Little Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles. The band’s music has remained an eclectic blend of swamp rock, rock and roll, blues, boogie and country. They were recommended to me by a friend who knew that I was tiring of the blander from s of American soft rcok asnd the pretensions of UK prog rock. Their early music has stck with me as have several of the vinyl albums.
Lowell George met Bill Payne when George was a member of the Mother’s of Invention. Payne had auditioned for the Mothers, but had not joined. They formed Little Feat along with former Mothers’ bassist Roy Estrada and drummer Richie Hayward frrom George’s previous band, The Factory. The name of the band came from a comment made by Mothers’ drummer Jimmy Carl Black about Lowell’s “little feet”. The spelling of “feat” was an homage to the Beatles. The eponymous first album delivered to Warner Bros. was recorded mostly in August and September 1970, and was released in January 1971. When it came time to record “Willin’,” George had hurt his hand in an accident with a model airplane, so Ry Cooder sat in and played the song’s slide part.”Willin'” would be re-recorded with George playing slide for Little Feat’s second album Sailin’ Shoes, which was also the first Little Feat album to include cover art by Neon Park, who had painted the cover for Zappa’s Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
Despite good reviews of their sophomore effort, lack of commercial success led to the band splitting up, with Estrada leaving to join Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, although he has given other reasons for quitting the band, such as to get away from the pollution and the L.A. city life. In 1972 Little Feat reformed, with bassist Kenny Gradney replacing Estrada. The band also added a second guitarist in Paul Barrere, who had known George since they attended high school in California, and percussionist Sam Clayton and as a result the band was expanded from a quartet to a sextet. Both Barrere and Clayton added vocals on many songs, although all the band members provided backing vocals in various tunes.
This new lineup radically altered the band’s sound, leaning toward New Orleans funk. The group went on to record Dixie Chicken (1973) — one of the band’s most popular albums, which incorporated New Orleans musical influences and styles—as well as Feat’s Don’t Fail Me Now (1974), which was a studio-recorded attempt to capture some of the energy of their live shows. (The name of the latter album pays homage to the Fats Waller song.)
The release of The Last Record Album in 1975 signaled another change in the Little Feat sound, with Barrere and Payne developing an interest in jazz rock. Prior to the recording of The Last Record Album, drummer Richie Hayward had a motorcycle accident and the liner to the LP release of The Last Record Album was decorated with copies of his many hospital bills. Also present was evidence of a late change to the running order of tracks: the lyrics for Barrere’s song “Hi Roller” were printed on the sleeve, but scored out, and the words “maybe next time” scrawled over them. Sure enough, “Hi Roller” was the first track on the subsequent album Time Loves A Hero.
George continued to produce the albums, but his songwriting contribution diminished as the group moved into jazz fusion, a style in which he had little interest. In August 1977, Little Feat recorded a live album from gigs at the Rainbow Theatre in London and Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Waiting for Columbus is considered by many rock music critics to be one of the best live albums of all time, despite the fact that significant portions of George’s vocals and slide work were over-dubbed later in the studio. It was released in 1978, by which time it had become apparent that George’s interest in the band was waning, as was his health. While touring in support of his solo album in June 1979, at the age of 34, George collapsed and died in his hotel room in Arlington, Virginia. An autopsy determined the cause of death was a heart attack. Despite this, the band has continued to play ever since. here they are with special guests with a George song. ‘Roll Em Easy’.
