Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Waiting on You
2. Sugar for Mr Morrision
3. I'm a Mover
4. Over the Green Hills
5. Songs of Yesterday
6. Broad Daylight
7. Woman [In Session]
8. I'll Be Creepin'
9. Trouble on Double Time
10. Mouthful of Grass
11. All Right Now [In Session]
12. Fire and Water
13. Be My Friend [In Session][Take]
14. Be My Friend [In Session][Take]
15. Ride on a Pony [In Session][Take]
16. Ride on a Pony [In Session][Take]
17. Ride on a Pony [In Session][Take]
18. Ride on a Pony [In Session][Take]
19. Ride on a Pony [In Session][Take]
20. Get Where I Belong

Disc 2:

1. Hunter
2. Woman [In Concert]
3. Free Me
4. Remember
5. Fire and Water
6. Be My Friend [In Concert]
7. Ride on a Pony [In Concert]
8. Mr Big
9. Don't Say You Love Me
10. Woman [In Concert]
11. All Right Now [In Concert]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161901 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-09
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Import, Live
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Album Details
From their Very First Session in 1968 (Astonishingly, Recorded Just Days after Bass Play Andy Fraser's 16th Birthday) Through to their Last Official Recording for the Beeb, 'in Concert' for John Peel in July 1970, this Compilation Captures the Rise of One of the UK'S Most Talented Blues / Rock Bands. While Some of the Material Has Surfaced as Bonus Material on Reissues, the Bulk of it Has Never Before Been Available; 'sugar for Mr Morrision', 'woman', 'i'll Be Creepin'' 'trouble on Double Time' and 'mouthful of Grass' in Session Tracks and Both the in Concert Performances Are Officially Released Here for the First Time. The December 1969 Session for Top Gear Never Even Made it to Bootleg, It's a Gem of a Find that Turned Up Relatively Recently in Paul Kossoff's Private Archive.

Customer Reviews

Captures Free in their uncontrolled glory
The reviewer who criticized the sound quality of Disk 2 is not wrong. It sounds like it was taken from a small home recorder in the back of the hall. However, for Free fans, Kossoff's frenzied, nearly out of control, playing on their rave-up "The Hunter" is worth the second rate audio. I am very glad they included it and very pleased with the rest of the collection - after I adjusted to the sound quality. If you want great audio and a super introduction to this great and unique band, get the two CD best of collection, Molten Gold. Perhaps we would agree that is for fans and collectors only.

Hit and Miss for Free
This 2cd set is kind of disappointing. The 1st CD has good sound -it is somewhat stereo and contains alternate cuts of Free but none come from their last 3 albums. The 2nd CD is very disappointing. It is a live recording which sounds like a bad bootleg. The sound is muffled in a lot of places and hard to hear clearly. They should have left this one out. There is even the sound of a phone ringing or a alarm in the background on a couple of the cuts. Free fans--just get this for the 1st cd--the other is very very bad. Where are the cuts from the last lineup of Free--are they out there-Hearbreaker, Catch a Train etc?

Tony Blair's Favorite Band***....
...which, if nothing else, probably is an indication that Blair DID inhale in college. Too bad he couldn't have been Bush's roommate. He could have put the needle down on "Mouthful of Grass" and mellowed George W. right out..

This cd seems a bit late arriving in more ways than one, but it's a nice reminder of what an underrated group Free was---tight as the sheets on a Marine's bed, but always a great prescription for tension reduction.

Disc One is the real winner here. Disc Two is about as useful as wisdom teeth. They could just as well have put "Free Live" into the package and provided some indication of what the group really sounded like live. Disc Two is worth about one star. Since it's so poorly recorded, it's just extra baggage.

But Disc One has the goods. There's plenty of material from the second studio album, simply titled "Free", which was full of great stuff... "Woman" , "I'll Be Creepin'", &"Trouble on Double Time" are as good as anything Free ever recorded. "Mouthful of Grass" is so pastorally laid back that it nearly sounds like Fairport Convention. "Over the Green Hills" is Rodgers purest sounding vocal.

The rhythm section of Kirke and Fraser shines throughout, and of course Kossoff is well...Kossoff. Nobody approaches him as a string bender except for possibly Robin Trower--who late in the 70's was at times blatantly copying the Free sound... (check out Trower's "Road to Freedom" and "River" if you don't believe it.)
Everybody knows that Lynyrd Skynyrd borrowed heavily from Free, and so many vocalists imitated Paul Rogers that it isn't funny.

In conclusion: despite the weak second disk, this is worth purchasing. If you don't believe me, ask the PM.

*** Free is Blair's favorite band according to "Mojo" magazine, anyway. He was born in '53, so it kind of makes sense. He would have been 17 when "All Right Now" came out.