FOGHAT: BEYOND THE SPAGHETTI PRINCIPLE

"What can you say about a band like Foghat. ..they're so bland. All they do is play rock 'n' roll boogies."—Lester Bangs ^

"They're an inexcusable band in that they haven't tapped any new veins... they just play boogies."—Allen Lanier

"If you have any stories on similar bands, be sure and let me know'. I'm really good at making silk purses out of sows' ears."—Dave Hickey

"Foghat, eh? Just write 'boogie, boogie, boogie,' nineteen times and use lots of pictures."—Billy Altman

FACTS: Foghat is a rock band from England who make their home in the U.S.A., have three gold albums ana who play their music on the concert stage at least 334 of the 365 days of the year. The members of the band include: "Lonesome" Dave Peverett, slightly cross-eyed lead vocalist, billed also as playing lead guitar, but who really plays rhythm and needs dental work. Rod Price, slide-guitarist who looks and sounds like a handsome, well-behaved chipmunk who always wanted to be a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Roger Earl, drummer and fashion expert from the Ringo Starr school of proper rock star drumming and humorous antics. Craig MacGregor, newest bass-playing member with a skull structure not dissimilar to Goofy—a la Walt Disney— without the fldppy ears and tongue and funny little hat.

Foghat plays rock'n'roll boogies and not much of anything else and therefore they're branded by critics as four chord fops beneath contempt and seripus consideration. OK, fine. But I've never heard anyone come down on Elmore James or Robert Johnson for "just playing the blues." "Our music is just rocidn'roll," emphasizes Rod Price. "I almost sound as if I'm putting our music down at times when I say it's just rock'n'roll, but that's what it is, you know," Yeah, I know and I've come to the conclusion that Foghat fans have no greater reason to feel ashamed than any other rock group's fans. Foghat may be similar in sound yet they remain different from other r'n'r groups in that they are simply a rock band with no pretensions to be anything else. "Basically," Price continues, "We just like to sort of get out and rock and roll for the people cause that's what rock'n'roll is all about, so in that sense there is no real pressure to put anything'over on anybody." Admittedly that statement sounds like a naive plea for honesty in government or something else equally unlikely, but that's what is refreshing about Foghat. They're Kiss without the makeup and the leather animal suits, Aerosmith without plagiaristic allusions to the Stones and fourteen-inch pee-pee's and possibly the Tubes without the tits and ass and synthesizers. Kiss, Aerosmith and the Tubes without their trademarks would be at best extremely dull if in fact they could exist at all. But with Foghat it's different. You can take away Dave Peverett's silver suit and gym shoes, shave off the rest of the band's moustaches, shut off all the spotlights and tear down the eight-foot stage and you'll still have Foghat. I asked Peverett if he felt any resentment towards bands who reap huge financial success more on the basis of flashy stage appearance than anything else: "I've never really thought of it like that. It seems that they're into more of a theatrical side of it which I think they do pretty good. Like the effects and stuff are pretty good, you know, I don't want to knock 'em but it's not my taste." It's almost pollyanna-ishly nauseating that this band never has an unkind word about anyone, whether it's their musical competition or even their bus drivers, sound men and light crew, butjhis trait also becomes refreshing when you compare it to the eternal complaining and trite faggy bitchings of most other prima donna rock groups, about how they aren't getting the right focus from their spotlights or how they could be even bigger stars if they were only getting the right PR (cf. Montrose, Earl Slick, BOC).

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When meeting Foghat, specifically Dave Peverett and Rod Price, one is always greeted with a fading Englishaccented stream of consciousness mumbling: "We didn't get in 'til five in the morning... How's the cottage cheese.. .It was a long drive and we've had too much Jack Daniels'.. .It tastes a bit different... Insanity...The grilled cheese Js nice...Did the tomato come like that or did you smash it?"

Tjkmnhb k !yng—fhyy—klo;p grilled cheese sandwiches? " Yeah, " beams Rod, "Let's talk about the grilled cheese sandwich...in fact we'll both testify to having one in oUr stomachs right now!"

Sure, no one is interested in the fact that Price first got turned on to playing slide guitar by listening to Brian Jones cm "19th Nervous Breakdown" or that Peverett's main influence was Chuck Berry. Grilled cheese sandwiches are much more relevant to today's fans. "Right, we're going to write a book about it," Dave adds with furrowed brow. "It's going to be the most boring book in literary history: 'The International Guide To Grilled Cheese Sandwiches."

If you are what you eat, or are at least affected by it, their steady diet of gcs's explains why when Foghat plays, thfey bow their legs and squat up and down real fast, bending from the knees like you do when you're taking a shit in the woods without a log to lean over. Well it kind of explains it, but the question still remains whether this band is interested in anything other than Boogie'n (all grilled cheese sandwiches aside) and the answer is "no." As Rod slowly staccatos, "WE-JUSTGO-ON-AND-ON-PLAYING-ROCKAND-ROLL."

Bqt what about money? What's your motivation?

"I can't see any band being in it for only the money." Dave muses. "If you were in it just for the mondy it would be murder, it's much too punishing. I think the thing is that we do work so much that we've got a thing with the audience.. .Sort of makes the audience enjoy themselves more. That's what we aim for really, getting the audience on their feet." "Right," concludes Rod, "the first thing we say when we Come off stage, with the exception of maybe what happened to the fucking monitors tonight or something like that is how the audience reacted. Like, wow, they were great or whatever...Not where's our money? Obviously you ask about your percentage 'cause that's also a guide to your success or 'how you are' in that particular town, so we're interested on that level. We just enjoy playing for people." •

SO . .Foghat's major premise is that they get off on the audience getting off, and the skeptics can take it or leave it. As long as this band can have plenty of grilled cheese sandwiches to eat and an audience to play for they'll be satisfied. Ahh...life's simple pleasures... which reminds me of the first time J saw Foghat.

The first time I saw this band was at the infamous Bull Island Rock Festival of 1972. After a 250-mile bus ride and three days of waiting for the bands to show up Foghat started the set with their familiar ERHRAHDNT ERH ERH ERHRAHDNT MAKELOVETOYOU at an early 7:30 pm. I crawled into my tent, jerked-pff into a can of Franco American spaghetti and fell asleep. Upon waking, my friends said that I had slept through a really good show, even though the spaghetti can may well have been the best nookie I had in the last six months, especially since no other bands were to show up for another thirty-eight hours. Eventually questioning the group op why they were about the only band that actually played at Bull Island, Rod Price proudly explained: "The choppers refused to take any other bands in because of the fog," Fog...Foghat, get it? Rod's statement implies that no other band likes to follow Foghat on stage because their group is too hot an act to follow. Truthfully so, since it has been observed that they stole the show right from under BOA/Jim Dandy's rather large protuberance, and more recently upstaged Aerosmith and even Ted Nugent. No small feat, yes? Maybe, maybe not. For a rock critic to personally seed rock groups seems to be a pointless undertaking because it would just be subjective blathering for the most part and why should anyone care that I would rather listen to Foghat than Kiss or the Tubes or Bob Seger or Elton John? In any case, if in the future I'm offered the choice of watching Foghat or schtupping a can of spaghetti, I would choose to watch Foghat. Now on the other hand if I were offered a can of beefy ravioli...