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Foreigner, your top 5 songs.

jericho

By jericho
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B-Ball-fan

B-Ball-fan

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I was 13 in 1977 when Foreigner's first album was released, and they instantly became my favorite band at that point in my life. I stuck with them buying their first 6 albums until I was 23 in 1987. I even bought Lou Gramm's first solo release, but I didn't buy his other one, nor did I continue to collect their last 3, and even Mr. Moonlight when Lou had returned.

 

My other favs at this early teen age in life not counting tons of other stuff that I was raised on from birth were Boston, ELO, Heart, The Cars, Steve Miller, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Manfred Mann, Pink Floyd, Queen, and Led Zeppelin and countless others.

 

I saw Foreigner in concert 3 times total.

 

The first two were for the "4" release with Billy Squier, and the "Agent Provocateur" release with Joe Walsh.

 

The third time was in 1998 as the warmup for Journey w/ Steve Augeri when I hadn't realized that Lou Gramm had been ill, and couldn't understand how he had gained so much weight, looked unhealthy, and sounded terrible, but found out later that his pituitary gland had been damaged in surgery for the "successful" removal of a benign brain tumor.

 

Throughout my teens even after being introduced to some of my other harder favorites of the day like AC/DC, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden, I still considered Foreigner in my top 5.

 

I was 20 when "Agent Provocateur" was released and while I honestly was beginning to grow a little tired of Foreigner's predictable formulated brand of rock, and was beginning to not be as excited about a load of their tunes that got me excited at 14, they captured me once more with "I Want to Know What Love Is" which I actually consider to be one of the best songs ever written.To this day I still very much love that song, and it held a special place for me because it came out right about the time that I did.

 

By the time "Inside Information" came out I was 23, and through the likes of MTV and multiple other sources my tastes begin to vary dramatically away from metal and hard rock, which from my perspective was becoming too pop diluted, and cheese balled out without the balls.

 

I liked my metal intense and hard and still can to this day dig it that way, but when it became so commercialized is when It began to bore me something fierce.

 

Though Foreigner wasn't metal, but a brand of pop hard rock, not much about "Inside Information" was grabbing like they once did, yet I started to feel a redundancy in their style that was beginning to bore me. I could certainly see where my 13 and 14 year old self found them to be super rockin' awesome man, but I just wasn't feeling it so much anymore in my 20's as I did in my teens.

 

My tastes were leading me into places where guitar leads and riffs were not king, and stylish innovative artistry was taking over my interests in stuff at the time like The Cure, Depeche Mode, and a slew of other British New Wavish etc...type bands.

 

The 90's saw me go through a club show trend following tons of underground Indie bands, or Alt Country bands, and tons of British band where bands like the Verve were owning my soul, eventually giving way into the 2000's where although I try to keep my ear to the ground for just about anything, Freak Folkish or New Folk type artists became more my go to.

 

With all of that said, your question to name our Top 5 Foreigner tunes had me do something that I haven't done in 30 years, and that was to completely listen to their first 6 albums in order, and I must say that I completely enjoyed it while it really took me back to my bedroom mirror at 14 when I was Lou Gramm. I even sampled their 7th and 8th album a little but it was really starting to get late last night and I had to call it quits.

 

Strangely, but not terribly surprising I woke this morning singing "Love On The Telephone" from the Head Games release, and it took awhile to get it out of my head...LOL!

 

What I found was interesting is that some tunes didn't seem to rock as much as I had remembered, and others rocked way more than I seem to remember. Some felt cheesier to me in their predictable formulated way than they did to me years ago, while some deeper cuts captured me more now than maybe they had back then.

 

For example the song "Seventeen" from Head Games had more rockin' fire to it than I remember. Until I heard it last night it would have never come to my mind as a hot rockin' tune.

 

Another tune from Head Games that really appealed to me is :"Do What You Like", I recall singing along to it as I knew all the words, but again had totally forgotten it, and while back then it was either all out rockers or sweet love songs that captured my attention, "Do What You Like" is really a decent mid-tempoed with a nice melody.

 

"Blinded by Science" was another tune that grabbed me that I had forgotten about.

 

I could go on and on because there really are a fair amount of quality tunes within their whole body of work,

 

I battled with coming up with my top 5, and just like LB13 said this could change next week... but anyhow here goes.

 

I Want To Know What Love Is

Juke Box Hero

Dirty White Boy

Women

That Was Yesterday

 

This is what Mick Jones had to say about the inspiration for the song "Juke Box Hero", which though it might sound cheesy, I've always had goose bumps and a lump in my throat about that song because it very well could have been me.

 

That stemmed from an experience that we had, I think it was in Cincinnati. We'd gone to the arena for a sound check, and it was pouring down rain, and there were a bunch of fans waiting at the door when we went in. When we came back for the show later on, all that was left was one lonely fan, a young guy waiting out there in the rain, soaked to the skin. I thought, well, he's waiting like five hours here, maybe we'll take him in and give him a glimpse of what happens backstage at a show. And this kid was just mesmerized with everything. I saw this look in his eyes, and I thought, he's seeing this for the first time, he's having this experience. And I just imagined what was going through his mind. And I'd been toying with this title, 'Juke Box Hero,' I thought it was almost a satire on what we did and how it was perceived from an audience level, and public. That's how it originated."

Edited by B-Ball-fan
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TAC

TAC

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I was 13 in 1977 when Foreigner's first album was released, and they instantly became my favorite band at that point in my life. I stuck with them buying their first 6 albums until I was 23 in 1987. I even bought Lou Gramm's first solo release, but I didn't buy his other one, nor did I continue to collect their last 3, and even Mr. Moonlight when Lou had returned.

 

My other favs at this early teen age in life not counting tons of other stuff that I was raised on from birth were Boston, ELO, Heart, The Cars, Steve Miller, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Manfred Mann, Pink Floyd, Queen, and Led Zeppelin and countless others.

 

I saw Foreigner in concert 3 times total.

 

The first two were for the "4" release with Billy Squier, and the "Agent Provocateur" release with Joe Walsh.

 

The third time was in 1998 as the warmup for Journey w/ Steve Augeri when I hadn't realized that Lou Gramm had been ill, and couldn't understand how he had gained so much weight, looked unhealthy, and sounded terrible, but found out later that his pituitary gland had been damaged in surgery for the "successful" removal of a benign brain tumor.

 

Throughout my teens even after being introduced to some of my other harder favorites of the day like AC/DC, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden, I still considered Foreigner in my top 5.

 

I was 20 when "Agent Provocateur" was released and while I honestly was beginning to grow a little tired of Foreigner's predictable formulated brand of rock, and was beginning to not be as excited about a load of their tunes that got me excited at 14, they captured me once more with "I Want to Know What Love Is" which I actually consider to be one of the best songs ever written.To this day I still very much love that song, and it held a special place for me because it came out right about the time that I did.

 

By the time "Inside Information" came out I was 23, and through the likes of MTV and multiple other sources my tastes begin to vary dramatically away from metal and hard rock, which from my perspective was becoming too pop diluted, and cheese balled out without the balls.

 

I liked my metal intense and hard and still can to this day dig it that way, but when it became so commercialized is when It began to bore me something fierce.

 

Though Foreigner wasn't metal, but a brand of pop hard rock, not much about "Inside Information" was grabbing like they once did, yet I started to feel a redundancy in their style that was beginning to bore me. I could certainly see where my 13 and 14 year old self found them to be super rockin' awesome man, but I just wasn't feeling it so much anymore in my 20's as I did in my teens.

 

My tastes were leading me into places where guitar leads and riffs were not king, and stylish innovative artistry was taking over my interests in stuff at the time like The Cure, Depeche Mode, and a slew of other British New Wavish etc...type bands.

 

The 90's saw me go through a club show trend following tons of underground Indie bands, or Alt Country bands, and tons of British band where bands like the Verve were owning my soul, eventually giving way into the 2000's where although I try to keep my ear to the ground for just about anything, Freak Folkish or New Folk type artists became more my go to.

 

With all of that said, your question to name our Top 5 Foreigner tunes had me do something that I haven't done in 30 years, and that was to completely listen to their first 6 albums in order, and I must say that I completely enjoyed it while it really took me back to my bedroom mirror at 14 when I was Lou Gramm. I even sampled their 7th and 8th album a little but it was really starting to get late last night and I had to call it quits.

 

Strangely, but not terribly surprising I woke this morning singing "Love On The Telephone" from the Head Games release, and it took awhile to get it out of my head...LOL!

 

What I found was interesting is that some tunes didn't seem to rock as much as I had remembered, and others rocked way more than I seem to remember. Some felt cheesier to me in their predictable formulated way than they did to me years ago, while some deeper cuts captured me more now than maybe they had back then.

 

For example the song "Seventeen" from Head Games had more rockin' fire to it than I remember. Until I heard it last night it would have never come to my mind as a hot rockin' tune.

 

Another tune from Head Games that really appealed to me is :"Do What You Like", I recall singing along to it as I knew all the words, but again had totally forgotten it, and while back then it was either all out rockers or sweet love songs that captured my attention, "Do What You Like" is really a decent mid-tempoed with a nice melody.

 

"Blinded by Science" was another tune that grabbed me that I had forgotten about.

 

I could go on and on because there really are a fair amount of quality tunes within their whole body of work,

 

I battled with coming up with my top 5, and just like LB13 said this could change next week... but anyhow here goes.

 

I Want To Know What Love Is

Juke Box Hero

Dirty White Boy

Women

That Was Yesterday

 

This is what Mick Jones had to say about the inspiration for the song "Juke Box Hero", which though it might sound cheesy, I've always had goose bumps and a lump in my throat about that song because it very well could have been me.

 

That stemmed from an experience that we had, I think it was in Cincinnati. We'd gone to the arena for a sound check, and it was pouring down rain, and there were a bunch of fans waiting at the door when we went in. When we came back for the show later on, all that was left was one lonely fan, a young guy waiting out there in the rain, soaked to the skin. I thought, well, he's waiting like five hours here, maybe we'll take him in and give him a glimpse of what happens backstage at a show. And this kid was just mesmerized with everything. I saw this look in his eyes, and I thought, he's seeing this for the first time, he's having this experience. And I just imagined what was going through his mind. And I'd been toying with this title, 'Juke Box Hero,' I thought it was almost a satire on what we did and how it was perceived from an audience level, and public. That's how it originated."

 

More words have never been written about this band before this post

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B-Ball-fan

B-Ball-fan

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For any of you die-hard Lou Gramm fans out there I just came across a surprise gold mine of tracks from his pre-Foreginer days in his Rochester, NY band "Black Sheep" when he went by his birth name of Lou Grammatico.

 

Just to wet your whistle here's the band's first released single from 1974 "Stick Around".

 

There's tons more stuff out on youtube if hearing his origins floats your boat.

 

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