![]() ![]() He won’t have to look very far for a title. She obviously had a presence, do you know what I mean? Because there were a lot of people around and she just stood there and I thought, ‘Wow – look at her’.” And I remember seeing this girl and she may have triggered the idea for that, because there she stood in the street, and she seemed to be smiling from her head to her feet. “I used to live near Oxford Street and Hair was playing right there on the corner. ![]() Her name is Marsha Hunt: former girlfriend to Marc Bolan, bearer of Mick Jagger’s first child, and a woman who claims to be the inspiration for another classic, the Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar. ![]() “I’ve never really said this before,” he told Rosen, “ I do remember the girl from Hair who went out with Mick Jagger. He’s obviously forgotten that he told Classic Rock writer and Free biographer Steven Rosen a couple of decades ago. He was so close to Koss in his solo it brought a tear to my eye.”Īs for the actress who walked across Baker Street and straight into legend, Paul Rodgers isn’t telling. At Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday concert in Hyde Park we did it and everyone went nuts. Of course, he sang it as frontman of Queen. Eventually I’m the only person in the room saying ‘No, I won’t do it! Oh, OK. He kept on shouting it at the audience and they responded. Then in 1992 I was playing in a New York club with Jason Bonham and he set me up. “When I left Free and formed Bad Company, from 1973 until 1992 I steered away from it altogether, didn’t play it once. Hardly a millstone, All Right Now hasn’t always featured in Rodgers’ set. The song broke us in America but we couldn’t capitalise because we broke up and became an enigma there." A couple of TV ads butchered it like the Wrigley’s Spearmint gum thing, where they just used my voice. “I never bought a yacht on the Riviera off it, but it’s been very handy. ![]() On a brighter note All Right Now has served Rodgers well. The elliptical chorus told it straight: ‘You’ve always been a good friend of mine/But you’re always saying farewell/And the only time when you’re satisfied/Is with your feet in the wishing well.’ Rodgers wrote Wishing Well for Kossoff after another ‘Free to split’ furore in 1972. Like Nick Drake he was dreaming and doomed. From 1970 Kossoff developed a heroin addiction. So Koss nailed the musical conversation on All Right Now. Blues guys know that the purpose is to deliver an emotional message with minimal fuss.” “He had that rich Les Paul sound but he always said, ‘Oh Paul, I can’t do that million chords a minute thing, I can’t play like Clapton.’ He didn’t need to. Rodgers maintains that Kossoff’s downfall was his lack of confidence. “He asked me how I got my tremolo effect” Kossoff would recall. Eric Clapton astounded guitarist Paul Kossoff one day in June. “Besides, boy meets girl is such a rich vein. “All good songs but All Right Now wins out because it’s a brand new song every time you hear it,” says Paul. There was sexual wish fulfilment, and the deep and meaningful way.”įree had other great singles to come – Wishing Well, My Brother Jake, A Little Bit Of Love, and that dark rogue The Stealer. Nah! I was so shy round women then I never took full advantage. It was raunchy and suggestive and they were gaggin’ for it. Once All Right Now gatecrashed the Top Five, Free’s fanbase exploded. We were just white boys trying to do our best.” By the time we got to London we were stretching it to a soul jam – Otis Redding and James Brown. We opened with it and people were dancing. But none of this stiff competition concerned Rodgers. Singles like Steam’s Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, Bob and Marcia’s Young, Gifted And Black, Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit In The Sky, and Fleetwood Mac’s epic Green Manalishi.Īnd the albums – Van Morrison’s Moondance, The Doors’ Morrison Hotel, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Willy And The Poor Boys. All Right Now was released against a background of amazing music. 1970 was the best time to be 15 years old. Anyone alive then would know that to be absurd. It’s fashionable to review the very early seventies as a waiting room – like nothing was going on. “The next time we went to Stockton and Durham the halls were heaving, I mean it was hanging from the rafters packed.” They’re going ‘no one’s listening, so who cares Paul?’ and I’m replying ‘it matters because I’m listening.’ They went ‘durrr, all right then.’" I gave the rest of the band a severe pep talk. We did a show in Stockton, near my home town, and there weren’t many in. “Our gigs excited us” Rodgers recalls “but we lacked something. During their winter tour of 1970 they closed shows with Booker T & The MG’s The Hunter, reasoning their own tunes weren’t good enough to rival the authentic old folks. ![]()
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