The first time I ever heard of Little Feat was courtesy of the
\nVan Halen single “Black And Blue”, which featured a b-side of the
\nband covering “A Apolitical Blues”. (Somewhere, I still have that
\n45.) Once I discovered which band originally recorded the song, I
\nmade the pilgrimage to the used record store to try and locate
\nanything by Little Feat. That day, all they had was their 1971
\ndebut album, but that was fine for me, as I headed home with my new
\ntoy.<\/p>\n
But when I put the record on my stereo, I quickly snapped back
\ninto reality. What the hell
\nwas<\/i> this noise that I was listening to, and why didn’t it
\nsound anything like the raucous, raunchy blues that I had heard Van
\nHalen covering? To the shelves of the Pierce Memorial Archive it
\nwent, never to be touched again for about 10 years. (I later took
\nanother chance with Little Feat, and was pleasantly surprised.)<\/p>\n
After about ten years removed from this record, you’d think that
\nmy opinion of
\nLittle Feat<\/i> would change. If it has, it hasn’t changed much.
\nThis record shows little of the brilliance that Lowell George and
\ncrew had, and set the pace for the band’s career, which would
\nfeature many musical highs and lows.<\/p>\n
Originally, Little Feat started life as a four-piece, with
\nGeorge on guitar and vocals, Bill Payne on keyboards and vocals,
\nRichie Hayward on drums and former Mothers Of Invention member Roy
\nEstrada on bass. Celebrated guest musicians on
\nLittle Feat<\/i> include appearances by Ry Cooder and Sneaky
\nPete.<\/p>\n
From the sound of the lineup, you’d think that you’d be in for a
\ndifferent sort of musical treat. And, well, it’s
\ndifferent<\/i>, no question about that. I think the first thing
\nthat struck me about this album was that the verses often featured
\nlines that didn’t rhyme, something that I hadn’t grown to
\nappreciate yet. (I was only about 17 when I first bought this
\nalbum, and my palate still had a long way to go towards maturity.)
\nToday, the lack of rhymes doesn’t bother me.<\/p>\n
What does bother me about
\nLittle Feat<\/i> is the poor songwriting that abounds throughout
\nthe album. The first song that gets my attention doesn’t come until
\nwell into the first side, with “Truck Stop Girl” – and,
\nunfortunately, it turned out to be the only song I really liked. An
\nearly version of “Willing”, a song that was to become a Little Feat
\nclassic, is heard here, but it sounds rushed and out of focus.
\nGeorge and crew would get it right when they reprised this song one
\nalbum later, on
\nSailin’ Shoes<\/i>, providing a more laid-back, harmony
\nvocal-encased version. This one sounds like a half-assed demo.<\/p>\n
While I’m not complaining about the overall musicianship of
\nLittle Feat, many of the songs sound like demos that were never
\nreally meant for public consumption. “Hamburger Midnight” is one
\nsuch track, a song that could have been turned into a grit-coated
\nclassic had there been more work applied on the overall song. Other
\ntracks like “Takin’ My Time,” “Snakes On Everything,” “Crazy
\nCaptain Gunboat Willie” and “Strawberry Flats” all just fail to
\ninspire the listener.<\/p>\n
Granted, Little Feat is the kind of band that you have to
\nacquire a taste for. But even after a decade of owning
\nLittle Feat<\/i>, I cannot listen to it and begin to find the
\npoint which suggests that this band was capable of so much more.
\nMaybe there’s a slight hint of it in “Truck Stop Girl,” but any
\nhopes one had are quickly squashed like so many bugs on the
\ninterstate.<\/p>\n
\nLittle Feat<\/i> is an album that should be approached with
\nextreme caution. If you’re a die-hard fan who absolutely has to
\nhear how the band got its start, then pick it up. But if you, like
\nme, wanted to find the inspiration behind the songs, this isn’t the
\nplace to start, ’cause it may cause you to lose hope of ever
\npicking up the trail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5667],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-39098","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-little-feat","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39098"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39098"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}