Foghat Slow Ride Live in Detroit 1976

UCRs top 100 classic rock songs list brings us to #60: Foghat "SLOW RIDE"

Well, of course Foghat’s "Slow Ride" nabbed a spot on our list of the Top 100 Classic Rock Songs?

An eight-minute-plus slab from the 1975 Foghat album Fool For the City, this song works its way into your subconscious slowly but quite deliberately. When that steady drum beat starts, you'll no doubt find your hand starting to smack your kneecap in time as the initial guitar riff kicks in.

Barely past the 10-second mark, shape-shifting cymbals surround a woozy slide guitar riff from Rod Price. This provides the appropriate backing for vocalist "Lonesome" Dave Peverett to deliver the soul-shaking chorus: “Slow ride / take it easy / Slow ride / take it easy.”

Simple enough, right? After a couple more rounds of that, Peverett shifts into the verse: “I’m in the mood / the rhythm is right / We can roll all night / Move to the music.” The soundtrack to more than a few “lost weekends” had been found, even as "Slow Ride" gave Foghat a Top 20 hit on the Billboard charts.

A whole new generation of music fans discovered "Slow Ride" for the first time in the early ‘90s, thanks to its high-profile placement in the closing credits of the stoner comedy Dazed and Confused. But movies and the eventual video game licensing possibilities were probably the furthest thing from the mind of Foghat members during their heyday. The band was focused on building an audience at a time when they couldn’t get arrested, chasing their dreams as they perfected their own special blend of “boogie rock,” the ingredients of which called for lots and lots of generously applied slide guitar.

That recipe was eventually good enough for five gold-selling albums and several charting hits in the '70s. The decade that followed brought about a quiet period for the band, and members drifted apart for a few years, before Foghat finally returned. Drummer Roger Earl is the only remaining original member, following the deaths of both Peverett and Price. Former Ted Nugent vocalist Charlie Huhn helped lead the group through their well-received 2010 release Last Train Home.