The 1981 Listening Post - Foghat - Girls to Chat & Boys to Bounce

 Foghat - Girls to Chat & Boys to Bounce

#335

By Geo Rule

Foghat

Girls to Chat & Boys to Bounce

Genre: Dinosaur Rock

Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5

Geo’s Rating: 2 out of 5

What to say about Foghat? At one level that is terribly easy. “Slow Ride” is what there is to say. You know it. You love it. So do I.

Forty-five years on, it still dominates my thinking about Foghat. Rolling Stone says 45th best rock song EVAH. That, and an awesome band name. 

But that was 1975. That was also a song that never managed better than #20 on the BillBoard Hot 100. And the lead guitarist who made “Slow Ride” an anthem left immediately after the tour.

But there’s the mythology, and then there’s the reality. The reality is never better than mid-list in the Top 40. The mythology. . . 

Well, anyway, so much for 1975. Now it’s 1981, and what does Foghat have on offer?

It’s aight. The top ranking single, “Live Now, Play Later”  makes it to #102 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the live version has 33k views on Youtube. The old-time energy is there, but it’s got all the popularity of a “contractual-commitment album”. Listening to the album, I didn’t remember “Live Now, Play Later”.

This one was tough for me. “Slow Ride”, and Foghat has a golden haze in my memory forty-five years on, but this album? Not so much.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1jQmt4s9f6xJXRIqjz8rIj?si=LI4wYETOT9aYQQrJ_yf17g

The 1980 Listening Post - Foghat - Tight Shoes

Foghat - Tight Shoes


#204

by Andrew Anthony

Foghat

Tight Shoes 

Genre: New Wave…wait, what? Foghat? Aren’t they those Slow Ride guys? Fool For The City?? Aren’t they AM radio dinosaurs?

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Anthony’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Anthony’s Highlights:

Loose Ends 

Too Late the Hero 

Dead End Street 

by Anthony Anderson

OK, so remember in This Is Spinal Tap, when Marty DiBergi is reading old record reviews to the band members, and he gets to their album Shark Sandwich? And he reads a two-word review: Shit Sandwich? When Allen said I could review The Game by Queen, he said I also had to review this album. When I saw it was Foghat, I thought, I can outdo that Spinal Tap review by cutting it down to one word: FogShat. Done. Those guys are stale, washed up 70s relics. This’ll be painful but easy. Well, was I surprised. Foghat saw the way pop music was headed and recorded an honest-to-goodness New Wave album! And, holy jeez, it’s actually pretty damn decent! Now, when the first track, Stranger In My Home Town, begins, it’s with a grimy wah-pedaled guitar chord, joined by a funk beat on the drums. Bleah, I thought. A 70s blooz rawk band that got the disco bug 2 years too late. But, wait! Within 10 seconds, the vocals begin and this song quickly morphs into a tune that wouldn’t have been out of place on a J. Geils Band or Rick Springfield album in 1980! Hey, this is kinda catchy! The singer, Dave Peverett, has the reverb cranked up to 11 (Aha! Another Spinal Tap reference!) to nail that classic New Wave sound. The remaining tracks really nail down that early 80s sound really well. The songs ARE a little longer than the average radio/MTV 3.5 minute hit, and the last two songs, Be My Woman and No Hard Feelings, drag a bit at around 6 minutes each. But the rest of the songs are lively, catchy, and fun. For us guitar geeks, Foghat throws in some wah and some flange and some slide and some other trademark guitar niftiness here and there. I guess change can be difficult. Apparently, this change was a bit too much for founding guitarist Rod Price, who left the band that November because he didn’t like the way the band was headed, sound-wise. So, maybe he would refer to them as FogShat. I wouldn’t. This was good stuff!

https://open.spotify.com/album/17Qybbj3HAA5vI7eiUpqJl?si=NBOzJyt7Qw2ViUxtvMBalw