By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

BAD COMPANY – BAD COMPANY (1974)

A little over five years ago, I wrote about the Bad Company album Holy Water when singer Brian Howe passed away. I’d always planned to write about more of the band’s albums but just never seemed to get around to it.

Until now it is…sadly. I say that because on June 23rd of this year, after years of health issues related to a stroke suffered in 2016, Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs (who also co-founded Mott the Hoople) passed away.

Everything I read about Ralphs after his passing talked about while he may not have been one of those flashy kind of guitar players, the man could write some incredible guitar riffs AND he wrote some absolutely outstanding songs have stood and will continue to stand the test of time. And substance over flash is never a bad thing.

When I wrote about the Holy Water album, I mentioned that the only time I saw the band live was when Brian Howe was the singer. But I did get to see Mick Ralphs and I do know that I had a blast at that show. But what I forgot at that time was I did see band live when singer Paul Rodgers had returned to the band. Well sort of. I paid for a pay-per-view concert that the band did at some point. I think it was from a date they played in Florida but I can’t recall for sure. But I did at least get to see Ralphs, Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke (I can’t remember if bassist Boz Burrell had passed away at that point or not) play a show together even if it was thousands of miles away.

With all that, I just felt that I had to talk about the band’s self-titled debut album this week to mark the passing of Mick Ralphs. When I was a member of the Classic Rock Bottom message forums, I’d done a pretty involved look at the album when a special two-disc version of the album was released, but with that site gone now, it was time to take a new listen to the album.

There’s just eight songs on the original album but the band sure managed to make their mark right from this auspicious start. Six of the songs are stone cold classics of the band’s catalog!

Side One opens with the killer rocking romp “Can’t Get Enough” and if you hadn’t gotten a taste of the individual members of the band before, this song fully captures their separate talents and makes a rousing statement from the first moments. You’ve got the smoking guitar sound from Ralphs, the insistent soulful blues-soaked vocal take from Rodgers and a stunningly resounding thump from both Burrell and Kirke. In fact, the bass and drums for this track are so up in the mix that even I was picking out Burrell’s playing as the song played. Plus Kirke is a thumper on the kit so you know you weren’t going to be disappointed there either.

By the way, this opening song was a sole writing composition by Ralphs. He wrote two other songs on the album himself and co-wrote two more with Paul Rodgers. If that doesn’t show how much substance he had as a musician, nothing will.

For “Rock Steady”, you still have a rocking upbeat tempo to the music though it is a bit more subtle than on “Can’t Get Enough”. However, don’t let that fool you into thinking that the band was taking their foot off the musical pedal. Rather they were just shifting gears a bit. Paul Rodgers wrote this song and it is another highlight of not just the album itself but the band’s catalog.

I won’t claim that I’ve ever really been much of a fan of Mott the Hoople. I know that the band existed and that Ian Hunter was their most notable singer, but I never really got interested enough to give the band a good listen. So when I first learned that the song “Ready For Love” was actually a cover version that Mick Ralphs had written for Mott the Hoople I was surprised. Even as I listened to the album now and was doing research, I’d forgotten that fact again. And while I should do a better job of remembering these things, I can’t get that upset at myself about it because the Bad Company version is a smoking hot slow burn track that they make the song their own and the track oozes such a fiery undercurrent that even though the tempo remains in straightforward groove for almost the entire running time, you still get a rocking vibe to it at the same time.

The final song on Side One of Bad Company is “Don’t Let Me Down” which is not one of the six “Hall of Fame” type songs the album can proclaim…BUT…don’t let yourself sleep on this track. It’s got a nice pounding rhythm to it and when you take the vocals from Paul Rodgers and enhance them with a killer backing choir/chorus to give an added dimension, the song is definitely an underrated gem.

The second side of the album kicks off with the album’s title track. And it is an absolute masterclass in not just songwriting but seeing the vision executed to perfection. And between the lyrical content and the different ways the band uses to set the mood of the song, I can’t see how anyone couldn’t be moved by the track. The slower main lyrical passages give you that cinematic feel. You get the feeling this is the main title screen song for a western movie. When you get to the song’s chorus, the music gets rocked up and suddenly you are hit with a blast of guitars that remind again just how good Mick Ralphs is/was. The song was co-written by Ralphs and Simon Kirke and they really got everything right about this one.

The song “The Way I Choose” is the other of the two tracks which aren’t usually mentioned when you talk about the album. Despite listening to the album plenty of times over the four decades I’ve actually owned the album, it’s probably the one I forget about the most myself. But I’m listening to it in the here and now and find that I like this ballad more than I remembered. It’s got a slow and easy pace and for the most part, the song is built around the vocals and the rhythm section. Yes, Mick Ralphs is involved but he’s in the background more than being the lead thing you hear in most of the song. I liked the use of the saxophone on this track as well.

The energy level gets brought back up to a full rocking beat with the song “Movin’ On”, another high energy rocker that not only features some tasty guitar playing but a superb vocal turn as well.

The album closes out in a much more relaxed vibe with the song “Seagull”. Pretty much just Mick Ralphs on guitar and Paul Rodgers on vocals, this is a ballad that is not only fantastic, it doesn’t really show its age because the song’s subject matter isn’t tied to whatever someone’s love of the moment is. It’s almost somber in a way but I’ve always taken the song in a much more positive and upbeat kind of way myself. I like the seeming simplicity of the song. While I don’t remember exactly when I first heard the song (probably when I actually bought the album but who knows), I remember that I was kind of blown away by it. It’s a feeling that has continued to happen every time I hear the song even now.

In November of this year, Bad Company will finally be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It will be a great day but a somber one because Mick Ralphs won’t be able to be there. So like many other fans, I will take solace in the music he leaves behind and what better way to get started than with Bad Company, which is not only a masterful debut album but one of the best examples of the entire classic rock genre.

REST IN PEACE MICK RALPHS.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Bad Company album has sold more than five million copies since it was released. The album got the reissue treatment in 1994 and 2006. In 2015, the album was reissued again with a bonus disc containing 13 tracks. Some of those tracks were demo versions of songs on the original release, but two songs (“Little Miss Fortune” and “Easy On My Soul”) which were B-sides to singles released were included as well.

The Bad Company album peaked at #1 on the album chart. The song “Can’t Get Enough” hit #5 on the singles chart while “Movin’ On” charted out at #19.
The final album released with Mick Ralphs being involved was not a Bad Company album but instead it was the 2016 Mick Ralphs Blues Band album called If It Ain’t Broke.

A day or so after Mick Ralphs died, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott paid tribute to him during one of their shows by playing a slightly shortened version of “Seagull”. You can see a clip of that on Bad Company’s Facebook page.