Founder of Little Feat born on this day 04-13

[TimmyB]

On this day in 1945 Lowell George was born. George was the founder of Little Feat. Nearing the seventies George briefly joined Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention to replace Ray Collins (his rhythm guitar and vocals preserved on Zappa track "Didja Get Any Onya" from 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh'). George is encouraged by Zappa to form his own band after Zappa hears George's song "Willin'" (which was formed by The Byrds and can be heard on occasion by the Acoustic Cats). George takes his advice and forms Little Feat who were signed to Warner Bros. in 1970. They found success in the seventies with albums like 'Little Feat' (1971), 'Sailin' Shoes' (1972), 'Dixie Chicken' (1973), and 'Feats Don't Fail Me Now' (1974) to name their first few.

In 1979 George produced The Grateful Dead's 'Shakedown Street'. And on June 29th of that very same year Lowell George was found dead from a heart attack brought on by drug abuse in a motel in Arlington, VA.

Little Feat still perform and will be playing a gig in Hamilton in June.

[NewRider]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOWELL, It was great seeing you through the magic of DVD at Pete & Tasha's last Thursday... oh the good times we could've had!

[Jaimoe]

I like Lowell's contributions to The Mothers and I'm glad Frank persuaded him to leave and form his own band, Little Feat. Lowell was a true musical genius and he reamins underrated in the jamband scene.

I don't think you needed to title your subject: " Founder of Little Feat... ". If people on this site don't know who he is, then they truly need to do some rock & roll homework.

Thanks for the post.

[Esau]

Been listening to Lowell most of the day myself.

currently:

Lowell George Demos

fool for the avenue

fool redux

rocket in my pocket

rocket redux

lafayette station

fat man in the bathtub

mercenary territory

china white

also had on earlier:

Lowell George

Alexander's

Brown's Mill, NJ

June-26-1979

[bradm]

I picked up the two-CD reissue of "Waiting For Columbus" a couple of weekends ago, and I think it should be nominated for "reissue of some year". The original single-CD WfC was one of those quick-and-dirty transfers that left off a bunch of stuff; the new one contains all of the original double LP, with bonus tracks issued on other CDs, and tracks that haven't been issued, ever. (Apparently it includes all of the songs that were typically played during LF concerts from that tour.)

It also shows a different way to approach live playing, contrasting with the Dead's open-ended approach to improvisation and the ABB's blues-based approach. It also sounds amazing, and you get to hear the songs that make LF so great.

Aloha,

Brad

[Floyd]

I think the show that Esau's got is from the last run he did just before he passed which was late June of '79. solo & acoustic, if I'm not mistaken. Should be a good one

[Rob Not Bob]

Frankly (no pun intended), I always found it quaint how it's always refered to as "Frank Zappa encouraged Lowell to go solo/form Little Feat after hearing the songs Willin' ". From my understanding, Lowell played the song to Frank (complete with the "Weed, whites and wine" lyric which couldn't have sat well with notoriously anti-chemical Uncle Frank), and Zappa's repsonse was basically, "If this is the sort of stuff you are interested in doing, I think you'd be better off in another band." Not, strictly speaking, encouragement

RnB