Fool For The City (Remastered) Foghat

• 1Fool for the City04:31
• 2My Babe04:36
• 3Slow Ride08:14
• 4Terraplane Blues05:45
• 5Save Your Loving (For Me)03:32
• 6Drive Me Home03:56
• 7Take It or Leave It04:55
• Total Runtime35:29

Info for Fool For The City (Remastered)

Foghat released an album which has become so ubiquitous on classic rock stations in the U.S. over the years that it's easy to forget that the band actually originated in the U.K. Then again, it's just as possible that you never knew that they started out as an offshoot of Savoy Brown, but if that's the case, then we've just taught you something new, so…you're welcome!

When Lonesome Dave Peverett, Rod “The Bottle” Price, Roger Earl, and Nick Jameson - known collectively as Foghat - released their fifth album in four years, it was a flip of the coin as to how successful it was likely to be for the band. Granted, they'd finally cracked the top 40 of Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart with Energized, their first album of 1974, and they did the same when they released their next album, Rock and Roll Outlaws, a few months before the year came to a conclusion, but the latter effort actually charted six places lower. Would the next record continue the downward trend? Or would they be able to turn things around and bring the fans back into the Foghat fold?

„After building a solid core audience through relentless touring and a string of hard-rocking albums, Foghat finally hit the big time in 1975 with Fool for the City. It still stands out as the best album in the group's catalog because it matched their road-tested abilities as hard rockers to a consistent set of tunes that were both well-crafted and ambitious. The tone for the album is set by its title track: This hard-rocking gem not only pairs riff-driven verses with an effective shout-along chorus, but also throws in a few surprising moments where the guitars are taken out of the mix completely and Nick Jameson's bass is allowed to take the lead in a funky breakdown. Fool for the City also produced an enduring rock radio favorite in 'Slow Ride,' a stomping rock tune that transcends the inherent clichés of its 'love is like a car ride' lyrics with a furious performance from the band and a clever arrangement that works in well-timed automotive sound effects during the verses and plays up the band's ability to work an R&B-styled groove into their hard-rocking sound (again, note the thumping bassline from Jameson). Further radio play was earned with 'Take It or Leave It,' an acoustic-based ballad that worked synthesizers into its subtle yet carefully layered arrangement to become one of the group's finest slow numbers. The album's other songs don't stand like the aforementioned selections, but they all flow together nicely thanks to a consistently inspired performance from the band and clever little arrangement frills that keep the group's boogie-oriented rock fresh (example: the witty spoken word bit at the end of 'Drive Me Home'). All in all, Fool for the City is both Foghat's finest achievement in the studio and one of the high points of 1970s hard rock.“ (Donald A. Guarisco, AMG)

Dave Peverett, guitar, lead vocals
Rod Price, guitars, slide guitar, vocals
Nick Jameson, bass, keyboards, guitar, vocals
Roger Earl, drums

Recorded 1974 at Suntreader Studios, Sharon, Vermont
Engineered by Nick Jameson
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.