Foghat

Live & Loud: Across The U.S.A.

Foghat Records

Foghat are an English rock band formed in London in 1971. The band initially featured three musicians who had all left Kim Simmonds’ Savoy Brown in December of 1970. Their self-titled 1972 debut album, produced by Dave Edmunds, featured a cover of Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” which received considerable airplay on FM stations. The band are known for the use of the electric slide guitar and their boogie-blues style of simple, hard-rocking blues rock. The band’s second album, also self-titled, went gold and is known as Foghat (Rock and Roll) for its cover photo of a rock and a bread roll. The band went on to record 17 studio albums, including eight gold and one platinum, and one double-platinum live album. The band continues to record and perform.

The current band lineup features founding drummer Roger Earl; lead and slide guitarist Bryan Bassett; guitarist and vocalist Scott Holt; bassist-vocalist Rodney O’Quinn; and percussionist and backing vocalist Eddie LeFebvre. Their grand return to the U.K. after 52 years brings audiences their blend of blues, boogie, and straight-ahead rock that has become the band’s trademark, thanks to classic hits “Fool for the City,” their best-known song “Slow Ride,” and many others. A second album, Shaken & Stirred by Earl & the Agitators, a.k.a. Foghat, is also included.

Foghat opens with “My Babe,” written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Little Walter in 1955, as Scott Holt sings, “I’m talkin’ ‘bout my baby, not your baby, say my babe, she’s so fine. I’m talkin ‘bout my baby, not your babe, she’s so fine, I love to love my baby, love to love her all the time. Well I love her, don’t you love her, say I love her, do you hear? I love her, don’t you love her, say I love her, do you hear? Upsets my soul, she whispers sweet words in my ear. I love the way she walks, I love the way she talks, she makes me feel so good, just like a young man should, she never make me cry, that’s why, she’s my babe, she’s my babe. Nothin could be better than to see her in a sweater, and a real tight skirt, that don’t fit, nothin’ could be better than to see her in a sweater, and a tight skirt, that don’t fit, she wants to have fun, people let me tell you that’s it! I love the way she walks, I love the way she talks. She makes me feel so good. Just like a young man should.”

On “Drivin’ On,” written by Bassett, Earl, Holt, O’Quinn, and Simmonds, and sung by Holt, he chimes, “It’s 2 a.m. long way to go. It’s dark all over, moon startin’ to glow. Got to stay awake no matter what I do, wanna see my girl when the night is through. I’m drivin’ on, and I got to be strong, and it won’t be too long, and I’m drivin’ on. She’ll be waitin’ for me to pull in, I’ll be so happy to let lovin’ begin. I’ve been away, couldn’t get home, now I’m ready, been gone too long.”

“Road Fever,” written by Lonesome Dave Peverett and Rod Price, is sung by Holt as he chants, “I’m back on the road and I ain’t gonna stop, goin’ to roll ‘til I’m old, gonna rock ‘til I drop. Out of the smog, headin’ into the sun, I’m goin’ to New Orleans, Bourbon Street here I come. Got the heat up high, and the radio’s on, diggin’ rock and roll music while we’re ridin’ along. Maybe Atlanta, may be Birmingham, I know where I’m going, God knows where I am!”

On “She’s a Little Bit of Everything,” again written by Bassett, Earl, Holt, O’Quinn, and Simmonds, and again sung by Holt, he wails, “Smart on the inside, a beauty to see. Tells it like it is, she keeps a mystery. She’s got it all, she dragging me in, she’s a little bit of everything. Sweet as an angel, little devil too, hard as a brick, soft as the dew. She ain’t too fat, she ain’t too thin, she’s a little bit of everything. Pearls and diamonds, old blue jeans. She’s got blue eyes that turn to green. She’s got it all, she’s dragging me in. She’s a little bit of everything.”

“Let Me Love You Baby” was written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Buddy Guy in 1961, as Holt howls, “I said, ooh wee baby, I declare, you sure look fine. I said, ooh wee baby, I declare, you sure look fine. Well a girl like you would love to make me change my mind. I said, baby, when you walk, you know, you shake like a willow tree, well a girl like you would love to make a fool of me. Let me love you baby…Let me love you darlin’ ‘til your good love drives me crazy.”

On “Black Days and Blue Nights,” written by Bassett, Earl, Holt, and O’Quinn, Foghat pays tribute to the late Rod Price, as they declare, “Black days and blue nights, color in your blues. Feeling Strange ‘til you cry and scream. It’s somebody else’s dues. It never came easy, Oh, you are nobody’s fool, I say you never saw it coming. That you are a precious jewel. Black days and blue nights, that never end in song. Last call fades and the last note dies, turn around and you’re gone. From the depths of your misery, somewhere deep down in your soul. Somehow in spite of yourself, came rock and roll.”

Other highlights include Lonesome Dave Peverett’s “Home in My Hand”; George Jackson’s “Slipped, Tripped and Fell in Love”; Hudson Whittaker, a.k.a. Tampa Red’s, “It Hurts Me Too”; Peverett, Price, and Earl’s “Hole to Hide In”; the Willie Dixon co-write “Somebody’s Been Sleeping in My Bed”; Peverett’s “Third Time Lucky”; Robert Johnson’s “Sweet Home Chicago”; and the aforementioned Willie Dixon classic “I Just Want to Make Love to You.”

Shaken & Stirred by Earl & the Agitators, a.k.a. Foghat, features seventeen more songs. Highlights include “Upside of Lonely,” co-written with Tom Hambridge, Gary Nicholson, and Jimmy Thackery; Robert Higginbotham, a.k.a. Tommy Tucker’s, “Hi-Heel Sneakers”; the Jagger/Richards “Wild Horses”; the Eddie Floyd/Steve Cropper song “Knock on Wood,” performed live; and Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn Theme,” also performed live. The live tracks include Steve Bullard on guitar and percussionist Mark Petrocelli.

What makes Foghat special is that they’ve never forgotten who they are. They are a blues-based rock and roll band first and foremost, and that authenticity still pours out of every note they play. When they play it feels like the way concerts used to feel. No overproduction. Just great rock ’n’ roll.

Richard Ludmerer

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