On Straight Shooter, Bad Company retains all of the spontaneous combustion of their extraordinarily popular debut album (both were recorded "live" by mobile units), while also managing to refine their musical energy, giving it a sharper direction and coming up with fistfuls of apparently innocuous but totally effective hard rock surprises.

The album leaps to life with Mick Ralph's logical follow-up to his "Can't Get Enough" hit, "Good Lovin' Gone Bad." The sparse, powerhouse sound of the band is still intact but has been developed into a crazy quilt of intertwining sounds. Ralph's lethal guitar is more constructive and controlled than in the past, neatly unifying lead runs with rhythm work. Bassist Boz Burrell has expanded his bass realm and, naturally drummer Simon Kirke has followed suit. Paul Rodgers, true to form, plugs up any unfilled gaps with such ad-libs as "Wot a sayuh," "Ooowah" and the perennial favorite "uhhHUH."

Dismissed by some as the offshoot of the "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am" style of Free, Bad Company lets it be known that they have a brand of music uniquely their own in the three compositions penned by Rodgers and Ralphs. "Deal with the Preacher," "Feel Like Makin' Love" and "Wild Fire Woman" experiment with dynamics in a manner totally alien to the first album. Forsaking the constant thunder-thudding drone motif of '74 in favor of a more textured approach, the group uses subdued acoustic guitar and tight vocal harmonies during most of the verses, saving the harsh electrical shocks for the head-slamming choruses. It's a relatively simple "calm before the storm" setup, but Bad Company milks it for all its effectiveness.

The piece de resistance of the album (and the highpoint of Paul's writing career), is the off-the-cuff rock narrative, "Shooting Star." Abandoning his "oowah bayuhbe I luvah yuh" approach to poetry, Rodgers nearly assumes the role of the Harry Chapin of crotch rock as he casually recounts the chilling tale of a young rock star...from beginning to end.

Johnny died last night,

died in his bed.

Bottle of whiskey, sleeping tablets

by his bed.

Johnny's life passed him by like a warm

summer's day.

If you listen to the wind, you can still

hear him play.

The calculated effect of the song is made stronger by its low-keyed approach to melodrama. Guitars drone, bass and drums rumble and Rodgers ends the uptempo dirge with a series of wailing "woo-wah"s and various nasal chants.

It would seem that the gutsy rock band everyone thought of as Free's bastard son has come into its own, and powerfully at that. Straight Shooter is a fine example of contemporary rock & roll but, more than that, it is an exciting second step forward by a fledgling band that looks like it may be around for a long time to come. In spite of its visual allusions to the world of gambling (flying dice and crap tables abound on the cover), Straight Shooter is a sure thing for the rock addict: a winning band in anyone's book.

- Ed Naha, Rolling Stone, 6-5-75.

Bonus Reviews!

Second effort from British quartet whose debut went to number one contains the same basic elements as the first set: well-refined hard rock with a few softer cuts mixed in. LP on the whole is an improvement over the first, however, with styles more varied, including some skillful use of backup vocals and some fine acoustic/electric mixes. Constant interchange between Paul Rodgers' highly distinctive voice (many refer to him as the "singer's singer") and Mick Ralphs' guitars keeps up the identifiable sound of the band. Rodgers and Ralphs are rapidly developing into one of the best hard rock writing teams since the early Jagger/Richards days, and the band can perhaps best be described as mature heavy metal, with the songs featuring a smoothness that does not interfere with the four's basic assault tactics. LP should establish them totally as a band in their own right, with the Free/Mott The Hoople "supergroup" comments less likely to surface. One of the few groups able to appeal to AM and FM listeners. Best cuts: "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" (this will be the single), "Feel Like Makin' Love" (not the one you're thinking of), "Shooting Star," "Deal With The Preacher," "Wild Fire Woman."

- Billboard, 1975.

This rocks even more consistently than Bad Co., but to argue that it epitomizes hard rock as a style is not only to overlook its deliberate speed but to believe in one's (usually male) heart that Paul Rodgers is the ideal rock singer. You hear that a lot; what it seems to mean is that he doesn't shriek when he gets to the loud parts. Rodgers's power is no more interesting than Tom Jones's, and Jones is twice as subtle. If hard rock doesn't have more to offer, it's not worth arguing about. B-

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.

Their hot streak continues on this fine follow-up, with "Feel Like Makin' Love." * * *

- Dan Hailman, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

Both Straight Shooter and Run with the Pack have strong songs to recommend them -- if nothing else, Bad Company knew how to build an entire song instead of just jamming on a riff. Straight Shooter's "Feel Like Makin' Love" rose to #10 on the Billboard charts, making it the group's biggest hit after "Can't Get Enough," which hit #5. * * 1/2

- Gil Asakawa, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996.

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