This song is worn out but I still get excited when I hear that intro! You also have one of the top vocalists in his generation…Paul Rodgers. I’ve always loved the feel of this song. The lyrics won’t challenge Dylan at any point but the feel makes up for it.
The band combined singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke from the band Free, guitarist Mick Ralphs from the band Mott the Hoople, and bassist Boz Burrell from King Crimson.
This song was their debut single off of their debut self-titled album. The song peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, and #15 in the UK. The album Bad Company peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #27 in New Zealand in 1974.
I will never understand why Mott The Hoople turned this song down. It was written by Mick Ralphs when he was still with Mott the Hoople, but the band rejected it. When Ralphs joined Bad Company, they didn’t mind it one bit. Ralphs also brought “Movin’ On” with him, which became the group’s next single, as well as “Ready For Love,” which he originally recorded with Mott The Hoople, but redid the song with Bad Company.
Bad Company had just formed and they were signed by Peter Grant (Zeppelin’s manager) to Led Zeppelin’s new Swan Song record label. This was by far the label’s best signing of outside artists…the most successful anyway. Grant traveled with Bad Company and gave them a lot of attention during this period. After a couple of years, no artist at Swan Song would get much attention.
They recorded the album with Ronnie Lane’s mobile studio at Headley Grange. That is where Zeppelin recorded a few of their albums.
Simon Kirke: “We were scattered all over this country house. Bad Company were doing their first album and I believe it was one of the first songs that we did. I was in the basement, Boz [Burrell] the bass player was in the boiler room, Mick Ralphs and Paul Rodgers were up in the main living room where the guitar amps were. So, in order to get their attention, because we couldn’t see each other, I did the count: ‘1, 2… 1, 2, 3…’ and then I did this ‘guh-brah’ to get everyone’s attention. And that’s how we kicked it off. It was born out of necessity.”
Can’t Get Enough
Well I take whatever I want
And baby I want you
You give me something I need
Now tell me I got something for you
Come on come on come on and do it
Come on and do what you do
I can’t get enough of your love
I can’t get enough of your love
I can’t get enough of your love
Well it’s late and I want love
Love that’s gonna break me in two
Don’t hang me up in your doorway
Don’t hang me up like you do
Come on come on come on and do it
Come on and do what you do
I can’t get enough of your love
I can’t get enough of your love
I can’t get enough of your love
When I heard Maggie Bell a few years ago…the Scottish-born singer blew me away with her voice. A very big Janis vibe to her. I’ve read that she was called the UK’s Janis Joplin but she had her own style.
This song was on the album Suicide Sal released in 1975 on Led Zeppelin’s new record label Swan Song. The song was composed by John “Rabbit” Bundrick, Simon Kirke, Paul Kossoff, Paul Rodgers, and Tetsu Yamauchi. Wishing Well was a song by the band Free and it was originally released in 1972. Maggie puts her spin on it and I love it.
Jimmy Page played on this album and I love the funky bass groove that opens the song. The song didn’t chart but she would later have a top 40 song in the UK with the song Hazell.
Maggie Bell was the former lead singer of Stone The Crows. Peter Grant signed the band and had big plans for them. He was the most powerful manager in rock at that time because of Led Zeppelin. The band would come to a tragic end though. Guitarist Leslie Harvey was electrocuted and died on stage at the Top Rank in Swansea on May 3, 1972. He was the only one in position on the stage. Bell has said: “It was a fluke, we were standing at the side of the stage; we hadn’t even started yet. Leslie said to the audience: ‘There’s a technical hitch,’ and he touched the microphone and the guitar. And that was it.” The road crew overlooked one loose ground wire.
Steve Howe of Yes helped fill in for some shows for the band after that. Jimmy McCulloch then joined them and they released an album with some songs by Harvey and a couple by McCulloch who would later join Paul McCartney and Wings. The band was over in 1973 but Peter Grant continued to manage Maggie til the early eighties.
Bell was in shock for years afterward but she said: “I thought to myself: ‘Am I going to give all this up and go back up to Scotland and have two kids?’ I mean, this was a dream we’d planned. Peter said there would be no legal problems if I didn’t want to carry on. I said no, there was a plan. I was going to make sure that I finished the journey. I’m seventy-six years old, I’m still doing it. I mean, the body’s falling apart, but the voice is still fabulous!”
You can hear Maggie Bell sing on Every Picture Tells Story by Rod Stewart. She was credited as having “vocal abrasives.” I don’t think I ever heard Maggie Bell on American radio which is a shame.
Wishing Well
Take off your hat, kick off your shoes
I know you ain’t goin’ anywhere
Run ’round the town singin’ your blues
I know you ain’t goin’ anywhere.
You’ve always been a good, good friend of mine,
But you’re always sayin’ “Farewell”
And the only time that you’re satisfied
Is when you dream from the wishing well.
Throw down your gun you might shoot yourself.
Or is that what you’re tryin’ to do?
Put up a fight you believe to be right
Someday the sun will shine through.
You’ve always been a good, good friend of mine,
But you’re always sayin’ “Farewell”
And the only time you’re satisfied
Is when you dream, dream from the wishing well.
And I know what you’re wishing for
Love in a peaceful world
Love in a peaceful world
Love in a peaceful world
You’ve always been a good, good, good friend of mine,
But you’re always sayin’ “Farewell”
And the only time that you’re satisfied
Is with your feet in the wishing well.
Yes, this has been played to death but it still sounds good. No frills rock and roll from the early seventies.
I have a new appreciation for the song. The guys come over…well before the lockdown…and play music in my garage. Someone brought this one up and started to play it a couple of months ago and we started to play…it is a great song to play and hear live.
The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100, #4 in Canada, and #2 in the UK in 1970. It was featured on the Fire and Water album. In 1991, the song was remixed and re-released, reaching #8 in the UK again.
The song was written by Andy Fraser and Paul Rodgers.
This topped a 2010 online fan poll by UK radio station Planet Rock for the “Greatest Rock Singles.” Said Paul Rodgers: “When I started writing ‘All Right Now’ the lyrics and the melody flowed easily. It felt special and it’s still special to me and the fans. It’s a ‘must play’ in my solo set.”
Simon Kirke (Drummer):“‘All Right Now’ was created after a bad gig in Durham, England. Our repertoire at that time was mostly slow and medium paced blues songs which was alright if you were a student sitting quietly and nodding your head to the beat. However, we finished our show in Durham and walked off the stage to the sound of our own footsteps. The applause had died before I had even left the drum riser. When we got into the dressing room, it was obvious that we needed an uptempo number, a rocker to close our shows. All of sudden, the Inspiration struck (bass player Andy) Fraser, and he started bopping around singing ALL RIGHT NOW… He sat down and wrote it right there in the dressing room. It couldn’t have taken more than 10 minutes.”
Paul Kossoff was the guitar player and influenced a generation of guitar players before and after his early death in 1976.
From Songfacts
In the CD Molten Gold – An Anthology, Free drummer Simon Kirke explained:
Andy Fraser (Free’s Bass Player): “We’d started work on our third album, Fire and Water and things were going well. The idea for ‘All Right Now’ came about on a rainy Tuesday night in some god-forsaken minor city – I can’t remember where – in England. We were playing a college that could have held 2,000 but had something like 30 people out of their heads on Mandrax bumping into each other in front of us. They didn’t notice when we came on or when we went off.
Afterward, there was that horrible silence in the dressing room. To break the intensity, I started singing, ‘All right now…come on baby, all right now.’ As if to say, Hey, tomorrow’s another day. Everyone else started tapping along. That riff was me trying to do my Pete Townshend. We listened to everything, though: The Beatles, Stax and Motown, Gladys Knight And the Pips was one of our main influences then.
Paul (Rodgers) said he wrote the lyrics while he was waiting for us to pick him up for another gig. We used to have a dressing room amp, so every night we’d do the song and add a bit until we tested it live.”
This is the first hit song with vocals by Paul Rodgers. He later joined Bad Company and also played with The Firm and Queen.
This song really took off after Free’s performance at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 31,1970 at the East Aftom Farm, Aftom Down, where over 600,000 people attended. Los Angeles disc jockey Joe Benson told Paul Rodgers during an on air interview that “All Right Now” is playing over the airwaves somewhere around the world once every 45 seconds.
Free weren’t able to follow up this song with another hit, as the next single, “Stealer,” stalled at #49 in America and didn’t chart at all in the UK. In a Songfacts interview with Simon Kirke, he said: “It became a bit of an albatross around our necks, I have to say. Even though it elevated Free into the big leagues, it became a bit of an albatross because we couldn’t follow it. It became a huge hit all around the world, only because we wanted to have something that people could dance to, but then, of course, we had to follow it up, and Island Records were desperate for us to follow it up.
Really it was just a one-off for us, and when the follow-up to ‘All Right Now’ died a death – it was called “The Stealer” – and the album that followed, Fire and Water, from which ‘All Right Now’ was taken, when that didn’t do very well, we took it to heart and the band broke up. So, in an indirect way, ‘All Right Now’ was not very good for the band, I have to say.
But, by the same token, it’s been such a durable song. I play it in my solo shows, I played it with Ringo Starr and I think one of the highlights of my career.”
The album version is over a minute longer than the radio edit, which had a shorter guitar solo.
The song has soundtracked numerous commercials in the UK, most famously in 1990 when it featured in a TV ad for Wrigley’s chewing gum, which generated enough interest to return the tune to the UK charts. “I can’t keep track of where it’s turned up,” Paul Rodgers ruefully told The Independent April 7, 2010. “Island Records owned the publishing rights to all our songs in perpetuity. In theory, they’re supposed to call me and ask, ‘Can we use this song in this way?’ but they often don’t. I think if the money’s good enough, they just go, ‘Yes! Wrigley’s? YES!!'”
A less satisfactorily tie-in came when the song was used to advertise a foot-odor powder on television. “You use this stuff on your feet and the song comes on to signify that your feet are All Right Now, you see,” Rogers said acidly. “I rang Chris Blackwell about it. He had it taken off pretty smartly.”
The song has been covered by many bands and artists, including Mike Oldfield, Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera, the Runaways and, ex-Wham! backing singers Pepsi & Shirlie.
When Paul Rodgers teamed up with Queen in 2004 to tour as Queen + Paul Rodgers, this was a regular part of their set list and a crowd favorite.
It’s Alright Now
There she stood in the street Smiling from her head to her feet I said hey, what is this Now baby, maybe she’s in need of a kiss I said hey, what’s your name baby Maybe we can see things the same Now don’t you wait or hesitate Let’s move before they raise the parking rate
All right now baby, it’s all right now All right now baby, it’s all right now
I took her home to my place Watching every move on her face She said look, what’s your game baby Are you tryin’ to put me in shame? I said “slow don’t go so fast, Don’t you think that love can last? She said Love, Lord above Now you’re tryin’ to trick me in love
All right now baby, it’s all right now All right now baby, it’s all right now
Yeah, it’s all right now Oh yeah
Let me tell you all about now Took her home to my place Watching every move on her face She said look, what’s your game Are you tryin’ to put me in shame? Baby,I said “slow don’t go so fast Don’t you think that love can last? She said love, Lord above Now he’s tryin’ to trick me in love
All right now baby, it’s all right now All right now baby, it’s all right now
All right now baby, it’s all right now All right now baby,baby,baby it’s all right now All right now baby, it’s all right now All right now baby, it’s all right now (All right now baby, it’s all right now) We are so happy together it’s alright,it’s alright,it’s alright (Everything alright) all right now baby, it’s all right now
Free ended up being the blueprint for Bad Company. Two of the band members were in the latter group. With a voice Paul Rodgers possesses, I’ve wondered why he isn’t more of a household name outside of the world of rock. He was in successful rock groups such as Free, Bad Company, The Firm, The Law and toured with Queen.
Free was known as a great live band but I’ve only known them as the band before Bad Company. To my surprise by the time they disbanded, they had sold more than 20 million albums around the world. I have never been a fan of some of Rodgers’s songwriting but his voice can carry any song.
Paul Kossoff was the guitar player and influenced a generation of guitar players before and after his early death in 1976.
This song peaked at #13 in the UK charts in 1972. The band formed in 1968 and disbanded in 1973. They are known for their hit All Right Now.
I first heard A Little Bit Of Love on theLife On Mars BBC television show that I have shamelessly plugged since I’ve been posting. It’s only 16 episodes long…if you get a chance to watch it I think you will enjoy it…The UK version NOT the American version.
A Little Bit Of Love
I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Oh oh oh Has gotta come your way.
Well in my mind It’s easy To lose sight of the truth But in my heart I can’t deny My feeling inside
‘Cos I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Oh oh oh Has gotta come your way.
Man in the sky You say you are flying To lose sight of the world You wanna stay high Then don’t deny Your feeling inside
‘Cos I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Oh oh oh Has gotta come your way.
Yeahh! Whooo!
I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Oh! Has gotta come your way.
I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Whooooo Has gotta come your way
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