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Little Feat


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I was down at the beach in Wilmington (Wrightsville beach) a couple of years ago, with my friend Harry, who's a keyboard player, and some other guys having a marathon jam session. We played till 3 or 4 in the morning Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, man I was hurting Sunday. One night we started trying to figure out a Little Feat song " Honey I'd Hate To Lose You Now". That song has no chord progression, that you can follow, and I think that's why their music sounds so original. It's written around a bass run. Listen to some of their music and tell me what you think. I think a lot of their songs were written on bass.
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It's just that many of their songs are more complex than the typical rock song where the guitar player plays a G chord, then a C chord, etc. They move around within chords in rhythmically interesting and different ways, change in unexpected ways and at unexpectede times. They use a lot of the same elements -- riffs, rhythmic accents -- that other rock and blues music is built from, they just have more imagination and skill than 99% of the other bands out there. Billy Payne is a brilliant pianist and writer and knows how to invert and substitute chords as well as anyone. Lowell George was also a brilliant writer and Paule Barerre is no slouch neither. If a lot of their songs were written on bass, wouldn't Kenny Gradney have more writer's credits than he does? I'm pretty sure he usually just comes up with great parts after the song's been written by Barerre or Payne or George (may he rest in peace).
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I see your point there upchuck. I guess it's just me, I can't follow their music without focusing on the bass, which I guess is not a bad place to focus. We do some Steely Dan stuff which is rather complicated chord wise but the Little Feat stuff has some very unusual rhythmic things going on. It's almost syncopated, definitley a challenge. I saw Little Feat about 8 years ago after that CD came out with "Hate To Lose You Now". It was a great show.
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You should have seen them in their heyday when Lowell George was the mastermind. George was also a fantastic producer and could polish the stuff without it sounding polished. Besides being a fantastic songwriter, singer, and one of the best slide guitar players of all time. I highly recommend last years' Little feat box set, [i]Hotcakes & Outtakes[/i].
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[b]Feats![/b] :) [i]Now[/i] we're on to something! My favorite band. You often come away from one of their songs with no doubt of the tonal center and no real clue as to how they made you hear it. These guys create counterpoint like they invented it. Their arrangements are carefully constructed yet leave you with the feeling that they hijacked the harmonic structure and took it to Disneyland to enjoy the rides. The secret of course is superb musicianship. That and the fact that this is a [i]band[/i] in the very best sense of the word. I'll take it a little further. Bands like Little Feat are what makes musicians still want to be in a band. Their albums have always been uneven affairs,but their good stuff is the shit. My favorites are Sailin' Shoes,Dixie Chicken,Waiting For Columbus,Let It Roll,and Chinese Work Songs. I think every soundman who runs the board for a band with a piano and/or B3 player should have to listen to "Columbus" until they understand where these instruments should sit in the mix. Of course,if the keyboard player was as good as Bill Payne,he'd get turned up anyway. :thu: BTW,got to meet Shawn Murphy one night at a showcase. I gushed unashamedly about the vocal lick she does in "Cadillac Hotel". :D later, Mike
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[quote][b]Their albums have always been uneven affairs,but their good stuff is the shit.[/b][/quote]Uneven? Maybe some of them, but I think [i]Feats Don't Fail Me Now[/i] and [i]Dixie Chicken[/i] are two of the best albums ever recorded. Two masterpieces IMHO...
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Hear hear for the Feat! Dixie Chicken is the classic that no one (outside of here anyway) has heard. I tend to favor the Lowell George era myself, but even the current stuff stomps on just about anything else out there IMHO. You "Feat fetishists" may want to check out a group called 'Endangered Species' on the Shrapnel label. It's Kenny Gradney on bass, Ritchie Hayward on drums, and a couple of other guys on guitar and keys. Another cool thing is that Warner Bros is about to (if they haven't already) re-issue Waiting For Columbus, including "Don't Bogart That Joint".
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Yeah, the re-release of Waiting For Columbus - one of my favourite albums. It came out last week or the week before. A whole slew of extra tracks too! I can't wait to pick it up. I always bring Let It Roll with me to gigs, it's one of the CDs I use to EQ systems. Little Feat with George Massenburg - does it get any better than that? -- Rob
I have the mind of a criminal genius.....I keep it in the freezer next to mother.
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Hey DakMan: I learned how to play that one a couple of years ago, it's kind of a bar band standard around here and not as hard to play as some of their other stuff. According to their website that song appears on four different Feat albums- Waiting For Columbus Sailin' Shoes Little Feat Live From Neon Park Hey, anyone heard their latest CD-Chinese Work Songs?
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I've got Chinese Work Songs, it's good. It opens with a Band cover - Rag Mama Rag. Cool to hear Feat do The Band. -- Rob
I have the mind of a criminal genius.....I keep it in the freezer next to mother.
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Here's a Little Feat story for ya. I saw them a few years back at a place called Chastain Park in Atlanta, Ga. Well this ampitheater is frequented by Atlanta's upper class yuppies and the entire venue is a sit down affair and all the yuppies bring wine and cheese and have a picknic... really bizzarre for a Little Feat show. Anyways, at the very back of the venue there is a small grassy area and that was where you would have found me and around 20 others singin', dancin', drinkin', smokin' and having a blast. Little Feat ended the show and then came out for the oncore... Paul Barerre came to the mic and said "This ones for ya'll in the way back, cause I know you're having a good time!" and of course they played "Don't Bogart that Joint". I met Paul Barerre a few years later and we talked about that gig... he told me that it was the strangest venue and show that he's EVER played... and I witnessed it!

Kris

My Band: http://www.fullblackout.com UPDATED!!! Fairly regularly these days...

 

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Check out Bonnie Raitts early stuff, you'll see Payne/George names and influences all over the place. I still get a kick hearing the lyric "Whiskey and women and bad cocaine....", excellent stuff.
Down like a dollar comin up against a yen, doin pretty good for the shape I'm in
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"Waiting for Columbus" is in the "albums I would take to the desert island" category (along with Seger's Live Bullet).

www.ruleradio.com

"Fame is like death: We will never know what it looks like until we've reached the other side. Then it will be impossible to describe and no one will believe you if you try."

- Sloane Crosley, Village Voice

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[quote]Originally posted by daddyelmis: [b]"Waiting for Columbus" is in the "albums I would take to the desert island" category (along with Seger's Live Bullet).[/b][/quote]don't forget J. Geils "Full House" :thu: bob
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[quote]Originally posted by BKeelan: [b] [quote]Originally posted by daddyelmis: [b]"Waiting for Columbus" is in the "albums I would take to the desert island" category (along with Seger's Live Bullet).[/b][/quote]don't forget J. Geils "Full House" :thu: bob[/b][/quote]Oh Man, Yeah! "Full House" kicks. That's one you wish was 5 hours long 'cause they hit everthing dead on. I play it LOUD! Kinda pisses wifey off but hey...

 

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"When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it." The Duke...

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Another vote for "Waiting for Columbus". The band I played in during the early eighties played Willin, Fat man in the Bathtub, and Sailin Shoes off that album. The synth lead in Fat Man was too much when I first heard it. The rhythms in that tune also were great. The band had a time learnin that song! But it sure went over well with the crowd whenever we played it! Great, great band! nitecrawler :cool:
"Time to head down that old Colorado highway pardner."
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"Fat Man" is one of my personal favorites from the day I heard it until the present day... ... along with "Rock 'n Roll Doctor," "Two Trains," "Rocket In My Pocket," just to name a few real favorites... oh, and "Juliet," "Feats Don't Fail Me Now," "Teenage Nervous Breakdown," "Got No Shadow..."
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Another old hand Feat head here. I saw them when I was 16 on their last tour ith Lowell. Oh my goodness, they were the best live band. There approach to groove and arrangement was so subtle and rich. Songs like Fat Man and Down the Road move in a way I've never heard replicated--so much open space, no single straight rhythmic part, a lot much apparent noodling and filling but totally together at the same time. I don't even know how to describe it but I love it. Let us not neglect the contribution of Ritchie Hayward. I can't think of a drummer I like more. An often overlooked Feat album is The Last Record Album, late in the George era. It is a bit clean and cerebral compared to the the earlier stuff (Payne's influence in ascendance) but it's something no one else could have done. That was my first album of theirs and remains a sentimental favorite.
Check out the Sweet Clementines CD at bandcamp
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[quote]Originally posted by daklander: [b]Yeah, I got a couple of their cd's. I really love "Willin". I've never seen it on any album anybody got the name of one it's on?[/b][/quote]I'm pretty sure Willin' is on the first self-tiled album, but the better version is on Waiting for Columbus because they sing it as a group. Waiting for Columbus is the best live album I've heard from anyone, and my favorite Little Feat album. The same songs actually sounded better than the studio recording. Piece of trivia: The Dixie Chicks named themselves after Dixie Chicken. Whatever happened to them? I wasn't really a fan, but I'd rather have them be the top country act then whoever it is now.
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magpel, Back to the New Paltz connection, when I was in that band with Jimmy Diven, we used to do several Feat covers -- we had a neat derangement of "Tripe Face Boogie," and we also did "The Fan" and "Easy To Slip" and toyed with a few others. I also saw Little Feat somewhat late in the game, possibly the tour that [i]Waiting For Columbus[/i] was recorded during... saw them at Town Hall in NYC.
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I love The Feat. My favourite is Hoy-Hoy, the album relaesed after Lowell's death. A collection of out-takes and live cuts I believe. Also crazy about Lowell's solo release "Thanks, I'll eat it here". "Willin'" is on the self-titled debut. I hope GM sees this one and contributes...he was instrumental in their career.
" I ain't no phisikist, but I know what matters..."
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