Celebrating Paul Rodgers on his 75th birthday. —Ed.
I’m bad company, I don’t deny it. I tend to monopolize conversations. I’m loud. I laugh at my own jokes. I cut other people off mid-sentence. I cheat at penny poker, although I always get caught. And I have the annoying habit of boring people with long monologues on the Versailles Treaty.
But England’s hard rock band Bad Company are another beast altogether. Their members constituted a minor supergroup. Vocalist Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Burke hailed from Free. Guitarist Mick Ralphs came by way of Mott the Hoople, where he’d tired of their fancy Glam pretensions. Bass player Boz Burrell previously played with King Crimson. Together they hammered out some of the most lowdown, stripped to the bone music of the Seventies. They had no interest in bedazzling you with subtlety.
The band’s eponymous 1974 debut was one of the premier hard rock albums of its time, and gave teen listeners a no-frills alternative to such bands as Queen, Supertramp, and the Electric Light Orchestra, amongst others. There was scads of other hard rock bands out there, but few pounded it home the way Bad Company did—Grand Funk Railroad were just plain inferior product, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive—with such up-tempo songs like “Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” and “Hey You”—may as well have been the Archies. The sole populist band their superior was Lynyrd Skynyrd, thanks both Ronnie Van Zant’s extraordinary lyrical gifts and the Southern Rock touches, which added color but never detracted from the band’s hard rock sound.
Bad Company kicks things off with “Can’t Get Enough,” with Ralphs playing pile driver guitar while drummer Burke crushes stone like a guy on a slave gang. Rodgers makes it clear he has bad manners—he doesn’t politely ask for things, he takes them. “Rock Steady” is a slinkier-than-usual statement of purpose with Ralphs playing a cool guitar hook, perfect fills and a restrained but perfect solo while a pair of female backing vocalists toss in on the choruses. As for Rodgers, he demonstrates why he’s considered one of the finest vocalists of the era and an inspiration for the likes of Ronnie Van Zant.
20. Afterimage – Faces to Hide (Independent Project Records) + Torn Boys – 1983 (Independent Project Records) Formed at the dawn of the 1980s, Los Angelinos Afterimage could lead a listener to think they were from merry ol’ England, or not so merry ol’ England to be accurate, as the sound was clearly impacted by the post punk happenings of the time. But there was nothing contrived about Afterimage and their sound was tough and raw, befitting their Cali punk roots. Anybody into cold wave, dark wave, minimal wave (all the waves, basically) should check out this lavishly produced set.
Per the title of their retrospective collection, Stockton, CA’s Torn Boys didn’t stick around long, but while extant they did lay down enough high quality material that IPR made the wise decision to drop it onto LP. The sound is art-punk with vocal harmonies and drum machine rhythms, an attack that hovers in the California hills somewhere between Keats Rides a Harley and The Enigma Variations.
19. Cold Sun – Dark Shadows (Guerssen) + The Artwoods – Art Gallery & I Take It All (Singles Collection) (Guerssen) Based in Catalonia, Spain, the Guerssen label is indefatigable in maintaining a frequent release schedule that ranges from psychedelia to folk-rock to proto metal to prog with visitations to the private press fringes. Every year is a pretty good one for Guerssen and its many subsidiaries, but in 2024 they hit a higher note than usual, in part due to a fine reissue of the sole release by the Austin, TX dark psych outfit Cold Sun. Lots of obscure reissues get puffed up with hype only to deflate like a goddamned souffle once the needle is dropped. Not Dark Shadows.
Those perpetually hungry for UK Beat-Mod stuff have likely already devoured Art Gallery and I Take It All. The frontman was Ronnie Wood’s younger bro Art Wood, so they did the sensible thing and named themselves the Artwoods. But Jon Lord and Keef Hartley were also members, so the band was brimming with talent if lacking in original material. But it’s no matter really, as both of these albums are about that UK Beat-Mod sound.
18. John Wright Trio – South Side Soul (Craft Recordings / Original Jazz Classics) + Prince Lasha & Sonny Simmons – The Cry! (Craft Recordings / Acoustic Sounds) In terms of pure quality, these aren’t the best records Craft Recordings reissued in their Original Jazz Classics or Contemporary Records lines, but they are exactly the type of records the label should continue to make available. South Side Soul was Wright’s debut album, a trio date from the noteworthy if underrated pianist that’s infused with Windy City flavor; if Prestige hadn’t put it out, it would’ve worked nicely as one of the Delmark label’s jazz releases.
The Cry! is important for a variety of reasons, foremost for its documentation of two figures associated with the jazz avant-garde who are too often overlooked, and at an early juncture, when they were both collaborating with Eric Dolphy. By extension, this album reinforces how the New Thing was an impulse that spread out beyond the marquee names associated with the movement. Mostly though, The Cry! just sounds fantastic.
Anybody who thought Gibbons of the La Grange laugh and Methusaleh beard was some front-porch blues and boogie purist was sadly mistaken—Billy dug the synthesizers, and Billy dug the drum machines, and most of all Billy dug the acceleration—the more beats per minute the better. And they all set him to thinking—if Black Oak Arkansas could bring electricity to Arkansas, why couldn’t ZZ Top bring New Wave to the Lone Star State? And become MTV Gods and make a bazillion dollars in the process?
10. Creation Rebel – High Above Harlesden 1978–2023 (On-U Sound) 2024 was another solid year for the On-U Sound reissue program, starting out strong in March with the release of this 6CD box set collecting the six albums this estimable and persevering UK-based dub unit recorded in the titular quarter century. Those half dozen LPs were given concurrent standalone LP pressings, so vinyl hardliners take note. Maybe the biggest compliment that can be bestowed on this set (and by extension, the group and Adrian Sherwood) is that Creation Rebel’s most recent album Hostile Environment isn’t the weakest of the six.
9. Tsunami – Loud Is As (Numero Group) Having decided to devote a portion of their energies to assorted bands from the late-1980s-’90s rock underground, Numero Group’s resulting reissue program has been commendable, and nowhere better than this 5LP set. Tsunami’s frontwomen Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson co-founded Simple Machines, which quickly became one point on a thriving DMV label triangle with Dischord and Teen-Beat. The band’s guitar-based sound was pleasingly tough and raw and yet a needed antidote to rampant u-ground rock scene testosterone. Best of all, Tsunami’s music, which has become difficult to find in physical form, still sounds fucking great.
8. Soft Machine – Høvikodden 1971 (Cuneiform) Last year it was The Dutch Lesson, which took the seventh spot in this site’s Best Box Sets of 2023. Slipping one spot isn’t indicative of anything; Høvikodden 1971 is likely stronger than The Dutch Lesson, but I’ll confess that I haven’t thought of them comparatively that much, in large part because Mike Ratledge is the only commonality between the two bands. This set offers the “classic” lineup captured in two performances held in an art museum with projections rather than in a rock club. They sound inspired, and indeed progressively (see what I did there?) more inspired on disc two, as they got comfortable and really started dishing out the expansive grooves.
7. The Saints – (I’m) Stranded (In the Red / Universal Music Australia) With this 4LP set, the case can legitimately be made for The Saints as the greatest Aussie punk band of the original wave. There are other contenders, but we’re not going to list them, as this remarkable collection is wholly deserving of the entire spotlight. It holds the band’s classic debut remastered for vinyl, the previously unreleased alternate mix from 1976, the “This Perfect Day” 12-inch and the “1-2-3-4” double 7-inch, and two live sets, one short (five songs) and one album length. The title track has been anthologized countless times and will likely remain the band’s signature tune, but this set is positively stuffed with goodness.
While the guitar remains his primary artistic tool, Andy’s pursuits extend to photography with his Leica camera and creative writing with a keyboard. His latest endeavor, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String tour, ingeniously merges these passions together. Here, Andy not only performs music but intertwines his photographic art and narratives, transcending a mere recapitulation of his greatest hits. It’s a testament to his belief in the evolution of artistic expression in order to engage varied audiences with his restless visions.
A pop icon, but also a pop idol in his youth, Frank Sinatra had the kids screaming. And one barometer of 20th century pop icon/idol status is that those on the list didn’t just cut records, they made movies. Bing Crosby, Frank, Elvis Presley, The Beatles (notably, the only band in the bunch), and Michael Jackson: they all interacted to varying extents with the film industry, as the careers of all but Jackson hit their high points in the pre-music video era (and Jackson was arguably the defining artist across the short heyday of music video).
