Foreigner-Foreigner (1977)

Artist: Foreigner

Title: Foreigner

Label: Atlantic

Format: LP

Cat #: SD-19109

Year of Release: 1977

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1977 Columbia House

Sold Price: $2.99

Listed Condition: G/G

Sell Date: 9/22/20

Discogs Last Sold: 5/7/20 VG+/VG $4.00

Low: $3.00

Median: $5.95

High: $8.49

Current low price: $2.89

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 13

Have/Want: 463/51

Where Sold: Tampa, FL

Time it took to sell: 3 years

Where and When Bought: 1981 Worcester MA, That's Entertainment

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go?: No

My relationship with Foreigner is complicated.  Although they are the embodiment of the rise of Corporate Rock, they did evolve out of Spooky Tooth and I loved them as a kid in their peak era.  For me Double Vision was the album I demanded for my 9th Birthday, having "Cold As Ice" on the FM Soundtrack in 1978.  I didn't get a used copy until I got this beat up copy from the dollar bin for 29 cents at That's Entertainment around the time of 4's utter dominance in my 11-year-old life.  I remember being so angry about "Feels Like The First Time" being a giant skip on my Sears turntable, but here's where the story gets interesting.

Sometime around 2005-2009 I was in a bar with my friend Kenny and as the hours passed the topic of Foreigner came up.  He was extolling the virtues of "Starrider" so the next day in my hungover state, with my whole library at the ready alphabetized on shelves, I pulled this copy for the first Foreigner album for reinvestigation for the first time since 1981 or so when I bought it.  The weighted Technics arm somehow navigated "Feels Like The First Time" without skipping and it was in much better shape than I remembered although surface noise clearly made me give the "G" rating in the record grade (not F or P as the seller clearly thought when he priced it at 29 cents, and I had deemed in 1981).

For chuckles, I played it on the generic cheapish setup I have now and that still held for this $2.99 sale (my bottom, ain't worth the effort of selling below that). Although a spin 10-15 years ago makes me feel like I "just" listened to it, I decided to hear it again before shipping it out.  In 2020, the first thing that came to mind was every song on side 1 was a major hit including "Starrider" and this continues as side 2 opens with "Long Long Way From Home".  The hits tail off as side 2 progresses, and I still think Double Vision tops the debut for a start to listen experience.  My 11 year old self would argue 4 was a perfect album, and Head Games had the best hits, but neither cracked the pre-CD era for me in terms of actually going through the act of playing those albums.  Some of the hits, like "Cold As Ice," I never need to hear again due to AOR overexposure throughout my whole life.  There is nothing on Foreigner's debut that sparks reactionary rage in me like their 80's ballads.  

I'm amazed I held on to Foreigner until the mid-80's, going through the effort of seeing them in August 1985 at the Worcester Centrum on the Agent Provoca-TOUR with Joe Walsh opening, whose The Confessor album I was into at the time.  Most of the other Corporate Rock stalwarts I liked in 1981 were gone by the wayside if not purged from my collection outright.  Things like Loverboy, or even Journey were at least a couple years out of active listening.  Not even the spectacle of the full Gospel choir could save the wretched "I Want To Know What Love Is" and relieve my boredom.  I couldn't listen to Foreigner after that until that late aughts afternoon on the couch.  I held on an album too late, mostly due to completist collecting where I had certain arbitrary rules on buying complete discographies.  Once I had a complete discography, I strove to maintain it.  I shed this as I got more into underground music.  To a point.  In Foreigner's case I never bought another release after Agent Provocateur, nor would I ever see them live again.