Spotify playlist: https://tinyurl.com/yr8h28sn

I wonder if this is available in hi-res?

Last night I was on CNNi talking about that new Beatles song, you know the one with John Lennon, made with AI. I love Paul McCartney, but this was a publicity stunt, isn’t it interesting that he announced this when he was hyping a new book and exhibition of his photographs. It’s hard to get attention for anything these days, even if you’re a Beatle, so this was a way to gain eyeballs. As for the track… “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” weren’t that good, George Harrison refused to work on “Now and Then,” and it was far from finished to begin with, just a Lennon cassette. As far as the technology employed by Peter Jackson to make that Hulu documentary… We knew about it, and that was eighteen months ago. But got to give McCartney credit for pushing the envelope of AI. You’ve got to look at the possibilities, not the detriments. The drum machine, sampling…were the enemy until they were de rigueur, and in some cases superseded. Remember when every album featured syndrums?

Not to impress you that I was on television. But just to point out that after you do your hit, you’re wired, it takes hours to calm down. This kind of work is different from what most people do. The light goes on, you come alive, you’re talking off the top of your head, depending on your entire life and its history, cogitating while you’re talking, and then it’s over.

So what was I gonna do?

At first I wanted to write. But that would be a big mistake. I was on at 10:50 PM west coast time. If I wrote, I’d be lucky if I fell asleep by daylight.

And I wasn’t calm enough, slowed-down enough, to read a book.

And I knew if I fired up TikTok, that would be the evening.

So, I decided to listen to music. And ultimately read my book at the same time. I used to do this all the time in the seventies, but rarely these days, it’s too distracting. But if I play songs I know by heart, it’s really not.

But I had to listen via headphones, I couldn’t blast the tunes and wake up Felice.

So, I wanted to hear “Ready for Love/After Lights” from the Mott the Hoople album “All the Young Dudes.”

That album came out in 1972. The height of Bowie-mania. Well, actually it got even more intense, and in truth the masses hadn’t caught on yet in America, but I’d bought “Ziggy” and seen the tour and I was up on all things British. And I’d paid attention to Mott the Hoople, had even seen them on their first American tour at the Fillmore. But what got me to buy my first Mott album was the title track, a David Bowie composition. You know how you hear something once and have to own it, so you can hear it again and again? Well, maybe if you’re young you don’t, you just go online and click, it’s instant. Whereas in the old days… Some songs you could wait to come back on the radio, but “All the Young Dudes” was not spun constantly, you had to buy it to hear it.

And it got to the point where I’d prefer playing the second side instead of the first, with the hit. And “One of the Boys”… The dialing of that phone…love that song.

And then “Ready for Love/After Lights.”

It was unique in that it was sung by Mick Ralphs, in a thin voice. It radiated meaning, a privacy that was not evidenced on the radio but you could get in album tracks. And when “After Lights” played I was surprised, that I was the same as I ever was. It’s not about fighting that feeling, but recapturing it. The years go by and you start to think that era’s passed. And then you’re suddenly surprised that it’s not.

Used to be different, we didn’t used to be so involved, so connected, you could be lonesome, and alone. And you were forced to go out and integrate. Remember talking on the phone? I used to do that, to connect. I rarely do that anymore. And I’m down with that. I hear from and am connected to more people than I’ve ever been in my life. And I like that. That’s the advantage of the internet. I hear from people I know every day, from around the world, even when I’m asleep. Yet people still hate the internet, are anti-social media. Sure, there are MAGA people you pooh-pooh, but if you took a deep look at yourself, how tied to the past are you? How much do you want to go back to a rosy era that wasn’t that rosy to begin with?

So some people are members of the group. This is different from having friends. This is about shaving off your edges to be a member of a gang. Maybe not one that terrorizes citizens, but in truth that’s the ethos of public high school. The gangs and everybody else. The number one gang is the athletes and the cheerleaders. And there might be another gang of hipsters. And then there’s everybody else. Sure, there are always unpopular loners who don’t seem to care about their status, but the rest of us yearn to be popular, admit it. Instead, we fly off the radar.

And we satisfy ourselves.

Today you go online and find your cohorts. I wish we had this back then. Instead, I often felt like a party of one, especially when I was going to college in Vermont in not only the pre-internet era, but the pre-VCR era, the pre-cable era. I’d put on a record and it would set me free, I would bond with it, not only did I feel relaxed and satiated, I dreamed that there was a better life out there, where I would be understood and accepted, and it was all related to the music.

That’s true. But not everybody in music is on the same page. They all might have even played in bands, but there are business people, and the rest of us. You’d sit in your burg in the seventies, devouring rock magazines and…you’d get to L.A. and find out the bigwigs knew less than you. But they knew a lot more about business, and that’s what sustained them. You were more like that kid in the Kinks’ “A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy”: 

“There’s a guy in my block, he lives for rock

He plays records day and night

And when he feels down he puts some rock ‘n’ roll on

And it makes him feel all right”

And this works for a while, until you need dough to go to the show. You’re forced to go straight, your dreams are squeezed out of you. Except for a very few who follow their dream, and get to the destination.

And I can’t believe how good “After Life” sounds. I play it twice.

And then I go to Qobuz, to see if it’s available in hi-res. And the funny thing is the Atlantic albums are, but the Columbia albums are not. It’s usually the reverse, Columbia has upgraded more albums than anybody, at least that’s the way it seems.

So then I decide to play the Bad Company version of “Ready for Love.”

And it’s different, not ethereal, at least not in the same way. But Paul Rodgers’s vocal adds something, it’s satisfying to listen to a pro at work.

And then I want to hear “Live for the Music.”

“Some people say I’m no good

Laying in my bed all day

But when the nighttime comes I’m ready to rock

And roll my troubles away”

That’s me. Kind of like Yogi Bear. You know, he may sleep ’til noon, but before it’s dark, he’ll have every picnic basket that’s in Jellystone Park.

“I love the nightlife, I’ve got to boogie”

But not necessarily on the disco floor.

You see I’m a contrary. I may have seen “Saturday Night Fever” the night it came out, and who couldn’t love “Stayin’ Alive,” but I never bought a leisure suit, I never learned the dance steps… However, if rawly inspired I could jump up and move, it just had to be the right track.

But my main point here is I love the nighttime. When everybody goes to bed, when the world is mine, when there’s no incoming, no commitments, and I can let my mind drift.

So I’m listening to Bad Company, I had to let the album slip into “Simple Man,” it’s one of my anthems…

“Freedom is the only thing means a damn to me”

I’m not simple, but I love the freedom so often denied me. I’m not talking about the right wing freedom, I’m not even talking about political freedom, I’m talking about raw freedom. If I’m myself…people don’t like it. I speed too fast into the lift line, even if there’s no one around. I’ve been stopped for that. I’m too into things, I’m told to mellow out. Please, let me be me! But I can’t, but during the nighttime…

I can.

And Rodgers is so damn good, that I decide to listen to Free.

But the damn Free albums have not been converted to hi-res, they’re only available in CD quality. But I decide to listen to “Molten Gold: The Anthology” anyway. The only Free album I ever bought was “Fire and Water,” to own “All Right Now.” But when this double CD package came in the mail back in 1993…I got hooked.

Not that I planned to. I wanted to hear “I’ll Be Creepin’,” which I remember from the free A&M sampler album “Friends”…and then I just let it play.

So I’m listening on Qobuz, where everything sounds better, reading my book, and it’s with the second cut, “The Hunter,” that the music starts to resonate.

And then two later it comes to “I’ll Be Creepin’.”

“I’ll hold you in my arms

Like nobody else”

I mean “I’ll Be Creepin'” is good, it struts, but then it slows and quiets down and Paul Rodgers sings the above lyrics over Paul Kossoff’s stone in the water plunks and it’s transcendent.

And I get stuck on “I’ll Be Creepin’,” and wonder if there’s a live version.

And then I find that Three Dog Night covered it!

And then I’m wondering whether I knew this and forgot this or…

But I pull up “I’ll Be Creeping” by Three Dog Night and I’m impressed, if for no other reason than the group knew it. And I’m going through Three Dog Night’s discography track by track, re-evaluating my notion of the band, and then I go back to “Molten Gold.”

After “I’ll Be Creepin'” comes “Songs of Yesterday”…

And that’s when I realize, there’s very little on these tracks. It’s not like today, in no way were these cuts sweetened. They’re basic, any combo could sound like this, but they don’t. And then I start to wonder, will the kids of today, tomorrow, discover these tracks the same way the people who made ’em discovered the Delta blues artists?

I mean these Free songs are so pure. And therefore they’re honest. Not unpolished, not unformed, but little more than four guys in a room, focusing on the basics, but with one of the best guitarists and best singers of all time. One died, the other gained more fame elsewhere, then again Paul Rodgers says Paul Kossoff was the best guitarist he’s ever worked with, and Chris Blackwell testified about Free to me.

And two songs later it’s “Broad Daylight.”

And I know all these tracks, having played the anthology so many times, but somehow “Broad Daylight” is now resonating. I’m getting into the verses, and before this it’s the chorus that opens the track that’s gotten to me. I have to stop reading my book, I have to look up the lyrics. And I find there’s not much more there than what I caught while focusing on something else.

And then two tracks later came “All Right Now.”

I pulled up the app to skip it, knowing I wanted to get to bed by two, and there was no way I could complete the “Anthology” by then, and I knew “All Right Now” by heart. But then I reconsidered, let it play.

And having broken from my book, I’m listening, I’m focused. And Qobuz sounds so good, even at CD quality, that it’s like Paul Kossoff is playing his Les Paul mere feet away.

Now most people know “All Right Now” from the radio. And believe me, it jumped out of the speaker in the dash in the late summer of 1970, but few bought the album, got any closer.

And that’s what we wanted to do, get closer. We bought better and better stereo systems, headphones, whereas today people have ten dollar computer speakers and tiny earbuds. Remember all those complaints about the sound of MP3s? Now better than CD quality is available on streaming and most people don’t seem to care.

And I’m waiting for the guitar break in the middle, that was excised from the single, it always seemed weak, but now the sound was full-bodied, it made sense.

And Simon Kirke is a master on the drums.

And the piano comes in.

And the bass.

And I can hear everything. Like I said above, there’s very little on these Free records to begin with. And when Paul Rodgers is not singing, Paul Kossoff is shining. But now that I’m listening at such high quality, wow. This isn’t just guitar-picking, this is something more. The sound…there’s more than just the note.

And even when Paul comes back in, man, that Les Paul is chunking as Simon Kirke is holding a steady beat and…

It’s positively mesmerizing, astounding. I’m discovering new things on a record I’ve heard a zillion times. And the funny thing, how do I explain this… You hear things that are not there when you listen via a crappy system, but last night I learned that there are times when Kossoff stops playing, but the sustain carries on and marries with the holes to make you hear something that’s not even there. I mean there’s an effect.

And there’s a minute-long outro, and ultimately Kossoff is playing a completely different groove, it’s subtle, yet obvious if you’re listening closely.

And now I’ve got to research the history of “All Right Now,” even though I’ve done so before. There are so many things I look up again and again, touching the stone, hoping for new insight.

And then I’m reminded of how the track was written quickly, the band needed a closer for their live show. Funny how the greats are made. Today you put a zillion writers together and polish the turd, whereas most of the absolutely great songs, the elevens, were written on inspiration, on desire. There was no concentration, they just came. Acts wish they came more.

And I’m positively stunned. And after listening to the second half of “All Right Now” twice I decide to see if there’s some single, maybe something from a compilation, that’s been released in hi-res.

That proves to be untrue.

But there are numerous live takes.

And “All Right Now” is a unique track, so much of this stuff cannot be replicated live, it’s a studio sound. But Paul Rodgers is unlike the fakes, he can really sing like that, and it turns out Paul Kossoff can get that sound. I’m listening to the take from “Free Live!,” and damn if the essence isn’t there.

And I’m scanning through the track listing on Qobuz and there are more live takes, there’s even one from the Isle of Wight!

That was legendary. Back in 1970. Jimi Hendrix’s last gig, at least that’s how I remember it, I could check but why lose the flow, even though if I’m wrong my inbox will be inundated with those who know better… But music is not a competition, and those taking the time to correct me are usually the self-satisfied far from the center, this is all they’ve got.

And I’m asking myself how good this could be. I mean there wasn’t a soundtrack album back then, not one I can remember, or maybe it was a three disc set and it didn’t seem worth it, Isle of Wight was something you read about, not something you heard or saw. But this is great too.

And then I pull up the version Paul Rodgers sings with Queen. And I’m hesitant, this is Brian May, not Paul Kossoff. But man, May gets the same sound, but the track is just a bit louder, more in-your-face, having been recorded in the modern era.

And Brian even performs the solo excised from the single. And the audience is singing along…

“All right now

Baby, it’s all right now”

And when that’s done, I pull up this Paul Rodgers solo take from his 2018 album “Free Spirit.”

And it was around this time that I saw Bad Company live. A band I never saw during its heyday, even though I bought all the albums and was a huge fan. And it’s one of the best shows I’ve seen this century. There were no airs, after all the show was at the L.A. County Fair. But man, the music!

And on this “Free Spirit” version… Paul Rodgers has not lost a step, he’s still got the pipes, and…

The audience is singing along.

“All right now

Baby, it’s all right now”

And now I’m watching the clock. How much more can I listen before going to bed. But I don’t want the sound to end, I don’t want the feeling to end. I eventually shut it down. But I’m thrilled that I’m the same as I ever was. Still the same person, rooted in the sound, the guy in the Kinks song, doesn’t matter who is President, how much cash I’ve got, whether the cut is new or old, because I’m alive and elated. What more can you ask for?