Three months after the release of their first album, Bad Company were at work on Straight Shooter, a record that would come out less than a year after that landmark debut. On it would be two songs, Feel Like Makin’ Love and Shooting Star, that would join Can’t Get Enough and Ready For Love in the classic rock’n’roll canon. And all that Bad Company had time for in between was the road, where they further tightened that classic, deceptively freewheeling sound.
Bad Company weren’t unique in their speed or their greatness either. In 1975, the year of Straight Shooter, Led Zeppelin released Physical Graffiti, their sixth album in as many years (and those six were half-decent, weren’t they?). Black Sabbath offered their first five between 1970 and 1973; Deep Purple released In Rock in 1970, Fireball in ’71, Machine Head in ’72, Who Do We Think We Are in ’73, and Burn and Stormbringer in 1974. Genesis put out Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway between 1970 and ’74. Jethro Tull were gunning out eight albums in eight years, culminating in 1975’s Minstrel In The Gallery. Queen managed Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack and A Night At The Opera between March 1974 and the end of the following year.
