It’s hard to think of the band Foghat without recalling their breakout Top 20 single “Slow Ride.” But the album that spawned the massive song featured a title track that offered a much faster ride that still resonates after five decades.
The album was 1975’s Fool for the City, and the title track remains a Foghat classic and an anthem for the open road more than 50 years after it was recorded.
Written by lead singer and guitarist Dave Peverett, “Fool for the City” featured a twin guitar riff, a blazing solo from bandmate Rod Price, and lyrics about heading back to the city after missing the loud, chaotic energy of urban life.
‘Goin’ to the city, got you on my mind/Country sure is pretty, I’ll leave it all behind,” came the opening lines to the boogie rock classic.
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Drummer Roger Earl credited the band’s two guitarists for brainstorming the song.
“’Fool For The City’ was Dave and Rod,” he told Classic Bands in an interview. “Foghat was always a band where everybody contributed to the recording, even if you didn’t get the credit. Dave was the main writer of the band.”
The Fool for the City album was recorded at Suntreader Studios in small town Vermont, a world away from the London-originated band’s U.S. base in Long Island, New York.
In a 2014 interview with The Aquarian, Earl recalled losing power multiple times while recording in the remote area.
“That happened a few times: The power would go out – somebody would hit a [power] pole,” he shared. “We were out in the middle of nowhere – it was like a small mountain or a large hill, but it was in the middle of nowhere. Deer would run into the car; bears would be in the garbage can.”
The album cover even featured a picture of city life with a country twist: Earl holding a fishing line going into an open manhole on a city street.
Earl elaborated on the cover shoot in an interview with VRP Rocks. “It wasn’t a big studio. So, I would go fishing. Vermont, they have some really good trout fishing up there,” he recalled. “So the manhole cover thing was because I love to fish and I’m a fool for the city.”
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