The Paul Rodgers Appreciation Thread

[trag-o-caster]

I've just been snooping about YouTube, checkin' out some old Free videos, and came up with this. It's Bad Co.'s take on an old Free song. I remember seeing this on Don Kirschner's Rock Concert when I was a kid....



There's also a version out there of Queen/Paul doing "Alright Now" which shows him having no trouble at all doing it in the original key after all these years.

[furrfurrfurr]

I just listened to 10 From 6 the other day.

Takes me back every time.

[teleman65]

He's no Freddie Mercury
I saw him in '06 with Queen and he was fantastic. I find some Queen songs I prefer with Paul Rodgers singing.

[Telemarkman]

One of the toughest voices in rock music!

[Colo Springs E]

...definitely in my top 5 rock vocalists of all time.

[B Valley]

The album he did covering all the Muddy Waters tunes was exceptional, Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters.

[e-merlin]

Yes, one of the greats.

[Tim Armstrong]

Amen, brothers!

Cheers, Tim

[Dan R]

A great voice to be sure. I wish he would put a band together and record another blues album.

Dan R

[Del Pickup]

One of the original 'c**k rockers' - and damn good at it as well. But all that posturing is starting to look a bit silly now at his age.

Same goes for Mick Jagger, Steve Tyler and all the rest of them in my book, I'm afraid.

The strange thing is that the old blues guys who many of those late 60's/early 70's singers were setting out to copy never looked stupid cos they did what they did with more dignity than Jagger, etc ever had.

Compare Clapton with those I've just mentioned above. He stands on stage with his guitar, plays his music and carries it off with so much of that blues dignity cos there's no posturing involved.

Just my 2c.............

And yes, Paul Rodgers still has a fantastic voice.

[shades]

Paul Rogers is one of rock and blues best voices. Exceptional.
He'd still be cool without the posturing.

[Scott S]

I suppose without all of the swaggering c*ck-rock posturers, there would not have been quite as much inspiration for the punks (and post-punks) to make the music I like...

- Scott

[xStonr]

The album he did covering all the Muddy Waters tunes was exceptional, Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters.

I found this on youtube. Enjoy.

[Capperdan]

I've really been getting into the old Free songs, don't know why I missed them 30 years ago. His voice is great and pretty flexible, and, man, he's still around... doing well it seems.

[David Barnett]

There's a new single from Queen w/Rodgers, "C-Lebrity". I've heard it once, my reaction was "meh" although Rodgers sounds great. He had and has one of the very best blues-rock voices going, with great phrasing and feel. I was always a Free fan, but Bad Company no so much.

[bassbuster33]

I saw Queen on '06 with Paul Rodgers. Though he was great. He did a really good job of covering the Queen material.

My 38 year old girlfriend likes the posturing just fine Maybe he is directing that towards the fairer sex?

[David Barnett]

Ugh, the Bad Co. version of "The Stealer" is dreadful. And here's a solo outing from 2007 that's just as bad. Furthermore, it looks like Rodgers has co-opted Freddie Mercury's stage act even when he's fronting his own band:



Compare to the real thing:

[David Barnett]

Free could rock even at a glacial tempo:

[giginthesky]

i saw him with neil schon and i dug it. they played a really good show here in philly about 15 years ago.

[Brutalblues]

Turn off the video and just listen to some old Bad Company! Great stuff. Paul Rodgers at his peak. He still has a great voice today.

[yegbert]

Free - All Right Now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B2clFsLA3w

[trag-o-caster]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

Ugh, the Bad Co. version of "The Stealer" is dreadful.

Gee Dave, ya tryin' to pee on my parade or what???

I must admit it. I actually like Bad Co. better than Free. Not just the version of "Stealer", but all around. I like the Boz Burrell/Simon Kirke rhythm section better than with Andy Fraser, and they seemed to be more ummm..... refined (shall we say) with Mick Ralphs on guitar, as opposed to Paul Kossoff (R.I.P.).

And no love for the Firm???

I really like the Firm, and there's a couple of concert boots on the 'net that show them to be a REALLY excellent live act as well. Jimmy Page played well on those gigs (and y'all have heard me do some Page bashin'!).

Praisecaster likes the Firm. Where's he at? Stephen! Help me out!

While looking for dirt on the 'net, I'd noticed where Boz Burrell and Mick Ralphs had both taken turns having a fistfight with Paul. Mick described himself as a wimp, and mentioned that Paul is a blackbelt - so that wasn't wise!

I wonder if ol' Paul has the stereotypical "Lead Singers Syndrome"?

[Cyrithicus]

Cool guy, I saw him last time he came through southern Oklahoma. Put on a real nice show

[Roli]

Maybe it's just me but he seem to have lost something from his voice. Maybe he was less trained and careful back then, but I hear a permanent grit in his vocals on old recordings, while the new ones - Queen era - are somewhat dry. The keys, the intonation are there, but something's missing.

[FirstBassman]

Originally Posted by teleman65

I saw him in '06 with Queen and he was fantastic. I find some Queen songs I prefer with Paul Rodgers singing.

I saw Queen during that same tour and agree, Rodgers did an excellent job.
He didn't try to do a Freddie imitation. He just sang the Queen songs as himself and they came out really well.
Brian May sang a few songs which were also excellent.
And for the quintessential Freddie voiced song "Bohemian Rhapsody" they used clips of Mercury in a filmmed tribute. Nice touch.

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by trag-o-caster

Gee Dave, ya tryin' to pee on my parade or what???

I must admit it. I actually like Bad Co. better than Free. Not just the version of "Stealer", but all around. I like the Boz Burrell/Simon Kirke rhythm section better than with Andy Fraser, and they seemed to be more ummm..... refined (shall we say) with Mick Ralphs on guitar, as opposed to Paul Kossoff (R.I.P.).

And no love for the Firm???

I really like the Firm, and there's a couple of concert boots on the 'net that show them to be a REALLY excellent live act as well. Jimmy Page played well on those gigs (and y'all have heard me do some Page bashin'!).

Praisecaster likes the Firm. Where's he at? Stephen! Help me out!

While looking for dirt on the 'net, I'd noticed where Boz Burrell and Mick Ralphs had both taken turns having a fistfight with Paul. Mick described himself as a wimp, and mentioned that Paul is a blackbelt - so that wasn't wise!

I wonder if ol' Paul has the stereotypical "Lead Singers Syndrome"?

I usually like Boz Burrell, especially with King Crimson, but the way Andy Fraser drives the band from the bottom up is hard to beat. And make no mistake, Fraser was in the driver's seat. I love that muddy EB3-->Marshall tone too, he sounds almost like a tuba. Boz' playing is more subtle and selfless, which I usually like, but I think he could push the band harder. As for drummers, well they're both Simon Kirke...

I admit, the only thing I ever heard from The Firm was "Radioactive" which didn't compel me to look any further.

Kossoff was sloppy, but I still love the feel when he plays. His leads are melodic and his rhythm sound is instantly recognizable. Sometimes he's so spare he's just playing intervals instead of chords. And his tone is so much better than Ralphs', it's no contest. I like that he has some headroom left with his wall of Superleads, where Ralphs (and the guys in the Rodgers band outing) is just full-on high-gain glare.

I'm sure Rodgers must be difficult, supposedly he and Andy Fraser had huge rows all the time. But damn his voice has always been great.

[trag-o-caster]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

But damn his voice has always been great.

Yes and it always seems to transcend the circumstances (at least for me). He could be singing with the worst basement band in the world and it would still kick booty! He could be singing Celine Dion's Greatest Hits and it would still kick a$$!

Well..... maybe not, but almost.

Oh do try to check out some of the live Firm stuff. I was taken aback at how well Pagey was doing so fresh from the ashes of Zeppelin. He used Teles a lot on them shows I do believe.

I've done more than my share of Page-bashing, but I think he did well here. The studio albums were OK, but didn't really do the band justice. "Radioactive" is not a good yardstick to measure them by!

[Mark Davis]

A classic Rock vocalist for sure.

[David Barnett]

So Trag, whaddaya think of this noise:

[trag-o-caster]

Well it was rollin' along pretty good until the harmonized chorus came around and spoiled it all. Actually I quite liked it, other than that part.

I think Paul is the king of the "I just wrote this while taking a dump" kinda song. Lyrics done within 5 minutes, and unimaginative power chord progressions - but rocks hard, if nothing else. "The Stealer" is a perfect example of that. I always thought the lyrics were kinda lame, and the overall song was unimaginative, yet they ROCKED it. And sometimes - at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

Sometimes.