Song Reviews: Bad Company - “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” (Live)/Ace Frehley feat. Paul Stanley - “Fire and Water” (Free cover)
Believe it or not, Bad Company has never issued a live album.
That’ll change April 29, when the band releases Bad Company Live in Concert 1977 & 1979, a double-live set featuring two concerts.
Based on the March 29, 1979, version of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” from the album, the original Bad Company was quite adept at recreating its studio recordings on stage. This rendition, save for a few vocal inflections by singer extraordinaire Paul Rodgers, sounds just like the version on Desolation Angels. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your perspective on what live performance should be.
Either way, it’s a safe bet Bad Company will sound much different when they hit the road this spring with Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke - who also comprised one-half of the pre-Bad Company band Free - as the only remaining original members. Former Black Crowe Rich Robinson is filling in for guitarist Mick Ralphs, who opted out after the tour was scheduled; original bassist Boz Burrell died in 2006.
“I wanted to slightly berate (Ralphs), ‘What the heck!,’” Rodgers told Billboard. “But he sounded so bad. He really wasn’t up to it.”
Speaking of Free, former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley remade that band’s 1970 track “Fire and Water” for his covers album, Origins Vol. 1, which is due April 15.
“Fire and Water” reunites the original Spaceman - KISS has a new one now - and the Star Child (Paul Stanley) for the first time in nearly two decades and the results are mixed.
Musically, the track is fine - even pretty good - with gritty guitars mimicking Paul Kossoff’s bluesy, original riffs. But even great singers have a tough time replicating the inimitable Rodgers’ vocal stylings. And Stanley is anything but a great singer.
“Everyone who’s heard it thinks it’s the shit,” Frehley said of Stanley’s vocal performance, as reported by Rollingstone.com.
Take out the the, and Frehley’s summed up Sound Bites’ sentiments precisely.
• Bad Company - “Rock 'n’ Roll Fantasy” (Live) - B
• Ace Frehley feat. Paul Stanley - “Fire and Water” - C-