Our final #2 of the week, and it’s a long-haired, hard-riffing rock classic…
‘All Right Now’, by Free
#2 for 5 weeks, from 28th June to 1st August 1970, behind ‘In the Summertime’ and ‘The Wonder of You’
Listen to any classic rock radio station, or head to a set by any pub band, and you will hear ‘All Right Now’, sooner rather than later. It is inevitable, immutable. Cliched, certainly. But it’s also undeniable. If you look up ‘rock music’ in the dictionary, it probably says: ‘See: ‘All Right Now’, by Free’.
‘All Right Now’ is one of the first rock songs I can remember being aware of. My dad had a ‘Now That’s What I Call the Very Best Classic Rock Album in the World’ type tape for long car journeys, and this was always one of my favourites. (The song for me is quite literally ‘Dad Rock’.) Paul Rodgers always sounded so cool, the way he went from chuckling at the end of some lines, to belting out the Let’s move before they raise the parking rate… line in a husky growl.
Listening to it now, as an adult, I can appreciate the fact that its a very ‘seventies’ rocker – I said hey, What is this? Maybe she’s in need of a kiss… – but also quite clever in the way it twists expectations in the second verse. It’s the woman who cries foul when the question of love comes up. It’s all right now… and maybe now is enough.
But interpreting the lyrics of a rock classic like this is to miss the point. The power of the song lies in the riff, the oh-woah-woah in the intro, and the near minute-long solo. It catapulted Free to stardom, after two albums that had done very little. Not that it lasted, though, as after two further Top 10 hits they disbanded in 1973. In the US ‘All Right Now’ made #4, and is a bona-fide one-hit wonder.
Like many great songs, this was apparently thrown together in ten minutes after a disappointing gig at Durham University. The band felt they needed a big tune to end their shows on… I’d say they pulled it out the bag with this one. (I used to live in Durham, and must have visited the building in which ‘All Right Now’ was written many times without realising…)
After they split, Paul Rodgers formed Bad Company (whose ‘Can’t Get Enough’ was also on that album of my dad’s), and performed solo, before touring with Queen as their lead singer. And I hope everyone enjoyed our sojourn among the random runners-up. Next week, we’ll resume the usual chart-topping posts but, until then, why not rock out to this classic one more time. All right now, indeed.
(I don’t usually attach live versions to my posts, but this performance is just pure rock and roll…)
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Now you are talking! You know…I should be tired of this song but I never get tired of it. We played this one and it’s a fun song to play.
Free heavily influenced Lynyrd Skynyrd and you can hear it…especially in this song. I always thought Bad Company was Free 2.0. He has one of the best voices of that generation… along with Marriott (my favorite) and Rod Stewart.
Yeah it’s a classic, no doubt. There can’t be a bar band in th world that hasn’t had this in their repertoire at some point…
I agree…it’s a later version of Louie Louie and songs like that…every band should know.
Ah yes, of course! I’ve long since lost count of the times that as a singer/guitarist/bassist in bands or as a DJ I’ve played this one over the years. Very simple, very much of its time, and yet a song that’s never dated – and I don’t think I’ve ever met any music-loving contemporary that doesn’t love it. Yes, Paul has one of the ultimate voices in British music, be it rock, blues or soul.
A true rock classic. Loved it then, and still do. Fire And Water is a superb album too.
All right, now you got a great song! 🙂
It’s a classic in my book. BTW, I’m going to have something brand new by Paul Rodgers in my post tomorrow…
Looking forward to it!
Well you have taught me that the lyric is “parking rates”, who knew?! I always just assumed this song dropped an f-bomb in the middle. To be honest, I think that enhanced the rock and roll attitude.
I did think that as a child, and only confirmed it was ‘parking’ when writing this post…!
Rating: 2.5/5
I’ll be the contrarian: I don’t really care for this song that much. I don’t hate the song – the riff is cool, and the chorus the first few listens is alright, but the actual song itself for me is quite boring. I mean, you compare it to what Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple or even Steppenwolf were doing at this time and it’s not even close. I get why it’s popular and well-liked though. Honestly, not a huge fan of Paul Rodgers in general. His voice is way too soft for hard rock. I’ll admit the song “Bad Company” is pretty freaking awesome.