Willin' (Little Feat) (LP 3011 - 3020)

Little Feat  Sailin' Shoes (Vinyl, Warner Bros Records, 1972) *****  

Little Feat  Dixie Chicken (CD, Warner Bros Records, 1973) ***** 

Little Feat  American Cutie (Vinyl, Let them eat vinyl Records, 2013) ***

Little Feat  Feats Don't Fail Me Now (Vinyl, Warner Bros Records, 1974) ***** 

Little Feat  The Last Record Album (Vinyl, Warner Bros Records, 1975) ***

Little Feat  Time Loves A Hero (CD, Warner Bros Records, 1977) ***

Little Feat  Waiting For Columbus (Vinyl, Warner Bros Records, 1978) *****

Little Feat  Down On The Farm (Vinyl, Warner Bros Records, 1979) ***

Little Feat  Hoy-Hoy! (Vinyl, Warner Bros Records, 1981) *****

Little Feat  Let It Roll (Vinyl, Warner Bros Records, 1988) ****

Genre: Rock 

Places I remember: Second hand shop, MyMusic Taupo, Marbecks Records.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Dixie Chicken

Gear costume: Long Distance Love, Willin'

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: I love Little Feat. I love the idea of them.

Are you kidding me? A slide guitarist, a writer and singer like Lowell George; a pianist like Bill Payne; a natural funkiness and those quirky songs! Pure joy listening to the boys when they play.

Sailin' Shoes is their second album and a triumph. So many stone cold classic Little Feat songs on this album: Tripe Face Boogie; Willin'; Apolitical Blues; Cold Cold Cold and the title track.

Third album, Dixie Chicken is another 5-star classic album. More classic Little Feat songs: Fat Man in the Bathtub; Roll Um Easy; Two Trains, Juliet and the title track. Immense!

The change in personnel for this album (Roy Estrada replaced by Kenny Gradney, Paul Barrere and Sam Clayton in) helped create the signature funky Little Feat sound that Lowell was after.  As one critic said, "It all adds up to a nearly irresistible record, filled with great songwriting, sultry grooves, and virtuosic performances that never are flashy".

American Cutie is a live document from 1973 released in 2013. It was recorded at Ebbets Field, Denver, Colorado 19th July 1973 and the quality of the sound is excellent.

Although, the performances are a bit loose as the band is in transition in 1973 with those few changes in the lineup (detailed above). Nevertheless, the versions of Willin', Dixie Chicken/ Tripe Face Boogie and Fat Man in a Bathtub are terrific.

Next studio album, Feats Don't Fail Me Now, was another classic (the streak showed no sign of ending with this album). The stage is set from the off with the pure Little Feat funk of Rock and Roll Doctor. From there it's an embarrassment of riches: Oh Atlanta; Cold Cold Cold/Tripe Face Boogie; The Fan, and the title song (again).

That streak had to end somewhere - no one outside of The Beatles has been able to sustain quality over the length of their career. The Last Record Album from 1975 was stretching their resources a bit thin, but it still contained a few dynamite songs, including Long Distance Love.

Time Loves A Hero is a weird one. There are a few strong songs - Old Folks Boogie and the title track, but Lowell is largely absent from this one - leaving it to the rest of the band. His drug ordeals are well known but he was also in disagreement about what sounds the rest of the band wanted to make.

The live album, Waiting For Columbus, is the real deal. Four sides of prime Little Feat with all their greatest songs. It's recorded during 1977 gigs and shows the band could certainly rise to the occasion in concert.

My key memory of this is playing it a lot while living on my own in the Windmill Road flat while going to Teachers' College a few streets away.

It's a lot better than the other live album from 1973 that I've featured above. The band are locked in and the arrangements are perfect. Many definitive versions of their songs like Fat Man In A Bathtub and Dixie Chicken are on display. All of the Time Loves A Hero songs now sparkle!

The album proves beyond doubt that Little Feat were one of the primo live bands of their era. 

Back to the studio they went for Down On The Farm and while it's a game of two halves (side 1 is far superior to side 2) they still show they can turn it on when they have to.

Unfortunately, this album was completed after Lowell's untimely death from a heart attack. He had been distracted by recordings for his solo album, Thanks I'll Eat It Here and so wasn't too involved in Down On The Farm.

It does contain two of my favourite Little Feat songs - Six Feet Of Snow and the title track.

Hoy-Hoy! is a double compilation of various outtakes, live versions and some intriguing unreleased songs from the archives. 

I love these kinds of anthologies when they are done well and Hoy-Hoy! is a superb set that came out two years after the band broke up following Lowell's death. It's great for those who know the band well, but it also serves as an excellent introduction to the joys of Little Feat.

The AllMusic critic sums it up well - 'Hoy-Hoy! is a bit scattered, a bit incoherent, a little bewildering, and wholly delightful -- a perfect summation of a group filled with quirks, character, and funk, traits which were as much a blessing as they were a curse'.  

The remnants regrouped in 1988 for another go around with Craig Fuller, the founding member of Pure Prairie League, in effect taking the Lowell George role - as composer and lead singer. Fred Tackett also joins the group as a guitar foil for Paul Barrère. 

It's an excellent album. Their best studio album since Feats Don't Fail Me Now. The title track is again a standout, and Hate To Lose Your Lovin' kicks off the album in spectacular fashion. 

Unfortunately, they weren't able to sustain this standard post Let It Roll, so I haven't bothered with any subsequent Little Feat albums.

Where do they all belong? I'll need to add their first album to my wants list.

Honest man (Lowell George) (LP 2612)

Lowell George  Thanks I'll Eat It Here (Vinyl, Warner Bros Records, 1974) ****  

Genre: rock

Places I remember: Record fair

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Two Trains

Gear costume: What Do You Want The Girl To Do 

Active compensatory factors: Lowell's only solo album is always interesting and worthwhile. 

Given he was the main man in Little Feat until his death, he doesn't stray too far from that signature sound of early Little Feat. Two Trains is a highlight here because it's a great song, and it's a well-known Little Feat song.

His liner notes indicate it took over two years to produce and it seems that most of the west coast's top musicians played on it at some point. Given that, it doesn't feel overcooked, disconnected or meandering. In fact, it sounds like a sequel to Dixie Chicken if anything.

I like most of the cover versions but Himmler's Ring feels out of place and vaguely icky. Best skip that one if listening via Spotify.

Where do they all belong? A real one off.

Ship of fools (Grateful Dead (LP 945 - 948)

Grateful Dead  Wake Of The Flood (Vinyl, Grateful Dead Records/ Atlantic, 1973) ***  

Grateful Dead  Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel (Vinyl, Grateful Dead Records/ Atlantic, 1974) ****  

Grateful Dead  Terrapin Station (Vinyl, Arista, 1977) ****

Grateful Dead  Shakedown Street (Vinyl, Grateful Dead Records/ Atlantic, 1978) ***   

Genre: San Francisco rock

Places I remember: Marbecks Records/ Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Terrapin Station

Gear costume: Ship Of Fools (Mars Hotel);

Active compensatory factors: The studio albums in the seventies are under-appreciated I feel, and are ripe for reappraisal and rediscovery. 

While Wake Of The Flood has a brilliant cover, it is a somewhat downbeat, transitional album, with new members, the Godchauxs, now fully replacing Pigpen. Even so it includes the standout Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo.

After that one they revived quickly and put together a good run of radio friendly, fun records from then onwards.

I like both Mars Hotel and Terrapin Station a lot. They are more upbeat, more confident with the new members and while they still seem constrained in the studio they could at least update their sound in that setting.

Side two of Terrapin Station has the title track in eight parts and I adore this brilliant song, principally written by Garcia/Hunter but including compositional contribution from all the band. It is a delight! Everything works spectacularly on this track - the quasi medieval instrumental sections, and the singing by Garcia is superb. Robert Hunter's lyrics are again unique!

I'm also quite partial to their final seventies album - Shakedown Street. Not only featuring a brilliant cover by Gilbert Shelton, but with Lowell George as producer (shortly before he passed away).

He sets up a very cool California soft rock groove for the album.

I bought Terrapin and Shakedown while working at Marbecks in my varsity holidays and they, along with 1980's Go To Heaven, formed a lot of the soundtrack for these years. Special times with special people!

Where do they all belong? For some reason I've never bought Blues For Allah - also from this period. I'll have to rectify that. The eighties and beyond to come.