Forgotten Fretmasters #15 - Paul Kossoff

here on forgotten fretmasters we're getting used to examining those musicians whose lives and careers were cut tragically short today we're going to look at what might be the most cautionary tale in rock history the story of a bright young musician with a legion of loyal fans including many of the most famous of his fellow guitar players at the time a man who gained notoriety in almost every professional circle as a gifted impassioned and intense but troubled guitarist and despite the fact that his fellow bandmate paul rogers knew him as quote a very together soulful intelligent guy he only existed for a quarter of a century before his shocking and unexpected death in 1976 the painfully short influential and dynamic life and career of paul kossoff next on forgotten fretmasters [Music] hey friends and thank you for joining us once again our forgotten fretmasters here on the guitar historian channel our subject today will be another guitarist who is frozen in time and most well known for his tour de force performance on the song all right now by the criminally underrated early 70s blues rock outfit called free despite his heartbreakingly short career paul kossoff would still find time to define the sound of the 70s rock scene as well as becoming noted as one of the best gibson les paul players ever for my money very very few were able to coax a better tone out of the les paul than paul kossoff but before we dig into it remember to please subscribe to the channel if you like rock history content like this and hit that like button below to let youtube know that you think that other rock fans would like to see this now on with the show paul francis kossoff was born on 14 september 1950 in hampstead london to a family well-versed in the arts and life in the limelight his father was noted actor david kossoff and his uncle was long-serving radio dj and presenter alan keith whose given name was kossoff he also had family in politics the cops also were very supportive of young paul's interest in the guitar which had ignited around 1958 when he went to a tommy steele concert and fell in love with the instrument these connections led kossoff to taking up the guitar at the young age of 9 years old interestingly though paul's interest in the guitar would wane in his early teen years and he would actually give it up for a few years this was until he was 15 and saw eric clapton play with john mayo's blues breakers in 1965. sane clapton play incendiary blue's licks with his famous 1960 les paul reignited kossoff's interest in playing when he was 16 paul had already procured a prime job probably through his father's connections at london's most famous music shop selmers as a junior salesman this allowed pola save up to purchase his first guitar which he remembered as a 1960s eco 500 which was one of the many cheap knockoffs track copies paul remembered the acts as quote as an eco or something like with lame gold finish and a billion knobs his job as a salesman would allow him to quickly save up for his first real guitar however and by the next year paul had already bought his first gibson guitar a tv yellow les paul jr with a single p90 pickup paul's father david would allow kosovo to step up pretty quickly however after he purchased paul a 1955 black beauty les paul custom from manny's in new york city despite this extremely charitable gift however paul wasn't really feeling this guitar's darker and more jazzy tone plus he's still pined for the dual humbucker setup that he'd seen on clapton's 1960 burst thus would begin a very confusing and interesting saga on trying to track all of paul kossoff's many guitars cause's job at summers also had him rubbing elbows with some of the most gifted guitarists in the world and in 1966 he met none other than jimi hendrix who visited the shop upon his arrival in london kosovo would actually be one of the first people to be blown away by hendrick's mastery of the electric guitar it is speculated on the great gear website ground guitar that paul may have traded the 55 custom for a late 50 standard that he is pictured with outside of his own in his later teen years however when paul would join his first pro band more on that in a second he was more known to have a very distinctive tiger flame 1960 les paul with a very deep quilt on the maple top so that begs the question that it's possible the guitar he's pictured with could be a borrowed guitar or he would later swap it considering his job at selmers paul had no shortage of axes that he could acquire but it was around this time that paul would join his first professional outfit a heavy blues rock band called black cat bones in 1966 the band would go through many lineup changes in his existence not the least of which would be the band's third drummer a young londoner named simon kirk kossoff and kirk would begin a friendship that would last many years but more on that a little later black cat bones would become a well-known member of the crowded london blues rock circuit often supporting peter green's fleetwood mac but strangely they wouldn't record an album until after kossoff and kirk had left the band in 1968. their most notable contribution to recorded music wasn't from black cat bones but a project is a backing ban for veteran blues pianist champion jack duprey on a 68 album when you feel the feeling he was feeling they would also accompany duprey on a brief tour it was in april of 1968 that paul would finally meet vocalist paul rogers and bassist andy frazier and he and simon kirk would form a new band simply christened free by the legendary father of the british blues alexis corner upon formation none of the band members were older than 18 with frasier actually being 15 at the time of inception rogers hailing from middlesbrough england had gained notoriety as a soulful singer and god bless him his voice hasn't changed one damn bit in 50 years just amazing kosovo had seen roger singing with the blues band at the london club the fickle pickle was thoroughly impressed in the guitar department more changes for kossoff right around the beginning of a time with free he acquired a 1957 les paul custom with three humbuckers but most believe that he still favored his 1960 les paul standard and used it on most of free's early recordings the quartet would begin to record its first album tons of sobs in late 1969 to be followed closely later that year by the self-titled second album free in october these albums are freaking great i have seriously fallen in love with free as i was researching for this documentary but unfortunately they did not move the needle commercially in those early years despite having some truly great tracks like walk in my shadow i'm a mover i'll be creeping and woman among many others before free would record its third album paul would trade his 57 custom to one of his early heroes mr eric clapton who would give paul a 1958 dark burst les paul standard in return for the custom clapton would go on to use the custom at various times between 1968-1970 before he would in turn gift the guitar to albert lee kossoff would also acquire another les paul that he would become famous for this one has an unknown year of birth but was stripped down to the wood and refinished with a clear coat paul would use this guitar on free's appearance on top of the pops and in the isle of wight festival in 1970 burning the guitar into the memories of those who saw it interestingly kosovo started to become disillusioned by free's lack of chart success and began to quietly seek other arrangements trying out for openings and established bands like jethro tull and even the rolling stones none of these panned out however and it wouldn't be until the release of free's third album fire and water that the band would finally see some success with a smash hit all right now giving the band it's only number one hit in the uk the song would also reach number four in the united states the tune catapulted free into rock star status overnight and their shows went from clubs to large theaters in short order the song has remained a staple on classic rock radio right up to this very day unfortunately being the only song that free is remembered for free would record another album in 1970 a hastily recorded a fair called highway at this point pressures within the band were coming to a head and leading to a rift between paul rogers and andy frazier but another major reason for their decline was the exploding drug problem that had plagued paul kossoff since his mid-teen years kosov had begun using hard drugs as early as 15 and his longtime friend simon kirk would say quote he clearly had a disposition one dangerous dependency that cost fought with was to the drug mandrax which is known to be a powerful sedative and hypnotic agent you may also know it under the name quaalude as a result of these pressures free would disband in early 1971 leading the record company to put out the unofficial farewell album free live which was called from the shows in sunderland and croydon in separate 1970 gigs the release would be a surprise hit however with the album reaching number four in the uk album charts after free's untimely death the members went their separate ways with kossoff and kirk staying together to join up with keyboard player rabbit bundrick and japanese bass player tetsu yamauchi the album was well received musically by critics but was met with limited commercial success due to the lack of a strong vocalist like rogers to hold the project together kirk remembers that kosovo initially was very engaged in the recording of the album making many strong songwriting contributions but his drug use caused him to pass out repeatedly between takes and during the mixing process partly because of the remaining band members concerns that kossoff's declining drug problem was destroying him they decided to reform free in 1972 and recorded another strong effort in the album free at last but kosovo couldn't keep himself together through the subsequent tour often showing up to gigs unable to play or not showing up at all this came to a head when the last of costa's famous les pauls a burst he'd acquired some time in the early 70s was thrown into the air at the end of a free concert splitting the headstock in two this guitar would eventually be fixed and used by kosovo for the rest of his career but andy frazier had had enough and he would quit shortly thereafter unable to work with kossoff's increasing unreliability the remaining members of free would then recruit robin and tetsu from paul and simon's earlier collaboration to recording one final free album in 1972 called heartbreaker after further episodes of poor playing pass outs and no-shows paul kossoff would be replaced by ghanaian english guitarist wendell richardson for a u.s tour in 1973 but free would finally disband later that year it was around this time that kosovo's friends began to note that his constant drug use had begun to take its toll on paul's body and his health began to decline precipitously but paul would pull himself together enough to record a solar record called backstreet crawler in 1973. interestingly the cover shows paul holding a fender stratocaster despite being known as one of the most famous gibson les paul players of all time he did use the strat on some of the recordings of backstreet crawler and also used it in the promo video for the song my brother jake this strap would go on to be purchased by dave murray of iron maiden who would use the guitar for many years picasso had so much fun with his backing band that he decided to form a new band around them nicking the album name to form the band backstreet crawler although kossoff's friends and fans hoped that the fresh start would lead paul back onto the straight and narrow the band's fortunes were continuously overshadowed by kossoff's ending battle with drugs the band was finally released now i'm in october of 1975 with the band plays on but when it came time to promote the album with a headlining tour kossoff suffered a drug induced seizure putting him into a coma to make matters worse once he was checked into rehab he suffered a cardiac arrest that nearly killed him but he would be revived some friends say that kossoff was clinically dead for nearly half an hour eventually though the severely shortened tour later that november in 75 did not have the fully desired effect although kossoff continued to decline rapidly in health in a 76 the band would play on recording its second effort and continuing to tour early that year ironically the band members had gelled and the album was coming together well but unfortunately kossoff was unable to contribute much more than solos and lead guitar lines over already completed songs despite kosov's questionable fitness the band would continue to tour early in 1976. the us tour had actually come together well despite the fact that a drunken kossoff had broken two of his fingers in a fight with manager john glover and had to sit out the first part of it in march of 76 backstreet crawler played a show at starwood in los angeles and unbeknownst to kossoff bad company had just finished a show at the forum and decided to drop in on their old free band meet paul rogers and simon kirk jumped on stage to jam with kossoff who was delighted at the impromptu reunion cost was really great really together really on it paul rogers remembered and that was the last time i saw it the band was returning home on that unexpected high flying from l.a to new york to connect eventually to a flight back to the uk but paul would not survive the cross-country trip as the plane prepared for landing the flight crew realized paul was not in his seat when they found him in the plain restroom he was already gone a blood clot in paul's leg which was a result of his earlier cardiac arrest had moved up to his heart killing him instantly with a pulmonary embolism paul kossoff was only 25 years old kossoff's legacy as a guitar player although much more varied than his most well-known performance can actually be summed up quite well just by listening to freeze all right now kos was never one to burn up the fretboard with speed he was a player who reveled in the nuance of the space between the notes with all right now featuring a sparse yet creamy two chord hook the extended solo was more about tone and atmosphere than it is about speed or ferocity and that tone would become the stuff of legend chased for decades by guitarist both famous and amateur his love of the les paul would be another brick in the foundation of the guitar's comeback in the late 60s after gibson had retired the model in 1960 after poor sales unfortunately though paul's legacy as a player goes hand in hand with his prodigious drug problem and sporadic output those closest to cost known to be a frustrating study in the life of a rock star many times over band mates close friends would try to persuade him to clean up for a time at which time the fun-loving talented guitar player would show up for a brief moment only to fall into substance abuse again and again a few days clean would be followed with a few days disappearance and then incoherence yet another tale of a musician gone too soon but when asked what his biggest regret was his friend paul rogers would later say quote that i don't have paul kossoff around when we started free paul and i became fast friends because we had so much in common we love the blues we'd go see peter green's fleetwood mac and just knock around london just dreaming of what might be it's a shame that paul didn't make it through he was so great but i always needed to boost his confidence i think he was a little bit too sensitive for this business the music business can be very harsh when it's great it's great but it can be really tough sometimes and then you have to dig deep inside you with paul he looked for something else to lean on and the thing he leaned on had no future in it i can't really say it any better than that but that's another episode of forgotten fretmasters thank you so much for joining us on this retrospective of the all too brief life and career of paul kossoff remember that there are 13 other episodes in the series and tons of other rock history content just like this on the guitar historian channel so please subscribe and hit the bell icon to get notified whenever we post new content thank you again for watching and as always we will see you next time

Channel: The Guitar Historian

Views: 123,792

Keywords: Paul Kossoff, Forgotten Fretmasters, Paul Rodgers, Simon Kirke, Bad Company, Free (Band), Gibson Les Paul, David Kossoff, Andy Fraser, The Guitar Historian, All Right Now, Paul Kossoff Biography, Who was Paul Kossoff?

Id: NdDs7X1WUa8

Length: 16min 59sec (1019 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 24 2021