Foghat – Foghat

A new name, an experienced band

When Foghat released their debut in 1972, three quarters of the group already shared a history in Savoy Brown. Singer and guitarist Dave Peverett, bassist Tony Stevens and drummer Roger Earl brought that experience into a new setting. Rod Price joined as the second guitarist. His slide playing became an essential part of the quartet: another voice beside Peverett’s singing, with its own ways of beginning, sustaining and bending a note.

Dave Edmunds produced most of the album at Rockfield in Wales and contributed additional guitar. These were musicians for whom blues and early rock ’n’ roll were working languages, rather than distant reference points. The record captures their initial approach before later hits came to shape the public image of Foghat. Knowing what followed can make it especially rewarding to return to this starting point.

Willie Dixon beside the band’s own songs

Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You” opens the programme. It sits alongside “Trouble, Trouble”, “Sarah Lee” and “Highway (Killing Me)”, while Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline” provides another outside composition. Those two choices make the band’s musical bearings quite explicit: electric blues and rock ’n’ roll both have a place at the table.

The nine tracks nevertheless amount to more than a collection of influences. The group’s own material occupies most of the album. Listening beyond the familiar opener offers a way to follow how the musicians develop different song shapes from related foundations. Another outside composition, Andre Williams and Deadric Malone’s “Gotta Get to Know You”, closes the programme and occupies an entire side of this double-LP edition.

Two guitars and an unexpected guest

Try following Peverett’s rhythm guitar separately from Price’s lead and slide parts. One can maintain a pattern while the other answers it or moves beyond it. Bass and drums matter just as much: their shared pulse gives the guitars something to work against. The movement between accompaniment and an individual voice stepping forward is a useful route into the arrangements.

Roger Earl recalls Todd Rundgren’s contribution on the official band website: “Trouble, Trouble” was made with him at AIR Studios in London, and he also played piano. Colin Earl is another pianist on the album. Details like these broaden the picture of an apparently guitar-centred record. This is the 1972 debut: Foghat issued another self-titled album the following year, usually distinguished as “Rock and Roll”.

This edition

Analogue Productions’ AAPR 003-45 belongs to the Acoustic Sounds 40 Series: two 180-gram LPs at 45 RPM, pressed at Quality Record Pressings and housed in a Stoughton tip-on gatefold. The publisher identifies the original analogue master tape as the source, but does not name a mastering engineer for this edition. The nine tracks occupy four sides. Dave Edmunds’ production credit refers to the original recording.

Michael 45 holds the records in Germany and dispatches them from Hilden, removing the need for a personal US import and the corresponding customs wait.

Also on SACD: Foghat

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Series: Acoustic Sounds 40th Anniversary – all 25 albums, recommendations and musicians

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.