This was the first album that really went mainstream for Foghat, and by 1975, the band had incorporated trad blues, southern rock, radio AM/FM into a mix that was all their own.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Foghat
ALBUM: Fool For The City
LABEL: Bearsville
SERIAL: BR 6959
YEAR: 1975
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England, USA
LINEUP:‘Lonesome’ Dave Peverett – vocals, guitars * Rod Price – guitars * Tony Stevens – bass * Roger Earl – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Fool For The City * 02 My Babe * 03 Slow Ride * 04 Terraplane Blues * 05 Save Your Loving (For Me) * 06 Drive Me Home * 07 Take It Or Leave It
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
By the mid 70’s, British blues and boogie merchants Foghat were much better known in their adopted USA, rather than back home in good old Blighty. Considering this, the band could’ve been called the Def Leppard of the 70’s, the Lepps themselves spending more time abroad selling their musical wares than staying in stodgy England.
And though ‘Fool For The City’ was hardly representing Foghat in their infancy (they had released four albums up to this point), it was the first album that really went mainstream for them. I won’t digress too much into Foghat’s history, most will know that they are sourced from another British blues outfit – Savoy Brown, and it was from those origins that Foghat were referenced to.
By 1975, the band had taken on what was happening around the globe, incorporating trad blues, southern rock, radio AM/FM and a few other sub-genres into a mix that was all their own. ‘Fool For The City’ also happened to be the first Foghat LP I ever owned, so I am more familiar with it than the others, though I have been gradually adding to my haul of their albums over time.
The Songs
There’s not much in quantity on ‘Fool For The City’, just seven tracks that passes by in pretty quick fashion. The title track starts off in captivating fashion, very commercial, radio friendly, and one of their more endearing tracks over the years.
We venture deep into Foghat’s world of blues of slide guitar with ‘My Babe’. The familiar riffs would be taken a step further with the likes of the Pat Travers Band and Molly Hatchet a few years later. Rod ‘The Bottle’ Price is effective on slide guitar throughout the album. ‘Slow Ride’ being one of those.
‘Terraplane Blues’ starts out as one of the Memphis blues kinda songs, with slide guitar and that stock standard blues pattern we’ve come to admire over the years. Foghat return to commercial rock with ‘Save Your Loving (For Me)’, with some pumping bass and more rock oriented guitar. ‘Drive Me Home’ is a bit of fun time boogie, the album capped off by ‘Take It Or Leave It’, which has all the appearances of a 70’s soft rock outfit, rather than the boogie outfit that they are.
In Summary
During this phase, Foghat were pretty prolific in terms of recorded output. Usually one album every year, and they were competing quite well with outfits such as the J Geils Band and Aerosmith who were also fairly regular to the dining room table.
Foghat would follow this up with arguably their best set of albums: ‘Night Shift’, the defining ‘Foghat Live’ plus of course their 1978 classic ‘Stone Blue’. Their 80’s discography is best left for the more adventurous among you, by this time the band had kinda lost their way musically. However, all of their 70’s albums are worthy of a listen really.
Video
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
