So my stats tell me this is my 200th post!

What better way to celebrate that than with  a ROCKING  selection.

So get out your denim jackets, puff out your chest, lace up your Doc Marten boots, grab your air guitar and transport yourself back to the mid seventies.

I give you the Bad Company Top Ten!

Courtesy of my fifteen year old self….

Some things don’t change much!

10. Good Lovin’ Good Bad, from Straight Shooter

Let’s start with a fat riff, a man with his pride, and some lovin’ (note the missing g) that has gone bad. The guitar solo is angry! Mick Ralphs, ex Mott The Hoople,  laying down the riffs.

9. Silver, Blue and Gold, from Run With The Pack

“Run With The Pack” was Bad Co’s third album. Each album was not quite as good as the one before it. But there were still some top tunes on this one. “Silver, Blue and Gold” was one of those lovely ballads that highlighted the soulful voice of Paul Rodgers. I loved the slow ones as much as, if not more, than the rockers.  This was one of those soulful tunes.

8. Bad Company, from Bad Company

The title track , from the classic first album. The rebel soul. A sound that came close to that of Free, the band from which Bad Company sprang. As a fifteen year old, I maintained that Bad Co were better than Free. I wrote a letter to Sounds newspaper stating the case. It was published. I now disagree with myself!

7. Feel Like Makin’ Love, from Straight Shooter

Well, there’s not much subtlety in this song, but it rocks like the God of Rock.  A slow bit and then the hammer descends. Strut and thrust. You know what it means.

6. Seagull, from Bad Company

Like I said, I always liked the slow ones. Paul again showing off his soulful tones. A spacey, mellow vibe. Takes you to a higher place.

5. Simple Man, from Run With The Pack

In which Paul Rodgers expounds the trials and tribulations of the man who wants to be free. The classic rock’n’roll fantasy. Being yourself, not abiding by the rules. But oh, it ain’t easy. Easy to mock, but Paul’s voice turns it into a hymn.

4. Wild Fire Woman, from Straight Shooter

Oh yeah! There’s a bit of Free’s bluesy stride in this one, and just a lot of the lovin’, rockin’ man. Going down the highway, getting closer to your love.  I’m there!

3. The Way I Choose, from Bad Company

My sentimental streak has been there from the very beginning as far as music is concerned. This song was always one of my favourites. Not so much for the notion of doing what you choose, as for the soulful feel of the music, complete with a soaring saxophone and a tender guitar solo. Bad Co were rockers, but they were also rooted in soul and the blues. This was the song that told you so.

2. Shooting Star, from Straight Shooter

Oh God, I know, the story of this one is such a cliched tale of the rise and fall of a rock’n’roll star, but it’s played with such a combination of tenderness and triumph that I always found it irresistible.  Bowie called his version Ziggy Stardust. Bad Company only managed “Johnny”.  But there is a similar epic quality. And listen to the outro. The ringing guitar, Paul Rodgers absolutely going for it.  Wonderful!

1. Can’t Get Enough, from Bad Company 

It couldn’t really be anything else could it? The opening track on the great debut album. The riff, the rhythm, the song. One of the rock anthems. No matter how much you might have a laugh about it, when it’s been hijacked by the Simpsons and countless others, you always come back to the fact that it is just a brilliant rock’n’roll tune. So imagine what it was like in 1974.  It sounded like the best rock song ever made. The best.

Enough to write to Sounds and say Bad Co were better than Free…

(Even if it was wrong. I was 15.)

OK and here’s a video. Courtesy of Youtube. The band in all their seventies glory: