Lyrically speaking, it’s a long, long way from Leonard Cohen to Bad Company, but one of my readers recommended Straight Shooter and it just so happened that I needed a shot of sex-drenched rock ‘n’ roll to cure my soul right fucking now. Though I loved the experience of trying to decode those bits of Leonard’s literary genius, a lot of work was involved and I had to pull an all-nighter to publish the review on time. No such effort is required to understand the songs on Straight Shooter; in fact, I can sum up the meaning of all the songs in a jiffy!
#1: “Get the fuck out of here, you cheating bitch!”
#2 “Let’s fuck!”
#3 “I’m sorry I was a jerk and I promise to make it up to you.”
#4: “Rock ‘n’ Roll stardom is not for the faint of heart.”
#5: “Thanks for the fuck, honey, but I’m not the marrying kind.”
#6: “My balls are about to explode!”
#7: “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
#8: “Let’s do a soft crotch rock version of Bill Withers’ ‘Lean on Me’!”
That is not a knock on Bad Company. They simply weren’t designed to become the T.S. Eliots of rock ‘n’ roll, and neither I nor their fans would have wanted them to go there. Bad Company is classified as a rock, hard rock, or (according to Rolling Stone) “crotch rock” band. Beyond the genre/sub-genre game, the band meets all of the qualifications described in the article “Going Against the Grain: The True Meaning of Rock ‘n’ Roll” provided by an unnamed blogger on Innovative Entertainment.
Rock ‘n’ roll is a form of music that is primal, passionate, and rebellious. It expresses the emotions of angst, anger, and lust in some of the only ways that are accepted by society. The history of this edgy music genre dates back to the 1950s. It was formed by a combination of the blues, gospel music, and country. Throughout the decades, rock ‘n’ roll has evolved and become famous for being the genre that’s continued to push the boundaries of music, and, sometimes, the cultural boundaries of society itself.
Rock ‘n’ roll pushed the cultural boundaries of society because it was primal, passionate and rebellious, and expressing lust was a large part of the rebelliousness. As Sam Kemp noted in Far Out Magazine, “In the 1950s, the dance floor became one of the few places where sexual desire could be expressed freely. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise; ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ was originally a slang term for sex, after all.” Many of the lyrics in the 50s and early 60s rock songs consisted of euphemisms and vocalizations that hinted at sexuality, but as the years passed and the sexual revolution progressed, more explicit depictions of sexual desire became commonplace. Bad Company staked a claim as one of the leaders of that movement with songs like “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and “Ready for Love” on their debut album.
I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to hear from a sex partner is a poetry recital. I want to hear moans, grunts, screams of delight and naughty talk—the sounds you hear when Paul Rodgers gets it up. I would therefore argue that Bad Company’s lyrics are just as effective as Leonard Cohen’s, but in a different way. Context is everything.
The band’s follow-up album continues their exploration of eroticism while expanding their approach to include greater dynamic variation, the frequent use of vocal harmonies and more diverse instrumentation. Recorded a mere three months after the release of their massively successful maiden album, the band sounds tighter and more confident. Though I would have been happy with an album that featured nothing but sex songs, Paul Rodgers chose to veer from that path to create a song for the ages and Simon Kirke adds a touch of sweetness to the mix with his two compositions. With cigarettes by my side in case of a music-induced orgasm, I am ready to rock the fuck out!
“Good Lovin’ Gone Bad” (Ralphs): This is one of approximately one billion songs that have been written about cheating lovers. “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad” falls somewhere in between “Runaround Sue” (where the victim still longs for the bitch) and “Cathy’s Clown” (where to be taken for a fool is considered the ultimate in emasculation).
More to the point, it’s a great opening song that wastes no time confirming Bad Company’s rock ‘n’ roll credentials. The hips start to grind immediately after Simon Kirke’s thumping introduction when Mick Ralphs steps up to the plate to deliver the central riff loaded with blessed distortion. When Boz Burrell joins the party to give the syncopated transition passage a suitably strong bottom, the hips shift to thrust mode and I’m “ready for love!” The core of the song is loaded with power chords in the key of A major, a solid choice by Ralphs that allows Rodgers to sing at the top of his range, where his voice can convey the shock and angst of a guy whose woman has betrayed him.
From: https://altrockchick.com/2025/11/02/bad-company-straight-shooter-classic-music-review/
