Wondering where my life is leadin'
Rollin' on to the bitter end
Finding out along the way
What it takes to keep love living
You should know how it feels, my friend
Ooh, I want you to stay
Ooh, I want you today
I'm ready for love
Oh baby, I'm ready for love
Ready for love
Oh baby, I'm ready for love
Yea, oooh for your love
Now I'm on my feet again
Better things are bound to happen
All my dues surely must be paid
Many miles and many tears
Times were hard but now they're changing
You should know that I'm not afraid
Ooh, I want you to stay
Ooh, I want you today
I'm ready for love
Oh baby, I'm ready for love
I'm ready for love
Oh baby, I'm ready for love
Oh, for your love
Bad Company were an English rock supergroup that was formed in London in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers, drummer Simon Kirke (both ex-Free), guitarist Mick Ralphs (ex-Mott the Hoople) and bassist Boz Burrell (ex-King Crimson). Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, also managed Bad Company until 1982.
Bad Company enjoyed great success throughout the 1970s. Their first three albums, Bad Company (1974), Straight Shooter (1975), and Run with the Pack (1976), reached the top five in the album charts in both the UK and the US. Many of their singles and songs, such as "Bad Company", "Can't Get Enough" (1974), "Feel Like Makin' Love" (1975), "Shooting Star" (1975), "Burnin' Sky" (1977) and "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" (1979), remain staples of classic rock radio. They have sold 20 million RIAA-certified albums in the US and 40 million worldwide. Though they initially disbanded in 1982, Bad Company reunited on many occasions to record and tour until 2019. In 2023, Kirke revealed that they would not continue as a band following the development of Rodgers' recent health issues.
Yet I forgot to pack my fruit for lunch today.
Instant 9 BTW.
Back in the 80s, I was a house painter in San Francisco. I was working on an upscale home owned by a Persian father who was a senior doctor at UCSF and an Italian mother. One afternoon, I was blessed with the sight of their really smoking hot brunette daughter who'd just graduated high-school. She was in the kitchen, dancing quite seductively to this song, while wearing only a long, loosely buttoned man's white dress shirt. One of the hottest things I've ever seen, in no small part due to this lyric informing her moves. An indelible vision.
I can still smell the dry grass of the summertime coastal foothills of central California as me and my best friend were cruising around in his 1963 MGB, top down, sunglasses on, singing at the top of our lungs to Bad Company playing on his 8-Track. It was the summer just before graduating High School, I was heading off to Annapolis and wanted to go be a Navy Pilot. I recognized that it was the end of a relatively carefree life where all I really had to be responsible for was getting good grades; and I relished the last few free days of my "freedom".
It always amazes me how a single song can evoke such vivid memories...
This is kind of a basic radio-philic rock standard, but that voice and those musicians lift it beyond the average to the exceptional.
Love me some PAul Rodgers......................
A local pub band used to play this when I lived in Rockhampton in the '70s
It was a highlight of their set.
Agree, very nice voice and great melody. I also love the drums on this track.
Yet I forgot to pack my fruit for lunch today.
Instant 9 BTW.
Cuz it's good. And you're probably ready for love.
I saw Free open for Faces way back when, great show. Paul Rodgers has one of the best
voices in rock and roll IMHO.
I assume that is why Bill chose to play this after Hunger Strike because the same could be said about Chris Cornell.
Kinda sad that we let others color our own personal musical experiences like that... but it happens. I was blessed to experience Blodwyn Pig when turned onto them by a musician who I knew couldn't possibly be wrong (and he wasn't—he still performs to this day). But I find, so often, that my appreciation for some music has been colored by the experience under which I first heard it. Bad Company? Well, for the most part I experienced it in solitaire, sipping the head off of a fresh-poured Dr. Pepper, high on some pretty good Mexican commercial. Still sounds pretty decent to me and I don't care about the assholes who liked it... or didn't.
PS—For VH—Panama? Foreigner—Dirty White Boy? Jeez, I was one of those assholes wasn't I?
Excellent post, run4more. You're right: I've let my memories of idiots in high school taint this group for me. Not sure I would have liked Bad Company even if I'd heard them in a vacuum—the guy's voice doesn't do it for me and the music isn't terribly interesting. This song labors along and got way overplayed. Dey it is. And hey, a lot of those guys weren't so bad when I saw them at my 10th HS reunion. We all change and should give mulligans to people from our past.
Sounds like you had a better means of experiencing music then I did back then.
For VH—yeah, "Panama" definitely. I wasn't sold on VH back in the day but they were loud, David Lee could sing, Eddie could seriously play and they had a tongue-in-check slant that still appeals (the video for "Hot For Teacher" is still funny). "Poundcake" in the Sammy Hagar era was fun too.
Foreigner—I put them in the same basket as Bad Company but the singer was better. Love "Headknocker" which has never gotten much play AFAIK.