Dave Ling on some of the sleeve notes

Back when the FF was functioning as a united, um..unit..  Quo proved they could do pop/country melodies to a genuinely creatively credible high standard, and furthermore make it work brilliantly as an excellent foil to their gritty uptempo boogie. Claudie, Fine Fine Fine, Break The Rules and Dirty Water are most obvious examples I would choose.

Not just as a foil though, they even combined the country blues melody with the gritty boogie brand to produce the classic Slow Train. The likes of Railroad showed an early feel for this type of thing with its bluesy, country harmonica instrumental and vocal sequences.

Francis didn't need to break what was already fixed. His bandmates were in tune and in board with the pop/country formula in terms of turning them into unique Quo songs.

Its possible to look at ego and the drugs as pointers to all of them losing a winning formula, finally collapsing into the 80's. But in addition to clearer heads, compromise indeed was what was required so that each member of the FF would have stayed happy.

Knowing what we do now (based on what Francis has told us in terms of dissing the very formula and origins of music that made him and his bandmates famous) we also know that he has not only lost understanding of the meaning of compromise, but also because he can't stop flogging a watered down version of what he says he would really like to do (instead of creating the genre properly without insisting on trying to add comedy and parody to it) he can't compromise even with himself and his own true abilities.

After half a century that had some considerable highs, this for me is a crowning sadness and let-down - compounded further by the loss of Rick.

Sept 30, 2017 11:02:22 GMT freewilly said:

Sept 30, 2017 10:45:35 GMT @catlady said:

Back when the FF was functioning as a united, um..unit..  Quo proved they could do pop/country melodies to a genuinely creatively credible high standard, and furthermore make it work brilliantly as an excellent foil to their gritty uptempo boogie. Claudie, Fine Fine Fine, Break The Rules and Dirty Water are most obvious examples I would choose.

Not just as a foil though, they even combined the country blues melody with the gritty boogie brand to produce the classic Slow Train. The likes of Railroad showed an early feel for this type of thing with its bluesy, country harmonica instrumental and vocal sequences.

Francis didn't need to break what was already fixed. His bandmates were in tune and in board with the pop/country formula in terms of turning them into unique Quo songs.

Its possible to look at ego and the drugs as pointers to all of them losing a winning formula, finally collapsing into the 80's. But in addition to clearer heads, compromise indeed was what was required so that each member of the FF would have stayed happy.

Knowing what we do now (based on what Francis has told us in terms of dissing the very formula and origins of music that made him and his bandmates famous) we also know that he has not only lost understanding of the meaning of compromise, but also because he can't stop flogging a watered down version of what he says he would really like to do (instead of creating the genre properly without insisting on trying to add comedy and parody to it) he can't compromise even with himself and his own true abilities.

After half a century that had some considerable highs, this for me is a crowning sadness and let-down - compounded further by the loss of Rick.

Those songs you mentioned...Here's the difference...

Songs like those and even Someone Show Me Home are class songs. They all have one thing in common. They were worked on as a group, as a band.

Do you honestly think they'd be as good if he told Alan to play the standard bass lines in Claudie or told Rick just play normal chords in Dirty Water? 

He even told Alan what bass line to play for MT on the basis it was for his solo album ffs It's incredible when you think about it

Yes, I could have added SSMH

Francis has written much better songs since, but its unsettling that MT stands out so much to him as a prototype song for his ambitions. As a one-off (apparently) spoof song back then with a faux country twang, it wasn't anything that bothered me. But it wasn't to be known then, what a flag-bearer it would be to highlight his preferences and future desired direction for Quo.

It took him to 2010 to properly try to represent the best of his choice of the the old and new of Quo - and personally I highly welcomed and enjoyed that. But time has shown that despite the joy of the reunions, his heart wasn't in that just as much as his heart isn't in following up any of his own personal ambitions shown in 2010. Excepting the intended project with Hannah of course, but the jury is very much out as to whether this is going to be a 'serious creative project' or just more light-hearted spoof parody.

I like his personal preferences, but the way he has followed a watered down path of both Quo's and his own ambitions means that settling for ordinariness as a means of keeping making money, is completely unacceptable. From this fans stand-point.

Not even the rekindled partnership with Bob Young has done enough to elevate things. Their last offerings on QPQ imo were the weakest collaborations they have ever written.