More Foghat

Many folks like to make New Year's Resolutions. I've never been able to keep up with my resolutions past about January 5, so I don't make them and, instead, aim for making changes when I need to make them. That usually doesn't work either, but it makes me feel better not to make resolutions.

I was on Twitter early on New Year's Day when I came across a fellow blogger's resolution:

New Year's resolution: more Foghat, less caring about what people think of Foghat. pic.twitter.com/WeWa7YgP2W

— NightOwlCards (@nightowlcards) January 1, 2016

I am totally on board with making resolutions like this one -- so much so that I'm going to highlight the great pre-Christmas package of cards that Night Owl sent to me using Foghat songs, of course! 

Maybelline

Foghat covered the Chuck Berry classic Maybelline as a B-side on their first album, the first album called Foghat. Looking through Foghat's catalog both on their albums and on their singles, I was surprised as the number of covers that the band recorded and included on their albums. I mean, lots of bands cover songs in concert, but to have Foghat recording "Maybelline," "That'll Be the Day," and "Take Me To the River" (among others) just surprised me. Even one song I associate with Foghat -- "I Just Want to Make Love to You" -- was a cover of a song by Willie Dixon.

In 2009, Upper Deck "covered" the O-Pee-Chee brand with a set that looked like it wanted to be the 1976 Topps set when it grew up. In the spirit of being a cover act, Upper Deck covered the old late 1980s trick of putting cards on the bottom of their boxes. Unlike the 80s versions, though, Upper Deck did not put stats on the backs of these cards.

I appreciate this panel coming from Night Owl particularly since it has his guy Kershaw on it next to my PC Braun. I'm getting pretty close to just going full bore after Braun cards. Close. Not there yet.

Drivin' Wheel

This is the first song on Foghat's sixth album called Night Shift. "Drivin' Wheel" has since been incorporated into a number of video games, including a couple of the Grand Theft Auto games and a NASCAR game called NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup.

Maybe the tie between the song and these cards is the repurposing of things from the past for use in the present. Sure, "Drivin' Wheel" is a bit closer in time to the video games employing it, but these A&G minis are closer in actual reuse than the song.  So, let's call it a draw and say, that they are reasonably equivalent.

Or something like that.

Slow Ride

"Slow Ride" is the song I am probably most familiar with as being a Foghat song. Guess why? A video game. It was included in the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. I used to play Guitar Hero and Rock Band a decent amount when I was single. I'd go out with friends, have a few beers, come home and decide that I wanted to chill out by myself with music by playing Guitar Hero. "Slow Ride" was the first song that you had to play when you started your "tour" in the game.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I also know that this song also appeared in a Grand Theft Auto game and, also, was named as the 45th "Best Hard Rock" song of all time by VH1. It also was Foghat's highest charting US single, reaching #20.

To me, only one item that Greg sent could possibly go with this big hit:

I don't think I'd ever seen a Topps Comic before I got this sent to me. With my love of oddballs, I'm shocked that I haven't seen one before. Hisle's huge 1978 was followed by a torn rotator cuff. It's too bad -- maybe he'd be more remembered and his current charitable work would be more highlighted as a result.

Fool for the City

Foghat was an English band, yet they were one of those oddities where they were more popular in the United States than in their native land. Maybe it's because lead singer, the late "Lonesome" Dave Peverett, couldn't find a good manhole in which he could fish -- as he is shown doing in a New York sewer on the cover of the Fool for the City album.

While the song is cited as being a "great example of the 'boogie rock' genre" using repetitive, driving rhythms and a laid-back attitude "with no sign of being pretentious", I am tying the song to two inserts from 2015 Topps that have to be the very opposite of boogie rock. 

Or, perhaps, Ryan Braun is.

Mumbo Jumbo

This is a song released by Foghat in 2003 on an album called "Family Joules." Before writing this post, I'd never heard of it. But, it was on a live album on Spotify called "Live at the Blues Warehouse" and it fits a group of cards that Night Owl sent to me to a T -- the Mumbo Jumbo of parallels and inserts!



That is a lot of 2011 showing there -- liquorfractors, black parallels numbered to 99 (Weeks), some gold parallels numbered to 2011, a diamond anniversary parallel, and an Attax of Casey McGehee. Of course, there is a Betancourt in there too, as if to remind me that the Brewers in 2013 started Betancourt at FIRST BASE for 68 games thanks to the Mat Gamel failure. As a first baseman, Betancourt made a great shortstop.

Sweet Home Chicago

Considering that everyone whose name isn't blues legend Robert Johnson is covering the song, I shouldn't be surprised to find this in Foghat's repertoire. Literally everyone from Eric Clapton, the Blues Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughn (who played the song accompanied by his brother Jimmie, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and Clapton at Vaughn's last show at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin in his final show before dying in a helicopter crash after the show), Fleetwood Mac, and Status Quo have covered the song.

I think of the Blues Brothers, I guess -- but this Foghat version is a good one.

Speaking of good ones, here's Tim Leary. Okay, what makes it good is the fact that the card is autographed by Leary. Leary himself as a player was a little less than great. His best year was with the Dodgers in 1988, when he put up a 17-11 season with 2.91 ERA (2.75 FIP) with 56 walks and 180 strikeouts. Still, a thirteen-season career is nothing to sneeze at.

Greg, I hope these Foghat songs are a sufficient thank you for some great cards coming my way that I have in this post. 

Remember: it's a slow ride, my friend. Take it easy.

Trivial Pursuits: Trade with Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits

I have mentioned before here that I play trivia on a website called Learned League that is known for having a bunch of very smart trivia players on it. The LL website has normal leagues complete with promotion and relegation among levels ranging from E up to A that run for a six-week period. After the six-week regular ends, the next six weeks are populated by special competitions called mini leagues that run for three-week periods.  

This fall, two of the three mini leagues were totally in my wheelhouse of trivia.  The first was college football.  I did not do as well as I would have liked, finishing fourth in my group despite having the second-most correct answers in the group. Still, it was great fun and totally enjoyable.  If you'd like to try your hand at the questions, go here and click through the questions on the right hand side.

The second one has been just as enjoyable -- perhaps more so for me. It is '80s Music. As anyone who has read my blog knows, I love music and often use music for topics to write about with the cards I get. Add in the fact that I graduated high school in 1990 and pretty much listened more to music than any other activity available to me during the 1980s, and you would guess that I am doing pretty well on the questions.

So, I thought I'd combine the trivia from the Mini League with the cards that I received recently from Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits, the excellent Allen & Ginter-focused blog owned and operated by Matt Stupienski. If you have any questions about any of the Ginter insert sets, Matt is the man to ask.  He's also the man when it comes to sending me some great cards...setting a high bar for me for my return package.  What did he send?

I'm glad you asked.  But first, answer this question, from match day 1:

What song, which sat atop both Swedish and German charts on this day in 1987, had a video directed by Simon West (Con Air), which featured (as a bartender!) Clive Clarke, famed member of Top of the Pops' dance troupe, Zoo? Click here.

I promise, that is the only time I won't put up the video here.

Everyone back?  Good.

That was a cruel way to start out our trivia game.  It was not cruel of Matt, however, to send me a couple of great cards from this year's 10th anniversary Allen & Ginter online special set:

Topps sold this set online only -- a move which I didn't even notice until the boxes had sold out. The black A&G cards look very sharp to me -- I love the black borders and the black background makes the art look a ton better than the white background, which seems to bleach out the color.  So, putting the cards online and selling them there only like these A&G X cards are like the bastard child of Topps minis and Turkey Red was just annoying.  

Sort of like getting Rickrolled on your first trivia question with "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Question 2: 

In November 1987, a cover of a Tommy James and the Shondells song was replaced at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 by a cover of a different Tommy James and the Shondells song.Name both cover artists, whose versions were later lampooned on Weird Al Yankovic's Even Worse (as "I Think I'm a Clone Now" and "Alimony", respectively). Two answers required.

Here's the Weird Al video for "I think I'm a Clone Now".

It's a fitting song for these mini parallels:

From here on in my collecting life, I'm going to start humming that song whenever I start hitting this mini parallels. We have 2011 well represented, along with one each from 2010 and 2012.  All of these were needed for the various player collections.

Your answers from above? The artists were Tiffany for her cover of "I Think We're Alone Now" and Billy Idol for his cover of Mony Mony:

Next Question:

What R.E.M. song, which featured a wah-wah-pedal guitar solo and two modulations, did singer Michael Stipe refer to as a "fruitloop song" while guitarist Peter Buck called it "the stupidest song we've ever written"? (It quickly became the band's biggest hit of the 1980s.)

Accompanying the question was this photo:

Being someone who spent three-plus years of my life in Athens and loving every minute of being in that city even today, I had to get this one right.

Criticizing parallels as overdone is a common thread for me, to be fair. In large part, it's because Topps overdoes the parallels.  But many times, those cards end up looking pretty good.  This is especially true of some of the Gold parallels:

Perhaps it is because I bought a case of the 2013 Topps Series 2 and broke it last year, but that Segura card looks about 800 times better than its white bordered base card equivalent. On the other hand, the Braun Bowman does not look at all better than its black bordered base card equivalent.  

So, which song did Michael Stipe call the "Fruitloop song"?

There are several live concert versions of this song available on YouTube, which raises the question: if they hate the song so damn much, why do they still play it live?

Now face North!

Two more questions.  Here's the second to last one:

Pictured here are stills from the videos for all four singles from what 1989 album?

What could possible go with this nostalgia fest? How about a couple of inserts from the 2008 Topps insert set called Trading Card History?

Yes, that's it.

I couldn't imagine either Ryan Braun or Prince Fielder listening to the album that is the subject of this question. Braun's more of a hip-hop guy -- his Miami roots showing, I'd guess...his at-bat music last year was one of two song: "Dreams and Nightmares" by Meek Mill and "A Dream" by Jay Z.  

Fielder has broader tastes -- using "Moments in Love" by Art of Noise, "Man of the Year" by Schoolboy Q, "Down for My Niggaz" by C-Murder featuring Snoop Dogg and Magic, and "Requiem: Lacrimosa" by notorious gangster rapper Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

But neither of them are repping "Deadbeat Club," or "Channel Z" or "Roam" or "Love Shack" from the B-52s big hit in 1989, Cosmic Thing.  I love "Deadbeat Club" because it name checks a few great Athens places like the since-departed Allen's and its 25-cent beers. "Love Shack" brings up the Atlanta Highway too.  Basically, it's one big paean to Athens. 

Final question

Five-word phrases regarding Milli Vanilli:

• "Girl You Know It's True"
• [What telephonically themed Billboard chart-topper?]
• "Blame It on the Rain"
• Best New Artist Grammy rescission
• Fraud-related lawsuits by the dozens

Let's be clear. I don't equate this fantastic card with the frauds that were Milli Vanilli. But this card goes with a great story about Milli Vanilli:

This 2015 Allen & Ginter card has the 10th Anniversary Issue foil on it. It didn't make a big first impression on me until I turned the card over...and lo and behold, there it was -- the card is serial numbered as #4 of 10 total.  That is awesome.

Okay, now Milli Vanilli.  I told my story in the past about buying the "you sing the hits of Milli Vanilli."  I really remember "Blame it on the Rain" because we sang it with thick hick accents. I also remember "Girl You Know It's True" because we sang the bass lines repetitively during the song.  But, we also sang the song that the question sought:

Matt, thank you very much for the great cards. I just hope I haven't besmirched your good name by including a Milli Vanilli reference here!