About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Little Feat

Encyclopedia : L : LI : LIT : Little Feat

Little Feat is a band who have mixed blues, R&B, country and rock and roll styles together since they formed in 1969 in Los Angeles, and are known for their eclectic blend of many forms of music.

Little Feat in 2006 with Shaun Murphy on vocals
Enlarge
Little Feat in 2006 with Shaun Murphy on vocals

Contents

Lowell George Era

The band was formed by two former members of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention: songwriter and guitarist Lowell George, who also provided vocals and slide guitar and Roy Estrada on bass guitar. They were joined by drummer Richard Hayward and Bill Payne on keyboards and vocals. The name of the band came from a comment made by Mothers' drummer Jimmy Carl Black about the diminutive size of Lowell's pedal extremities.

Legend has it that George showed Frank Zappa his song Willin, and that Zappa fired him from The Mothers, since the song contained drug references. Ironically, when Willin was recorded for the first, eponymous Little Feat album, George had hurt his hand, and could not play the slide part on the song: Ry Cooder was drafted in to play this part. This was one reason why Willin' was re-recorded and included on the lineup for their second album Sailin' Shoes. Sailin' Shoes 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.

The first two albums, Little Feat and Sailin' Shoes, received good reviews and George's song Willin' became a classic, subsequently popularised by its inclusion on Linda Ronstadt's album Heart Like A Wheel. However lack of commercial success led to the band splitting up, with Estrada leaving to join Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. In 1972 Little Feat reformed with bassist Kenny Gradney replacing Estrada, and also adding a second guitarist/vocalist, Paul Barrere, and percussionist Sam Clayton. This new lineup radically altered the Little Feat sound and brought fresh songwriting capabilities to the band. 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 Feats Don't Fail Me Now (1974), which was a studio-recorded attempt to capture some of the energy found in many of their live shows from around that time. The album concludes with a medley of Cold, Cold, Cold/Tripe Face Boogie - songs from Sailin' Shoes - reworked in a "live" style.

Little Feat reached a musical peak in this mid-1970s period. Although outdone in sales and popularity by other rock contemporaries, they had built up a solid audience through their album releases and incessant touring, and were hailed as exceptional and groundbreaking by many music journalists. Proof of their musical influence was the fact that they could count members of The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin among their loyal fans. Mick Taylor can be heard guesting on Waiting For Columbus.

The release of The Last Record Album in 1975 signalled another change in the Little Feat sound, with Barrere and Payne developing their interest in jazz-rock, which was further extended in 1977's Time Loves A Hero. Prior to the recording of The Last Record Album drummer Ritchie Hayward parted company with his motorcycle at high speed . The sleeve liner to the LP version of this 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 Paul 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 following album Time Loves A Hero.

Lowell George continued to produce the albums, but his songwriting contribution lessened as the group moved onward into jazz-rock territory. In August 1977, the band recorded a live album from gigs at The Rainbow Theatre in London and Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC. Waiting For Columbus is considered by many rock music critics to be one of the best live albums of that decade. It was released in 1978, by which time it became apparent that Lowell George's interest in the band was diminishing, along with his health. George did some work on what would eventually become Down On The Farm but then recorded a solo album Thanks, I'll Eat it Here and declared that Little Feat had disbanded. During touring for Thanks, I'll Eat it Here in June of 1979 George died of a heart attack, although it is unknown whether this was related to his weight, the stress of touring or to his drug habit.

The rest of Little Feat finished and released Down On The Farm before disbanding in 1979. A subsequent retrospective double album compilation of rare outtakes and live tracks, Hoy-Hoy! was released in 1981.

Little Feat after Lowell George

After a long break, the group reformed yet again in 1988 when Barrere, Clayton, Gradney, Hayward and Payne added vocalist Craig Fuller, formerly from the band Pure Prairie League (who also provided some rhythm guitar), and Fred Tackett on guitar, mandolin and trumpet. The initial release by the new lineup, Let It Roll, was well received by many of the fans of the original group, and it held promise for a return to glory. The evolving show of live touring was more structured than the earlier incarnation, as Fuller was considered more of a stage showman

Subsequent releases and live shows were not so well received, with many fans comparing them unfavourably with the work of the band when led by Lowell George. Nowadays fans of Little Feat tend to split into two camps: those who prefer the Lowell George-era group and those who still enjoy the band in its various post-Lowell incarnations.

In September 1993 Fuller's vocals were replaced by those of female singer Shaun Murphy. Murphy began her career working in Detroit, Michigan, most notably in theatre, and received a record contract with Rare Earth Records, a division of Motown Records, as a member of a duo with notable recording artist Meat Loaf. The duo later disbanded, and Murphy went on to sing and record with renowned artists such as Eric Clapton and Bob Seger, prior to joining Little Feat as a replacement for Fuller. With Murphy, the tone of the live shows is more relaxed, and lends itself to more free-flowing jams, as other members of the band seem to prefer. The studio albums with Murphy failed to attract some of the original fans of the band, but the group continues to show promise and produce music effectively.

The latter and current replacement line-up has found commercial success harder to come by for many reasons, and although their live performances have had limited commercial success, they continue to have a faithful grass-roots following among the baby-boomer generation, second only to other bands such as Jimmy Buffett and The Grateful Dead, and continue to attract members of the younger generation, both in the United States and abroad.

Some of the prominent musicians and bands to play, record, and cover the music of Little Feat include The Byrds, Garth Brooks, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Nicolette Larson, Randy Newman, Robert Palmer, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, John Sebastian, Van Halen, Joe Walsh, Phish, and Bob Weir.

Little Feat continues to play and tour all over the world in "the new millennium", and is regarded by many rock music critics as a "band's band", and as one of the greatest rock bands in American rock music history.

The majority of Little Feat album releases through 1990 can be found in the Warner Brothers Records catalog. In 2002 Little Feat launched their own record label, Hot Tomato Records.

Selected discography

Chronological albums

Video

Box Sets

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: