BAD COMPANY: STRAIGHT SHOOTER (1975)
1) Good Lovin' Gone Bad; 2)
Feel Like Makin' Love; 3) Weep No More; 4) Shooting Star; 5) Deal With The Preacher;
6) Wild Fire Woman; 7) Anna; 8) Call On Me.
Progress-schmogress? The second album picks up
where the first one left off, then performs a nice 360-degree curve over eight
songs — why change a winning formula while the market is still hot? Straight Shooter sold just as well as
the debut album, if not better, and solidified the band's reputation as
providers of highest quality third-rate hard rock for the masses even further.
It may be hard for some people to understand how an album as generic and
trivial as Bad Company could ever
have a successful sequel in the same style. But it does.
The two hit singles are not quite up to this
band's highest standards: there is nothing here that repeats the subtly dangerous
grumble of ʽRock Steadyʼ or the sly seductive restrain of ʽReady For Loveʼ. In
fact, Rodgers is playing his cards even more in the open now: when he is not
screaming his head off, he is either crooning or «narrating» (ʽShooting Starʼ),
and although, technically, it all goes well, the «mystical» effect that this
man's voice may sometimes produce is almost never felt on this record. Not that
a lot of Bad Company fans would ever want to hunt for it, of course.
Still, ʽFeel Like Makin' Loveʼ has a strange
charm to it, probably hidden in the transitional folds when the acoustic verse
melody flows into the hard rock riff of the chorus (stealthily appropriated
from a theme from Tommy, mind you).
And the band still has a way to come across as respectably cool when you no
longer expect it — midway through, the catchy, but unexceptional «semi-power
ballad» becomes a psychedelic rocker, as Mick Ralphs suddenly lets fly with a
series of wailing, echoey solos that most fans of the single probably wouldn't
even need, as long as they could simply sing along with the chorus. Those last
two minutes of the song are easily my favourite part of the album.
ʽGood Lovin' Gone Badʼ, the other big one, got
itself some wildly distorted, sludgy guitar, which could indicate a movement
towards «glam» territory, but not for these guys — one step forward and they
could have turned into KISS. They do make sure that the lyrics are «polite»,
the intonations are ecstatic and emotional, but not «brutal», and the sound
does not stimulate active headbanging. And the main hook is the title itself,
of course: "good lovin' gone bad, yeah yeah yeah!" just sticks, and
there's nothing you can do about it except shoot yourself.
But the album eventually loses momentum, just
as Bad Company did. For starters,
ʽShooting Starʼ is an arena-oriented anthem dedicated to the memory of «Club
27», and it does not work well beyond the verses — the verses are sung by
Rodgers with a touch of emotional honesty, upon which the weak, unconvincing
chorus seriously lets the song down. Ralphs repeats the ʽFeel Like Makin' Loveʼ
trick with some explosive soloing at the end, but this time, there is no rock
solid riff to go along with it, so it doesn't come off with the same effect
(and besides, where's the fun of a new discovery?).
The album's most in-your-face ballad, ʽAnnaʼ,
was contributed by Simon Kirke, and is probably the band's first real duffer. Slow, languid, devoid of
invention, hanging exclusively upon Rodgers' ability to pull off a sentiment,
and that coda? "I found me a simple woman, a simple woman for a simple
man" — a line that might be passable when hidden within one verse out of
three or four, but there is a certain paradox when one tries to focus the
listener's attention on a line like that: the trick is, it stops being simple, becoming forcedly pretentious. Like yeah all
right, we all know that Bad Company are a Simple Band writing Simple Songs for
Simple Fans who easily associate with Simple Men trying to find themselves some
Simple Women. Which would beg the question: what the heck's wrong with complicated men and women?
In fact, the only song on the second side that
rises slightly above mediocre is ʽDeal With The Preacherʼ, where Ralphs digs
deep into his heaviest tone and Rodgers raises as much fuss as on ʽGood Lovinʼ.
Next to its crunch and energy, the far slighter ʽWild Fire Womanʼ does not
qualify at all; and as much as ʽCall On Meʼ tries to reach the skies with its
solemn piano chords and wailing guitars (the coda almost reads like a poor, poor
man's ʽWhile My Guitar Gently Weepsʼ), it still has a hard time leaving the
troposphere. If not for Rodgers, all of these songs wouldn't even be worth
mentioning, but even his presence cannot save them from mediocrity.
Still, by and large, Straight Shooter honestly performs everything the people expected
from it, so none of these complaints make too much sense. In fact, I should
probably even reward it with a thumbs up, especially considering how much more
adequate and even inspired this record is compared to whatever would follow.
But, like its predecessor, it still begs the question — these guys were so
obviously capable of so much more, individually and collectively; was it merely for the money that they were
lowering standards, or did they perceive their actions as some sort of High
Mission? As in, take all the fun out of rock'n'roll?.. Because this is not just
«simple» music — it is deadly stern, with far more seriousness than these hooks
could possibly take.
Check "Straight Shooter" (MP3) on Amazon
Never really realized that chorus riff in Feel Like Makin is the same as the riff that connects Overture and It's a Boy. I remember when I first heard Tommy in its entirety (in 1988, mind you) I kept saying to myself, "I've heard these riffs before! That melody is familiar, I didn't know they did it!" That album was like the baby daddy to a thousand rock bands that filled the air during the 70s and 80s. Although the "Go to the Mirror" riff always reminded me a bit of "Green tambourine," so Who really made Who?
ReplyDeleteAnother guilty pleasure hiding at the back of my collection. Conservative, LCD, entertainment that proves 1970's "classic" rock really is the equivalent of modern, Red State, country music of the Walmart variety, a la Alan Jackson/ Toby Keith. For all that, I'll still take this over AC/DC any day of the week. At least, Bad Co. normally remembers to write an entire song, rather than one riff, one chorus, and three synonyms for venereal disease.
ReplyDeleteBetter well stolen than badly thought out yourself - the riff of Feel like is probably the best Bad Co ever had. Also note the simple thus effective first solo. Well done. Of course I also love the UH-like harmony at the end of each line of the verses.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise this album shows that you can only pull of a trick like this once - like Bad Co did with their debut. All the other songs firmly cross the thin line that's drawn between a simple, good song and generic stuff, which sometimes gets even cheesy (the intro of Weep no more).
It would also have been nice if Bad Co had varied from mid tempo.
What is really telling is that Rodgers hardly gets the opportunity to use his quite impressive range to good effect. Again only Feel like sticks - when the verse ends with these words and he immediately begins the chorus with the same words an octave higher. That's quite an impressive hook.
So except this song I don't see much reason for a thumbs up.