FOGHAT
DISCOGRAPHY by John Molet - April 2003

This great band from the 70's was born back in '71 from people coming out from an other great band of that era, "Savoy Brown". Back then, Lonesome Dave (guitar and vocals), Tony Stevens (bass) and Roger Earl (rrums) didn't really agree with the band leader, Kim Simmond. So, they decided to leave the band and start a brand new band with a slide guitar killer, Rod "the bottle" Price". This is the one that would become Foghat. All the musicians are english and their main influence is the british blues, but their biggest success will be in the USA, and they'll become one of the greatest rock'n roll band from the seventies, very often compared to the great southern rock star bands. Unfortunately, this band is not that well known in France, and this is one of the reason we decided to write about their discography.

FIRST ALBUM - 1972
Everything started back in 1972, with this "First album" which relates quite well the personnality of Lonesome Dave and his buddies. They still play the blues, but they also incorporate some rock'n roll in their playing. This is one of the main reasons they left Savoy Brown and started this new band. Whatever, this album is mainly blues-rock oriented and gets the great blues standard from Willie Dixon, "I Just Want To Make Love To Tou" (which later became one of their prefered songs), and the great "Maybelline" from Chuck Berry, with other songs such as "Highway killing me" or "Fool's hall of fame". For sure, the Foghat's identity and sound was born, even if Lonesome Dave and his buddies didn't realize it yet.

ROCK' N ROLL - 1973
It's been almost a year since the first album was released and Foghat releases a serious great second album. With the name "rock'n roll", no doubt about what our buddies like to play. For the very first note, you can see a real change in the sound, compared to the first album : the guitars have a much more important impact on the music, and the sound seems to be what Foghat really wants. With this new album, some hard rockers fans ( Led Zep, Deep Purple, Status Quo) seem to appreciate it, as do the very first fans of southern rock music which is starting to be played on the radio. Songs such as "Ride, Ride, Ride" , "Feel so bad", "What a shame" or "Road fever" are just great songs and for sure Foghat released a master album.

ENERGIZED - 1974
Foghat was so confident in its music that they quickly went back in the studio to record what will become their first treasure, and which will be certified gold in the USA. A master piece ! A must of hard rock'n roll ! For sure Foghat, which keeps the same spirit, is on its way to became one of the "great rock'n roll bands". "Energized" is also the perfect album to play loud in concert, which is an approach quite different from the other bands back then. Still produced by Tom Dawes, this album contains eight tracks which got so much rock'n roll energy. It's also a confirmation that Rod "the bottle" Price is just a master and his slide guitar has become one of the specific aspects of the music and the band. Still today, while listening to songs such as "Wild Cherry", "Home in my hand", "Fly by night", among others, I can only think Foghat was certainly one of the greatest hard rock'n roll bands. Fantastic !

ROCK N ROLL OUTLAWS - 1974
May be because of the huge success they had with their "Energized" album, but Foghat is releasing this same year, 1974, a second album (when you think some ones need 3 or 4 years to record...). We wonder if Dave and his buddies didn't make this work a bit too fast as the album is a good one for sure, but didn't reach heights as their last one did, especially for the sound which is a bit different. Anyway, what Foghat is offering are good songs, but it seems the sounds could have been better explored, may be because of the new producer, Nick Jameson ? By the way, songs such as "Eight days on the road", "Blue spruce woman" and the great "Chateau Lafitte 59 Boogie" still got the Foghat's spirit. To my point of view, if the guitars had the sound of the "Energized" album, plus the same kind of mix, they sure would have got one more great great album.

FOOL FOR THE CITY - 1975
With this new album, Foghat is gonna get the success they sure deserve. Just before the recording sessions of this album, Tony Stevens, the bass player, left the band, and it will be Nick Jameson himself, the producer who will play the bass lines. The result of the album was so great, it quickly reached the tops of the charts in the USA, and it was certified platinum. They finally get the success they deserve with this second master piece, which contains seven pieces of pure hard-blues rock'n roll with great cuts such as "Fool for the city", "Save your loving", "My babe" or "Slow ride". For sure, this is one of the greatest albums by Foghat of all times.

NIGHT SHIFT - 1976
Since 1974, Foghat spends most of its time on the road, playing about 250 concerets a year, which gives them a real short time to write and record new songs. But they'll use the glory they got with their precedent album to write and record a brand new one. And what an album ! The great "Night shift" is just a real great one. The lineup changed quite a bit as Nick Jameson left and is replaced by Don Hartman for the production, and Craig McGregor is joining the band as the new bass player. This great album will be certified gold and is reaching such a high quality. Lonesome Dave and Rod Price seem to reach the top of their art with the fabulous "Drivin' Wheel" !!

LIVE - 1977
Recorded live in may 1977, this album is released right on time as the band needs some times off to get a new breath (they are so much on the road), and find new inspiration. The fans, from all over the world, seem to be heard after they asked for this album for quite a long time. Once again, this is a pure treasure of hard-blues rock'n roll music. There's only six songs on the album but what songs ! It starts with "Fool for the city" and seems to get a new dimension compared to the studio version. "Home in my hand", "I just want to make love to you" and "Road fever" confirm us we have a real groovy machine on stage. "Honey hush", whose riff is real similar to the classic "Keep on rollin'" got so much energy. With the great "Slow ride" and its great bass solo, the album is reaching heights. Good and great rock'n roll.

BOOGIE MOTEL - 1979
With the release of "Boogie motel", it's a kind of a new Foghat as the blues rock and its heavy tempo, the greasy sound of the guitars seem to be on a stand-by mode, while they recorded kind of pop songs with a desire to reach a wider audience. There are some great moments on this album but we have to admit this is not really the Foghat and its musical spirit from the early years, which happened to many of the great bands of thie era. This was the time when the record labels wanted to change the sound of their bands, hoping to get much more money. That was not such a great idea, of course. As for many bands, it seems every good thing has an end and for sure, Foghat needs some kind of a second breath.

STONE BLUE - 1978
"When I was stone Blue, Rock'n roll sure helped me through" is a sentence from the song "Blue stone" from Lonesome Dave "Rock'n roll" Peverett and surely represents for the fans, the Foghat's spirit and demonstrates what Foghat did for rock'n roll music, which gave them back so much. With this "Blue stone" album, it seems they're back to their roots as the blues is omnipresent. The great versions of "Sweet Home Chicago", "It hurts me too" and "Chevrolet" confirm us we have a great band, with their own arrangement and sound. This is a great album but doesn't seem to be that well received by the public who always ask more and more from their loved bands. That's the laws of the business !

TIGHT SHOES - 1980
The artwork of the album's cover seemed so out of circumstance that we really didn't know what to expect of the music. And when the disc was on the turntables, all the fears we had were justified ! Foghat was just the shadow of the great band they were between '74 and '76. The band produces rock music without soul, which isn't what they usually offered us in the past. Were they out of inspiration ? but they have to make a living and Foghat still follows its road, waiting for much better days !!

GIRLS TO CHAT & BOYS TO BOUNCE - 1981
We don't know what happened to Foghat but, for sure, the way they're following with this new album is really strange as it's not what we usually got from this band. Why don't they play anymore like they used to do in their early years ? That's the question all the fans were asking back then. May be they can't do it anymore. By the way, this new recording certainly won't stay in the fans memories, even if there are some good moments with songs such as "Second childhood" and "Weekend driver". This album is also the kind of a beginning of a new lineup as the great slide guitarist Rod Price left the band, certainly because of all these musical changes he couldn't stand any more. He was replaced by Erik Cartwright. Being a good guitar player, he'll never replace Rod "the bottle" in the heart of the fans. What will be tomorrow like ?

IN THE MOOD FOR SOMETHING RUDE - 1982
You take the same people (well, almost), and we start again the same thing. This is almost what people thought when they first heard this new album. The band seems seeking for a lost fame, so they try and experiment new things. As an example, the first songs of this album are pretty well calibrated to be airplayed in discos or night clubs, a really clean sound, a great amount of effects, melodies often closer to pop songs than to rock'n roll music......Craig McGregor left the band and has been replaced by their friend Nick Jameson. Besides a couple of songs, this album does not have a real big interest, except for the beautiful lady on the cover who for sure worth the look !

ZIG ZAG WALK - 1983
Foghat is once again reaching heights with this new album whose music is half pop, half rockabilly. It seems Lonesome Dave lost what made him one of the greatest, his seisibility, his richness and his passion. Nothing really exciting to say about this album, except it certainly brings the band to a stand-by situation, sometimes wanted by the fans who still want to believe in the real Foghat.

RETURN OF THE BOOGIE MEN - 1994
Foghat needed almost ten years to rebuild itself and find again its roots, for the greatest joy of the fans who didn't forget them. And enormous surprise, the original lineup was back on the track ! No need to say the fans were so happy. They could get back Lonesome Dave, Rod Price, Roger Earl and Tony Stevens some twenty years later ! This was kind of a miracle ! These guys were back in the studio and on stage to feel again what made them famous, the great blues hard rock. It was such a surprise to hear them play again some great boogie rock ! This one was not as famous as the great "Energized", "Fool for the city", "Night shift" or "Stone blue", but we could get them back in the atmosphere which seemed to be made for them, with great songs such as "Jump that train", "Louisiana blues", "Play dirty", among others.

ROAD CASES LIVE VOLUME 1 - 1998
For a period of four years, Foghat spent its time mostly playing concerts and festivals. For sure, the fame they got in the seventies was far away, but people enjoyed hearing them on stage. Parents were coming to the concerts with their children for them to discover the music their parents liked some years ago. It was some kind of obvious for them to release a live album on which all their mega hits were recorded : "Drivin' wheel", "Sweet home Chicago", "Slow ride", "Fool for the city" , "It hurts me too".... Everything seemed to be perfect except for the health of Lonesome Dave which seemed to deteriorate. Unfortunately, Dave passed away on Feb 7th, 2000.

KING BISCUIT FLOWER HOUR - 2000
Recorded in 1974 at the New Heaven Colisseum and in 1976 at the Philadelphia Spectrum, this album is a really nice release and offers the band in its best moments. Most of the Foghat standards are on this album ("Fool for the city", "Drivin wheel", "Night shift", "My babe", "Slow ride"..). All the songs which made Foghat so famous.

ROAD CASES LIVE VOLUME 2
This album contains about the same songs as the first volume, with two bonus, "It's too late" and "Stone Blue". Anyway, if you loke boogie-blues-rock music, you got to get one of these two "Road cases" album.

EXTENTED VERSION - 2001
Released by BMG, this album, "Extented version" is also a pretty good way to discover this band if you don't really know it. You'll have standards such as "Drivin' wheel", "Stone blue", or "Fool for the city", but there is also cuts a bit less known such as "Nothin' but trouble" or "Rock your house".

ANTHOLOGY - 2001
Throughout all the released "Best of", this one offers mostly all of the greatests cuts of the band, with 24 songs going from blues to boogie rock. It's not that easy to find this album these days but it's certainly one of the best ways to discover them. "Essential", released in 2002 or one of the "Best of", released in 1989 and 1992 are also nice ways to learn about Foghat.

A few words about the solo projects of the Foghat members. The bass player, Tony Stevens, released "Don't blame me", in 1998. Rod Price released two great albums, "Open" in 2000 and "West Four" in 2002.

We hope this discography will allow some people to discover (or re-discover) one of the great boogie-blues-rock bands of the seventies. It's also one of our way to pay tribute to the one and only Mister LONESOME DAVE PEVERETT.

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