The Vinyl Collection

Description
Formed in London in 1968, Free are regarded as one of the primary innovators of Blues rock. They hit mainstream global success in 1970 and played to over 600,000 people at the Isle of Wight festival that same year. By the time they had disbanded in 1973 they had released 6 studio albums, sold over 20 million albums and played over 700 shows. Their biggest and best known track All Right Now is reputed to be played somewhere in the world on radio every minute of the day and has been entered into ASCAP's ‘One Million’ airplay singles club.

Free are regarded as one of the innovators of Blues rock that went on to influence a host of bands throughout the following decades. Rolling Stone referred to the band as "British hard rock pioneers", ranking singer Paul Rodgers # 55 in its list of the ‘100 Greatest Singers of All Time’ and guitarist Paul Kossoff at #51 of ‘100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time’.

This 7-LP box set, housed in a sturdy box features the albums in their original form; they have been newly re-mastered from the original tapes by Andy Pearce to enhance the sound of these classic albums and will have original art work.

TONS OF SOBS
Released in the UK in 1969, it was legendarily recorded for only £800. The album failed to chart at the time but tracks remained in the band’s live repertoire for many years after.

FREE
Produced by the head of Island Records, Chris Blackwell, the band’s second album managed a respectable #22 in the UK charts.

FIRE AND WATER
Fire and Water is the bands third studio album The album became the band's breakthrough hit, reaching #2 in the UK charts and #17 in the US, making it the most successful Free album. The album contained the hit single "All Right Now".

HIGHWAY
Released in 1970 is a low-key and introspective album compared with its predecessors. From a writing point of view Highway continued in the same vein as previous albums, with Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser collaborating on seven of the nine songs. Paul Kossoff preferred the more serious, weighty songs on the album such as "Be My Friend", which he saw as an antidote to the "frivolity" of "All Right Now”.

FREE AT LAST
The fifth album was released in 1971 after the band had split up and reformed; it was the last album to feature Andy Fraser who left soon after the album was recorded.

HEARTBREAKER
Heartbreaker was the bands sixth and final studio album it provided them with one of their most successful singles, "Wishing Well". The album was, by Free's standards, a huge success. It became their third top-ten album in the UK (reaching #9), and reached No. 47 in America.

LIVE
Free Live! was released by Island Records to commemorate the band, who had broken up in April 1971. The album was a hit, reaching #4 in the UK album charts.

Amazon USA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014U883BU/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014U883BU/?tag=imwan-21

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Individual CDs

    

    

Tons Of Sobs
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EBPKEV4/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EBPKEV4/?tag=imwan-21

Free
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EBPKEUU/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EBPKEUU/?tag=imwan-21

Fire And Water
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EBPKF2C/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EBPKF2C/?tag=imwan-21

Highway
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EBPKEVO/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EBPKEVO/?tag=imwan-21

Free At Last
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EBPKF4K/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EBPKF4K/?tag=imwan-21

Heartbreaker
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EBPKEVE/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EBPKEVE/?tag=imwan-21

Live
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EBPKEWS/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EBPKEWS/?tag=imwan-21

The Free Story
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EBPKF2M/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EBPKF2M/?tag=imwan-21

These could very well turn out to be the definitive editions of the Free catalogue since the albums have been remastered by the great Andy Pearce. Pearce was hired to work on the masters for the vinyl box set, but Island/Universal have decided to also put them out individually as budget CDs (along with a remastered CD of The Free Story compilation, which is not included in the vinyl box).

I'm going to take a chance on the CDs because I haven't been very happy with the sound of any of the reissues to date. Even the Japanese SACDs were sort of "fizzy". These new editions aren't scheduled to include bonus tracks, but I'm hopeful that Mr. Pearce will work some of his usual magic on the audio quality.

I have a Free comp. Which of the individual albums are definitive?

The first four albums, I think everyWAN here would recommend without hesitation. They are great through and through.

Heartbreaker is very underrated IMHO.

I'm in for at least a couple of these, maybe more.

Yes, but the strange thing is that in the 70s everyone I knew who was a fan of FREE rated HEARTBREAKER as one of
their best albums without hesitation. It seemed to be music journalists who had a problem with it, not the fan-base.