Freedom's Prisoner

Background

After Harley's 1978 debut solo album Hobo with a Grin was met with commercial failure, Harley returned to the UK in late 1978, after having spent almost a year living in Los Angeles. He soon started writing and recording his second solo album The Candidate, which was released in September 1979. During that same month, "Freedom's Prisoner" was released as the album's lead single. The song peaked at #58 on the UK Singles Chart and remained within the Top 75 for three weeks, having originally debuted at #70 in late October 1979. However, as the single was met with limited success, while The Candidate album was considered a commercial failure, EMI Records soon dropped Harley, leaving him without a record deal.

In a 1979 issue of the Daily Mirror newspaper, an article titled "Bad Boy Back on Song" was published about Harley. Within the interview with Pauline McLeod, Harley spoke of his predictions for the upcoming single, stating: "I reckon the single is a Top Ten record".

The song features backing vocals from Reigate-based choir The English Chorale. Harley had asked Horowitz to find a choir for the plainsong parts, and in turn Horowitz booked the choir. On the song, they were directed by Robert Howes. The song was recorded and mastered at Abbey Road Studios, and mixed at Morgan Studios.

Release

The single was released by EMI Records on 7" vinyl in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. The single's B-Side "One More Time" was written by Harley and produced by both Harley and Horowitz. It also appeared on The Candidate album. The UK and Netherlands releases came with a colour picture sleeve, which featured a close up photograph of Harley. In the UK, an identical promotional 7" vinyl was also released.

Following its original release as a single and on The Candidate, the song has appeared on various Steve Harley compilations, including the CD version of the 1987 compilation Greatest Hits, the 1992 EMI compilation Make Me Smile: The Best of Steve Harley, the 1999 UK EMI Gold release The Cream of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and the 2006 EMI compilation The Cockney Rebel – A Steve Harley Anthology. The song was also included on the various artists compilation 6x6 - The Seventies, which highlighted six artists and compiled an entire disc of songs from each.

Promotion

A music video was filmed to promote the single.

The song has been performed live on numerous occasions. In 1984, it was recorded live at the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel concert at Camden Palace, London, for a special TV broadcast. In 1985, the same concert, including the song, was released on VHS, titled Live from London. When the band returned to touring in 1989, the song was re-introduced to the set-list.

Track listing

1. "Freedom's Prisoner" - 3:51
2. "One More Time" - 4:26

1. "Freedom's Prisoner" - 3:51
2. "One More Time" - 4:26

Critical reception

In the 27 October 1979 issue of Record Mirror magazine, a negative review of Harley's October concert at the Hammersmith Odeon mentioned the song. Author Kelly Pike wrote: "Steve Harley has been away too long. His return sell-out show was a sad, distasteful affair, like expecting smoked salmon and getting a couple of kippers slapped on your plate. No substance, no style and no fun. Good moments were as common as a Van Gogh on a cornflake packet during the near cabaret act. 'Love is a Prima Donna' and possibly 'Here Comes The Sun' were reasonable, while 'Freedom's Prisoner' scored points for being the only song where any conceivable enthusiasm was shown."

Dave Thompson of AllMusic spoke of the song in a retrospective review of The Candidate album, commenting: "When Steve Harley's "Freedom's Prisoner" single hit the airwaves in fall 1979, it would have taken a lot to convince the longtime fan that the man hadn't resparked all his old glories again, and was about to embark upon a musical journey as scintillating, and as fascinating, as that which launched him in the first place. A tidal wave of intriguing lyrics, a captivating chorus and a dynamic that was pure Psychomodo, it was Harley's finest 45 in half a decade. It was also a total fluke, as the accompanying album flopped onto the streets and proved itself to be little more than a clutch of substandard songs, glued together by alluring production alone."

In an AllMusic review of the 2008 EMI Gold compilation The Best of Steve Harley, Thompson also wrote: "This 16-song compilation brings together an almost uniformly excellent roundup of Steve Harley's 1970s output, opening (in chronological terms) with "Sebastian" and wrapping up with "Freedom's Prisoner," an unexpectedly joyful excerpt from his 1979 schedule."

In another retrospective AllMusic review of the 1983 Capitol compilation The Collection, Thompson spoke of the song in relation to being placed near the beginning of the compilation: "The remainder of the set is a fairly predictable run through the hits and highlights of Harley and Cockney Rebel's golden years - oddly it omits both "Sebastian" and 1979's "Freedom's Prisoner" from that role call, suggesting that it was compiled with an eye more for chart positions than immortality."

Personnel