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"Free Ride" is a song written by Dan Hartman and performed by the Edgar Winter Group from their 1972 album They Only Come Out at Night, produced by Rick Derringer. The single was a top 15 U.S. hit in 1973, reaching number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 [2] and number 10 on Cash Box. In Canada, it peaked at number 8. [3]
They Only Come Out at Night is the debut studio album by American rock band The Edgar Winter Group, released in November 1972 by Epic Records. [3] [4] A commercial success, the album reached #3 on the US Billboard 200 chart and features the band's signature songs, "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride".
Edgar Holland Winter [3] (born December 28, 1946) [4] is an American multi-instrumentalist, [5] working as a vocalist along with playing keyboards, saxophone, and percussion. [6] His success peaked in the 1970s with his band the Edgar Winter Group and their popular songs "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride". [7]
The song was actually performed three years previously when Edgar was playing with his older brother Johnny Winter at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970. This rare recording was released in 2004 as one of several live bonus tracks included in the two-disc Legacy Edition CD of Johnny Winter's Second Winter .
The background includes a night sky. The words on the album include "Edgar Winter" written in a futuristic-looking font and the words "Mission Earth", written in a cursive script. Some versions of the album were sold with a gold foil sticker that said, "Words and Music by L. Ron Hubbard".
The album features lead and solo guitar work by Slash on the single "Rebel Road", vocals and harmonica by Clint Black on "The Power of Positive Drinking" and "On the Horns of a Dilemma", and lead and solo guitar by Edgar's brother Johnny Winter on "Rockin' the Blues".
In a review of the album for AllMusic, Thom Jurek commented that "this one blows away the JWA [Johnny Winter And] studio version or Derringer's own hit single take", although he felt it did not measure up to the other songs recorded that night. [4] Winter and Derringer later recorded the song with Winter's brother for Edgar Winter's White Trash ...
The song appeared on Edgar Winter's debut album Entrance in 1970, and in a 17-minute live version on his 1972 double LP Roadwork. In the 1970s, songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman claimed to have been inspired by "Tobacco Road" while writing The Sweet's Block Buster!, after accusations of stealing the guitar riff from David Bowie's "Jean ...