Song of the Day 8/21: Foghat, “Fool for the City”

Guest post by Gary Mullinax

Foghat is a boogie-rock band that thrilled headbangers in the ‘70s with songs like “Fool for the City” and “Slow Ride.” Foghat is not the real Spinal Tap, no matter what some people think.

But one time the guys did wander from their bus through a Colorado snow storm and walk into the kitchen of an Italian restaurant instead of the stage door next to it. After watching people rush around with plates of meatballs and ravioli for a while they realized they weren’t in the strangest dressing room they’d ever seen.

And Foghat did accuse Spinal Tap’s producers of hiding a microphone in their bus to get material. Maybe they were kidding, maybe not. It’s been rumored that Tap flat-out identified Foghat as their model. But there are other possibilities. Those Spinal Tap guys did seem easily confused.

The bands play a similar kind of bluesy rock, though Tap had an early flirtation with mellow hippie music on (“Listen to the) Flower People.” Foghat is more focused on a potent guitar attack. Both are British, but Foghat struggled before a permanent move to the U.S. after two albums. You might say they Tapped into America.

Both bands are persistent. Spinal Tap will open a new major motion picture next month, 41 years after their first one. Foghat played Las Vegas in April, 54 years after their founding as a spin-off from Savoy Brown (with a break from 1984 to 1993).

Foghat’s Vegas gig was at the Silverton Casino and Lodge. Not exactly a Hell Hole but it is eight miles from the big-time casinos on the Strip and even a few miles on the other side of Paradise (real town). But they probably just said Gimme Some Money.

Foghat has had 21 different lineups but never with all four members replaced by four new ones. The drummer, though, has stayed the whole time and did not die in a bizarre gardening accident.

“Fool for the City” and “Slow Ride” were Foghat’s biggest hits, both from the same 1975 album. “Air pollution here I come,” they sing in “Fool for the City.” Who’d want to go up the country when they could have that? Nigel Tufnel never shredded like these guys.

“Slow Ride” sounds like the title. It’s said countless babies were conceived as it played in the background. The song is featured in Richard Linklater’s 1993 movie “Dazed and Confused,” where it dazes and confuses mixed-up high schoolers.