Foghat Live (Remastered) Foghat

• 1Fool For The City05:31
• 2Home In My Hand04:55
• 3I Just Want To Make Love To You08:31
• 4Road Fever05:24
• 5Honey Hush05:38
• 6Slow Ride08:21
• Total Runtime38:20

Info for Foghat Live (Remastered)

39 years ago, the American record-buying public were first given the opportunity to purchase Foghat’s Live. We realize that may not seem like a big deal to those of you who weren’t alive to experience the glory of Foghat in their prime, but there’s a reason why this particular recording still stands as the most successful album in the band’s back catalog…and that reason is because, quite simply, it kicks ass.

Come on, just look at it: it’s only six tracks long, but it opens with “Fool for the City” and closes with “Slow Ride,” both from the band’s 1975 album, Fool for the City, and in between those bookends you’ve got “Home in My Hand” (from 1974’s Energized), the band’s cover of Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You” (from 1972’s Foghat), “Road Fever” (from 1973’s Rock and Roll), and “Honey Hush” (also from Energized).

“We were headlining arenas and people didn't realize how big the band was until the live album came out,” said Lonesome Dave Peverett, Foghat’s dearly departed original lead singer and guitarist, in a 1995 interview with Goldmine. “That kind of cemented it for the media.”

It also helped cement Foghat’s reputation for Willie Dixon, according to drummer Roger Earl.

“(‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’) was our first big single over here and came off the first album in 1972, when in 1977 we released Foghat Live and (it was) the single off of that album, which was a hit again,” said Earl, in an interview with Classic Rock Here and Now. “By then, Willie was saying, ‘Who are these Foghat guys?’ “We had a three day spell playing in Chicago. On the first night, Willie’s daughter came down to see us. The second night, she actually came back with her brother, Butch, who I believe later became Willie’s road manager. Then on the third night we played there, they brought their dad down. So there we were, standing around with Willie Dixon and – as far as we were concerned – in the presence of greatness. He was a tall man and had this incredible smile and a wonderful way with people. I remember Dave introduced him on stage and said, ‘Without Willie Dixon, there would be no rock and roll.” And that’s pretty close to the truth.”

There’s been plenty of additional Foghat music released over the years, and more than a couple of Foghat live albums, too, although the one that’s arguably the best to emerge is, appropriately enough, the one that was deemed an official sequel: Live II, which came out in 2007. But if you want the classic lineup in their prime, then accept no substitutes: it’s Live all the way.

Lonesome Dave Peverett, vocals, guitar
Rod Price, lead guitar, vocals
Craig MacGregor, bass, backing vocals
Roger Earl, drums

Produced by Nick Jameson

Digitally remastered

Foghat
specialized in a simple, hard-rocking blues-rock, releasing a series of best-selling albums in the mid-'70s. While the group never deviated from their basic boogie, they retained a large audience until 1978, selling out concerts across America and earning several gold or platinum albums. Once punk and disco came along, the band's audience dipped dramatically.

With its straight-ahead, three-chord romps, the band's sound was American in origin, yet the members were all natives of England. Guitarist/vocalist 'Lonesome' Dave Peverett, bassist Tony Stevens, and drummer Roger Earl were members of the British blues band Savoy Brown, who all left the group in the early '70s. Upon their departure, they formed Foghat with guitarist Rod Price. Foghat moved to the United States, signing a record contract with Bearsville Records, a new label run by Albert Grossman. Their first album, Foghat, was released in the summer of 1972 and it became an album rock hit; a cover of Willie Dixon's 'I Just Want to Make Love to You' even made it to the lower regions of the singles charts. For their next album, the group didn't change their formula at all -- in fact, they didn't even change the title of the album. Like the first record, the second was called Foghat; it was distinguished by a picture of a rock and a roll on the front cover. Foghat's second album was their first gold record, and it established them as a popular arena rock act. Their next six albums -- Energized (1974), Rock and Roll Outlaws (1974), Fool for the City (1975), Night Shift (1976), Foghat Live (1977), Stone Blue (1978) -- all were best-sellers and all went at least gold. 'Slow Ride,' taken from Fool for the City, was their biggest single, peaking at number 20. Foghat Live was their biggest album, selling over two million copies. After 1975, the band went through a series of bass players; Price left the band in 1981 and was replaced by Erik Cartwright.

In the early '80s, Foghat's commercial fortunes declined rapidly, with their last album, 1983's Zig-Zag Walk, barely making the album charts. The group broke up shortly afterward with Peverett retiring from the road. The remaining members of the band (Roger Earl, Erik Cartwright and Craig MacGregor) continued playing together as the Kneetremblers and after some line-up changes decided to revert to the Foghat name. The band toured throughout the decade and into the early 1990's. Perhaps growing tired of early retirement, Lonesome Dave formed his own version of Foghat in 1990 and hit the road. After healing their rift, the original Foghat (Peverett,Price, Stevens and Earl) reformed in 1993 and toured for years, releasing Return of the Boogie Men in 1994 and Road Cases in 1998. The original band broke apart for good with Peverett's passing due to cancer on February 7, 2000. After some time spent mourning, the band soldiered on with a new line-up (adding Charlie Huhn on vocals) and after two years of touring released Family Joules in 2002. Foghat toured for the next few years and regularly issued documents of their live act: The Official Bootleg DVD, Volume 1 in 2004 and Foghat Live II in 2007. In 2010, now on their own label, Foghat got back to their Blues roots with Last Train Home: a handful of original tunes amongst covers of many of their favorite blues songs and a couple tracks recorded with their friend Eddie Kirkland. As of 2013, they're still performing and recording. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Tim Sendra, AMG)

This album contains no booklet.