Artist: FREE
Album: HIGHWAY REMASTERED (CD)

Year: 1970/ 2002
Media type: CD

Highway is the fourth studio album by English rock band Free. It was recorded extremely quickly in September 1970 following the band's success at the Isle of Wight Festival but with an attitude of relaxation, having achieved worldwide success with their previous album Fire and Water and the single "All Right Now". It is a low-key and introspective album compared with its predecessors, partly due to the increased prominence of Andy Fraser's piano parts in some of the songs.

TRACKLIST:

01 "The Highway Song" 4.14
"The Highway Song" is a lighthearted pop shuffle song that nevertheless is interspersed with darker moments. This one track embodies both the happy and the serious spirit of the other songs.

02 "The Stealer" (Fraser/Rodgers/Kossoff) 3.14
A riff-driven song intended for a single release, this and "Ride on a Pony" are the only two songs to feature the strutting, adolescent streak of their previous albums. Despite its commercial failure it is popular with fans and is a common feature on compilation albums. In the UK the B-side of this song was "Lying in the Sunshine" from Free 1969 two albums previously.

03 "On My Way" 4.04
"On My Way" a soft, folk-influenced song that shows the relaxed spirit with which this album was largely made.

04 "Be My Friend" 5.45
Possibly Free's most popular love song, this was performed live frequently in the short space of time between the album's release and the band's split. It has also been performed by Paul Rodgers throughout his post-Free career. It was Kossoff's favourite Free song at the time of recording; he described it as "the best thing we've ever done" (qtd. Sutcliffe). Given the band's subsequent problems it is unlikely than any future Free songs replaced this in his esteem.

05 "Sunny Day" 3.07
Like the previous track "Sunny Day" is a slow, melancholy and rather serious song indicative of that side of the album in the same way that "On My Way" is representative of its mellower side.

06 "Ride on a Pony" 4.17
The other candidate for a single release, this song shares the riff-driven force of "The Stealer". Due to the failure of the single, it and this song share roughly equal popularity and frequently feature together on compilation albums.

07 "Love You So" (Rodgers/Kirke) 4.54
Like "Be My Friend" this is a very sad and weighty love song of the kind Kossoff was so proud of.

08 "Bodie" 3.05
This is a sedate acoustic track featuring a notable bass guitar line from Fraser. It deals with disillusionment.

09 "Soon I Will Be Gone" 3.01
Arguably the album's most serious track, this has taken on a new context in retrospect given the events that happened to the band after the release of Highway.

Bonus tracks :

10 "My Brother Jake" 2.49
This is one of the four tracks recorded by the band after the release of the album. It is a strange juxtaposition of a jaunty melody and dark lyrics dealing with a person whose life is failing. In the absence of an album for it, it was released as a single in April 1971; possibly due to the publicity caused by their breakup it became their second-biggest hit single after "All Right Now", peaking at #4 in the UK charts. This is an example of the extreme inconsistency of the band's commercial success.

11 "Only My Soul" 2.27
Another of the four 'limbo' tracks, this is a short and lightweight song that was released as the B-side of "My Brother Jake" in April 1971.
"Ride on a Pony" - BBC Session 4.27
A live session of the album track recorded on the 24th April 1971.

12 "Be My Friend" - BBC Session 5.34
A live session of the album track recorded on the 19th April 1971.

13 "Rain" - Alternate Version 3.54
This an alternate take of the third 'limbo' track, the original version of which was released on the Songs of Yesterday box-set in 2000, thirty years after being recorded. With the CD reissue of Highway, this acoustic song has won over some fans. The fourth of the 'limbo' tracks, "Get Where I Belong", was released on the following album Free Live!

14 "The Stealer" - Single mix 3.21
This is a slightly re-mixed version of the album track used for the single release.

LINE-UP:

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