CD Odyssey Disc 1279: Little Feat

Welcome back, gentle readers. Let’s get to the music!

Disc 1279 is… The Last Record Album

Artist: Little Feat

Year of Release: 1975

What’s up with the Cover? A jackelope pauses on a scrub-brushed street. In the background the hills of Hollywood – composed of orange Jell-O and whipped cream – tower into the sky. Apparently no matter how bat-shit crazy your album cover is, there is always room for Jell-O.

How I Came to Know It: My friend Elaine first put me onto Little Feat as a band. “The Last Record Album” was just me digging through their back catalogue to see what else appealed.

How It Stacks Up:  Turns out “The Last Record Album” didn’t appeal much at all. I have four Little Feat albums and I put this one in last place. As this is my last Little Feat review, here’s a recap:

1. Dixie Chicken: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1084)
2. Sailin’ Shoes: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1168)
3. Feats Don’t Fail Me Now: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 797)
4. The Last Record Album: 2 stars (reviewed right here)

Ratings: 2 stars

Little Feat’s prodigious musical talent never fails to ensorcell me, but it was only a matter of time until their urge to noodle would break the charm. That moment finally happened with “The Last Record Album.”

Most of the ingredients that make me love Little Feat on earlier albums are here. Lowell George is a gifted guitar player and songwriter, and he knows how to drop his hazy hippy spell on the blues and create some boogie woogie brilliance. The band takes its lead from George, sitting down in the pocket and letting the spirit of his songs flow through them. Looking back, I’m sure that’s what convinced me to buy this record.

All of that musicianship is present on “The Last Record Album” but unfortunately that’s where the magic ends. The songs don’t have the same structure or appeal as were present on the earlier records I had reviewed. Everything sounds as groovy as ever, but groovy just isn’t enough on its own.

The best track, “Long Distance Love” is an FM radio masterpiece. The song is lyrically about not being with the one you love, but musically it feels so chilled out you don’t mind the separation. It is a solid little number that would sound good played out of a Camaro’s car stereo as you hang out with your buddies down at the lake on a sunny summer afternoon.

Unfortunately, “Long Distance Love” is the exception, and the other tracks tend to have the same relaxation vibe, but without a compelling melody to draw you in. The record is so mellow it would be fine as background music, but who wants music just in the background?

Worse, there are songs on this record that transition from harmless mellow to irksome noodle. “Day or Night” is over six minutes of song and at least half that time ist taken up with various meandering solos, each more surreal than the last. Through the latter half of the record we get an organ solo, a drum solo and – seemingly inevitably – a bass solo. The journey on the organ is particularly arduous. Everyone plays as great as ever, but I still badly wanted it to end.

My CD version of the album has two bonus tracks (three if you count the seven second track consisting of some ballpark-style organ and someone saying “bonus!”). These tracks are advertised on the back of the case as “2 ‘live’ bonus tracks” but despite the punctuation do not feature Prince and are actually live.

One is “A Apolitical Blues” is a traditional blues number imagining a phone call from Mao Tse Tung. It features some solid guitar work but fails to be as funny as it thinks it is and isn’t terribly inventive musically either.

The other “Don’t Bogart That Joint” is both a good public service message and also the better of the two songs. The expression is, as I suspected, a reference to the way Humphrey Bogart would speak while a cigarette dangled from his mouth.

As old movie icons go, I prefer Rock Hudson over Humphrey Bogart. As Little Feat albums go, I prefer the other three I have to this one. Consequently, I will not be bogarting this record, but will instead pass it on without further delay to a new home. I hope they appreciate it more than I did.

Best tracks: Long Distance Love, Don’t Bogart That Joint

CD Odyssey Disc 1168: Little Feat

I was talking with a friend last week and he asked me if I believed in the sophomore album curse. I don’t, although I expect there are some statistical underpinnings that help feed the myth.

The first of these is that those bands that only ever make two albums typically have a bad second one – that’s what makes it their last. Another is that sometimes a band makes a bad first album but it is largely overlooked. As a result everyone thinks their sophomore album is their first record, when in fact it is just the first album that got noticed.

But most of all there are just too many amazing examples of great second albums – like this next one.

Disc 1168 is… Sailin’ Shoes

Artist: Little Feat

Year of Release: 1972

What’s up with the Cover? O boy. A woman made of cake, wearing nothing but high heeled shoes, rides a swing on the manicured front lawn of some estate. Well, one high-heeled shoe – she’s lost the other one to the forces of momentum.

But wait – there’s more! An 18^th century gentleman and a giant snail look on. I’m not very good at reading the moods of a giant snail, but the 18^th century gentleman seems to be taking it all surprisingly in stride. He is certainly calmer than I’d be under similar circumstances. Probably that’s because he hasn’t turned around yet to see the fabric of reality breaking down in the sky over his right shoulder.

I always wondered what the aristocracy did for fun three hundred years ago. Now I know. I expect it is much the same in modern times, only stranger.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Elaine put me onto Little Feat a few years ago when she bought me “Dixie Chicken” and “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now.” I was content with those for a few years but last month I decided to dig through the rest of their catalogue. “Sailin’ Shoes” caught my attention and so…here it is.

How It Stacks Up:  I now have four of Little Feat’s studio albums which is all I want for the time being. Of those four, “Sailin’ Shoes” is in a photo finish for first place with “Dixie Chicken.” I’ll give the edge to the chicken lady, and put “Sailin’ Shoes” in at #2.

Ratings: 4 stars

Lowell George was taken from us too soon, leaving us with precious little of his musical genius. Despite his untimely death, he was here long enough to bring us some classic rock albums, and “Sailin’ Shoes” is one of his best.

While Little Feat’s first album is solid, “Sailin’ Shoes” starts a run of four consecutive albums that represent the band at its absolute height. The band has a fearless mix of southern rock, boogie woogie and some hippy flower-power action that made sense in 1972 and beats the odds by still working 46 years later.

In many ways, “Sailin’ Shoes” is Little Feat’s most straightforward album; at least as straightforward as their strange musical cocktail can be. The record opens with “Easy to Slip” which has a free wheelin’ sound that manages to simultaneously rock your world and chill it out. This is music for cruisin’ down a deserted desert highway in a convertible, hair blowing in the breeze and speedometer well beyond the good humour or forgiveness of local law enforcement.

The weird thing is that “Easy to Slip” is about the sadness of those people who aren’t in your life anymore, but Little Feat manage to turn it into a grooved out celebration. Or as Lowell George sings:

“Well I don’t want to live forever in

The shadow of your leaving me

So I’ll light a mellow cigarette

And try to remember to forget.”

Yeah, man. Lowell is telling you that life is hard, but it’s nothing that a “mellow cigarette” won’t solve.

The theme continues on the bluesy “Cold, Cold, Cold” a song about laying up broke in a cheap hotel. While it doesn’t end with the offhanded “let’s just get high” of “Easy to Slip” you get the feeling that given the choice Lowell George would rather sink into a groove than a state of depression.

The record has two songs that I originally discovered through cover versions. I first heard their classic trucker song “Willin’” as a Steve Earle cover on “Sidetracks” which is great but it is hard to beat the Little Feat original, which switches the lead melody between piano and guitar so effortlessly you don’t even realize it is happening. You just feel like this simple perfect melody has more depth than it should.

I first heard “Teenage Nervous Breakdown” as a Nazareth song when I was about five or six years old. I’ll admit in this case, I love Nazareth’s visceral proto-metal delivery, but when you hear the boogie woogie original you get an appreciation for just how good the bones are of these songs; you can interpret them multiple ways but the music always shines through.

Given this fact, maybe I should be less surprised at how Little Feat consistently sets the songs on “Sailin’ Shoes” against wild arrangements, with instruments coming in and out in a way so casual it seems whimsical, until you realize how incredibly tight the band has to be to pull it off.

The only time this bravery fails them is on the final track, “Texas Rose Café” which sounds like when you are playing one clip on Youtube and you accidentally click a second and they play on top of one another until you manage to get one paused.

However, this is the exception that proves the rule: up to that point, Little Feat had pushed their virtuosity to the limit ten times in a row and walked away unscathed every time. And while I didn’t care for “Texas Rose Café” by the time it came on I knew that all that discordance and loose overlapping was done with an artful purpose.

“Sailin’ Shoes” is an amazing record whether you are a music nerd, or just want to sit back and enjoy a beer on your back porch. Lowell George wasn’t here long, but this is an album that makes you realize he didn’t waste the time he had.

Best tracks: Easy to Slip, Cold Cold Cold, Trouble, Willin’, Sailin’ Shoes, Teenage Nervous Breakdown, Got No Shadow

CD Odyssey Disc 1084: Little Feat

I got home today and jumped from one chore to another all so that when I was done I could take a deep breath and turn my soul to music. And here we are!

Disc 1084 is…Dixie Chicken

Artist: Little Feat

Year of Release: 1973

What’s up with the Cover? “Who me? You’d like me to play this accordion?” says a haughty heiress. The accordion is not the instrument of choice for your average haughty heiress (that would be the piano) but this woman appears to be the exception and that smug look on her face says she was just dying for you to ask her to bust out a song.

Side note: Little Feat has predicted how cool a smoky grey-blue hair colour would look 40 years before it became widely popular.

The background of this cover confuses me, though. Is that a giant mattress behind her or is it the wall of a padded room? Maybe her wealthy family was so embarrassed that she took up the accordion instead of the piano they had her committed. “You see Doctor, for a Shaughnessy to play the accordion instead of the piano. Why, it’s just insane.”  

How I Came To Know It: My friend Elaine bought me two Little Feat albums for my birthday a few years ago, this one and “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” (reviewed back at Disc 797). Thanks, Elaine!

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Little Feat albums and if you’ve been reading carefully, you’ll already know which two. Of the two, I put “Dixie Chicken” first.

Ratings: 4 stars

Little Feat would like you to just relax, man. If you’d like to know how that feels all you’ve got to do is settle down and lend your ear to “Dixie Chicken,” their third album and a mid-seventies masterpiece.

Little Feat is what happens when blues rock gets a healthy dose of hippy. I say ‘healthy dose’ because guitarist/singer/band leader Lowell George’s musical vision may be a bit loose and flowery, but it just feels good for the soul.

“Dixie Chicken” features some of the most interesting melodic structures I’ve heard in rock music, and despite Little Feat’s penchant for throwing every instrument they can play into the arrangement, those melodies always shine through. These songs have the organic growth of a jam session but the precision and planning of master session players.

“Dixie Chicken” has a few stories to tell, but for the most part those stories want you to just chill out. And that doesn’t mean these are easy tales, it just means life is how you take it, not what happens.

This could be you and a friend chasing the same woman, like on “Two Trains” or it could be a bit of advice about treating people right as you ascend in your chosen profession as it is on “On Your Way Down.” Whatever comes your way, “Dixie Chicken” reminds you to take it easy.

It helps that Little Feat are so adept at sitting down in the pocket of one of the mellowest grooves in rock. The guitars coo out mellow reverb and the piano meanders but never falls behind. Along the way you might get a flash of organ, or even a little jazz flute but it all just comes in right when it feels…natural.

The best example of this is vibe is “Roll Um Easy”. Just two and half minutes long, this song will have you so relaxed you’ll swear you’ve been at the spa for two and a half hours. It’s about wanderin’ the earth, and taking joy where you find it and being just as happy to settle down with a good woman when the time feels right:

“Oh I am just a vagabond
A drifter on the run
And eloquent profanity
It rolls right off my tongue
And I have dined in palaces
Drunk wine with Kings and Queens
But darlin', oh darlin'
You're the best thing I've ever seen
Won't you roll me easy
Oh slow and easy
Take my independence
With no apprehension, no tension”

Later George sings about the Concertina but doesn’t play one and extolls the virtue of singing in both harmony and unison. If all that seems odd, you need to chill out even more; there aren’t any wrong turns in the world of Little Feat.

When I reviewed the follow up to this album, “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” I mentioned that it sometimes slid into excessive noodling or self-serving jams. None of those shortcomings happen on “Dixie Chicken” which is tight as hell at 10 tracks and 36 minutes. The songs are packed with musical ideas but Little Feat gets into the jam, sorts it, and resolves it in three to five minutes. It is the perfect musical meal, leaving you satisfied but not overstuffed.

Along the way they incorporate Motown, boogie woogie, blues, soul, rock and a host of other influences and come up with something all their own.

The album ends with the slow, mellow grooves of “Lafayette Railroad” an instrumental which feels less like a railroad, and more like a set of abandoned overgrown tracks through the woods you follow down to your favourite watering hole to go skinny dipping.

I needed to relax in the worst way tonight and “Dixie Chicken” got it done. This is a record made by thoughtful musicians for thoughtful people that suggests you don’t need to get out of your own head so much as you need to find a comfy place in there to take it all in.

Best tracks: Two Trains, Roll Um Easy, On Your Way Down, Fool Yourself, Walkin’ All Night

CD Odyssey Disc 797: Little Feat

Hello, weekend! Last night Sheila and I went to the Urbanite event at the Art Gallery. This is a pretty slick event, with grade A people watching opportunities. I was made better this time by keeping the overcrowding and I met some very nice people (some of them for the second time!).

I didn’t like the art installation, which featured performance artist Anna Banana. What she is doing is definitely art and I give kudos to anyone who inspires us creatively. However, it did not appeal to me. It felt a bit obvious and preachy. The section featuring stamps was kind of cool, but overall it was disappointing.

We went with our friend Elaine, who is the person responsible for me knowing about this next band!

Disc 797 is….Feats Don’t Fail Me Now

Artist: Little Feat

Year of Release: 1974

What’s up with the Cover? George Washington and Marilyn Monroe took the big blue Buick deeper into the mountains. Marilyn pressed herself hard against George as he steered the car up the steep and treacherous road. The dame had a thing for presidents; wouldn’t stop singing happy birthday to him. Right now she was a distraction he couldn’t afford. George floored it, hugging close to the cliff face as he tried to outrun the lightning storm that had been crackling close behind ever since they’d left that freaky scene in Denver…

How I Came To Know It: Our friend Elaine bought me two Little Feat albums for my birthday a couple of years ago; this one and “Dixie Chicken.” Before that I had never even heard of them. Thanks, Elaine!

How It Stacks Up:  I have the two albums noted. I seem to recall “Dixie Chicken” is slightly better, so I’ll put “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” in second place.

Ratings: 3 stars

If you don’t know them, Little Feat is the brainchild of singer/songwriter/guitarist Lowell George and is southern boogie woogie with a healthy helping of hippy dope-fiend on the side. Bands like Molly Hatchet definitely grew up listening to these guys, and borrowed heavily from their sound.

“Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” is the band’s fourth album, and I could immediately tell I was dealing with a group of musicians that were established and confident in their sound. The band is tight and there is a laid back vibe throughout.

The music has the feeling of excess permeating it. Even though the underpinning of these songs is a basic blues riff, Little Feat are never satisfied grooving through a by-the-numbers track. Pianos, horns, drums and bass – every instrument needs to chime in for a pseudo-solo as the song meanders its way to the end. It feels like the band composed spontaneously in the studio and there is a lot of jamming throughout.

This means that sometimes the songs lose their focus and devolve into noodle fests. When they don’t, you get a lively arrangement, with horn riffs that would make James Brown break out in a cold sweat. Couple this with the southern guitar boogie woogie and you have something that is not easy to describe, but definitely feels like a party.

Side One of this album is definitely better than Side Two, principally because the songs feel more focused, albeit loosely. “Rock and Roll Doctor” and “Skin it Back” are both funky and energetic. If you listen to these songs while walking you will be compelled to strut your stuff like you are in some gritty seventies film.

As the record progresses it is almost like it was recorded in a single session and everyone just kept smoking dope long after they should’ve stopped. The second to last song, “The Fan” starts with a modicum of control still but is chorus “wait ‘til the shit hits the fan’ ends up being prophetic, as halfway through the song loses its thread and descends into aimless noodling. The final track, “Medly: Cold Cold Cold/Tripe Face Boogie” is 10 minutes long and exactly as directionless as you would expect from a title that long and random.

The lyrics on this album are secondary. They sing about being on the road and being groovy but don’t have a lot of insightful things to say about either topic. That said, I like this line from “Rock and Roll Doctor”:

“Two degrees in be-bop, a PHD in swing

He's the master of rhythm, he's a rock and roll king, yeah.”

That’s the kind of post-graduate work I could get behind. It’s also a good thumbnail of what the record sounds like.

There were times that the record felt like it was only intended for people who were really high, and I was beginning to feel emotionally distant from it on my walk home last night. Then I got into downtown and was surrounded by people heading home at rush hour. All of a sudden everything made sense. The music is decidedly urban and its restless energy works best when the mass of humanity is all around you. It made me feel connected to strangers through the delicate dance we all do as we weave our way down a crowded street. And yes, it made me strut a little.

“Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” is a hot mess in places, but overall it has a celebratory energy that just makes you feel good. It’s not for everyone, but well worth a listen to see if it’s for you.

Best tracks:  Rock and Roll Doctor, Skin it Back, Down the Road, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now