Straight Shooter

Performer: Bad Company
Engineer: Ron Nevison
Producer: Bad Company
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Bad Company: Paul Rodgers (vocals, guitar); Mick Ralphs (guitar); Boz Burrell (bass); Simon Kirke (drums). Recorded on Ronnie Lane's Mobile at Clearwell Castle, Gloucestershire, England in September 1974. Digitally remastered by George Marino. Personnel: Paul Rodgers (guitar, accordion, piano); Mick Ralphs (guitar, keyboards); Jimmy Horowitz (strings); Simon Kirke (drums). Audio Mixer: Ron Nevison. Audio Remasterer: George Marino. Recording information: Clearwell Castle, Gloucestershire, England (09/1974). Bad Company's second release, STRAIGHT SHOOTER, stays true to the bare-bones flavor of the band's stunning self-titled debut. While the group was one of rock's first supergroups (with members from Free, King Crimson, and Mott the Hoople), Bad Company was the antithesis of the pretentious excess that is usually associated with such formations. STRAIGHT SHOOTER exemplifies the band's no-frills approach: blues-based rock & roll distilled down the bare framework. The album spawned a handful of FM radio staples, starting with "Feel Like Makin' Love," a prototype power ballad that served as a template for a legion of '80s rockers. The wistful "Shooting Star" revealed a softer side to the band's usual hard rock dynamic that was seldom seen but just as effective. The charging "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" was yet a third car radio favorite that further established the band as masters of the art of chugging riffs and firmly ensconced backbeats. The overlooked ballad "Call on Me" closes the album with a gentle vocal by Paul Rodgers, who by this album's release was firmly established as one of the premiere rock vocalists of the '70s.

Q (12/94, pp.157-8) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...STRAIGHT SHOOTER refined their irresistibly commercial melodic hard rock into perfectly consumable bite-size chunks, mixing up vigorous dandruff-shakers like `Good Loving Gone Bad'...with more contemplative material like `Anna'..."

With key members hailing from such storied bands as Mott the Hoople and Free, Bad Company had its hard-rock credentials very much in order from the get-go. On the strength of Paul Rodgers's throaty vocals and Mick Ralphs's simple but memorable power-chord riffs, they became one of the most successful acts of the 1970s.

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