weather: MIXED WEATHER

 

There is a Turkish saying about the month of March that goes like this: it'll make you look (longingly) out the door and cause you to burn your (wooden) shovel and pick handles.

March 1st here was a balmy 50 degrees F; March 3rd it snowed. 

Myself, I feel the weather all day long since my workplace is required to leave all the doors and windows open to mitigate the virus. But it will soon pass. The cold weather, that is.

The weather? ... we have no control over it. Or do we? You want to get into climate change, do you? After COVID mitigation, you say you want to take on weather patterns? Well,  OK ...

I'm not a climate data scientist but I do believe that we don't have (and likely never will have) the long-term data to prove human-caused climate change - there are just too many factors). But I still believe I carry some responsibility for my use of the resources I consume. Guilty until proven innocent.

But without fruitless worrying, we *can* start by making a (limited) list of weather issues:

 

too much rain

 

too cold

 

too hot (kind of off the mark - except that it is Hot Tuna and Jorma is hot)

 Do note that the Weather report intro solo at the top is played on a bass guitar

 

Rock Hall Snubs: Little Feat

 

purchase [ The Best of Little Feat ]

Do we need a little background on the HoF before we explore why a band/artist who "rightly" belongs in the list has never been voted? There's a  committee who decide on a yearly list of nominees, and then a cadre of experts votes. Musicians are eligible 25 years after their first recording has been released. As of 2021, 351 have been inducted in one of several categories, such as performer or early influence, non-performer and sideman. The number of inductees varies by year. Awards may be given posthumously; 7 such were given in 2020.

So ... is there bias? Well ... if your favorite band has been eligible for years and still hasn't made the list, you're likely to think there is bias. Does this constitute "snub"? Hard to say, but I've got one that belongs but isn't, and the band seems to tick all the necessary checkboxes, but ... and here is one possible catch ... they aren't particularly relevant to many people any longer. Back in the 70s they were; today - not so much. That said, Rolling Stone magazine readers voted them #2 deserving but snubbed a few years back and they still have not been voted in.

Except ...  their best music is timeless. And their lead guitarist and vocalist was the best of the best - until he died an early death. And while the band has more or less hung in there ever since, it's never been the same. And now, without Paul Barrere, who co-wrote this one below (and passed in 2019), joining the list may be a dream.

Remedies: Rock and Roll Doctor

Little Feat: Rock and Roll Doctor

[purchase]

Different people have different definitions of what constitutes feel good music. Chances are, our new theme will bring out plenty of examples, because music that recommends a remedy should feel good. Certainly, that should be the case when the song itself advises music as the cure for what ails you. So, for me, it only makes sense to lead off with Little Feat in their classic line up. This was a band that took the blues rock that had developed in the 1960s, added at least a hint of New Orleans, especially in the rhythm section, and topped it all off with the tasty slide playing and skewed lyrical sensibility of Lowell George. That is a combination that certainly makes me feel real nice whenever I hear it.

Down: All That You Dream

purchase [The Last Record Album]

I hadn't intentionally pre-planned continuity from my last post to this one, but - as the "responsible" for this theme, I do wonder if my eventual theme choice wasn't at least subliminal (I think that applies). I mean, going from Little Feat's Can't Stand the Rain >> Little Feat's All That You Dream. <Entre paranthese> I have to give a tip of the hat to the comment from Dead_Elvis, Inc for the correction in the comments [right side]. But beyond, the theme offers up the possibility of pursuing Little Feat's <Down on the Farm>, notable for little except being the final album to which Lowell George contributed [a little because he was giving his time to <Thanks, I'll Eat It Here> as referenced by Dead_Elvis, Inc.]

There's something similar about the way that Little Feat's (and Steely Dan's- [RIP Walter Becker]) music affects me. Technically, I think I've got it right if I say they both incorporate somewhat complex structures that combine "California pop" with jazz. I'm talking catchy/pop-ish tunes with a twist away from the standard R&B I-IV-V chord structure. Add in lyrics that generally go a little beyond "She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah.." and you've got me on board. (Spyro Gyra and even into a lot of the ECM music from the mid 70s)

Yes, I confess, I am stuck back in the past. There isn't a lot from the present that I listen to. Most everything that comes to mind for a <Down> theme goes back to before the 90s. Heck, most everything I have ever posted here goes back to before the 90s. Not all. Most.

It seems to me that this is a song that sings about a better future, or at least the hope for better. Certainly regret and acknowledgement that things aren't what we wished they would be, but also a desire to improve:

All of the good times were ours ...
Rainy days turn to sunny ones ...
Can't be 'round this kind of show no more

Worth considering that the song isn't credited to Lowell George, but it is among the last that he was here for. Possible premonition because he wasn't around for too many more shows? Online sources say it is he doing the vocals (sounds right).

Also worth considering -from my perspective- is that the song doesn't bring me down. There are songs that do, but the tempo and harmony here aren't sad despite the lyric word choices (clouds, rain, wash away ...)

While you are here, also see Darius' long ago related https://sixsongs.blogspot.com.tr/2012/01/on-air-on-your-way-down.html

Incompetent/Can't : Can't Stand the Rain

purchase [I Cant Stand the Rain]



Maybe we have had enough of the rain. Maybe some of the news pundits are right about how the main stream media tried to make the most of the Carib weather - to the extent that it has surpassed overload and caused unnecessary fears. And maybe J David is right that we have exceeded the "Can't" threshold when we could have been looking at other aspects of the Incompetence/Can't theme.

If you are a regular here, you likely know I have an enduring affinity for the slide guitar, as embodied in such impresarios as Mr Ry Cooder, Ms Bonnie Raitt, Mr Duane Allman and Mr Lowell George. (There are others, but these are among my main staples)

As JDavid pointed out, there are various avenues one can pursue from a theme of Can't - primarily personal incompetence.  I don't think that <I Cant Stand the Rain> falls into this category - the weather is beyond our control, and most likely the lyrics transcend the weather, rather, here, a metaphor for other aspects of the singer's life. You know ... rain is wet and sad and brings you down, especially if you get caught out in it unprepared like...

In my ignorance, I had assumed that this was a Little Feat original. No small amount of their output was original. However, not this.

The song is credited to someone I had never heard of before: a certain Ann Peebles. And while I was only aware of the Little Feat version, there are all sorts of others who have done theirs and you can find many of them at YouTube.

A few of them:

Hard: Dont Try So Hard

[purchase Shake Me Up]

Little Feat was/is/has been one of my favorite sounds of all. From my reading, critics seem to fall into two categories: thems that think the band could never be the same after Lowell George's passing (and they are right ... but wait: "be the same" means just that) , and thems that give them a chance without their original (burned out) star.

Like many others, I kind of stopped tracking them about the time of the 1979 album Down on the Farm. Probably had something to do with the fact that that's when I left the US. But I cant offer any excuses for not continuing to follow them. Well, no ... I did follow. Over the years, I have returned again and again to the Internet Archive's incredible collection of free Little feat concert recordings, but almost all of it is from before '79.

I'm not really truly stuck in the pre-79 age, but in many ways I am. You hear folks say that the music that comes out these days just doesn't rate compared to the old days. But it's not so. It's more that a lot of music from the "old days" has become classic. As has Little Feat.

The Little Feat on the '91 Shake Me Up album is disparaged by some: it's Paul Barrere, Craig Fuller, Bill Payne, Richie Hayward ... - the same guys as the old days. There are some songs on the album that I agree are not so good, but then there's others like <Don't Try So Hard>, that IMHO match the quality of anything earlier: solid emotion, quality vocals and slide guitar that may not be Lowell George, but doesn't leave much to be desired.

Frozen: Cold, Cold, Cold

purchase [Cold Cold Cold]

Frozen is cold - as in Little Feat's song of the same name.

There are many other Little Feat songs that rank higher for me. Almost too many, in fact: How about Fool Yourself, or  Time Loves a Hero, or All That You Dream, but Cold... has a special place in my list. Yes, it is a classic example of Lowell George slide guitar. And the rest of the seminal band's skills (keyboards by Bill Payne and 2nd guitar by Paul Barrere, who took over lead guitar after Lowell George's death)

Other songs may rank higher, but there are few slide players that rank higher. I list Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George at the top of the list of slide guitar players from my time (check my previous posts)

I could have sworn that Bonnie Raitt must have had some input on Cold, Cold, Cold: it sounds too much like her style and  she and Lowell George seem to have had something going on at one time. However, Bonnie Rait appears to have only joined up about an album later (on the 1973 Dixie Chicken). I didnt know, however,  that Nicolette Larson figured in. Should have guessed: tributes to her include everyone in that same orbit (and most of my main favorites from a previous generation). Including Bonnie Raitt.


It may be that I relate most to the lyric line:
<turn your clock back woman when you see me coming around>
This past week, I hit Seattle, WA for 3 days, Princeton, NJ for another 3 and then back home to Istanbul, TR: lots of clock turning, but almost no Frozen.

Laughter: It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry

 

Shaun Murphy/Little Feat: It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry

[purchase the 1965 Dylan version]

Forgive my repetitious returns to the same musicians: last week it was Dylan, and more than once before, I have brought you Little Feat. Indulge me, if you will, to hear my reasons (besides the fact that I just happen to like their sounds).

While I deeply respect Dylan, there’s not many of his vocals that hit the spot for me (Nashville Skyline and Slow Train Coming may have come closest to my preferences).  Highway 61 Revisted, the 1965 album this song appeared on, is not one of my preferences in terms of Dylan vocals. However, as noted last week in “The Bard”, for me, it is his lyrics . There isn’t much to laugh about in the lyrics here – quite the opposite. The Laugh of the week is clearly limited to the title. Overall the words strike me as being rather bleak. Yet, there are people who find clear sexual reference:

If I die on top of the hill

And if I don’t make it

You know my baby will

is a supposed reference to “petit mort”? For my part, rather than search for meaning, it is the juxtaposition of words and images they convey: “Ride a mail train/Can’t by a thrill”.

The song structure is basic blues, and many of the version you’ll hear veer to the lugubrious: slow and true to the train - both of the title and of the blues themselves. However, and the reason I link first to the version I have chosen is because of the way Ms Shaun Murphy does her thing. For about 15 years, she did vocals with Little Feat before she moved on to her own band. (Do check the last of the videos at this link) Also see this link to download the full set of songs from this London concert in 2004. On her website, I am delighted to see that Bonnie Raitt has good words for her: they've got very similar musical energies. Finally, here are links to other versions/other musicians doing the song

Garcia Birthday Band: It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes aTrain to Cry

String Cheese Incident: It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes aTrain to Cry

(All mp3s here courtesy of the Internet Archive ... for more)

Musical Quotes: Tripe Face Boogie

Little Feat: Tripe Face Boogie

Download [It's a free Creative Commons file: link here]

I spent a good part of this week searching and think about a song – any song – that fit the defined topic “brief passages from other songs”. I must have listened to 100s of songs and racked (or is that wracked?) my brain – feeling mostly that my efforts were in vain, although lots of possibilities came to mind.

Before the week ends, here is a link to a song that includes a rather weak link to a “passage from another song”.

Once again, it is a creative commons/freely downloadable song from archive.org from a band I continue to flog: Little Feat doing Tripe Face Boogie. The lyrical association that I stretch to match the topic are four simple words  “New York, New York”: while Little Feat mention several other cities, the only one they repeat is NY, NY. They may or may not have had any intention to reference the  Liza Minelli/Frank Sinatra version, but it seems to me that the thread exists – however weak.

And, however weak, I wanted once again to contribute something before this week (weak!) expires.

The Animal Kingdom: Dixie Chicken

Little Feat: Dixie Chicken
 [purchase]

While we're stuck on the animal kingdom and temporarily focused on fowl (and the plural is fowls?), allow me to once again plug both one of my favorite bands and one of my favorite resources (poignantly appropriate at this point in time)

The original studio version (purchase link goes there) is from the 1973 album of the same name. This embedded link is from the legal/free repository at archive.org where it is labeled as a 1976 live recording from the Warner Theater. I think you'll agree that it is pretty crisp (all around) for a live recording. ( I hear something "funky" happen to the recording at about 9'30", but it doesn't detract much from the overall value. Am I wrong? Do you hear it, too?)

Please pardon my irreverance as to the image choice for "the animal kingdom", but I kind of wish that it might provoke a remark about what it is that we do to our animal brethren.

Eateries and Watering Holes: Spanish Moon

Little Feat: Spanish Moon

[purchase]

This week on Star Maker Machine, we will be eating out, and following that up with a nightcap. Eating and drinking are basic human needs, and we don‘t like to do either by ourselves. So it is that the places we go out to eat and drink have been the basis for countless songs. Some songs take place in an eatery or bar, but the focus this week is on the place, not specific people there. Certainly, there will be some overlap however.

Let’s begin with a visit to the Spanish Moon. There actually is a Spanish Moon in Baton Rouge, LA, but I hasten to say that that is not the place shown above. I think the one in Baton Rouge probably takes its name from this song, but this one is a seedy-looking place in the middle of the bayou, but with great music. The picture I have chosen is of an old juke joint. It mat not look like much, but some legendary figures in blues history played there. That’s the kind of place Little Feat are talking about. The women and the men are each dangerous in different ways, but the music draws you in as soon as you hear it from out on the road. The song captures both the temptation and the danger perfectly.

1988: Let It Roll

Little Feat: Let It Roll

[purchase]

By 1988 Little Feat were beyond their commercial prime - their best years by most accounts being the latter part of the 70s. Having lost lead guitarist and founder Lowell George in 1979, the band continued with many of the core members (Paul Barrere on guitar, Richie Hayward on drums, Bill Payne on keyboards ...) through the 80s and 90s. Bill Payne and Paul Barrere still tour today as did Richie Hayward until his death in 2010. Aging rockers they may be, they still sound great today: check them out here, where you can watch and hear more of their music online.

Their 1988 studio album Let It Roll was their first studio album following Lowell George's death. Released in July of 1988, the album turned gold the following year. Many of the songs from the album were penned by a late-comer to the band, Craig Fuller, formerly of Pure Prarie League. Linda Ronstadt, Bob Seger and Bonnie Raitt provide additional vocals on the album. At various times during their history, in addition to the above musicians, the members of the band have played with Frank Zappa, Ry Cooder, Joe Walsh, Jackson Browne ... the list goes on and on.

More often than not, Little Feat's music has a funky Cajun beat - a New Orleans kind of sound - that veers to boogie (cf. a song of theirs from the Salin' Shoes album called Tripe Face Boogie). And of course, the term boogie carries plenty of meaning in the disco world of the 1980s and beyond. This song is no exception: the band really gets down.

This version of the song Let It Roll, from the album of the same name, recorded live at the Starlight Bowl, Burbank in 1990, is one of many Little Feat live recordings available for free under a Creative Commons license here. Like almost all of the live Little Feat songs hosted at "archive", the recoding shows off the band's many talents: excellent driving force, tight group work and that funky rocking roll.

Guest post by KKafa

On the Air: On Your Way Down

Little Feat: On Your Way Down

[purchase studio version]

Musicians and bands often do interviews on the radio, and these usually include in studio performances of songs from their current album. These performances have an immediacy to them that can compensate for the lack of polish that can come from hours spent polishing in a recording studio. Radio stations often lack the ability to host all of the technology that was used in the recording, so the musicians must show their versatility. As a result, a side of their music comes out that wasn’t on the album. This week, we will be presenting the music that can result from this. Television stations often have better facilities, but even so, the artists can still show an aspect of their art that we, the listeners, don’t usually get to hear. There are times when that is the whole point of a particular television program. And we will be presenting that as well.

To begin, here is a performance by Little Feat of On Your Way Down, from a visit to radio station WLIR in 1974. This is Little Feat in its classic configuration, and at the height of its powers. In the studio, the band worked with extra musicians, particularly female background singers. Here, they have to cover that themselves. The equipment that was available at the radio station did not allow the band to duplicate the mix they used in the studio either. Here, the piano and organ parts are much more prominent in the mix than before, and they sound great. There were, of course no overdubs, so Bill Payne switches from piano to organ halfway through the song, and it works. In 1974, bands did not try to duplicate the sound of their albums when they played in any live setting. Lowell George changes the phrasing in his vocal line here. What this performance shows is just how emotionally invested in their music Little Feat were.

Heritage -> Trouble: Inara George

Inara George: Trouble

[purchase]

Inara George never really knew her father, Little Feat founder, frontman, and primary songwriter Lowell George - he died when she was five, leaving a young Inara to be raised by her mother. But having Jackson Browne as a godfather, and Van Dyke Parks as a family friend, kept her connected to the arts in her blood: she trained to be an actress, and after a high school reunion jam session led to a major label contract, a career in her father's footsteps seems to have inevitably followed.

I love the poignant, delicate way young, pre-fame Inara takes on this track, recorded as the final track for her father's tribute album in 1997, trading the slow, steady heartbeat of her father's original for smooth balladry and strings. And if you want to hear more from this wry, clear-voiced siren, there's plenty to find: though her first band's sole album is out of print for good reason, her early post-millennium work with Merrick was featured in episodes of (and soundtracks for) Felicity and Grey's Anatomy; fifteen years later, her current bands The Bird and the Bee and retro-girl-group The Living Sisters are all the rage in indie circles.

I know that our Heritage theme wasn't intended to provide comparison between parents and their progeny. It's rare for artists to cover their own parents, after all. But as our theme this week will feature songs with the word "trouble" in the title, I've also included the 1971 Little Feat original as a bonus. After all, it's Lowell's song, to begin with.

Little Feat: Trouble

[purchase]

Doublespeak: Cold, Cold, Cold

Little Feat: Cold, Cold, Cold

[purchase]

Little Feat’s Cold, Cold, Cold is a bluesy howl from the gut. It is also a song that may have been released before it was ready. The original version was on the 1972 album Sailin’ Shoes. Producer Ted Templeman may be the one who decided how it should be recorded. The song, in this incarnation, sounds like it was recorded inside a cave, and the distortion is not helpful. The performance is good, but Feat could do better, and it doesn’t quite hit it. Evidently, the band agreed. Two years later, they rerecorded the song in a medley with Triple Face Boogie for their album Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. This version is much better. But I have chosen a third version. This one is only available on a digital-only expanded edition of their live album Waiting For Columbus. The addition of the horn section tips this one over into the category of one of Little Feat’s finest songs.

Cold: Cold, Cold, Cold

Little Feat: Cold, Cold, Cold

[purchase]

What this blog needs is more Little Feat. And luckily, they've got just the tune for our frigid theme.

Published on the cusp of the Zeppelin seventies, this Sailin' Shoes deep cut starts with cold tapping iron and then crashes into a stark drumbeat and a sax-and-guitarfuzz riff that totally overwhelm the lyrics. Thanks to a jagged rhythmic offset between one and the other, and some carefully balanced production dynamics, the instrumentation comes off as less a full wall of sound than a set of frozen, disparate, distant elements, even when the chorus kicks in.

The resulting song is an epic representation of the heartbeat of the lonely and abandoned...or the deserted, penniless junkie in desperate need of a fix, if you choose to interpret the "woman" of the song as something bit more metaphoric.

Bonnie Raitt's late-nineties "cover", off an otherwise-solid Lowell George tribute, warms the song up unnecessarily, cranking the dial up past sentimental. But it's still worth inclusion, if only for contrast.

Bonnie Raitt w/ Little Feat: Cold, Cold, Cold

[purchase]

Title Tracks: Dixie Chicken

Little Feat: Dixie Chicken

[purchase]

Dixie Chicken, the song and the album, was my introduction to the wonderful music of Little Feat. The unique funky rhythms of New Orleans combined with the bluesy slide guitar of Lowell George to create a new kind of southern rock that has never been equaled, before or since. (I know Little Feat still exists, but with Lowell George gone, it might as well be another band entirely.) My oldest brother brought the album home and made sure I heard it. Then, he decided to learn some of the songs for a cover band he played in, and I heard the album some more. For a couple of weeks, he played Walking All Night over and over, trying to make out the lyrics, (you couldn’t check the lyric sites on line before there were even home computers). I didn’t mind the repeat listens one bit, and all these years later, I still don’t.

As for Dixie Chicken, the song, a guy in a bar tells the patrons the tale of a peculiar romance. And they all find the tale strangely familiar. If you’ve never heard it before, I won’t give any more away. Suffice it to say. here is a lyric with one of the greatest payoffs in rock and roll.

Drugs: Willin'

Little Feat: Willin'
[purchase]

Linda Ronstadt: Willin'
[purchase]

Richard Shindell: Willin'
[purchase] (scroll down to Courier)

"And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
and you show me a sign
I'll be willin', to be movin'..."

Written in 1970, "Willin' " was a mainstay of Little Feat, the band Lowell George had helped to found in 1970 and was a leading member of until his death on June 29, 1979. The song, John Tobler contends in the liner notes of As Time Goes By. The Very Best of Little Feat (1993), "quickly became a favorite among America’s truckdrivers, many of whom continue to regard it as the anthem of their profession . . . although absurdly it never has been a hit."

In George's lifetime, "Willin' " was recorded in three different versions (though more and more have surfaced). On the band’s debut album, Little Feat (1971), George made do with his own raspy voice and guitar, and the sparse accompaniment of Ry Cooder’s terse steel guitar. On Sailin’ Shoes (1972), the song was done by the whole band, the chorus harmonized by four voices, and the piano solo was added by Bill Payne — "eh bill o' pain," as pronounced by George six years later, on the spectacularly successful live double album, Waiting for Columbus (1978). There, "Willin’" became hymnic, and was followed without interruption by "Don’t Bogart That Joint," another classic tune George had a hand in (he was briefly a member of Fraternity of Man, too).

More here...

I just realized/remembered that Don't Bogart That Joint does *not* appear on my Waiting for Columbus CD... and, upon reading the liner notes, discovered this:

The tracks "Don't Bogart That Joint" and "Apolitical Blues" which appear on the double album and cassette have been omitted so as to facilitate a single specially-priced compact disc" - d*mmit!

Hmmm... I just thought of something - wondering if we can have a Truck Driving Songs theme one of these weeks?... :-)

Footwear: Sailin' Shoes

Little Feat: Sailin' Shoes

[purchase]


Little Feat got their name from drummer Jimmy Carl Black's comment on guitarist Lowell George's small fat feet. George was an amazing singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist - here's a worthwhile interview to learn up on him.


Lowell George backed Robert Palmer in this nifty cover.

Robert Palmer: Sailin' Shoes

[purchase]