Customer Reviews

Little Feat

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lowell George and Roy Estrada started Little Feat as a direct result of being fired when Frank Zappa broke up the original Mothers. Say what you want about LF's later albums ("Feats Don't Fail Me Now" and "Dixie Chicken" are absolute must-haves, by the way) but the first two albums are truly something special with Estrada's intelligent bass playing and Lowell at his absolute creative pinnacle.

Has anybody written anything as wondrously whimsical as "Snakes on Everything?" As Drugged-up paranoid as "Strawberry Flats?" or as instant-classic as "Willing?" That's one of the cool parts of this LP--you get to hear "Willin'" in its original form, without the country-western motif--just Lowell singin' and strummin' while Ry Cooder plays slide.

Be warned, though--this is NOT standard three-chord, "I-know-where-this-is-going" type stuff. Fact is, you DON'T know where it's going and that's what makes it so good.

The band's tribute medley to Howlin' Wolf is absolutely great. Bill Payne's contributions to the album ain't bad, either. But Lowell George made his mark on the music world with this vinyl tattoo and I know it's one tattoo that I NEVER want removed.

Buy their second album, "Sailin' Shoes," too.

The sound on the first Little Feat is markedly different from the other 1970's Feat albums. Don't expect the polished sound of albums like "Time Loves a Hero", "Down on the Farm" or "The Last Record Album".

The line-up changed after this album, which may be part of the explanation to the sound change.

As usual most of Lowell George's songs are great; some even outstanding. On this album several of his songs are written with Bill Payne, who also wrote a couple of the songs alone.

Though the sound may be rougher than on most later Feat albums, most trademarks of the band are already shown here; the fat slide-guitarplaying, the great voice of Lowell George and of course the unique songwriting.

Some of the biggest Little Feat classics come from this debut-album. Songs like "Truck Stop Girl", "Willin'", "I've Been the One" are standout-songs.

Lesser known tracks like "Brides of Jesus" and "Taking My Time" are almost equally strong.

Interesting that some of these songs were actually released by other artist before this album came out. The Byrds recorded "Truck Stop Girl" for their "Untitled" album, and their version with Clarence White's vocals up-front is my clear favourite version of that song. Seatrain recorded "Willin'" for their 2nd 1970 album. My favourite version of that song is Little Feat's own re-recording for the "Sailin'Shoes" album, though this first version is also great.

Little Feat's classic debut album for Warner Brothers has been lovingly remastered by Shawn Britton (who has done two other recent terrific MoFi releases Linda Ronstandt's "Don't Cry Now" and The Allman Brothers Band's "Idlewind South"). This classic mix of humor, blues-rock (which features Ry Cooder as a guest guitarist on two tracks)sounds terrific. The original album art has been duplicated. There's also an appreciation by Russ Titleman (who met Lowell George in a class to learn how to play sitar during the Summer of Love)as well as the lyrics to all the songs on the album.

If you got into the band with later albums you should be aware that Little Feat's first album (an overlooked masterpiece, while it has the seeds of their later great albums, is probably the least like albums such as their classic live set "Waiting for Columbus" compared to later work. It has a much rougher blues edge to the overall sound but it's still a delight.

This is only available as a limited, numbered edition (don't know how many are being produced however). I'd highly recommend Little Feat's debut. Keep up the great work Shawn!

Also recommended:
Waiting for Columbus
Sailin' Shoes
Feats Don't Fail Me Now

This album distills the very essence of the grit and funk that makes American pop culture what it is. The sound of desert truckstops, Hollywood hills, and too many days awake. Much rawer than what would follow and all the better for it....The Little Feat album to recommend to those who prefer soul to chops....My favorite.

Little Feat made more popular records, but they never made a more off-the-wall gem of an album than their first. This was where Lowell George's weird imagery in his songs really flowered, and his slidework never sounded so knife-sharp as it does on this album. Everything here works, whether it's the looniness of "Strawberry Flats," "Hamburger Midnight" and "Crazy Captain Gunboat Willy" or the plaintive meditations of "Takin' My Time" and "I've Been The One" or the stone blues of their cover of "How Many More Times." And that classic "Willin'" never sounded as good as when Ry Cooder underscores George's sandy, defiant vocal throughout the version here. I happen to like the current incarnation of Little Feat, but this album has yet to be topped by the band (though the fantastic "Dixie Chicken" sure comes close!). Get it!!

I purchased this album after Sailin' Shoes, Dixie Chicken, Feats don't fail me now, and Waiting for Columbus; that said, it's an interesting debut for a band that would achieve so much (particularly with Lowell George). I think that some parts of this album are as strong as anything else Little Feat ever did, but it is not quite as consistent as their above-mentioned albums. What would have constituted the first side (in vinyl days), is to my ears the stronger of the two, and is frankly exquisite-particularly snakes on everything, brides of jesus (a personal favourite, and I'm a Jew!), strawberry flats, truckstop girl, and willing. Other greats are crack in your door and hamburger midnight. As I said earlier, much of this album is highly listenable, catchy, complex, and quite beautiful, but I find some of the tracks on the second half a bit more forgettable. An interesting indication of things to come from such a great talent as Lowell George and Little Feat.

When making this debut album, Little Feat was still raw, energetic and rocking with the influences laid bare for everyone to see. The songs are not as instantaneous as on the later albums - you have to dig into them patiently and create images in your head while reading the lyrics from the booklet. The band's rawness is best exemplified by the first version of "Willin'", where Lowell's vocal performance is not an artistically successful one by any means, but here he really sounds like the kind of man the song tells about. "Crazy Captain Gunboat Willie" is an absurd story which almost feels like an outsider amongst the songs filled with grittiness and the-world-wears-you-out attitude, but it might be the song you remember best after your first listen, and sort of paves the way for getting into the rest of the material.

Lowell George became rather unhappy with this album himself, he felt it wasn't precise enough - but you should ignore that opinion and enjoy the original idea of what Little Feat should be, before increasing musicianship and polished production slowly started to ruin the creativeness and cause George to lose his interest in the band.

It's been said many times, I'm sure, this is not the "Dixie Chicken" Little Feat. It is also not completely unrecognizable as such, either.

This is one of the few records that I can honestly say defy categorization. It's more like a melting pot of the at-the-time hip "country-rock" sound, dirty blues, piano balladry, with Zappa's wierd chord arrangements and time signatures thrown in to knock it around. While the later Little Feat was basically akin to the sound of The Band, albeit alot more New Orleans-funk influenced, this incarnation seems more focused on older musical forms.

My personal favorite on the record are the stipped down version of "Truck Stop Girl". The first version I heard of this tune was Clarence Whites/Byrds version on "Untitled", and thatsx what got me interested in Little Feat. Well, I prefer LF version to much more carefully produced Byrds version. LF does a prefectly understated take on this story of a trucker and the results are beautiful.

Other highlight include "Snakes on Everything", "Strawberry Flats", and "Crazy Captain Gunboat Willie", this record will definitely you keep you interested, the melodies are often so bizzare that they come of intriguing and charming. The only real dud is "Willin", which is surprising because its such a simple, beautiful tune, pretty hard to mess up. Lowell George decided to strip it of all melody and interest, using a monotone voice, acoustic guitar, and Ry Cooders slide. The result is wholly unlistenable.

In all this is a musthave album to have for fans of: Frank Zappa, Late-period Byrds, The Band, and Little Feat in general, alot of others may fall in love with it as well.

Although not stocked in most CD shops these days, this is the most essential "old" album you do not yet own.

The variety and consistent strength of the songwriting and performances put it streets ahead of Little Feat's later output. There are no extended instrumental work-outs here, just wholly original compositions, beautifully understated playing and Lowell George's best ever singing.

It's the kind of album where your favourite track changes from week to week - always a good sign. It's also one you will return to again and again because of a certain indefinable quality which very few albums have.

Sailing Shoes is also worth 5 stars but this is their best. If you think music can't surprise you and you've heard it all before - get this and prove yourself wrong.

Little Feat released their self-titled debut in 1971. With its heavy emphasis on the blues along with splashes of country and spiritual music, the album boasts a different sound than the funky, New Orleans-based sound that they are now identified with. Lowell George's slide guitar and harmonica was more prevalent here and Bill Payne's piano work played a larger role than on their later albums. In a sense, the band was similar to long standing bands like Rush, Judas Priest, and Steely Dan in the fact that their first album sounded quite different from their future releases. However, unlike those bands, Little Feat's debut has become a forgotten gem. Even the band rarely acknowledges this album in their live shows as they only perform "Forty Four Blues" from this release and that's not very often.

But don't let that discourage you from checking this out as every track here is very good. Tracks like the melancholy "Truck Stop Girl", the beautiful "Brides of Jesus", and the story songs "Crazy Captain Gumboat Willie" and "Strawberry Flats" are all top notch while the country sounding "I've Been The One", the ballad "Takin' My Time", and the bluesy "Crack In Your Door" are also very good. The version of their classic "Willin'", is very good and very different than the more popular version on Sailin' Shoes as George sings the vocal faster while the arrangement is straight country. Other strong tracks include the rollicking tracks "Hamburger Midnight" and "Snakes on Everything" and the old-time blues of "Forty-Four Blues/How Many More Years." All told, this is easily one of their best albums and I would rank this is as their third best studio album, behind Sailin' Shoes and Dixie Chicken respectively. Highly recommended.