You never know who you're going to meet at the grocery store.
A few years back, I was busy filling up my water bottles at a Save-on-Foods in White Rock when the lead singer of Bad Company, Paul Rodgers, came cruising down the aisle.
"Hi Paul," I said.
The British rocker, who in his heyday would have been swarmed in such a public setting, stopped and detecting my accent answered, "You're a long way from home - just like me."
We talked for 20 minutes about his recent time playing with the band Queen, stepping into the shoes of the late, great Freddie Mercury.
I also asked him about guitarist, Paul Kossoff who he played with in the late '60s, early '70s, and their band Free. That group delivered one of the best, all-time party records in All Right Now and left behind a fine body of musical work which, unfortunately, is not that well-known in North America.
Rodgers lives in White Rock now, but he's far from retired. Bad Company just wrapped up a 40th anniversary tour that included a gig at the Red Robinson venue in Coquitlam in September. My customers who attended the show said Rodgers was in great form vocally and hasn't lost his old charm.
It's good to see that Bad Company's CDs and LPs are still a constant seller in the store.
On drums is Simon Kirke who could lay down a back beat like the Stax legend Al Jackson of Booker T & The MGs fame. Kirke was rock steady, never too flash and never missed a beat. On bass is Andy Fraser who was playing with John Mayall at the age of 15 and is an astonishing bass player and co-writer of all the classic Free songs.
On guitar is Paul Kossoff, son of actor David Kossoff who was classically trained on guitar before plugging in his trusty Les Paul guitar and becoming one of England's finest and also my favourite guitar players.
On vocals is the one and only Rodgers, one of the greatest voices England has ever produced, and also an excellent songwriter.
While I was working at the Marquee Club in London in 1969, the DJ used to play two 45s by Free, one was Broad Daylight and the other was I'll Be Creepin', which I loved.
I had never seen this band play, and one Friday night, my mates and I made it out to Loughton Coolege in Essex to see Free play live. We got our beer and managed to get right down to the front of the stage. Free strolled on and in the next hour proceeded to deliver one of the greatest, soulful performances from a rock band I have ever seen.
The band was on tour to support its first album Tons of Sobs, which has a real blues feel about it with songs like Going Down Slow and the Albert King classic The Hunter. But for me, it was the songwriting talent of Fraser and Rodgers, which pointed the way forward with songs like Worry - Walking My Shadow, and the brilliant I'm a Mover with a blistering guitar solo from Kossoff.
Their self-titled, second album Free was the stepping stone to later success with outstanding songs and playing from the band. I'll Be Creepin',Songs of Yesterday, Lying in the Sunshine and Woman moulded the classic Free blues/soul rock sound.
With this band, what they didn't play was as important as what they did play - "Leave some space and let the music breathe."
Next up was their biggest selling album Fire and Water, which featured the big hit single All Right Now which hit the top of the charts on that hot summer of 1970. This is
a monster record, and even today receives lots of radio play all over the world.
By this point Free-mania had arrived and disagreements started to appear in the band, which didn't handle success too well due to their young age and the pressure to follow up on their hit album.
The next album was not received well, but I think
that judgment was unfair. Maybe it was the dull sleeve after great pieces of artwork on their three previous albums, but Highway is still a gem in it's own right.
The band spilt up for the first time with Kossoff saying the songwriters Fraser and Rodgers were too restrictive in the
studio, almost telling him what to play note for note.
Meanwhile, Island Records released the album Free Live which shows how good the band was at this time. The band did reform a couple of times to release two fine albums Free At Last and Heartbreaker with Kossoff playing some amazing guitar on Free At Last and sadly only appearing
on a few tracks from Heartbreaker because of drug problems.
Frankie Nielson owns the Beat Merchant Record Store in Steveston Village.
