in the group was yet 21; bassist Andy Fraser was only 17. Though rock 'n' roll was then dominated by expressions of youth, the songs on Fire and Water feel like the work of wizened soldiers. Free shared with its peers a love of high volume, but where its fellow acts seemed manic and often extravagant, Free was all about simplicity, groove, and depth. The music’s potency isn’t simply a matter of Paul Rodgers’ preternaturally virile vocals, though it'd be hard to locate another 20-year-old in history who could sing like that. The rhythms are heaving and unhurried, more akin the sound of a railroad spike being driven or an axe chopping wood than anything in the music world. The band is totally unified, and in every song it digs its collective toes deep into the dirt. In this way, Free was more like Booker T & The MGs than Led Zeppelin. “All Right Now” became the song that best epitomizes what came to be termed “classic rock.” Lusty and rocking, it paved the way for AC/DC and an entire lineage of raw, power chord–driven blues-rock.