Mean Business is the second and final studio album by
The Firm, released by
Atlantic Records on 3 February 1986. Repeating the same bluesy formula as on the first album, The Firm (1985), Mean Business did not achieve the same commercial success.
One of the album's tracks, "Live in Peace", was first recorded on
Paul Rodgers' first solo album in 1983, Cut Loose. The versions differ in that
Chris Slade played the drums at half tempo compared to the original version, apart from the ending. Paul Rodgers has recently played a new version on his new compilation album Live in Peace.
The album's title was intended to have a double meaning: that the music business is a hard one, and that the band was serious about its music ("The Firm mean business"). However, perhaps due to the lukewarm-at-best critical and financial success which the band met, Page and Rodgers decided to disband The Firm within months of this album's release.[citation needed]
"Fortune Hunter" was originally co-written by Page and
Chris Squire for the aborted
XYZ project in 1981. Squire was not credited on The Firm's version.
Track listing
1986 vinyl edition & 1986 Compact disc edition Side one