The Story Behind Foghat's Slow Ride

Foghat are in that select group of Brit bands with US hits who never had any success at home. Their defining moment came with this mid-70s single about rock’n’roll mainstay S-E-X.

It starts with a drum beat like the bang of a headboard. It gathers pace with a sleazy slide guitar riff and the wail of a horny banshee, then grinds for eight minutes while singer Dave Peverett urges his ‘slow-ridin’ woman’ to ‘slow down, go down, hold me, roll me…’ As Foghat drummer Roger Earl admits, it doesn’t take a degree in literary criticism to unpick the subtext of the band’s 1975 signature tune.

“Of course Slow Ride is about sex,” he says. “All rock’n’roll songs are about sex, aren’t they? It’s either ‘I’ve just done it’ or ‘I’m thinking about doing it’ or ‘Thank you for letting me do it.’ It was inspired by women. We were very popular back then. It was the middle of the 70s, the band was doing really well, and we had more money than sense.” Read more >