B

Freedom's third album, originally issued in 1970 and reissued on CD in 2000 by Angel Air, is dire period British hard rock in the power trio format. While there's occasional laid-back reflective songwriting amongst the largely original material, its lumpy rhythms and unexceptional melodies make it hard to say much of anything about it, really, except to note that it's easy to envision them as a support act on any number of shows and tours of the era. The numbers emphasizing vocal harmonies are at least inoffensive (if boring), which can't be said of their outings into boogie blues-rock and proto-metal (as on the title track) that really grate. It might have been a cool idea in 1970 to cover the Standells' "Dirty Water," which wasn't a hit in Britain and wasn't yet fashionable as a garage band standard. It is not cool, however, to retitle the song "Frustrated Woman" and take the songwriting credits, as the members do even on the sleeve of the 2000 CD release.

A spin-off of Procol Harum, Freedom was formed by guitarist Ray Royer and drummer Bobby Harrison. Both of them were in Procol Harum's lineup at the outset for their debut "A Whiter Shade of Pale" single, but were ousted almost immediately when Procol singer, Gary Brooker, enlisted his former bandmates from the Paramounts, Robin Trower and Barry Wilson, as replacements. Freedom's early sound, perhaps unsurprisingly, echoed Procol Harum's in its prominent use of organ and piano, as well as heavy rock guitar, and like Procol Harum's early records, captured late British psychedelia as it was starting to inch toward progressive rock.

Freedom wasn't a Procol Harum clone, though, with a somewhat poppier take on psychedelia that was closer to Traffic than Procol Harum. Their initial lineup only released two singles in 1968 before breaking up, also recording a soundtrack for an obscure Italian film by Dino De Laurentis, Attraction/Black on White. The soundtrack LP was given a limited release in Italy -- so limited, in fact, that the group members themselves were unaware that it had come out. Recorded with noted future producers Eddie Kramer and Glyn Johns engineering, this was reissued on CD in 1999, and is actually a pretty good if derivative slice of late-'60s British psychedelia.

In 1968, Harrison decided to reorganize the band completely -- in fact, so totally that he was the only remaining original member. More albums came out in the late '60s and early '70s which, in keeping with overall British rock trends of the period, were in a much heavier, hard, bluesier style. These were middle-of-the-pack, or a little lower than the middle-of-the-pack, efforts with nothing to make them stand out from the crowd in a clogged field. They did get to tour the U.S. as support for Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull, and broke up in 1972 after some personnel changes. Harrison became the lead singer in the little-known Snafu, while guitarist Roger Saunders, from the later incarnation of the band, did some session work, joined Medicine Head, and played in Gary Glitter's group during the '80s.

ALBUMS:
1(A)	FREEDOM	(Probe SPBA 6252)	1970 SC
2(A)	THROUGH THE YEARS (US only)	(Cotillion SD 9048)	1971 R1
3(A)	FREEDOM: THROUGH THE YEARS	(Vertigo 6360 049)	1971 R1
4(A)	FREEDOM IS MORE THAN A WORD	(Vertigo 6360 072)	1972 R2

NB: There's also a CD release, Through The Years (Repertoire REP 4226-WP) 1991 and in 1994 Tenth Planet released Nerosubianco (TP 011), a film Soundtrack previously only released in Italy (Atlantic ATL 08028) in 1969.

45s:
1	Where Will You Be Tonight/TryingTo Get A Glimpse Of You	(Mercury MF 1033)	1968
2	Escape While You Can/Kandy Kay	(Plexium PXM 3)	1969
3	Frustrated Woman/Man Made Laws	(Probe 504)	1970
4	Thanks/Little Miss Louise	(Vertigo 6059 051)	1971

A heavy rock group who had a good live act but whose albums were rather mundane. The best track on Through The Years (the US edition) was Freestone, the opener. The title cut, Get Yourself Together and London City were competent but unexceptional heavy rock tracks, whilst Thanks was mellow and more mainstream. The final track, Toe Grabber, was based on boring guitar riffs. By the time of their final effort for Vertigo in 1972 they'd veered towards country-rock!

Bobby Harrison had previously banged the skins for Procol Harum and went on to perform vocal duties with Snafu. Ray Royer had played guitar in Procol Harum. They formed Freedom when they were given a generous out of court financial settlement to leave Procol Harum because they were considered to be incompatible with the rest of the band's sound.

They also contributed two tracks, Nobody and Frustrated Woman, from their first album to Probe's Handle With Care sampler. The flip side of their Mercury 45 can also be heard on Psychedelia, Vol. 2 (LP) and Hen's Teeth Vol. 1 (CD). This is an excellent slice of pop-psych penned by Ray Royer.

Prior to their first UK album they put out an album called At Last, which was only released in Germany (Metronome MLP 15371) 1970 and in France on (Byg 529325) 1970. This is reputed to contain some good slices of psychedelia. During the Winter of 1967/8 Freedom (Harrison, Royer, Mike Lease (keyb'ds) and Steve Shirley (bs, vcls) were invited to contribute to the Soundtrack of the film 'Nerosubianco' ('The Attraction'), which was masterminded by noted Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis. The resulting album has now been issued in the UK by Tenth Planet and sounding similar to Procol Harum or instrumentally to early Traffic is worth a listen.