BAD COMPANY: MERCHANTS OF COOL (2002)
1) Burnin' Sky; 2) Can't Get
Enough; 3) Feel Like Makin' Love; 4) Rock Steady; 5) Movin' On; 6) Deal With
The Preacher; 7) Ready For Love; 8) Rock And Roll Fantasy; 9) All Right Now;
10) Bad Company; 11) Silver, Blue And Gold; 12) Shooting Star; 13) Joe
Fabulous; 14) Saving Grace.
And now we know who is really the heart and
soul, the kernel and pivot of Bad Company: drummer Simon Kirke, the only
irreplaceable member of the band. It is the year 2002 and things have changed,
and how. After a brief reunion of the original Bad Company in 1998, resulting
in a total of two new songs released on a new compilation of old hits, Ralphs
and Burrell left the band for good, but Rodgers and Kirke decided to carry on,
with the help of Dave Colwell on guitar (who had already backed Ralphs on
several albums in the Howe / Hart era) and Jaz Lochrie on bass.
So what we have here is basically «Paul Rodgers
& Piss-Poor Company», playing a live selection of Bad Company's greatest
hits (1974-1979), one classic Free track — which does not hurt, since ʽAll
Right Nowʼ, in style and mood, could very well be considered the true
progenitor of Bad Company — and two new studio recordings, supposed to carry on
the flames of old. The new band does take itself pretty seriously, as the album
title (directly incorporated into the lyrics of ʽJoe Fabulousʼ) implies. But do
we need to follow the implications?
Well, at the very least Paul Rodgers is still
in fine voice, as you would probably expect from a lead singer who (a) did
relatively little over several decades to blow it to pieces and (b) was never
famous for a wide-reaching range anyway. He does seem to lose a bit of the
smoothness and «intelligence of phrasing» of old, but that might simply be due
to the live context, where these things can be lost at any time. Other than
that, it's okay.
What is not
okay is that Dave Colwell is no Mick Ralphs, and although he does a technically
respectable job of learning all the required parts, his guitar tones are
blander, and his inventiveness equals near-zero. He is not helped out too much
by Rodgers, either: check Live In
Albuquerque from 1976, where Rodgers is handling rhythm guitar while Ralphs
delivers a blazing solo at the end of ʽFeel Like Makin' Loveʼ — on Merchants Of Cool, Colwell just plays
the old Who-ripped-off-riff over and over again. Most of the melodies are set
to the same grayish distorted tone, often «smudging» the precise riffage of the
original tunes, so you don't even get to enjoy what little there originally was
of a composing talent of the band. You do get to headbang, though, and maybe
that's what is more important in a live setting — who knows.
«Surprise» elements are quite few. There is an
audience participation bit in ʽShooting Starʼ where Rodgers makes the crowd
sing not just the chorus, but even an occasional verse (personally, I'd be deeply embarrassed caught knowing an entire
Bad Company song by heart, but then again, I wasn't there). ʽAll Right Nowʼ
gets an unimpressive bass solo in the middle. And ʽRock And Roll Fantasyʼ,
after an announcement of "I'll take you to a land you've never seen, come
dream with me", flows into a short medley of Beatles songs — with ʽTicket To Rideʼ and ʽI Feel Fineʼ making
guest appearances, even though the announcement would rather make one think of Sgt. Pepper or Yellow Submarine. Actually, the gesture feels nice rather than
corny, even if all the songs, be it the Bad Company original or the Beatles
covers, are set by Colwell to more or less the same guitar melody. Makes one
think, doesn't it?
The two new tracks are nothing special, but
they are better than the Howe / Hart
stuff — nicer, old-school guitar tones, less country-rock-radio-oriented hooks,
and Rodgers on vocals. If this is where the official studio history of Bad
Company is supposed to end, it is better to see it end with ʽJoe Fabulousʼ than
with Stories Told & Untold, no question
about that. And then it is probably better to just have them around as an
oldies act — in all fairness, they should have stopped polluting the planet
with new «creations» right after 1979, as the setlist of Merchants Of Cool more or less implies on its own. That is the
policy to which Bad Company have been adhering ever since Rodgers reclaimed the
label, although it should be noted that quite a few different «Bad Companies»
have circled the globe in the 2000s, including a «Mick Ralphs' Bad Company»
with Hart on vocals — so don't forget to check the billing closely if you find
a «Bad Company» doing a local gig in your backyard or something: you might just
as well get a Hart / Colwell experience, which is the last thing anyone in
this world really needs.
Check "Merchants Of Cool" (MP3) on Amazon
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