1. Snakes On Everything
2. Strawberry Flats
3. Truck Stop Girl
4. Brides Of Jesus
5. Willin’
6. Hamburger Midnight
7. Forty Four Blues / How Many More Years
8. Crack In Your Door
9. I’ve Been The One
10. Takin’ My Time
11. Crazy Captain Gunboat Willie
Total time: 33:26
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Little Feat
Little Feat
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
MoFi finally does Little Feat’s eponymous debut, a true anomaly in the group’s body of work. Had it sold more than 11,000 copies, things could have gone differently. Lowell George might not have taken a stab at a pop song (“Easy to Slip”) on “Sailin’ Shoes,” or bassist Roy Estrada might’ve stayed for more than two albums.
Not that the direction the guys later took was a bad move, because their blend of rock and New Orleans R&B/funk resulted in some great music. But what if they’d taken a more country-rock route, which they easily were poised for after this slice of Americana? It was, after all, 1971: Gram Parsons was touring with the Rolling Stones; Poco had just released a live album; the Grateful Dead was about to unleash “American Beauty”; Rick Nelson was getting some respect with the Stone Canyon Band; and Michael Nesmith was in post-Monkees mode with his own First National Band.
It was clear that George, songwriting partner Bill Payne (who never played as much piano on another Feat record), Estrada and drummer Richie Hayward were out to turn the music industry on its head just by the LP cover. There they stood, bundled up in front of the L.A. Fine Arts Squad’s boardwalk mural “Venice in the Snow,” George oddly tilting as if a storm were about to topple him.
The public, however, wasn’t ready for this scrumptious smorgasbord of song, including hippy-drifter anthem “Strawberry Flats,” truck-driving tunes “Truck Stop Girl” and “Willin’,” alt-gospel number “Brides of Jesus,” ballads “I’ve Been the One” and “Takin’ My Time,” and sleazy-slide-fests “Snakes on Everything” and “Hamburger Midnight.”
Even tastier are “Forty-Four Blues/How Many More Years,” a take-no-prisoners medley featuring an incredible Howlin’ Wolf impersonation and harmonica playing by George and multitracked slide guitars by Ry Cooder (who was brought in after George nearly mutilated his hand in a model airplane accident); “Crack in Your Door,” featuring arguably the finest vocal gymnastics in Little Feat’s catalog; and the wonderfully weird high-seas character study, “Crazy Captain Gunboat Willie.”
MoFi did right by reissuing this as an Ultradisc II (limited edition 24-karat gold) audiophile CD. The gold guarantees more longevity, while the proprietary half-speed remastering from original master tapes promises “music reproduction as close to the actual recording session as possible” on a compact disc. This album, with a casual listen on inexpensive equipment, delivered bass with more kick, cleaner drums, guitar string vibrations and previously unheard notes.
external links
artist’s link
amazon.com
Mobile Fidelity store
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