This may be somewhat difficult for our American friends to understand, but Foghat never made much of an impression in their home country of England, even though they rightfully became superstars across the Atlantic. However, I was lucky enough to be introduced to ‘Foghat Live’ not long after it was released, and I thought then, and still do now, that it is one of the most amazing live albums ever recorded. It only contains six songs, but when these include the likes of “Fool For The City”, “Slow Ride”, and their incredible take on “I Just Want To Make Love To You” then you just get hit by classic after classic. While I was doing my degree I picked up the studio albums ‘Boogie Motel’, ‘Tight Shoes’ and ‘Girls to Chat, Boys To Bounce’ (all tremendously under rated), hoping that one day I would see them play in concert, but it was not to be. The band broke up, reformed, and went through various line-up changes while the death of Lonesome Dave in 2000 truly marked the end of an era.
So when I realised Cleopatra were releasing a double disc set of CD and DVD recorded not long before he died I was very excited indeed, especially when I glanced at the setlist and realised it included a song from ‘Boogie Motel’, “Somebody’s Been Sleeping In My Bed”, but then I started playing it and something was off. For a start, there are fades between the songs which seemed somewhat weird, but it is not the first time I have come across that so persevered as we built up to track #9, “I Just Want To Make Love To You”. This contains one of the great guitar duet builds of all time, before we get into the chugging verse, and it is the interplay of the guitars combined with Dave’s voice which makes this such a classic. But hang on, it’s fading out! What’s going on? The version here is just 3:30 long, and it normally lasts for more than 11 minutes. This put me into detective mode and I discovered this album has previously been released, without the DVD (which I have not seen), with 25 tracks instead of the current 10, in a quite different order, but even then this song has been truncated and is marked as “Single version”. Given it is one of their most popular and well-known songs it feels that a record exec somewhere has said “It’s way too long, cut it back to it will be played on the radio and we can get more sales”. Spoiler guys, I’ve been a Foghat fan for more than 40 years and this is nothing short of criminal.
The whole treatment of this gig has left a somewhat bad taste in the mouth, which is a real shame, as the band were on fire that night. I know the line-up contains Lonesome Dave, Roger Earl and Tony Stevens, but cannot be sure if it contains the other member of the classic line-up, Rod Price, or if it was recorded after he left and was replaced by Bryan Bassett. They are certainly cooking, using that slide to great effect, with Dave showing he is not only a great singer but a fine guitarist. In many ways this feels like an opportunity missed, as with care and attention this could have been essential, but instead will be of interest mostly to those who wish to see the DVD.
Rating: 7/10
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