I don’t get it, it doesn’t make sense. So I have to pose the question- is Paul Rodgers an alien?
Now, the Paul Rodgers I’m about to spout off about, is that Paul Rodgers, the guy who at the tender age of 18 formed the legendary band, Free. That was nineteen sixty fucking eight. Five years later they had sold 20 million records. Rodgers took a year off and then formed another supergroup, Bad Company, and from 1974-1982 they sold in the neighborhood of 30 million records. During the remainder of the eighties Rodgers had a solo career and a short run with another group “The Firm” with Jimmy Page. Whew.
A few years ago Paul Rodgers fronted Queen on their fabulously successful world tour and multi-million selling live album. I was lucky enough to see one of those shows. One man could have filled in for Freddie Mercury and that man was his good friend Paul Rodgers. It was, without question, one of the best and most professional concerts I have ever seen. Everyone hit every note, every mark and cue, all night long..
Paul Rodgers is, as his tag line says, the soul of rock and roll. He is arguably the most successful vocalist of the rock era.
But all of that, the Free thing, and Bad Company thing, and Queen stuff, the sixty million album sales, are not why I am writing this
See, on that HD cable channel that shows rock concerts, Palladium, I just watched a recent Bad Company reunion show. And yeah, the band looked all of their sixty-plus age, paunchy, balding, breathing hard and sweaty.
But then there was this alien who fronted them, this Paul Rodgers cat. When I saw him with Queen, he played most of the night in muscle tees and looked the part, fit, muscular and trim. The same could be said of the concert I just saw, aside from the muscle tees. Rodgers was in fine voice, gritty and strong, hitting every note with ease.
I don’t get it- the dude is 61, man. And he sings, if anything, better than he did at twenty. Now I did note some minor arrangement changes, but they were probably by choice, not the compromises of an old man not being able to launch his voice into the necessary stratosphere. I verified that during his performance of “Simple Man” - a moving tour de force for a vocalist the likes of which we may never see again.
Paul Rodgers, a 61 year old alien who has his body and voice rejuvenated in a Borg pod every night. That’s the only way I can explain it.
