Wishing Well

Hey Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew is laying down Free's "Wishing Well" off the Heartbreaker album, and this track still cuts through the air with that raw blues-rock edge that defined the band. Released as a single in December 1972, it climbed to number seven on the UK charts, marking Free's final Top 10 hit before they disbanded the following year. Paul Rodgers penned the bulk of the lyrics and melody, though the full lineup of Rodgers, Simon Kirke, Paul Kossoff, Tetsu Yamauchi and John "Rabbit" Bundrick received writing credits because the recording captured something special. Kirke recalled in a MusicRadar interview that Rodgers first played it on acoustic guitar, and the initial playback left them thinking it was incredible. They ran through it a few times, kept the second full take of the four they attempted, and never chopped sections together the way modern sessions often do. Kirke described the drum part as a four-to-the-bar hi-hat drive, more intense than the groove on All Right Now, with a quiet harmonic section building into the final surge.

Plenty of listeners have long figured the words were aimed at guitarist Paul Kossoff, who was battling a serious drug habit by then. Lines like "Throw down your gun, you might shoot yourself, or is that what you're trying to do" and the image of feet stuck in the wishing well seemed to point that way. Rodgers told Uncut magazine it was simply a song about an imaginary person, written as a fun tune to play live. Later he added that unconsciously it may have been about people he knew. Kossoff did play on the track, even if the single credits did not list him. Kirke has confirmed the lead guitar is unmistakably Kossoff's tone, that distinctive Les Paul through Marshall sound that cut through everything else. The album sessions for Heartbreaker took place at Island Studios in London after original bassist Andy Fraser had left for good. Session guitarist "Snuffy" Walden was brought in as insurance, and percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah added congas. Kossoff's participation was uneven because of his addiction to Mandrax, and the band eventually reached a point where they told him not to come in on certain days. Still, when he was there the playing carried that soulful, spare quality fans remember. The single became Free's last major chart success, and the album itself reached number nine in the UK.

Free had formed just a few years earlier as a group of teenagers who clicked almost immediately. Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke were already playing together in the R&B outfit Black Cat Bones when they caught Paul Rodgers singing with Brown Sugar at the Fickle Pickle club in London's Finsbury Park. Kossoff was so impressed he asked to jam onstage, and the spark was instant. They brought in Kirke and began looking for a bass player. Alexis Korner, a key figure in the British blues scene, recommended fifteen-year-old Andy Fraser, who had already played with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Fraser showed up to the first gathering at the Nag's Head pub in Battersea on April 19, 1968, and the four of them wrote half a dozen blues-based songs that same afternoon. Korner watched from the side and suggested the name Free, drawing from an earlier group of his called Free At Last. They stuck with it even when Island Records later floated the idea of calling them the Heavy Metal Kids. Rodgers has said they were determined to keep the name that felt like their identity. By the end of that first long session they were already a band, all of them still in their teens. Their debut album Tons of Sobs arrived in 1969, followed by the self-titled Free, then the breakthrough Fire and Water with its massive hit All Right Now. Heartbreaker closed the chapter, and Rodgers and Kirke soon formed Bad Company while Kossoff continued with Back Street Crawler until his death in 1976.

The Zoo Crew keeps spinning deep cuts and classics like this one for the Zoo Freaks who still want that freeform album-rock feel. You can dig further into the band's story on Free's official website, follow them on Facebook, Instagram and X. Fans of Kossoff's playing often gather in the Official Paul Kossoff Fan Club on Facebook to share stories, photos and rare tracks. Catch more of this kind of rock on THE ZOO, where the Zoo Crew keeps the records spinning for the Freaks who still get it.