I do like Francis, but he has in my view, over the last 20 or so years especially I think, really tried hard in interviews etc, to distance himself away from anything heavy, hard & dirty themed regards Quo or anything else. That's fair enough I spose, I'm not a metal fan for example & never been into a lot of the screamy shouty singers either, whether that's rock or any other kind of music. I can't stand Opera singers! I do respect their voices however!
But in my view Francis comes over, in a lot of these interviews over the years as very defensive, whether he means to be or not, that's how I view it. I think it's his way of justifying, maybe just to himself, the whole split and change of direction during that late 1980's period. He might say to my face I don't know what I'm talking about and that he just likes all kinds of music and felt trapped in Quo, in a woman in a man's body kind of way maybe.
Where I agree with Francis about Quo, is when he says things like to him Quo was always a mix of rock, blues, country & pop, I do agree with that view, that's arguably even present on the Quo album. It was all within that "Status Quo structure" though. Nobody would have known what that was in 1970, 1972, or maybe even in 1976, but by 1979 it was pretty clear. Quo were an edgy hard hitting blues based rock band with it's roots in rock n roll & dipped into country & pop here & there. It wasn't a pop, country or disco band dipping into the odd rock or blues track.
Francis was as much responsible for that as far as I can tell as anyone else, some of Quo's best heaviest and rocking moments are Francis created. So many people, me included, will state the likes of Don't Waste My Time, Roll Over Lay Down & 4500 Times as their favourite Quo tunes, pretty rocking, pretty heavy, but all with great melody, groove, invention and not a screamy shouty vocal anywhere to be found. If Francis really did feel so strongly he should have probably just walked himself during the early to mid 70's.
I'm not sure anyone of the FF line up would have made it alone, maybe Francis would have ended up somewhere, either on his own or in another band. You can imagine him having a couple of catchy hits during the 70's, then probably would have just disappeared like lot's of others did.
They needed each other to become what Status Quo became, whether one liked a bit more rock, pop or whatever doesn't matter, they all brought something of real value to the table, mixed together it just worked. Like Francis says about himself, he's always trying to be the guy in the middle, as with most things in life, the truth or reality is always somewhere in the middle from left & right. I think they all needed each other to balance themselves, to find that middle ground. When Francis starts to attack let's say Alan & Ricks harder, tougher edges just a bit too much sometimes, that's when he loses me a bit, because in my view they were needed as much as a lot of Francis's melody was needed to become what Status Quo became as a whole in the 1970's.
Now maybe they or Alan was always on at him to do things a certain way and he just couldn't take it anymore, I don't know, but neither Rick & Alan hardly ever sang like Francis describes sometimes, not on record and not live as I remember. He can be quite dismissive about that side of the band or the 1970's version of the band sometimes.
If we take 1970's Quo or let's say Quo 1970-1984 and say, right, that's
Cadbury's Dairy Milk. It's got loads of fans, not liked by everyone, but a great army of loyal followers, which return again & again for more more more.
Now what would happen if Cadbury comes along, takes the Dairy Milk, gets rid of the Milk chocolate, just has the milk, mixes in some peanuts, lemon peel & an onion, then says nothing, wraps it back up in it's well know branded wrapper, keeps the same name and put's it back on the shelf for sale? A few might have a taste and say oh that's nice, but the majority of Dairy Milk fans would spit it out and say What the fecks that.
You can quite easily liken that to what happened with Quo in the late 1980's and, to me, Francis over the years has never really fully seemed to appreciate that point of view, rather becomes defensive and tries to justify, rather than say actually I might have got it wrong. I do think the drug use during the 1980's really would have messed Francis up, as it would anyone & he does always like to push his own narrative. I quite like some of that late 80's stuff, but the Whole Quo vibe, on record at least, was completely different. I remember my dad putting on side A of the Ain't Complaining album and I think when it finished he was genuinely disheartened & honestly questioning whether it was a mistake at the shop or something, knowing my dad at that time, he'd probably played Piledriver and Hello at full volume earlier in the day just to get in the mood too.
Yes the 70's Quo albums were petty much made up of 70-80% rock, blues rock, blues, hard rock & rock n roll, but all had light & shade. There was some country based stuff, some poppy stuff etc. There was invention and there was some truly wonderful melodies. Just some of Francis solo's alone were monster tunes in themselves, I saw one comment somewhere recently which said something along the line of listening to a Francis Rossi lead break in the 70's was like listening to a symphony!
I do like the variety in Quo, but as long as it's sticks within that guitar based Status Quo structure, when it leans too much one way, then it probably does need rowing back and you can be very inventive & creative within that. Just take the Heavy Traffic album, the Quo album or the Dog Of Two Head album as great examples of this. On Heavy Traffic for example Rhythm Of Life sounds nothing like The Oriental, which sounds nothing like Creepin' Up On You, which sounds nothing like Green, which sounds nothing like Blues And Rhythm etc. You see, creative, new riffs, different tunes but all in that guitar based Status Quo blues based rock n roll structure.
It just comes down to they grew up, had musical differences and split, not the first, not the last, but a shame. I just wish sometimes Francis wouldn't be so dismissive of that side of things as always like a negative, but hey ho. I think they needed each other.
I am happy with Quo at the moment though, think they have real potential as a group to produce some more great music, whether we get any who knows, but would be nice. So over to you Rhino, Richie, Leon and Andy for the ermmmm, balance, shall we say?
