Original subtitles

Hey, hey, hey.

Bad company.

Oh yeah,

bad company. I can't

Bad Company was the the real deal. I

mean, they they hit it big and they they

achieved a lot.

>> Most bands you could say two or three

hits you could think about. I mean, this

this band like were like American radio.

Do you know what I mean? They were like

American radio. They got millions of

hits.

just love.

[Music]

>> They had the greatest uh singer that

that rock music's ever produced.

>> They wanted to strip away all the

excess. They wanted to strap on their

guitars and deliver basic barebones

muscular rock and roll that would make

your blood boil.

>> They

devoured Zeppelin.

[Music]

The death of my home company was born

out of the three sort of seminal British

blues rock bands which comprised of Paul

Rogers, Simon Kirk, Andy Fraser and Paul

Kosoff and they had um done some

wonderful stuff.

[Music]

You better watch out

and don't you hang around

for you.

I will never

[Music]

a great big hole in the ground.

Things started to go wrong in free

largely in main due to Paul Kosov the

guitarist. his sort of growing drug

problem got worse and worse till he was

missing gigs and it was sort of very

hard for the band to go on. Um there was

some kind of tension between Andy Fraser

the bass player and Pores. So Andy

Fraser just abruptly decided to leave

and uh that left them kind of sort of

nowhere. So they split up.

>> Bad Company

may never have happened if um Paul

Rogers would have taken up the offer to

join Deep Purple in 73. They formed me

and um said they were in the middle

middle of this American tour and the

singer wanted to leave and would I sing

for them and uh I wasn't I wasn't sure

what I was doing at the time. So I said

let me think about it. U

and I thought about it and decided

against it just that I didn't really

think I would fit in there.

>> He was determined to have a successful

band and big sales, big tours. Um, he

had enough of of

the Free kind of cult syndrome. I mean,

again, Free had the one single, but Free

really never they didn't have big tours

like that. They weren't selling lots of

records.

>> Paul Rogers went to Peter Grant, who was

Led Zeppelin's manager, and asked him if

he'd be willing to manage him. And Peter

Grant said yes, he would love to do

that. And uh, so Paul Rogers said he

wanted to get a band together along

similar lines to Free. and he was going

to ask Simon Kirk who had been the

drummer in for you with him.

>> Bad Company was a combination of

musicians from three,

you know, separate groups. U Paul and

myself from Free, Mick Rouse from M the

Hoopil, Bos Burrell from King Crimson.

Paul had had a band called Peace and he

toured with Mott the Hoopil

uh when Free had one of their breakups

and they they formed an alliance, a

bond, got on very well and uh so when

Mick left Mott and Free was no longer

Mick and Paul got together and they

asked if I'd like to, you know, join and

I said I'd love to. Um cuz I just wanted

to put Free behind me. It' been such a

weight, such a millstone and um Mick was

wonderful. It was so funny.

>> M Ralph's the being the great bank on M

the Hoople with Ian Hunter. Their

breakthrough came in the shape of um a

David Bowie song that David Bowie

produced called All the Young Dudes.

>> M the Hoople was kind of entering this

glam type of period. And Mick Ralph was

anything but glam. Although he played

great in the band and came up with

amazing parts and amazing songs.

>> I don't think it was really uh what Mick

was comfortable doing. He was a little

bit more of a bluesy rock guy.

[Music]

>> Paul Rogers and Mick Rouse really

connected as musical soulmates almost

same almost the same way that Paul

Rogers did with Paul Kasov.

>> Mick was a songwriter who wrote not only

the music he wrote had a lot to do with

the melodies. So his guitar parts were

were orchestrated around that where

Kasoff was really more would just come

up with a riff. He really never knew

what the melody was going to be or

lyrically. But but Mick would come in

came in with uh two or three big songs

from the first record.

You know I love you mama.

Got to got to steal your love.

Got them. Got them got

steal your love. Got to go got

steal your love. Got them got steal your

>> Mick and Paul had formed this little

bond and they were like blues oriented.

Mick was a little bit more country. Um

so obviously Paul Rogers and myself had

been together four or five years so we

got on pretty well. And then Bos was

this very laidback amiable bass player,

you know. I And when he was the last on

the list of bass players because we

hated King Crimson. We had all the had

the guy from Super Trant, the guy from

this band, that band, and we always put

Bos at the the bottom because we hated

King Crimson. So after we've been

through 15 bass players, we thought,

"Oh, [ __ ] it. We got to try Bos."

Crimson is one of those bands led by

Robert Frip that probably has had

a hundred members since its inception.

So in Crimson, Bos was just was just

another guy who played an electric bass

in Bad Company. Buzz Bos realized the

potential here. So Bos arrived and he

was this great looking guy with a beard,

tall, you know, and we said, "Well, the

first keys in the first song's in G." He

said, "Don't tell me. I'll just pick it

up as I go along, won't we? All right.

Doesn't he want to know the chords?

So, after the first song, we knew he was

the one. And the irony is we only found

out later. He'd only been playing bass

about 18 months.

>> We toyed with millions of ideas. And

suddenly they said, "Well, look, we're

going to do these gigs, so you better

give us a name."

>> So, we said, "Right, buy the company."

And that was it.

>> And that's amazing how quickly like you

get used to it. Yeah,

>> you just

>> I hated it when I first say

>> you didn't say

>> well, you know, I can't think of names

for groups.

>> You like go through things of thinking,

you know, is it good or not?

>> Oh, what was that amazing name? We had

>> the 4 million ables. That was one. Oh,

there was the black bomber. What about

>> Spitfire? Sunre Spitfire and the Black

Bombers.

[Music]

>> Concrete parachute.

What about the fiddlers?

>> The fiddlers.

>> We sat them all night.

>> We still came back to Bad Company.

>> Peter Grant took them all on. They

called themselves Bad Company, which

Peter Grant didn't like at the time. He

thought it was a a name they shouldn't

use. And the record company, which was

Led Zeppelin's record company, Swansong,

also didn't like the name. But

eventually Paul Rogers persuaded them

that this was going to be the name of

the band. He was convinced and Peter

went along with it. There were egos in

the band, but we were all seasoned

musicians. We all got on well. Um, it

was almost as if free and mop the hoople

had been almost I don't know like

training grounds for for the real thing.

>> It's hard it's hard to know exactly

what's going to come out now, but uh the

great thing is that there's an amazing

amount of potential because um we have a

lot to draw from each other. We have a

lot to learn from each other and that

that's bound to reflect in the songs.

You know,

>> when you had all these influences

stirred up in the pot, you had this

explosive hard rock band that was going

to take the world by storm.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

were about to record using a mobile unit

at Hedley Graange Studios. Well, Hedley

Graange Manor with the mobile studios

and it was delayed for a couple of

weeks. So, Peter Grant said, "Do you

want to get into the studio and start

recording tracks?" So, they basically

put down their first album by jumping

the queue from Led Zeppelin.

>> I think it cost about a couple of

thousand to make the whole album.

>> I can't get enough of your love.

I can't get enough of your love.

I can't get enough of your love.

[Music]

>> Well, I take whatever I want. Baby, I

want you. You know, it starts with the,

you know, you hear um on the on the

track recording itself. You hear the guy

go one, two, three, bam. You know, from

the immediate start, you know, the guys

are in there playing. That's what you

get that the guys are playing. It's not

studio control. There's nothing over

doubly and all that. It's just here we

are. 1 2 3 4 in we go.

[Music]

>> It was just a count off that they were

going to splice off and it was just

going to come in with the drum kabum.

But somebody counted it off one two

three

and they all heard it and they go, "Wow,

that's great." uh and that snare snap at

the front of it. But damn, it's it

because of putting the uh um the bass

kick in front, what it tends to do is it

tends to just drag the track back before

it goes forward. So already it picks you

up and just lets you drop into the song.

[Music]

>> That love is going to break me.

Don't hang me up and you're doing it.

Don't hang me up like you do. I say come

on. Come on. Come on and do it. Come on

and do what I do.

I can't get enough of your love. But

baby, can't get enough of your love.

[Music]

I remember hearing it on the airwaves in

Philadelphia and from the first opening

chords, the song grabs you.

[Music]

There's a an extremely exciting guitar

solo and it's an early example of what

what's known as jewel lead guitar solos

uh popularized later by thin Lizzy but

um it's where the guitar sort of starts

and it's just one guitar and then the

second guitar comes in playing almost

identical part but it's just like a sort

of minor third above it.

>> A couple of interesting things going on

from Mick Ralphs on the guitar here. The

first thing is um that when he actually

goes down in in the the main verse which

is a C to a B flat and then he plays to

an F. But what he does, he goes C, B

flat, then he plays an F in the first

inversion, and he adds a C on top, which

makes it an F suspended basically on one

guitar. So he goes,

yeah, on the other guitar, he's going F,

C, F. And the two guitars together

create a really beautiful little

harmonic structure there.

the other guitar that that that's

playing on the record may even be tuned

to what's called an open G tuning. It's

very difficult to tell cuz when the two

guitars are playing together, you can't

really tell, but um it's the mixture of

the two guitars that gives it that

really exciting drive to the track and

the shuffle beat from Simon Kirk's

drumming.

The second section is quite interesting

and it's a typical rock and roll thing.

is using root and fifth or what's now

known as a five chord. So if you see it

written down in a piece of music, it

says G5 or C5. And what that means it's

it's neither major nor minor. The chord,

it's just root and fifth.

Free used to use it a lot and Bad

Company used it a lot. So the bridge he

basically goes G5

[Music]

and then you go to a B flat five and you

go to an F5

to an E flat five and then the chorus is

C

F

[Music]

up to G to G suspended back the G.

>> I can't love

enough.

I can't get enough your love, baby.

[Music]

It's the guitar um that really dominates

and the drumming is very straight but

very very effective.

It was a sort of swing to it and a

swagger.

>> It was a good example of how

>> Bad Company differed a bit from Free as

well that it was a more uptempo, more

aggressive, sort of hard-hitting

approach to rock music that compared to

the more laid-back bluesier elements

that Fri did.

[Music]

>> What you say?

All right,

one more time.

>> When uh Bad Company plays I can't get

enough of your love, it's great because

the whole audience is like singing I

can't get enough of your love and I'm

like yeah, you know, I grew up singing

that song and you just really get into

it and they really the audience feels a

part. They're like drawn into the music.

>> I can't get enough of your love.

I can't get enough of your love.

I can't get enough of your love.

[Music]

Heat. Heat.

[Music]

It works on the radio. It works in the

house. And uh you know, you can make

love to it. You can get down to it at a

bar and in a stadium rock. It's like a

sing along, you know. It's it's just got

all the qualities. It's just it's really

great in its uh it's non-complexity. I

think it's something to do with Paul

Rogers's voice. um even though he's sort

of a white rocker, he's got this retains

this sort of blues, this bluesy

integrity that even if he was singing

about groceries, it would sort of sound

kind of vaguely authentic. Um it's a

very sexy voice, very big voice. Kind of

draws you in.

>> Yeah.

You say, "Yeah,

you say yeah."

I love

>> it was just right for the time. It was a

perfect uh illustration of uh of good

quality high energy '7s rock music.

>> Can't Get Enough is the template for Bad

Company sound. There wasn't a lot of

noodling. It wasn't Prague rock. It was

a song where they stripped away all the

fat. There was no filler. And that's

what Bad Company was all about.

Don Kershner uh TV show in America uh is

early on in their career and uh you can

see from the second number in from the

power of their performance they're

winning this audience over and by the

time you get to can't get enough of your

love which of course is a hit they had

the audience in their hands and you know

Paul's getting them to sing and clap and

you know it was just it was a brilliant

performance. Kersner was huge and if you

got on Don Kersner, you you got um

pretty well national exposure.

[Music]

>> A little misfortune

hit me and I'm down.

Misunderstanding

me out of town.

A little mistake

she don't understand.

I'm in a bad situation. I'm standing at

the station. Turn around around. Yeah.

Yeah.

Got to get home now.

>> Bearing in mind this was well before MTV

or music videos. It looks surprisingly

tame compared to sort of my memory of

how the band wear like a big rocking

outfit, you know, a very sort of kind of

hard-edged rock unit. Um, and when I see

the Kersia footage, it's almost like

glitzy. Um, you know, the sort of

trousers Paul Rogers is wearing a very

kind of very tight and sort of this

glittery bits on it. And you know, Bos

Burrell is wearing a sort of flowery top

shirt with a sort of, in fact, actually

it looks just like Kings of Leyon. Um,

the way that Bos Barrell looks in this

cursion footage. Um, a lot of bands are

currently working. I think they sort of

look at old rock footage and they sort

of they take little bits Listen up. I

want

to get back home

down this long road where I'm going.

I hope to see you

for too long.

Time is passing.

Time is slow.

Oh.

[Music]

Huge part of what Bat Company was about

was the look. Paul Rogers had his own

choreography. He would dance with the

with it with with the entire microphone

stand. Rod Stewart did the same thing.

He obviously perfected that um with his

years with Free. Simon was just kind of

a uh you know just a real hard-hitting

guy in the back. But Simon was also a

great-looking guy, blonde and just you

know really cut and ripped. And I think

Nick Ralph wore these boots on the

outside and the boots came up over his

jeans and I thought, "God, on anybody

else that is corny as hell, but it looks

so great on the guy."

[Music]

>> There was just this new found freedom

when Bad Company came together. It was

like all the Christmases had come at

once. all the all the um the ambition

was finally being realized. This is what

we were going to do. And Jesus in the

first year we were like we had a gold

album.

>> When Bad Company was formed, there was a

definite jelling together with

not only Mick Ralph's guitar playing um

but the fact that as with Paul Rogers,

he was also very um prolific as a

songwriter. So the two of them were

jelling together in that respect, coming

up with good songs. school that often

they would write songs individually that

they would form a collection of great

songs on on the albums and um and Bos

Burl was I suppose a typical bass player

he was just there solid reliable

>> the one guy who was a little offkilter

in terms of his playing because he came

from King Crimson you know a Prague rock

band was Bos Burrell but he gave the

band just a little bit of uniqueness in

terms of his playing that was able to

separate them a bit

>> the major difference between them and

Free is that They had three-part vocals

going on because Mick sang and so did

Bose. And also a lot of people didn't

realize that in free that Paul Rogers

also played a bit of guitar and

keyboards and so he was allowed to do a

little bit more of that cuz he was

really in Bad Company was the man that

formed the band and he was sort of out

front. Obviously on the first album, Bad

Company stated their intent with both

the name of the band and the album and

obviously the track which called Bad

Company as well. Um, which is an

excellent song. I love the way it starts

with its uh moody piano intro. Paul is

playing a little I don't I I don't know

if it's a little woritzer piano. So

Paul's playing a little woritzer and

Bos is playing bass and Mick Ralph is is

like barely playing guitar and I think

it was a performance on Don Kersner. Um

and

Paul just plays those little minor

chords and it it it gives you chills.

[Music]

company

always on the run.

Destiny

[Music]

is a rising sun.

Yeah.

I was born

six girl near my hand

behind the gun.

I'll make my final stand.

Paul came up with the initial riff on

the piano and company just all the black

notes, all the flats and sharps on the

on the piano and he just wanted some

help with some lyrics

and I was there. I just happened to be

there and and we finished it in 20

minutes. But the thing about that

company was it had this sort of um

riders on the plane, you know, the

planes rather on horses, you know,

tumble weed and you know, bounty hunters

and outlaws things. It's a cowboy rock

and roll. Paul Rogers understanding the

American market in a sense, you know,

and it's like a sort of extension of

what the blues singers were singing

about.

>> Now, when I first heard Bad Company, I

couldn't tell if it was an American. I

thought it was an American band because

it sounded like the sexiest hot voice

like I thought southern rock like a

Leonard Skinner.

>> There's so much drama in the song to me.

It almost puts me in an old western. It

almost gives me that type of a feel when

you close your eyes and then there's the

machine gun drumming of Simon Kirk. It's

very atmospheric and ethereal, but then

it really kicks in for the chorus with

the great power chords from Mick Rouse.

That's why I call it

bad company.

I can't deny

bad company till the day I die.

Everybody wants to have their band

anthem and and uh you maybe they've got

other anthemic songs that that make more

statement uh or a bigger stadium

rockers, but I think Bad Company is is a

great track lyrically. Bad Company till

the day I die, you know? I mean, it's a

biker song, isn't it? It's an outlaw.

It's a hell's angel

>> and threw away the sun.

[Music]

Now these towns,

they all know our name.

Six gun sound

is our claim to fame. Yeah.

Well, I can just hear him say

bad company. I can't deny

bad company till the day I die.

I think that um they're kind of rock

fans who were um certainly

well into drinking beer at B company

gigs and doing lots of downers and all

kinds of drugs. They kind of liked they

took this song to heart and liked the

sort of kind of the s slightly dangerous

edge that the uh the imagery of this

song suggested. Typically songs in in

minor keys, the the sad songs, you know,

it's kind of a little harder than the

the big up chords of of of Can't Get

Enough. But that song did really well.

It was unbelievable.

>> Oh yeah.

Bad company. How can I

when I say that?

Bad company.

[Music]

Bad company.

All right.

just a love for me.

[Music]

>> It's very reminiscent of

>> some of the songs that Paul used to

write in Free. It's got that sort of uh

sort of darkish swagger.

>> Free was what it was, a very blues-based

style of band.

Bad Company was a lot more perhaps

geared towards the stadiums, a lot more

uptempo rock, a bit more sort of a macho

rock for one of a better expression. Bad

Company had more hits than Free. Uh, you

know, but Free were incredibly

influential. I think Bad Company were,

you know, a great rock band that may

possibly not have influenced a whole

load of people. We just let them enjoy

the music for the sake of it.

>> The Free Audience was there a little

bit, but I think that this is a whole

new ball game. This was a a

singlesoriented band. Um, this was major

media blitzes. Um,

huge magazine ads. I mean, Free had none

of that stuff.

>> Certainly on a commercial level, Bad

Company were much more popular. But I do

think on a purist level perhaps free

delivered something that was so

intangible but yet so powerful that uh

the shadow of of free over bad company

probably was never extinguished.

Ready

[Music]

for Love was um you know it was

originally done by M the Hoop was one of

the the only songs that that Paul said

[ __ ] man I'd like to sing that and Mick

said but we've already done it. Paul

said I don't give a [ __ ] I want to

record it. So that shows you what a good

song it is to sing. It's in a minor,

which is a lovely mellow, sad,

melancholic

key.

As always with Bad Company, they knew

how to get up to, you know, build a song

up to a chorus. A lot of their choruses

were not dissimilar, but there's nothing

wrong with that. You know, that's the

style of the band, the style of the

writing. Um, there's a couple of nice

little things in this song. um that that

are slightly different from a lot of

other bands. They're using some slightly

unusual chords quite cleverly.

So you've got uh basically this little

intro

[Applause]

and then into a bar switches A minor to

C major to D major to C major,

A minor to G to D major with an F sharp

root.

Then all the same again. A minor to C

major to D major to C major,

A minor to G major to D major with an F

sharp root. And then the next thing you

do is really quite interesting. It's

essentially an open G chord, then

playing an A minor chord after it, which

sounds like,

[Music]

and then they play a D11 chord

to a D major chord.

[Music]

So, it's played,

[Music]

which is great because it's being able

to use all the open strings and

harmonically it's a bit more interesting

than your standard chords. And then when

it gets to the chorus, they use their

usual fifth thing again, root and fifth.

So, G to A, C to D. goes.

[Music]

There's your C to D. There's your G to

A.

[Music]

And then at the end of it, they they

play this really nice little tag which

goes C major, G over B, A minor to G

major to F major to G major, which takes

you back to the verse and intro again.

>> Walking down this rocky road,

wondering where my life is leading,

rolling on

to the bitter end.

I'm finding out along the way what it

takes to keep love living. You should

know

how it feels, my friend.

Oh,

I want you to stay, baby.

Oh,

I want you today.

We're ready for love.

Oh, baby, I'm ready for love.

Ready for love.

Oh, baby, I'm ready for love.

[Music]

I'm waiting for the call.

>> Ready for love is is a good example of

Bad Companyy's ability to do a slower

tempo song.

>> I'm waiting for your call, baby.

Oh, but

now on my feet again.

Better things are bound to happen on the

J

surely must be paid.

[Music]

>> The great melody, the great vocal by

Paul Rogers, the real finesse in in MC

Rouse's playing. And it's a song that

everyone can identify with. I mean, they

were they were reaching out to the

heartland. They were reaching. They were

touching your heart with a song like

Ready for Love.

>> I'm ready for love.

Oh, baby, I'm ready for now.

Ready for love.

Oh, baby, am I ready for love?

Yeah.

[Music]

Don't you know I'm waiting for your

call?

[Music]

We were mixing the first album and

Bowie, David Bowie and Angie came in uh

when we were cuz they knew Mick cuz he

produced all the young dudes and they

came in while we were mixing Ready for

Love and she was going, "Oh, I love this

song,

Ready for Love." They were both singing

it. Um and it still is. It's one of my

favorite songs and Mick said he wrote it

in about 10 minutes.

I want you to stay with my baby.

Oh,

I want you today.

I'm ready for love.

Oh, baby, I'm ready for love.

Ready for love.

Oh, baby, I'm ready for love.

Ready for love.

Oh, baby, I'm ready for love.

Ready for love.

Oh, baby, I'm ready for your love.

[Music]

You look on the on the um the bad co on

the black and white album, the first

album, you'll see an imprint of a palm

and the white lettering cuz it was bad.

You know, hey man, that's bad. Not many

people get that, but you'll see this

imprint of someone's palm.

>> Bad Company's first album stands as one

of the greatest rock and roll debuts

ever. Not only did you have songs like

Can't Get Enough, but you had killer

killer tracks like the title track Bad

Company. You had Ready for Love, which

was already recorded by Ma Hoopal, which

was the template for some of the most

emotional Bad Company ballads. You had

rock steady from which I understand when

they were recording the song Paul Rogers

didn't know what to sing in that blank

space and then he just screamed out rock

steady

>> rock

from day one first album on Swanong

label they get Peter Grant boom like

it's calls like you know seven or eight

hits you know I mean like the first

album

>> Paul sung wonderfully for those first

couple of albums everyone was just ah

and and um

anything I did Mick was like boy all

right that's lovely you know great there

was no analyzing well try doing a bit of

this or it was a bigger sound the drums

were bigger Paul was still singing

unbelievable

um I mean there was still it was a

little bit of blues but it was really

more kind of

electric arena rock.

>> Turn on your light st

[Music]

B Company had opened up their account

with uh Can't Get Enough and on the

second album they needed something that

was, you know, very very um similar in

its immediiacy and I think they found

this perfectly in in uh Feel Like Love.

>> It was a marriage of two songs. It was a

little country song that Mick had or

Paul had rather. And then Mick had this

and they just combined the two and it it

kind of worked. Sort of heavy metal

meets country and it you know it worked

big time. It was a another classic song.

It starts with this really lovely little

sort of country acoustic thing

which is a D major chord and then a C

over a D

and then basically an A G over a D a G

suspended back to a G to a D. So,

and then the verse is D major

to G major with a little country

lick in it.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

And then the usual big chorus

[Music]

which is C D C D C D C G using the root

and fifth again.

Baby,

when I think about you,

I think about love.

[Music]

Darling,

I don't live without you

and your love.

[Music]

If I had

those golden dreams

of my yesterday,

I would wrap you

in the heaven,

but really dying

on the way.

>> It's very Californian. It's very It's

very American, I think. It's certainly

radio friendly. Uh and um much as like

Hotel California or, you know, um use a

living or something like that. I mean,

it's just got a really nice quality to

it. Boss Burrell is a great singer in

his own right. And Mick Ralph can sing.

So, it's nice to hear all the sort of

really kind of fairly sweet eagles

eaglesy harmonies coming in the verses.

Definitely gives this sort of country

southern flavor. It starts with a bit of

foreplay. It starts very gently. You

know, the syncupation of the guitar is

very soft and it just, you know, rolls

itself up and by the time you get to

that top notch when you've got that dip,

I mean, that's it, isn't it? That's your

point of ejaculation. Boom, boom, boom.

[Music]

[Applause]

Feel

like making love.

Feel like

you.

>> It's got dynamics. A lot of their music,

a lot of good rock music has dynamics.

It always does. And and Bad Company's

music had dynamics.

>> It's a song that is guaranteed to get

the audience standing on their seats

cheering along. It's it's a theme that

every hot-blooded male

can identify with.

>> They were maybe ridiculed at times, you

know, sort of the

sort of a sexual kind of angle that they

put on things and the macho kind of

chest beating thing that they were

criticized for. But that was very much

what to many of their audience was

probably one of the aspects that

appealed to them.

[Music]

You are breaking love.

[Music]

Again, it's deceptively simple. There's

quite a lot of production going on. It

sounds like it's just, you know, guitar

bass drums, which is essentially the

sound of their company. But there's

quite a lot going on. There's really

nice some really nice sort of little

kind of piano sort of touches throughout

the verses and then there's a Hammond

organ that sort of swoops in the chorus.

Um, so it's only when you start

listening on headphones and start really

analyzing what's going on. There's lots

of little flavors and colors that I

guess live they didn't really have that

those some of those parts going on. It

didn't seem to matter because the

essential the the the sort of soul of

the song still came through.

>> Ain't complaining. Just trying to

understand what makes a woman do the

things she does. One day she'll love

you, the next she leave you. Why can't

we have it just the way it used to be?

[Music]

>> If I remember correctly, Mick had

written it with I know Mick wrote it

with Paul and I think it was one of

Paul's relationships,

you know, with him and a girl that Yeah.

Good loving gone bad. Bye-bye. I'll see

you later.

>> Yeah.

[Music]

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good.

Bad.

Good loving gone bad. Yeah,

baby. I'm a bad man.

>> Loving gone bad is from Straight

Shooter, which uh is arguably the band's

best album. They always say you have

your whole life to write your first

album, then you have six months to write

your next. And Bad Company probably had

less than six months to write their

their next record. But the follow-up

Straight Shooter to me stands tall with

with the excellence of Bad Company.

[Music]

Obviously

[Music]

they got clubbed together a lot of the

other bands from the 70s who were in my

opinion quite different to Bad Company.

And if you look at their albums they

were never a band to sort of go off and

do 10 15 minute songs. They're very much

a band that wrote short concise

rock songs.

>> Shooting Star really stands out among

Bad Company's catalog of songs. It's not

about girls. It's not about trying to

get a girl. It's not about trying to get

sex. It's not struting your machismo.

It's a song about the tragic death of a

rock and roll star. And Paul Rogers

lyrics for that song are so evocative

and moving. And from what I understand,

it's a composite written about the death

of Jimmyi Hendricks and Paul's great

free comrade, Paul Koff.

>> Johnny one night, died in his bed.

[Music]

Bottle of whiskey, sleeping tablets by

his head.

Johnny's life passed him by like a warm

summer day.

If you listen to the wind, you can still

hear and play.

[Music]

Don't you know that you are as you

think?

Don't you know?

Don't you know?

>> In a 5year span, Bad Company, Straight

Shooter, Run with the Pack, Burning Sky,

Desolation Angels, 5 years, cornerstones

of hard rock.

>> The Arms were, you know, well produced

and and solid solid rock tracks. Um, and

uh, and you know, we're definitely a bad

company thing, but but with a band that

plays the way they play, the type of

music they play, uh, and how they viewed

themselves,

it's a live band. All the songs live

are, uh, much more intense than their

recorded counterparts, you know, but

they're two different animals and they

can be treated well either way.

Don't you don't you know that you are

think

you know you know maybe they would

change the guitar solos and things like

that and and draw songs out a little

longer but not really. I mean they kept

everything really really tight and

concise and I love that about them. It

was song after song after song that was

filled with great hooks, great energy,

power and incandesence.

[Music]

[Applause]

when you listen to the records, um,

production is excellent. It's very kind

of in your face. It's sort of, you know,

you can't avoid it. It's sort of you

can't go around it. Um, and live, it's

kind of quite nice to see that it's not

like that. It's a it's a lot looser and

it's it's not as hardedged. It's um, it

doesn't have as quite as much impact to

me as the records.

>> One of the things that they used to do

live was they didn't come out all guns

blazing. they worked it up to a, you

know, a fever pitch. Um, so their live

performance was really quite different

from their records, you know. Um, it was

structured in a very different way from

their albums.

>> We were all great players and it was

simple, you see, and and Mick being a

relatively sober guy, I mean, he could

handle

uh playing rhythm and lead at the same

time. Paul also played some guitar. So

sometimes they do some dual guitar

stuff, but there was no weak link in the

band. Uh with free always wondering, you

know, what's cost going to be like today

and there was always that sort of

reticence within the between the four of

us. But with Bad Company, everyone was

strong. They could do a great rock and

roll song like Rock Steady and they they

could do a an amazingly ethereal song

like Burning Sky for instance which

really made you feel that you were out

there in the desert. Um and then they

could they could come up with this

emotionally affecting ballad which

sounded like nothing you'd ever heard.

It was very jangly. It was actually very

birdsy. A song called Silver, Blue, and

Gold. It's a song from Run with the Pack

and it's an absolutely mesmerizing,

heart-rending song. Bad Company could do

it all.

>> The first album and Straight Shooter was

the probably the peak of what they did.

And for me personally, every album

subsequently was

slightly worse.

>> Bad Company had all the the plaques on

the wall and all the the awards. Um, but

I think we kind of lost our way after

about the fourth album.

uh we had a huge following and we we

sort of rode it you know gently downhill

>> as is the case money and they were

making lots of money makes things more

difficult doesn't solve any problems and

uh I know that it was getting weird

because now the guys who are writing the

songs they're getting a bigger cut from

their songwriting publishing and Simon

who's not writing um it started getting

weird Yeah.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Rock and roll and drugs always go hand

in hand. Always will. But in the 70s it

was really uh nutty. Coke was the worst

thing. We We all got We all did it. Paul

stopped doing it in about 76,

but the the three of us, we all did it.

And you know, it made us drink too much

and made us take downers and it kind of

screwed it screwed up a lot of bands.

Coke. If we'd have just stuck with

drinking pints and the odd vodka or

glass of wine, we'd probably still be

together now.

>> I think by the third or fourth record,

it was for appearance sake only. And

those records show that, too. There was

the occasional good song, rock and roll

fantasy, but typically it was only one

or two songs.

>> It's all

of my rock and roll fantasy.

It's all

of my rock and roll dreaming.

[Music]

Paul had been given this uh octave

divider by Leslie West from Mountain. It

it literally drops all the strings an

octave on a guitar and it was dang and I

heard him playing with it in the studio

and suddenly I have this came

and it was like wow and it was a great

beat to play along to. Once you add an

octave down, an octave high to play the

riff, it gives it quite a huge sound.

And um you know, that wasn't quite a Bad

Company type of sound guitar-wise.

>> And it's a song where Bad Company is

really stepping away and looking on the

outside and delivering a song that talks

a bit about the excitement of being a

rock and roll star. going on that stage

with the lights out and then the

spotlight gets on you and the whole

place explodes with 20,000 people

screaming your name, applauding you

could do no wrong. And I think that song

just delivers a taste of what it was

like to be able to enjoy that rock and

roll fantasy. Although the song itself

is a good song, I think it's uh

it's also a good example, I think, of

how uh production wise

the band

had gone over to perhaps a more American

sound, which is inevitable because they

were hugely popular in the States.

felling up the ground. It's a part of my

rock and roll fantasy.

>> The production values on it are pretty

strange. I mean, there's syndromes on

it, which is really quite odd. And in a

in a sense for me, the production of

that song actually clouds the song

that's in there. It's a good song,

>> but it's not my favorite because of that

production values messed it up for me.

of my rock and roll.

[Music]

>> Probably the weakest record was was was

the last album, Rough Diamonds, which

really I think from what I understand

was a contractual obligation. But there

were some good songs on that record.

Their Electric Land was very much cut in

the mold of Burning Burning Sky, but by

that time they'd they'd run out of

steam.

>> If they had been able to sustain what

they did on those first two records, I

mean, they could have almost been like a

Zeppelin. They they had that that

background and they had the singers and

the names. I think what happens, every

writer only has so many great songs in

him. You know, it's not like you're a

guitar player where if you keep playing,

you're going to get better and better.

As a songwriter, you may only have eight

great songs in you. And so, at a point

in time when that third or fourth record

comes around and you know that it's as

it's as good as you could have done and

you tell yourself, you don't tell

anybody else, but you tell yourself this

is not as good as what I did in that

first record. That has to

do something to you.

>> It was a shame when when Paul decided to

leave. Peter Grant went into seclusion

and so our management kind of folded and

and we were sort of drifting around and

it's a terrible year and um Paul was

unhappy and he said look I'm off

and you know me and Mick and Bos decided

after a year to carry on with someone

else and that became a bit of a a

nightmare. So that that's the one

episode in Bad Company's 30 years that I

I regret.

>> Any band really can continue with uh

changing the lineups all the time, but

it it loses a lot of its continuity by

doing that. And obviously the the

classic Bad Company years were the the

early years with the original four.

There's two chapters of Bad Company up

to when Paul left in 1982

and then you know the two bands that

came after that that went under the name

of Bad Company. For all intents and

purposes, the original Bad Company was

the best for those six or seven years.

You know, we we had a ball

[Music]

had all the elements that I that I

wanted to hear, you know, which was the

blues thing, you know, the tough rock,

the, you know, that lovely sounding

guitar that Mick used to have, the great

drumming of Simon and, you know,

Bossboro's great bass playing and also

this extra thing with the harmonies

going on, but of course the voice of

Paul Rogers. They were feelgood band,

you know. It it they were having a good

time and they they wanted you to have a

good time and they were singing about

having a good time and and you know,

delicate stuff like, you know, making

love.

>> Some of the other bands that were

around, they're contemporaries at the

time uh have perhaps stayed in the

limelight a lot more,

but Bad Company tend to get overlooked

these days. So, I think um

>> they're not really given as much credit

as they uh they deserve.

>> Bad Company were anything but bad

company. They were great company.

>> I told you that I love you, baby. And

you say, "Yeah."

I told you that I love you. And you say,

"Yeah."

You say, "Yeah."

You say, "Yeah." Yeah. Yeah.

I told you that I love you, baby.

I can't get enough your love.

[Music]

Yeah. I can't get enough of your love.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]