The well known album is (after 50 years) now being reissued.

It includes the (remastered) LP, 11 session outtakes (4 of them already released, but here remastered) + the (remastered) "Spanish Moon" 7".
The 3rd CD has the full (55 minutes) Olympia/Paris concert from the "The Warner Bros Music Show" package tour, to my knowledge the first legal LF-release from that tour. (Each act played for ca. 1 hour.)

I saw the Frankfurt concert on that tour, and man they were HEAVY.

Although it was the 6 piece band at that time to me the heaviness of the sound reminded me of the early '73 AURORA BACKSEAT-boot. That was the 1st formation, a slightly different band, a 4 piece band with Roy Estrada on bass. The LP opened with ELDORADO SLIM (a version you cannot compare with the legal 4:42 release on "Hotcakes & Outtakes") with that ultra cool introduction about that hitch hiking little hippy chick & "why don't you just hop in here & snort some..." / just to remind some people here to listen to that great track again.

PS. I have never before or after seen a band that heavy probably apart from a 1970 Move concert.

Sound quality on both records are about the same. In the 70s 1st class bootleg quality, today we are used to another level sound.

All indulgences begged, and to quote Tom Waits "I wanna pull on your coat about something." or better yet, Peter Wolf from J. Geils' Give It to Me ]Don't touch the knobs, because I think we're going to have some fun with this one."

"Catch it to me gently, Feats Don't Fail me Now!"

Thoughts of ages past are evoked by the mention of this crown jewel from the Little Feat catalogue! While many would suggest Sailin' Shoes or Dixie Chicken (both amazing LPs) as the band's studio zenith(s), for me and many others, it is this very unassuming 1974 blast of 34:18 of rock and roll flavored with a myriad of influences from the lower half of our USA, inluding New Orleans funk & groove, deep South cooking, and Southern California songwriting. If we didn't already know, we now knew that Little Feat was not just a Lowell George band or project. Indeed, here we have an amazing 6-piece of Lowell, Paul, Billy, Sam, Kenny, & Richie taking us for a wild ride through which many of us have gone (and many more will go) up around the moon and back again.

This record was a perfect 8-track, as well, because then, what you didn't pick up the first time, you'd get a chance or two without having to move to pick up the other amazing things in these compositions & performances. Memories of so many late (boozy and hazy!) nights where someone would say, "Put on something while I roll this one up." would find this piece of round "fat-wax" on the turntable to where the games would begin. While there's not a bad track to be found on this record (Down the Road might be the only relatively obscure one) Billy Payne's Oh Atlanta, (the late, great) Paul Barerre's Skin It Back, Lowell's Spanish Moon, and the totality of the funklified odyssey that is side 2 (Feats Don't Fail Me Now, (Wait `Til the Sh!t Hits) The Fan, and the head for the hills jam-packed 10:00 groove that is Cold, Cold, Cold / Tripe-Face Boogie) is an LP side most bands would give their eye-teeth to have issued. Sure, this band had some great moments, but for my money, they never eclipsed this LP in the studio, because here, above all else, they showed that they were functioning at a level much higher than the sum of their parts. I had the chance to meet Richie Hayward 35 years or so ago, and he asked me what my favorite Little Feat LP was, and when I immediately said Feats Don't Fail Me Now, his response was "We really had a blast cooking the tunes on that record."

Indeed, this 50th Anniversary re-issue will be welcomed into the collection,a nd I am anxious to hear the Olympia show, because if there were one place that Feat topped this LP, it was on nights where all the stars aligned to allow this band to set venues across the world ablaze with pressure-cooking renditions of these tracks. If you don't know what I mean, pick up a copy of Waiting For Columbus or find it on Spotify or Apple Music, pour three fingers, sit back, thumb down Sissy Hankshaw, and go for an amazing ride through American rock & roll.

Your daddy says I'm no good
Your mama says keep away
I got to tell you truthful, girl, you can never make me stay
I got somethin' up and down this coast
I'll bet you my last dollar, girl, I could give you love the most

Don't the sunrise look so pretty never such a sight
Like rollin' into New York City with the skyline in the morning light
Roll right through the night (roll)
Roll right through the night (I said, roll)

Semi-smokin' mama, you got to give me some
I heard you got the biggest, (ooh) the biggest truck in town
Ride on through to Baltimore you got to love me now
Catch it to me gently feets don't fail me now (don't fail me)
Please, don't fail me now (don't fail me)

Don't the sunrise look so pretty, never such a sight
Like rollin' into New York City with the skyline in the morning light
Roll right through the night (I said, roll)
Roll right through the night (roll right through the night)[/color]

Songwriters: Paul Barrere / Lowell George / Martin Kibbee[/color]
Feets Don’t Fail Me Now lyrics © Naked Snake Music, Barrere Music[/color]

Kick me like you kicked before
I can't even feel the pain no more

"Rocks Off", Exile on Main Street
Rolling Stones, 1972



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2024-06-14 15:32 by bv.