There's a saying that holds some weight: if you're good enough, you're old enough. While it's certainly true that most rock stars achieve their breakthrough in the relatively inexperienced years of their early to mid-20s, not so many manage it while still a teenager. After a brief tenure with John Mayall at just 15, Andy Fraser joined what would become the iconic rock band Free.
Fraser was the youngest member of a group in which no-one had reached 20, and although the band's albums initially sold modestly, they exploded into worldwide fame with the success of , driven by the Fraser co-written dad-rock staple . In many ways that song is a microcosm of why Fraser, who died in 2015 aged 62, was such a wonderful bassist: that tight, punchy groove in the chorus, the funky line at the low-end in the guitar solo that acts as a call to the answering melodic figure played higher up the neck – and, most shocking of all, the total absence of any in the verse! And yet Fraser could certainly busy it up when he wanted to, as evidenced by his vamping line during the instrumental section of “People have long talked to me about the impact that solo had on them,” said Fraser. “But I really never gave it a lot of thought.
Truthfully, I don't even think about the bass. I work on the overall sound, and when a song needs bass, I get it out and play what's natural. With keyboards, you can hear all the luxurious harmonies, but with single bass notes, you've got to be very creative in your ph.