Free @ San Francisco, CA 1971-01-16

 





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https://pixeldrain.com/u/PGDkRdRx

Free
Filmore West, 
San Francisco, CA
1971-01-16

Paul Rodgers-vocals
Paul Kossoff-guitar
Andy Fraser-bass and piano
Simon Kirke-drums

source-cd-r trade of VG+ audience recording captured on unknown equipment> EAC disc extraction> Audacity> TLH> TTD

1. Songs of Yesterday 6:36
2. All Right Now 5:30
3. Stealer 4:56
4. Heavy Load 5:26
5. My Brother Jake 3:34
6. The Highway Song 5:07

Here's a partial show from Free at about the time of their Highway album. This engagement at the Fillmore West found them headlining, with Bloodrock and Fox on the bill below them. I was a huge Free fan at that point in time, and Highway is my favorite of their albums. A friend who caught them on the bill in NYC with Blind Faith at Madison Square Garden had turned me on to them. Andy Fraser was a huge influence on me as a budding bassist, and I'd have to say that for this type of music, they were the total package.
I picked this up in a very long ago cd-r trade. Guessing that this was probably here before, but it's not showing up now In prepping the show, I retracked it a little to better catch the starts of songs. With it open in Audacity, I also "livened" up this good sounding very old audience a little bit via the EQ and Mastering options there. That was mainly done to reduce some of the boomy-ness in Andy's good old Gibson EB-3. sbe's were detected too, and they were repaired n TLH.
It's definitely an audience recording, as some clap-alongs and conversation snippets will prove, but the band is generally captured quite well. The songs included are a bit of a curiousity in that Free would likely have played a much longer set as the headliners, and tracks 4-6 are all piano songs on which Andy Fraser moved from bass to an instrument he was seeming to try incorporating more and more into Free's sound. Not sure at all where any bass-y sounds on this recording come from during those songs. Many thanks to the trader who'd sent this my way, and to whoever was there over 50 years ago (!) to capture this as well as they did.