Story of the song: Wishing Well by Free

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on the turbulent background to a 1970s hit

Marshall plan: Free’s Paul Kossoff performs on stage at the Isle of Wight Festival, 30 August 1970 (Getty)

Free were the heavyweights of the late-Sixties British denim’n’blues scene. By the summer of 1972 Paul Kossoff, one of the finest rock guitarists, was crashing in a one-man pharmaceutical pile-up. When he made it on stage, Kossoff missed his cues or fell into the drum kit. He pulled out of a Japanese tour to undergo neuro-electric therapy, and at a Newcastle gig he eventually imploded in a drug-induced epileptic fit.

For the sessions that spawned their valedictory album Heartbreaker, a Kossoff soundalike, “Snuffy” Walden, was brought in, as studio insurance.

“Wishing Well”, the lead track, was cut by an expanded Free, which included Traffic’s congo player, Rebop Kwaku Baah (heard to better effect in the sparser US single mix). Paul Rodgers sings: “Throw down your gun, you might shoot yourself/ Or is that what you’re tryin’ to do?” It’s not clear whether this is about Free’s half-departed guitarist, as the lyrics suggest: Rodgers has denied it. The original video is now on the DVD, Free Forever. Writing credits are given to the full band, but in truth it was Rodgers’s song.