Edgar Winter Group Free Ride Album Version Download Free Ride
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edgar winter group free ride album version download Free Ride. One of the true classic rock singles of the early '70s, "Free Ride" has aged extremely gracefully and retains its spirit and unifying message. Heavyily influenced by Sly Stone, the song's melody has a strong funk/gospel cast that propels it. Led by some sterling rhythm guitars and Edgar Winter's own wah-wah keyboard, the drive and momentum here is inescapable. The overall soul of the song's message is equal to a "white" version of "Dance to the Music" and lends itself to a virtual rock & roll revival meeting. An unexpected, synthesizer-driven bridge gives the song an unusual flavor. Set against the funky electric guitar solo (probably by performed by Rick Derringer), it creates an appealing and wonderful dichotomy. An ageless rock classic from a somewhat confusing time, the song remains one of the finest records of its time. Now available on the 2001 Sony/Legacy collection The Best of Edgar Winter with fabulous, remastered sound. Album Of The Week Club: The Edgar Winter Group - They Only Come Out At Night. They Only Come Out At Night sold millions, birthed two hit singles and featured an all-star cast that included Ronnie Montrose, Rick Derringer and Dan Hartman. Does it still stand up? By Classic Rock 05 March 2018. “I don’t believe in musical segregation,” Edgar Winter told Classic Rock . “I blame the record companies; they prefer to put people into boxes: here are the pop people and the folk people and the country. It helps them sell you.” They Only Come Out At Night was Edgar Winter’s third studio album and his first as The Edgar Winter Band – but it was no more straight- forward, or easier to ‘put in a box’ than his previous releases. That said, Winter had put together a crack ensemble, poaching guitarist Ronnie Montrose from Van Morrison’s band, with songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dan Hartman, Rick Derringer producing and the Eagles’ producer Bill Szymczyk as ‘Technical Director’. The result was his most successful album and two hit singles. Listen to They Only Come Out At Night: On Spotify On Apple Music. Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute. Join the group here. Here’s what we learned about They Only Come Out At Night … Background. Edgar Winter was born in Texas in 1946 and, like his older brother Johnny, suffered from albinism. And, just like Johnny, he never let it hold him back. In fact, maybe it helped. “The boys were both musical from the time they were born,” their mother told Johnny’s biographer, Mary Lou Sullivan. “Part of it was because they were legally blind and their acute hearing made up in part for their lack of sight.” They came from a family of musicians, and by the time they were teenagers, both were multi-instrumentalists and outsiders who felt an immediate affinity with rock’n’roll and blues. Edgar played in his older brother’s bands: “Not because he was my brother,” said Johnny, “it was because he could play a lot of different instruments.” When it came to their solo careers, Johnny chose blues and Edgar went a more eclectic route, with a career that’s spanned jazz, blues, pop, soul and progressive rock. By 1972, he’d put together The Edgar Winter Group. Ronnie Montrose. Ronnie Montrose – often referred to as one of the most influential US rock guitarists – didn’t even consider himself a rock player when he left Van Morrison’s band and joined the Edgar Winter Group. “[Edgar] so much wanted to do that whole rock thing that he encouraged me,” Montrose said in Jaan Uhelzski’s award-winning piece for Classic Rock. “I don’t want to call it a struggle. It was a sense of need, that I needed to survive this gauntlet that had been dropped. I was in the Edgar Winter Group, and I had better start delivering this heavy guitar music. Now. Because I hadn’t done before. “My watershed was when we were in Pittsburgh we did this song Tobacco Road. I was playing my rudimentary scale stuff and I heard some guy in the crowd go: ‘Play some fucking vibrato, man.’ And it hit me so deep, I go: ‘You know what? You’re right.’ So then I started realising that this was a voice that needed to be brought out.” Ronnie left in 1973 to form his own band, Montrose. Dan Hartman. Dan Hartman was a child prodigy who had backed Johnny Winter before joining Edgar. Hartman wrote and sung Free Ride and played – wait for it – guitar (electric and acoustic), ukulele, bass, maracas, percussion, sang and wrote or co-wrote six of the tracks on They Only Come Out At Night . “Dan was a true genius and a musical visionary,” said Edgar after Hartman’s death in 1994 (aged just 43, of an AIDS-related illness). “The group would never have been the same without Dan.” Free Ride. Free Ride was Edgar’s first choice as a single, and was released when the album first came out. It didn’t become a hit until the after the success of the much stranger and more complex Frankenstein. The song was written and sung by Dan Hartman. “Dan had already written Free Ride when I met him,” said Edgar. “That is Dan playing the signature guitar chord lick (not Ronnie or Rick), and I’ve never heard anybody play it with exactly the same feel as Dan!” Montrose played two solos simultaneously on the single Free Ride to give it an Eric Clapton feel. On re-release, the single went top 10 in Canada and to 14 in the US. Here’s a great version of Free Ride with Dan on vocals, bass and guitar (look out for the moment around 0.46 when Edgar plays a few bass notes when Dan plays the guitar lick) and Rick Derringer on lead guitar. Frankenstein. Frankenstein started life as a riff Edgar played during his time with Johnny. In fact, he claimed later to have played it at Woodstock. Its become an instrumental freak-out with a place in the classic rock pantheon along with Free Bird and Stairway To Heaven . “I wanted an instrumental that I could use as a showcase,” Edgar said. “I thought of myself as an instrumentalist, not as a singer.” The riff developed into a jam where Edgar played a dual drum solo with Johnny’s drummer, Red Turner. “We played that song all over the world and then completely forgot about it. I didn’t think of it for years.” During the sessions for They Only Come Out At Night , the band warmed up each day by playing ‘The Instrumental’ with the tape rolling. One day Rick Derringer says, ‘Maybe we could edit that instrumental into something that would be usable.’ Edgar thought it sounded like “a good excuse to have a big end of the project bash and get a little more blasted than usual and have a big editing party.” There was tape “lying all over the control room,” he remembered, “draped over the backs of chairs and overflowing the console and the couch. And we were trying to figure out how to put it all back together. “And then, at that point, the drummer, Chuck Ruff, mumbled the immortal words, ‘Wow, man, it’s like Frankenstein.’ As soon as I heard, ‘Frankenstein!,’ the monster was born!” Frankenstein became a US and Canadian no.1 and the record company wanted more: “When Frankenstein was a hit, they went: ‘Great! Now you can do Dracula! And the Wolfman! Then they can all meet and you can have this big monster rock party!’ I’m like, no, no! That’s not going to happen…” (Source) What they said: “Like Mark Farner and Alice Cooper, Edgar Winter understands that rock & roll is vaudeville; the goal is to keep the customers satisfied. What he lacks in charisma, Edgar makes up for in talent. In concert he has traveled the low hard road of loud, high energy rock, and his band stands alongside J. Geils as the prime American entertainers for what’s left of the hard rock mob. His forté has been the instrumental solo, the shrieking vocal, and the endless deafening riff. “If he lacks the undefineable greatness of Jagger or Mitch Ryder, Edgar certainly knows how to entertain better than Mountain or Humble Pie. If rock & roll is still part of your blood and not part of your past, I can assure you this record will bring you hours of joy.” (Danny Goldberg, Rolling Stone) What you said: Chara Tsaousi : “Special. Controversial. Visionary. \m/“ David Ervin : “This is a fantastic album that I have had on vinyl since it came out. It is very diverse musically and the songs are all so tight. Autumn is a bit of a sleeper on the record, a very good ballad that really adds to the various styles and genres of songs on it. The two hit songs as usual are not the two best songs on the album. I love it!” Hai Kixmiller : “This was a great listen. The songs are like a cruise through some big city, in the warm evenings of early summer. There’s something different happening on every corner of every block of your neighborhood.