Bad Company- Desolation Angels @45- Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke

It’s the forty-fifth anniversary of Bad Company’s Desolation Angels, released in early March 1979. Five years after their 1974 debut album made them a “super group”, there was real concern that Bad Company had augered in with a collective faceplant, due to a dearth of strong material plus sheer exhaustion from a non-stop cycle of recording and touring. After three consecutive million-sellers in as many years, the British foursome consisting  of ex-Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, King Crimson bass player Boz Burrell, and Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, half of blues-rockers Free, all were as Rodgers told me,”burnt” by the time they recorded 1977’s spotty Burnin’ Sky album, no pun intended. After a much needed two year hiatus, Bad Company re-emerged with their strongest batch of songs since that impressive debut, including the electrifying “Rock’n’Roll Fantasy”,”Evil Wind”, and “Crazy Circles” all from Paul Rodgers, chronicling life on tour; Burrell’s simple but intoxicating groove on “Gone, Gone, Gone”; and the mid-tempo rocker “Oh Atlanta” from Mick Ralphs.

My guests In the Studio Rodgers, Ralphs, and Simon Kirke share a humorous, touching tribute to the late Boz Burrell, plus you will hear the original Bad Company’s final recording, “Hammer of Love”. –Redbeard