Burnin' Sky

Recorded in July and August 1976 at Château d'Hérouville in France with engineer Chris Kimsey, it was held back until March 1977 so as not to compete with Run with the Pack. Like Water was a song Rodgers had first recorded with his short-lived group Peace, and it surfaced on the 2000 Free box set Songs of Yesterday. The title track came late in the sessions: Rodgers arrived with chords and a chorus idea, and made up the words as the band recorded it in one take.

The album reached 15 in the US and 17 in the UK, the weakest showing of the first four. The New York Times noted a "subtler, quieter approach" and thought "the results sounded oddly somnolent". The cover resembles the poster for the 1969 film The Wild Bunch, and the first T-shirt of the fictional band in Almost Famous looks much like it. Mel Collins played saxophone and flute, and Tim Hinkley keyboards.