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Little Feat: Feats Don't Fail Me Now (Deluxe Edition) (3CD)
Little Feat
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1969
Grateful Dead
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1965
In fact, the remaster of the original album is only slightly less tantalizing than the rare and/or unreleased material accompanying it. Like their expertise with the other recordings here, Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot's engineering of the 1974 studio album reveals an almost granular level of detail. Accordingly, the minutiae of the mix highlights, on this title song among others, reveals keyboardist
Bill Payne
keyboardsPaul Barrere
guitar
Lowell George
guitar, slideEight cuts in the three-to-four minute range formulate a continuity comparable to the live material included in this package. Yet it also enhances how the studio track sequencing so accurately captures the dynamics of the sextet, including the odd imagery in the song lyrics: especially in Lowell George material like "Down The Road," the verbal wordplay piques the curiosity as much as the instrumental interplay. And those virtues coincide with the imagination evident in arrangements such as the earthy horn charts from
Tower of Power
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1968
While Electrif Lycanthrope: Live at Ultra-Sonic Studios, 1974 (Rhino Records, 2021) remains the definitive demonstration of Little Feat's shared instincts at this juncture of its career, the concert content contiguous with this reissue reaffirms the various bonds of the band in the spirit of the moment on stage. Each performance, in fact, is remarkable in its own way and no less so on the complete show from l'Olympia in Paris, France on 2/1/75, despite a sound quality that, in contrast to its corollary, captures as much of the room as the sound of the band.
Beginning with
Allen Toussaint
piano and vocals1938 - 2015
Frank Zappa
guitar, electric1940 - 1993
The Mothers of Invention
band / ensemble / orchestraEqually edifying in its own way is a limited edition compact disc (available separately through the Rhino label) containing more previously unreleased performances. Recorded at The Rainbow Theatre in London in January of the same year as its companion piece, the sextet's musicianship flows effortlessly after its fade-in. The shared gusto of Little Feat makes room for multiple impromptu jams over the course of its slightly less than half-hour duration before the coy denouement "Bag of Reds" (a play on the Gene Chandler's "Duke of Earl").
Labeled Hotcakes, Outtakes, Rarities, the second compact disc of the set features eight previously unreleased tracks that, combined with some culls from the similarly-titled four compact disc set released in 2000, give a glimpse of future Little Feat albums (it might well have been disc three of the set for that reason). An outtake of "All That You Dream" (from The Last Record Album (Warner Bros., 1975) and an alternate version of "Front Page News" (only ever released on the compilation issued after George's passing Hoy-Hoy (Warner Bros., 1981) suggests how the creative axis of the band was shifting.
Payne composed the former with Barrere and the latter with George. Meanwhile, an unfinished and abbreviated version of "Day At The Dog Races"—eventually issued on Time Loves A Hero (Warner Bros., 1977) is credited to everyone in the band except the latter (who would leave the stage in subsequent years when the finalized arrangement of this fusion-oriented instrumental was played).
Little Feat's preternatural grasp of groove otherwise abides throughout the dozen tracks. It is nothing less than remarkable how, even at the halting tempo Feats apply to Hank Williams' "Lonesome Whistle,"
Richie Hayward
drumsSam Clayton
percussionAs much through the sonic detail as the writing and playing, the uniformity of Feats Don't Fail Me Now renders the original thirty-four minutes-plus, recorded at engineer George Massenburg's Blue Seas studio in Maryland, a virtual template for Little Feat 2.0 (the band was originally a quartet). It was thus poetic justice indeed for the record to excel in the commercial marketplace, even if it is less of an adventurous creative statement than the album from the preceding year Dixie Chicken (Warner Bros., 1973).
Produced by Jason Jones with a team of admirable curators, this third Little Feat Deluxe Edition is a labor of love as affectionate in its own way as the devoted loyalty of the group's longstanding fan base. Like the prior deluxe editions of Sailin' Shoes (Warner Bros., 1972) and the aforementioned third album of the group's (originally issued the next year), this collection serves to further illuminate the attractions of one of the most eccentric bands in rock history. ">
Track Listing
CD 1: Rock & Roll Doctor; Oh Atlanta; Skin It Back; Down The Road; Spanish Moon;
Feats Don’t Fail Me Now; The Fan; Medley: Cold Cold Cold / Tripe Face Boogie
CD 2: Hotcakes, Outtakes, Rarities - Brickyard Blues; Feats Don’t Fail Me Now; Rock
& Roll Doctor; Spanish Moon; Skin It Back; Oh Atlanta; All That You Dream; Front
Page News; Long Distance Love; Lonesome Whistle; Day At The Dog Races;
Spanish
Moon.
CD 3: If You Got It, A Truck Brought It - Live at the L’Olympia, Paris, France
(2/01/75): On Your Way Down; Skin It Back; Fat Man In The Bathtub; Rock & Roll
Doctor; Oh Atlanta; Medley: Cold Cold Cold / Dixie Chicken / Tripe Face Boogie;
Willin’; Teenage Nervous Breakdown. Limited Edition CD: Live At The Rainbow ’75
(January 19, 1975) - On Your Way Down; Rock & Roll Doctor; Oh Atlanta; Medley:
Cold Cold Cold / Dixie Chicken / Tripe Face Boogie; Bag Of Reds.
Personnel
Little Feat
band / ensemble / orchestra
Lowell George
guitar, slidePaul Barrere
guitar
Bill Payne
keyboards
Kenny Gradney
bass, electricSam Clayton
percussionRichie Hayward
drumsFran Tate
vocalsEmmy Lou Harris
vocals
Bonnie Raitt
guitar and vocalsAdditional Instrumentation
Gordon DeWitty: clavinet.
Album information
Title: Feats Don't Fail Me Now (Deluxe Edition) (3CD) | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Rhino
Tags
Little Feat
Extended Analysis
Doug Collette
Feats Don't Fail Me Now Deluxe Edition (3CD)
Rhino
Bill Payne
Paul Barrere
Lowell George
Tower of Power
Van Dyke Parks
Allen Toussaint
Frank Zappa
Mothers of Invention
Hank Williams
Richie Hayward
Sam Clayton
Kenny Gradney Jr.
Comments
About Little Feat
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
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