I drove to Charlotte, North Carolina in August, 1974 and attended a big crowd outdoor concert at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. It's been 45 years ago so let me think. Wolfman Jack was the emcee. Marshall Tucker Band played before it got dark. Black Oak Arkansas played then it was these guys and they were dressed up in nice Gone With The Wind type suites. One guitarist played only slide guitar but he was good. I remember it being a maroon SG and I believe he is dead now. But they had a high octane show. The big crowd liked them. Then it was Emerson, Lake and Palmer played and Emerson played his organ while it spun in a circle on one song.

Then the Allman Brothers played last. ABB was the number one band in America in 1974. Huge sell out crowds everywhere and Brothers and Sisters was the number one album in America for 5 straight weeks and sold over 4 million copies. It was the high water mark for the ABB. They never had another number one album and never had another new album to sell more than a million copies. 1969-1979 A Decade of Hits released in 1991 sold over 2 million but it wasn't a new album. It has cuts from the Duane years and Brothers and Sisters and Crazy Love from Enlighten Rogues.

It of course was the Chuck/Lamar version of the band. They came on late and were a bit laid back compared to the absolutely smoking shows I saw in 1973 but they were still good and Chuck rocked all night while Dickey and Gregg seemed to be a bit mellow on some songs. I remember Wasted Words, Done Somebody Wrong, One Way Out, Stormy Monday, Midnight Rider, Liz Reed, Statesboro Blues, Blue Sky, Southbound, Jessica, You Dont Love Me than went into a jam which eventually sounded like Amazaing Grace with Dickey leading the way then into Les Brers in A minor. They finally stopped for a few minutes after playing non stop for about 35 minutes. Then they finished with Ramblin Man and I think the last twoTrouble No More and Whipping Post were the encore. That is close to the order and their typical set list in 1973 and 74.

Cow Palace in 'late 73, saw Foghat open for Rod Stewart and recall being very impressed with Rod Price......

Tough to beat Rod Stewart in his prime though....

Saw 'em blow Humble Pie off the stage at the Coliseum in Knoxville '72. Good year for music in K town. Edgar Winter w/ Ronnie Montrose & Dan Hartman, Leon at Stokely, Manassas killed it.

73 was a very good year for me ,first 6/9-10/73 RFK, Wash. D.C. ,Allmans, Dead,etc. and 7/28/73 Watkins Glen,Allmans, Dead, and The Band. Both epic shows

I used to bartend at a bar in Bethel CT where Ritchie Blackmore would sometimes visit, as he lived nearby. However, another bar regular claimed to be a former Foghat roadie. Great guy. He drank beer in a wine glass only.

He would assert that Rod Price was better than Clapton. I kept a straight face but never took that claim seriously. To be honest, I only knew Foghat from their radio hits, which always struck me as OK but kind of second or third tier. That was (and is!!) my uninformed douchey rock snobbery, as I should know better than just judging a band by a few songs like "Fool for the City," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and "Slow Ride." However, I always thought that 70s peers like AC/DC and Aerosmith crushed Foghat.

I dig 70s cock rock. I'll put Cactus on my CD player. I love the Kiss: Alive album. I got a serious kick when the Cult released "Electric" in the 1980 and recycled the 70s cock rock sound but called it alternative. I do think Black Oak Arkansas are awful, but I can groove on the sheer chutzpah of their awfulness. I like sloppy stuff like the New York Dolls for the same reason.

We're on an Allman Brothers page, and maybe it is unfair to hold other bands to the ABB's standard. Still, I'll ask - how do you guys rate Foghat? If the radio hits fail to impress, where does one turn?

For my money (okay, my $.02 worth), Foghat was one of the better bands of their day.

No, they weren't Tchaikovsky, they weren't Miles Davis and they certainly weren't the Allman Brother's Band - but they could lay down that "blues boogie" music like nobody else. They seemed to be the opening act on a lot of shows in the mid/late '70s, so I saw them on numerous occasions. I can honestly say that I never saw a sub-par performance by them.

Rod Price better than Clapton? Possibly a preposterous statement, but Rod could probably slide at least as well as "God". Who's keeping score, anyway?

Foghat was (for me) another of those bands where the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. Lonesome Dave was one of my favorite rock stars! My first guitar was a sunburst Melody Maker that I thought resembled Dave's LP JR.

I had so many good times and I have so many great memories of Foghat shows and the friends that I hung with in the day.

Thanks for posting the clip!

(Edit - "saw" not "say" 😉 )

[Edited on 10/2/2019 by Rusty]