Rhino Records’ 50th Anniversary Re-issue of Foghat’s ‘Fool For The City’ Is Among 2025’s Top New Music Re-Issues

BY: Philip Sayblack

Late next month, Rhino Records will re-issue Foghat’s seminal 1975 album, Fool for the City to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the platinum-selling record’s release.  It will be released separately on a 2LP and 2CD set, ensuring fans of both platforms will get to enjoy the presentation.  The forthcoming presentation is among the best of this year’s new music re-issues.  That is proven in part to the album’s production.  The bonus concert that accompanies the record in both platform presentations adds to the appeal.  The companion booklet that also accompanies the new presentation rounds out the whole of the recording’s positives.  Each item noted is important in its own way to the whole of the recording.  All things considered they make Rhino Records’ forthcoming re-issue of Foghat’s Fool for the City a work that the band’s established audiences will appreciate just as much as rock fans in general.
Rhino Records’ forthcoming re-issue of Foghat’s Fool for the City is a presentation that the band’s established audiences will appreciate just as much as rock purists.  That is proven in part through its main body.  From the album’s opener and title track to ‘Terraplane Blues,’ the album’s midpoint, to ‘Drive Me Home’ and ‘Take It Or Leave It’ – the album’s penultimate and finale tracks – the audio on the record’s CD presentation is just as clear as on any vinyl pressing from any act out there.  Simply put, the production in this re-issue is proof that audio transfer from vinyl to CD (the original recording would have been on vinyl in the first place) is possible without any loss at all.  To that end, for all of the vinyl fans out there, the resurgence in vinyl’s popularity will not ever lead to the demise of CDs.
Another positive to note in this new presentation is the bonus concert recording that accompanies the re-issue on both platforms, vinyl and CD.  Having the bonus concert on both platforms means that audiences will get to enjoy the concert regardless of which platform they choose.  This may not seem like much on the surface, but there are records out there whose bonus content has been limited to one platform or another, so, to have it available on both is a huge positive to this recording. 
On a related note, the concert, which was originally recorded in November 1975 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, IL boasts an interesting audio presentation.  Unlike so many modern concert recordings, this recording does not have the spit-shined sound quality of said offerings.  There are moments with front man “Lonesome” Dave Peverett’s vocals are a little bit washed out by the instrumentations throughout the concert.  At other times, the balance is better.  Overall, though, the audio quality is that “raw” presentation that is exactly what audiences would expect from being in person at a concert even today.  To that end, the availability of the concert on both platforms and its audio quality are of equal importance herein. 
Getting to the 8-song concert’s overall body, (the ninth track is actually a three-minute archived interview with drummer Roger Earl and Nick Jameson with Bass Frontiers magazine about the creation of ‘Slow Ride,’ one of the band’s biggest hits, if not its biggest ever), three of the songs are lifted from Fool for the City while three others – ‘Honey Hush,’ ‘Home in My Hand’ and ‘Wild Cherry’ – were lifted from the band’s 174 album, Energized.  ‘Maybellene’ was itself a cover of the song popularized first by Chuck Berry two decades earlier.  As the liner notes included in this record point out, ‘My Babe’ was also a cover, this time of the song by The Righteous Brothers.  So, while the set list clearly was not necessarily career-spanning for the band at that point, it still offered its own share of enjoyment, focusing on Fool For the City and at least one of the band’s then five total albums.  It is another live recording that until its release here, had never been released previously.  Keeping that in mind along with the reality that we do not know how much longer Foghat will keep going (considering Roger Earl’s age and that of the other band members), having such a vintage concert is a bonus in itself for audiences.  Whenever the band does call it a career, audiences who own this set will still be able to enjoy this concert from the band’s early days.
Moving on from there, there is one more positive to the whole of the 50th anniversary re-issue of Fool for the City.  That bonus is the set’s companion booklet.  The booklet is of its own importance because of the background that it offers on the songs featured in the main album.  It clearly points out which songs are covers and which are originals.  In regard to the originals, audiences will appreciate Earl’s anecdotes about said songs.  For instance, the very fact that ‘Fool for The City’ was – as Earl points out – about the band’s love of New York City, is pretty interesting.  It makes the energy in the song’s musical arrangement make more sense, as well as the song’s lyrical content.  The story that he shares herein as to how the song came to be is engaging and entertaining. 
Earl’s discussion on how ‘Slow Ride’ came to be is interesting, especially due to the note of the influence of blues legend John Lee Hooker.  He writes here, “Actually, a song like ‘Slow Ride’ is a John Lee Hooker riff, just played in a 4/4 as opposed toa shuffle.  Thank you, John Lee.  There’d be no boogie without John Lee Hooker.”  That is one heck of a tribute to note the influence of that blues legend on another equally famed and respected act. 
Speaking of one act paying homage to another, Earl writes in his discussion on ‘Save Your Loving (For Me),’ “We channeled one of our favorite bands on this one, Bad Company.”  He called the song, which was the b-side to ‘Slow Ride,’ “one of my favorite songs, especially the way Rod and Nick played.”  It is certainly a fan favorite to this day, too.  It would be interesting to learn even deeper, the role that Bad Company played in this song’s creation.  Sadly, Earl did not expand on that matter, but that is OK.  That this background in itself is added makes the song all the more interesting and may even get some listeners more interested in Bad Company who otherwise might not have listened to said band’s work.  So it is another example of the positives of the liner notes presented here.  When this and the other liner notes discussed here are considered alongside the other liner notes, the body of the bonus concert recording and the production in the main album, the whole makes this 50th anniversary re-issue of Foll for the City a record that Foghat’s established audiences will appreciate just as much as any more casual rock fan.
Rhino Records’ forthcoming 50th anniversary edition of Fool for the City is a strong presentation that will appeal widely among rock fans and those of the band itself.  That is proven in part through the production of the album’s re-issue.  In its transfer from the original vinyl recording to the new CD platform, there was no loss.  This means the sound quality is top notch here.  Speaking of audio, that of the companion bonus concert adds to the engagement and entertainment.  That is because it really does make audiences feel like they are really there.  It is not that spit-shined production of so many of today’s concert recordings.  The liner notes included in this recording, penned by drummer Roger Earl, put the finishing touch to the whole.  That is because of the background that his notes add to each song.  It really enhances the listening experience well.  Each item noted is important in its own way to the whole of this record.  If there is any one negative to this whole it is the packaging, which sadly does allow the discs to easily fall out but that is not enough to doom the recording.  All things considered, the forthcoming 50th anniversary re-issue of Foghat’s Fool for the City is among the best of this year’s new music re-issues.
The 50th Anniversary re-issue of Fool for the City is scheduled for release Sept. 12.  More information on the recording is available along with all of Foghat’s latest news at:
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