Bad Company - Straight Shooter

Bad Company released Straight Shooter in 1975. The album contained eight songs, and the album's two singles "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" and ""Feel Like Makin' Love" have become classic rock classics. "Shooting Star" has gone on to be an FM standard. 

I've always enjoyed Bad Company, and Paul Rodgers is often cited as the penultimate rock singer. It's interesting that renowned critic Robert Christgau who had written for The Village Voice when reviewing Straight Shooter stated that Paul Rodgers wasn't suited for hard rock as he didn't have a strong voice.*

I'm not embarrassed but it's sort of telling that the era I started listening to the band was their late '80s and early '90s stuff featuring Brian Howe that gave Bad Company their gold and platinum second act. I know that time has been a little less than kind to this era of Bad Company at the time they were holding their own with the new kids and kicking ass.

Heck, when Bad Company finally received their long, long overdue nod to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025 it was only the original classic line up. I get that band relationships are complicated, and Brian's tenure ushered in a very different sounding Bad Company, but a lot of band's evolve and change overtime and interpersonal dynamics and tensions are always present. To simply not acknowledge a whole chapter as a mistake and pretend it was all a dream and we pan to Paul who's in the shower wondering what happened.**

While Straight Shooter isn't my first Bad Company record (that honour went to Here Comes Trouble from 1992) it is my first album featuring the classic line up of Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, Boz Burrell and Simon Kirke.

The cover was designed by Hipgnosis, a London design group, who did covers for bands like Pink Floyd, Wishbone Ash, Styx and Led Zeppelin (it's a long list). Their catalogue of covers is pretty awesome. For Straight Shooter I was curious about the numbering on the dice. I'm a complete Luddite when it comes to Craps and table games, so I figured there must be a meaning behind the numbers. On the cover the dice read 11. Rolling an 11, or at least that's what we see as the dice are in flight. Apparently 11 is a winning bet. Sometimes also referred to as "Yo" as dealers don't say eleven. The mystery of 3917 on the six die is still just that. It must mean something ... it can't simply mean 20. Google sent me down a rat hole ... I do not think the folks at Hipgnosis or the guys in the band thought it was related to nuclear physics and a stable configuration of protons or neutrons in an atomic nucleus. Who knows. I just sort of gave up when the inner sleeve show two fives on the dice.

That's enough of that.

Side one felt like an old friend, with three of the four songs being staples on classic rock radio. The new to me song was "Weep No More" written by drummer Simon Kirke. It's a bit of an odd duck, but a decent song. Of course being sandwiched between songs that have decades of nostalgia makes it kind of hard to stand out.

Side two is really what I was interested in. This was a green field of deep cuts I was keen to hear. The opening track "Deal with a Preacher" written by Paul and Mick is a blues fuelled riff laden rocker. The same goes for the follow up, "Wild Fire Woman" that is another really solid song. It's hard to tell if these could have been singles or simply decent album tracks. Enjoyable? Absolutely.

The album's misstep here is "Anna" the second song on the record to be penned by Simon Kirke. At first I thought this was a cover of  "With a Little Help from My Friends" until Paul started singing, "I gotta a sweet little angel and I love her so ..." The song then settles into a blue infused ballad that incorporates bits and pieces of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procul Harum. Of course these similarities or influences are more in the ear of the beholder than they actually are, unless you hear them too. It's a bit like looking in the side mirror when you're driving and you see, "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" but I sort of doubt it. Look, there's nothing to be gained by taking a dump on a track released in 1975. I doubt they're going to change anything. 

Closing out the record is "Call on Me" written by Paul, and I have to admit this is a slow burn that feels dreamy in places. My goodness the sustain Mick pulls out of his guitar that leads into the first solo break is so good. I really like this one, and frankly I really enjoyed the second side for what it was. What it was, was good. Even "Anna" grew on me once I stopped picking at it.

Straight Shooter is a really good record. While I disagree with Robert Christga's assessment of Paul Rodger's voice, I do agree that this is not hard rock. This is rock and roll that at times leans heavily into blues riffs to propel the songs. It really is two albums: the familiar and the new. Honestly depending on my mood I'll choose which side I play accordingly. 

 

Foot notes:
*a loose paraphrase from a quote that's on the Straight Shooter wiki page
** I never watched Dallas, and frankly Patrick Duffy was never Bobby Ewing to me, he was always the Man from Atlantis