Rough Diamonds is the sixth album by rock band Bad Company released in August 1982.
Rough Diamonds, like its predecessor, Desolation Angels, was recorded at Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey, England in March and April 1981 and engineered by Max Norman (famed for his work with Ozzy Osbourne).
It was the last album by Bad Company's original lineup. The sessions were rough going from the beginning. First, their manager, Peter Grant, withdrew from view after the death of Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham in 1980. That same year, the murder of John Lennon made the band change their way of thinking. Then, on another occasion, a fistfight broke out between Paul Rodgers and Boz Burrell, only to be restrained by Mick Ralphs and Simon Kirke.
The album's opening track, "Electricland", written by Rodgers, was the album's biggest hit. Rodgers' "Painted Face" also received substantial airplay on rock stations.
The album became the original lineup's worst-selling album, reaching a disappointing #26 on the Billboard album charts in 1982.
The album was remastered and re-released in 1994.
Famous quotes containing the words rough and/or diamonds:
“This far outstripped the other;
Yet ever runs she with reverted face,
And looks and listens for the boy behind:
For he, alas! is blind!
O’er rough and smooth with even step he passed,
And knows not whether he be first or last.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“I met a traveler from Arkansas
Who boasted of his state as beautiful
For diamonds and apples.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)