Random Record Revisted: 

Fool For the City – Foghat [1975]

   In the 70s there were various levels of bands. There were unquestioned stadium filling superstar bands such as Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. [Notice a LOT of those bands paid their dues in the 60s.] Then there were bands that worked hard and rose to the top of their class: Kiss [I refuse to type it as KISS although it is that way in Ace Frehley’s book], Aerosmith, Queen, the fuckin’ Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd and depending on my mood I might even include the Doobie Brothers and / or ZZ Top. Then there was a third tier of bands who sold a lot of tickets and got played on the radio but just never quite got to the top of the heap or maybe they did for a second and then slid back down. Like Peter Frampton, the J. Geils Band, Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, Robin Trower and … Foghat.

   Despite a track record of 6 gold and 2 platinum selling albums [1974’s Energized is anothere one I like a lot], Foghat is mainly remembered for a handful of songs, two of which we’ll talk about in a second. Their best selling record was the single LP Foghat Live from 1977 [listed as double platinum or 2,000,000 copies sold]. For my money, it ranks as one of the great live albums from the 70s – right alongside Frampton’s, Kiss Alive!, Cheap Trick At Budokan and the J. Geils  Band’s Full House. That single album format means high energy, no bullshit, all killer, no filler. [Kiss Alive! is great despite the presence of 100,000 Years… drum solos, YECH!]

   So today I found myself with Fool For the City on the brain so I popped in Foghat’s platinum selling 1975 classic. The opening and title track still sounds as fresh as it ever did, a song to sit on the radio right beside Aerosmith, Grand Funk and Sweet. The next cut a rockin’ take of the Righteous Brothers [NOT! the Little Walter blues classic] My Babe. Rod “the Bottle” Price absolutely smokes on the slide on this cut! Next up is the other of those songs Foghat will be remembered for, immortalized in the stoner classic Dazed And Confused: Slow Ride. It’s such a good song that Classic Rock Radio will play both the original album version AND the live version! But a word to the wise when finding this on compilation records – a lot of them use the 3:56 single mix instead of the full 8:14 version. Sadly this includes The Best Of Foghat!  Rhino is usually a lot smarter or more careful than that!

   Side 2 kicks off with a cover of Robert Johnson’s Terraplane Blues. Of course this version has a lot more in common with something Johnny Winter might lay down or the Rolling Stones cover of Johnson’s Stop Breaking Down. Save Your Loving [For Me] is a nice shuffle, slowing the pace just a little bit. It really isn’t far off of Aerosmith’s Same Old Song And Dance minus the horns but adding a few well placed harmony vocals from Price and bassist Nick Jameson. It’s back to the boogie with another masterful Dave Peverett road song [ala Road Fever and Home In My Hand] with Drive Me Home. The final song is a keyboard based or song called Take It Or Leave It. It – especially that Fender Rhodes electric piano - reminds me of something that is right there on the tip of my brain but I just can’t come up with. It’s not a bad song but it seems totally out of step with the rest of the album being totally guitar driven. But having been assaulted and sated by six really nice rocking numbers it’s totally okay. It might actually have worked better between Terraplane Blues and Save Your Loving [For Me].

   Fool For the City is good record to fill a niche for some good time blues based rockin’ party tunes when you’re tired of the usual suspects. Knock it back!

 

Random Record Revisited:

Don’t Say No - Billy Squier [1981]

   The corpse of Led Zeppelin was barely in the ground when this slab of Zeppelinesque rock hit the radio.

   I say Zeppelinesque because of the style of Squier’s rocking but sound wise a better comparison would be Queen’s The Game. Queen guitarist Brian May suggested producer Reinhold Mack to Squier when May was unable to produce Squier’s record. Since I recently respun The Game [it’s still a really good record!], I can immediately hear the similarity in the sound. Anyway, The Stroke is listed as the first single but it seems I may have heard Lonely Is the Night first. Or maybe it just made a deeper impression. Probably because Mack made [the late] Bobby Chouinard drums sound like John Bonham’s cannon fire. Especially that thundering kick drum.

   Of course, The Stroke is Squier’s big hit, the song most likely to be heard on the ever-shrinking 80s cannon of Classic Rock radio. It seems be about how [Frank Zappa’s words] “record company pricks” operate ala Heart’s Barracuda but of course the “stroke’ has that nudge-wink double entendre of Fleetwood Mac’s Rattlesnake Shake. [The Peter Green led first edition of Fleetwood Mac] The album opening In the Dark was the second single and had a lot of airplay and a video made for it. Third track My Kinda Lover was also the third single but stalled just outside the Top 40. But the rest of the album holds up just as well as those singles. You Know What I Like rides Chouinard’s galloping thunder along with a nice mix of just enough keyboards to make it 80’s but enough guitars to harken back to The Mothership.Too Daze Gone is a favorite of mine, a tale of the morning after or “forgetting the night before.” It’s just a simple little shuffle but damn it sounds good. Whadda You Want From Me also rides Chouinard’s drums but with a throbbing insistent keyboard and bass part also pushing along. The layers of slide guitar [unclear whether they are Squier or lead guitarist Cary Sharaf but hats off to whoever it is] again keep it in the realm of Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Queen. The there’s the acoustic ballad Nobody Knows. I mean it’s not awful. It harkens back to Queen’s Love Of My Life or Sail Away Sweet Sister but it just doesn’t quite get there. I Need You is one of those album filling songs that will never get played live but it’s not bad. It sounds like something off the Fast Times At Ridgemont High soundtrack. The title track closes the album.

   Don’t Say No fits the period very well. It’s got enough keyboard to be modern ala the Cars but just enough of the old school to please the ears of those brough up on Zeppelin, Aerosmith, et al. It’s almost exactly the type of  contemporary / 8o’s record that Robert Plant would make with Pictures At Eleven. It’s a great picture of the shift in rock at this time before everything splintered into sub genres and before hair metal became the temporary “in” style.

 

I needed a recharge today. So I spent some time at a familiar spot by the water. Water gently lapping shores and watching sunsets over water are so calming to me.

It as a longtime ago but also just the blink of an eye in some ways. It was another gorgeous spring day, maybe a little warmer, a little less breezy than today that I picked up Robin Scott and wound up here – or at least pretty close to where I am [was] sitting today.

Technically I think it has always been Bowman Springs Park btu the local kids called it Feather Beach. I have no idea why. There’s not a whole lot of beach left since they rebuilt the boat ramp and added this landfill to build the park out. We lived a mile or so down the road for a couple of years when we were on that side of Arlington. Now the Zottolas, back from adventures in Andrews, were now living just a couple of blocks off then entrance to the park.

I don’t recall why we were off that day but I put most of my week’s lunch money [sorry Mom, statute of limitations is long in the past] and drove up to Arlington in the Chevrolet Land Whale [the ’79 Caprice Classic that became my ride after the tranny locked up the third time on the Duster] and picked Robin up. My senior prom was coming up and Robin was going to be my date. She had a strapless dress so she needed to even out her tan on her shoulders, so she grabbed her swimsuit and we trucked on over to Feather Beach to catch some rays. I swear she slathered Crisco cooking oil on herself. [Maybe Sherri can back me up, maybe not. I am sure we stopped in since we were there, ya know.]  For an hour or so we sat soaking up rays and bullshitting about the stuff teenagers bullshit about. Just two typical teens hanging out on day. I was hot for her, she was not interested in me that way, yadda yadda. We were kids with a whole life in front of us. Not the kind of day you think would be memorable yet there it sits in my brain all these decades later.

Robin has been gone somewhere around 15 years now. But every time I am here I can’t help but to remember her.