Little Feat: Hotcakes & Outtakes:
30 Years of Litltle Feat
(Warner Archives R2 79912. Compilation produced by Gary
Peterson, Bill Payne & Paul Barrère: Compilation mixed by Bill Inglot. AAD/DDD. TT:
3:05:46)
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 Although this elaborately
packaged four CD retrospective is sub-titled 30 Years of Little Feat, that’s
only correct if you count back to the recording dates for their eponymously titled first
album. If I seem to be a stickler here, it’s because I have such a vivid memory of
receiving the promo for that album deep in the winter of 1971 and wondering What the
…?
Little Feat was always a tad on the strange side and that
first album, which combined the hot Chicago blues of Howling Wolf (Snakes on Everything)
with the semi-truckin’ sensibilities of "Truck Stop Girl" and
"Willin’," was unlike anything else being touted as rock that winter. Sailin’
Shoes, their second album, released less than a year later, showed the phenomenal
growth of the band as both songwriters and players. The rough edges were gone, but the
strangeness remained in songs like "Apolitical Blues" and "Tripe Faced
Boogie."
Yet, even hard core fans such as myself were startled by
the band’s transformation on the following year’s Dixie Chicken --
founding member and bassist Roy Estrada left the band for the "security" of a
steady gig with Captain Beefheart and was replaced by Kenny Gradney, late of Delaney and
Bonnie. The addition of percussionist Sam Clayton and rhythm/alternate lead guitarist Paul
Barrère brought the band to a sextet. On Dixie Chicken, under the direction of
producer Allan Toussaint, the band unleashed the loosey-goosey, constantly bubbling
southern-rock-anchored-by-funk style that became their trademark.
It was this incarnation of Little Feat that toured the
country constantly over the next seven years, frequently as an opening act for artists who
proved unable to match either the precision or the explosive energy Feat achieved in their
set.
And Hotcakes & Outtakes reflects the band’s
growth. The set only culls two songs from their debut album, but it devotes seven tracks
to Sailin’Shoes (out of eleven) and five (out of ten) to Dixie Chicken.
Even better, the set’s second disc consists primarily of live material taken from
1976-1981 -- augmenting and expanding upon Feat’s definitive live album Waiting
for Columbus. These live tracks offer proof of the band’s greatness as one of the
mothers of all jam-bands -- nobody has ever bettered Little Feat at their peak for tight,
funky, rock&roll thrills.
After Lowell George’s death in 1981, the band went on
hiatus, as its members attempted to make careers for themselves away from Little Feat.
They rebanded, with Fred Tackett filling in on guitar, mandolin, dobro and trumpet and
Pure Prairie League front man Craig Fuller assuming lead vocal duties (replaced by Shaun
Murphy in 1995). Disc three of Hotcakes… is devoted to the post Lowell George
incarnation of Feat and it makes a strong argument for their talent as a band, but …
It’s obvious from the liner notes that the band
resents the public’s attitude that something important was lost with Lowell
George’s death. I sympathize, I really do -- but George’s distinctive falling
slide-guitar and sly, slightly behind the beat vocals lent Feat an identifiable sound that
subsequent incarnations can only approximate. For me, at least, disc three is of only mild
interest.
The treasure trove is disc four, however, which includes
demos, outtakes, studio experiments and alternate takes from the Lowell George years. Some
of these are oddities that, having heard them once, I’ll never need to hear again
("Lightning Rod Man" by George’s old band, the Factory, for instance).
Others are rough demos that eerily summon George’s shade more accurately than the
studio recordings in the set. Still others, such as the version of "Brickyard
Blues" cut from Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, are genuine classics that
I’ll return to time and again.
Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat is
graced by a comprehensive and readable 76-page booklet, written by critic Bud
Scoppa with input from the band members. I enjoyed it immensely, but I have to say that I
was irritated by Scoppa’s -- and the band’s -- reluctance to discuss
George’s well-known drug problems in an honest and forthright fashion. George was
missing-in-action from much of The Last Record Album and Time Loves A Hero,
albums that would have benefited mightily from his participation; yet Scoppa dismisses
this with a coded references to George’s "health" and "absence."
If we aren’t going to get the truth twenty years after George’s death, how long
do we have wait?
But that’s a minor quibble. Hotcakes & Outtakes
is essential Little Feat -- even if, like me, you already own most of the band’s
recorded output. For one thing, the remastering for this CD is superb. The bass is clean
and powerful and the highs, especially George’s wailing slide-guitar, is crystal
clear. Of course, given the tremendous number of sources on disc four, there is some
variation in recording quality, but by and large, the set’s sound is superb -- and
where it isn’t, it’s at least pretty good.
The previously unavailable tracks, the new Neon Parks cover
painting, and the generous liner notes combine to make this set a must-have for any Little
Feat fan. If you’re just casually interested in the band, four discs might seem like
more Feat than you want, but the band is addictive -- too much Little Feat is barely
enough.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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