Little Feat
Little Feat - Warner Brothers 1971 Comments:The sound on the first Little Feat is markedly different from the other 1970's Feat albums. Don't expect the polished sound of albums like "Time Loves a Hero", "Down on the Farm" or "The Last Record Album".
The line-up changed after this album, which may be part of the explanation to the sound change.
As usual most of Lowell George's songs are great; some even outstanding. On this album several of his songs are written with Bill Payne, who also wrote a couple of the songs alone.
Though the sound may be rougher than on most later Feat albums, most trademarks of the band are already shown here; the fat slide-guitarplaying, the great voice of Lowell George and of course the unique songwriting.
Some of the biggest Little Feat classics come from this debut-album. Songs like "Truck Stop Girl", "Willin'", "I've Been the One" are standout-songs.
Lesser known tracks like "Brides of Jesus" and "Taking My Time" are almost equally strong.
Interesting that some of these songs were actually released by other artist before this album came out. The Byrds recorded "Truck Stop Girl" for their "Untitled" album, and their version with Clarence White's vocals up-front is my clear favourite version of that song. Seatrain recorded "Willin'" for their 2nd 1970 album. My favourite version of that song is Little Feat's own re-recording for the "Sailin'Shoes" album, though this first version is also great.
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