Lonesome Dave Peverett, Tone Stevens, and Roger Earl
were all in the most stable and popular of the lineups of Savoy Brown,
along with band’s main man and guitarist Kim Simmonds. But after five
albums and countless nights on the road, Lonesome Dave Peverett thought
it was time to strike out on his own.
Bidding a hasty cheerio to Kim Simmonds and leaving
him to look for new musicians to carry on the Savoy Brown flag, Dave
took Roger and Tone with him and went off to conquer the world. Leaving
the security of the Savoy Brown name, they moved to America and welcomed
American Rod Price into their ranks to share lead guitar duties with
Dave. Rod specialized in slide guitar work and this gave the band a
pretty unique duel guitar attack, which was matched up with Dave’s
forceful vocals; and with the established rhythm section of Tone and
Roger the floor was set for the band to take to the road with their
version of blues and boogie.
In 1977 when ‘Live’ came out, it turned Foghat
into one of America’s top drawing live acts. To the rest of the world
they didn’t mean a thing. They would be lucky to fill the Marquee
Club, which holds about 200 people, in their home country in England,
and then it would be mainly American tourists. Whereas in America they
could pull in audiences of up to 200,000 screaming fans, and ‘Live’
itself went platinum. Strange old world.
On ‘Live’ you get six great big slabs of
Foghat’s boogie /rock. Right from the over the top introduction, where
the announcer screams himself hoarse in six words such is his
excitement, it’s party time all the way. As you can tell by the
titles, the songs do not have much prophetic reasoning behind them. All
the lyrics are about living, loving, drinking, and surviving on the
road. At three minutes and thirty seconds of the second number in
‘Home In My Hand’, the band gives the song a false ending, only to
come crashing straight back in with another verse louder than previously
played, and breaking into an a capella verse before finally finishing
the song, showing off the dynamics learnt by the band during their
continuous touring.
Add to this Dave Peverett’s between song stage
banter, and some explosive slide guitar from Rod Price, particularly
during the two versions of the hit singles ‘I Just Wanna Make Love To
You’ and ‘Slow Ride’, which are both extended to eight minutes.
See what I mean about the songs now? I wonder what those two are about?
You have got truly entertaining, nearly forty
minutes, great Rock ‘n’ Roll. Now this is where Mott gets rowdy.
Thirty eight minutes, thirty eight seconds is not long enough for
today’s CDs. I am sure that when these concerts were recorded that
Foghat were on stage for more than forty minutes. So there must be some
more recorded songs that could be slotted back in, now that we have the
longer DVD format. Forty minutes may have been O.K. in the days of vinyl
because of time constraints, but a DVD can take up to seventy two
minutes without any loss of sound quality.
Then when you add to that the slipshod recording from
the original, you can see why so many people get disillusioned by the
music business. It says on the packaging ‘’Digital Re-mastering by
Bill Inglot and Ken Perry at K-Disc.” Well, obviously at K-Disc
re-mastering consists of putting the vinyl L.P. on, press play on record
to DVD, do not check the levels (dramatic loss of bottom end from the
vinyl edition), have a beer, and wait till it’s finished. What a
waste. Still, someday somebody will probably do it properly.
Later, Foghat would get the Spinal Taps and almost
have a revolving door policy, with bass players in particular lasting
alarmingly short times between coming and going. (I counted at least
nine on their rock family tree including at sometime both the talents of
Robbie Alter and Kenny Aaronson.)
In 1986 there were two Foghats, one under the
leadership of drummer Roger Earl, and one with Lonesome Dave Peverett,
with none of the other founding members in either band. Even Spinal Tap
did not have those problems. But in 1989 wise heads prevailed and Roger
and Dave patched up their differences, while Tone and Ron were recalled
to the ranks. For ten further years the original members of Foghat ate
up that ‘Road Fever’, after which Rod Price called a halt to his
Foghat days and went solo.
In 1991 Lonesome Dave was cruelly taken from us by
cancer of the kidneys. Still today Roger Earl and Tone Stevens keep the
Foghat flag flying, playing live the length and breadth of the United
States of America together with new vocalist Charlie Huhn - dedicating
every night to Lonesome Dave.
‘Live’ is a fine album from the seventies, which is just begging
for a proper upgrade. If you want to have a listen anyway, remember to
turn the bass up.
Musicians
Lonesome Dave Peverett - Lead Vocals, Guitar
Rod Price - Guitar and Vocals
Roger Earl - Drums
Craig MacGregor - Bass and Vocals
Songs
Fool For The City
Home In My Hand
I Just Wanna Make Love To You
Road Fever
Honey Hush
Slow Ride
The
front cover of this week’s book caught my attention. Motorcars of the
Classic Era (Tehabi Books, 2003, ISBN 0-8109-4666-1) is a very artistic
volume of work from Michael Furman, a classically trained photographer.
Mott’s CD review: Foghat - Live
3
Stars ***