Foreigner – Head Games (1979) Review | The Third Time’s a Charmin
Kronomyth 3.0: The mick johns and loo gramm show.
For years, this was my least favorite Foreigner album. Credit Dirty White Boy and an album cover that looks like the final seconds before something very bad happens to a girl in a bathroom. Throw in what is handily the band’s worst song to date (and simultaneously their best Kenny Loggins impression), Women, and you may understand why I felt the band had stalled creatively on Head Games. (And, yes, more toilet puns are in the pipeline.) Take away those two turds and the terrible cover, and what you’ve got here is actually another very good record. Love on the Telephone, I’ll Get Even with You, Rev on the Red Line, Head Games, and Do What You Like: those are all top-shelf tunes. Flush with the success of their first two albums, Mick Jones seems to have let it go to his head. Credited with musical direction, Jones was now firmly entrenched on the throne, and heads began to roll, beginning with Ed Gagliardi. Lou Gramm, meanwhile, continues to flex those golden pipes; I don’t think even Freddie Mercury could have done a better job on Blinded By Science. Lately, I’ve been listening to Head Games a lot, and I like what I hear. Roy Thomas Baker doesn’t package Foreigner’s sound as tightly as he did The Cars, but the balance of guitars and synthesizers makes it highly effective as a modern rock record. In what turns out to be a pair of swell swan songs, Al Greenwood and Ian McDonald have the final word before getting pinched off. The expanded compact disc reissue included the song Zalia, which is one of the proggiest (read: excellent) things they’ve ever done. After excellent numbers one and two, Foreigner is three for three by my count, soon to be four for 4.
The Product
A1. Dirty White Boy (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm) (3:37)
A2. Love on the Telephone (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm) (3:18)
A3. Women (Mick Jones) (3:25)
A4. I’ll Get Even with You (Mick Jones) (3:40)
A5. Seventeen (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm) (4:43)
B1. Head Games (Lou Gramm/Mick Jones) (3:37)
B2. The Modern Day (Mick Jones) (3:26)
B3. Blinded By Science (Mick Jones) (4:54)
B4. Do What You Like (Ian McDonald/Lou Gramm) (3:58)
B5. Rev on the Red Line (Al Greenwood/Lou Gramm) (3:35)
CD reissue bonus track
11. Zalia
Original 8-track version
A1. Dirty White Boy
A2. Love on the Telephone
A3. Do What You Like (Part 1)
B1. Do What You Likme (Part 2)
B2. I’ll Get Even with You
B3. Seventeen
C1. Head Games
C2. The Modern Day
C3. Blinded By Science (Part 1)
D1. Blinded By Science (Part 2)
D2. Women
D3. Rev on the Red Line
The Players
Dennis Elliott (drums), Lou Gramm (lead vocals), Al Greenwood (keyboards, synthesizer), Mick Jones (lead guitar, piano, vocals, musical direction), Ian McDonald (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Rick Wills (bass, vocals). Produced by Roy Thomas Baker, Mick Jones and Ian McDonald; engineered by Geoff Workman.
The Pictures
Art direction by Sandi Young. Front cover photo by Chris Callis. Back cover photo by David Alexander. Inner sleeve photos by William Coupon.
The Plastic
Released on elpee, cassette and 8-track on September 11, 1979 in the US (Atlantic, SD/TP 29999), the UK (Atlantic, K 50651), Canada (Atlantic, XSD 29999), Germany (Atlantic, ATL 50 651) and South Africa (Atlantic, ATC 9732) with lyrics innersleeve. Reached #5 on the US charts.
- Re-issued on remastered compact disc and cassette in October 1995 in the US (Atlantic, 82799).
- Re-issued on expanded, remastered compact disc on August 6, 2002 in the US (Rhino, 78198) with one bonus track.
- Re-issued on expanded, remastered compact disc on February 28, 2007 in Japan (Atlantic, WPCR-12563) with one bonus track.
- Re-packaged w. Foreigner, Double Vision, 4 and Agent Provocateur on 5CD set in 2009 (Warner/Atlantic, 798283).
