"Bad Co.," Bad Company (1974)

My friend Thomas and I bought this album on the same day in September 1974, at a K-Mart no less.  His dad drove us and waited in the car, because he refused to set foot inside a K-Mart.  I’m not sure how many K-Marts exist today (if any), but they were sort of the Wal-Mart of their time.

I can’t speak for Thomas, but I’ll admit to thinking that I was quite the badass for picking this one up.  Hard rock!  Tough guys!  Long hair!  Heavy drumming!

It sounds like I’m making fun of them, but I always enjoyed the band’s work, and this album (their debut) was probably their best.  Meat and potatoes rock and roll for sure, but in what was becoming a pretty fallow time for A.M. radio, “Can’t Get Enough” certainly jumped out of the speakers.  I’m not sure if they qualified as a supergroup (Paul Rodgers sang for Free, Mick Ralphs was in Mott the Hoople, Boz Burrell came from King Crimson), but they had a good run through the remainder of the 70s.  Scanning their Wikipedia page I see that they in fact stayed around for a lot longer than that, but trust me – there’s no real need to listen to anything they released after 1979.

Christgau: B-.  “Since a strong singer (Paul Rodgers, who's letting the hair on his chest grow out) usually dominates a strong guitarist (Mike Ralphs, who's devoting himself to Paul Kossoff impressions anyway), this is less Mott the Hoople without pretensions (which are missed) than Free poppified (but not enough, hit single or no hit single).”