Little Feat A.G. - Playlist Episode

 This week on  #ForWhatItsWorthwithBlakeMelnick an episode of #TheSpaceinBetween  called #LittleFeatAG.

As our listeners know, we've been doing a fairly deep dive into the music of Little Feat. I had a great interview with Mr. Bill Payne, co-founder and pianist for the band, and during that interview we  discussed the need to encourage new listeners to Little Feat. What came out of the interviews, both with Bill and with some of the fans on the street before their show in Seattle this past summer was Little Feat fans are a little bit stuck in the past.

For many hardcore Little Feat fans, the band essentially ended with the death of Lowell George in 1979. And yet the band has continued to evolve and progress and introduce new musical stylings along with a range of new vocalists following the death of Lowell George over 40 years ago.

In this episode we're going to take you on a interactive musical journey into the music of Little Feat A.G.  We've created a public Spotify playlist with all the songs that we discuss in this episode.

In the show information  we've put chapter markers for each of the records  we discuss. If you want to listen to part of the episode and then listen to a couple of songs from a particular record and then flip back again and listen to the interview, you can use the markers for each record in the show notes and get right back to where you left off.

Two of the records we talk about, "Shake Me Up" and "Kick'n it at the Barn" are currently unavailable on Spotify, but we are working on another way to let you here them. Once we've got that altogether we will update the show notes, the show blog and our FB Group page with the links, so make sure you check back in a few days.

Note: Not all listening channels allow for "chapters" but for sure our podcast site https://fwiw.buzzsprout.com does, as does Apple Podcasts

Link to the Episode Spotify Playlist

Missing Links

Links to songs we discussed that are not available on Spotify

• Bill's River Blues on Kick'n it at the Barn
• Stomp on Kick'n it at the Barn 
• Shake Me Up
• Clownin'
• Boom Box Car

Link to Blog post

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Chapters

• 3:28 Rooster Rag
• 7:17 Join The Band
• 12:11 Kick'n it at The Barn
• 14:36 Chinese Work Songs
• 17:06 Under the Radar
• 18:48 Ain't Had Enough Fun
• 21:28 Shake Me Up
• 23:01 Representing the Mambo
• 26:05 Let it Roll

Transcript

Little Feat A.G. (After George)

[00:00:00] Blake Melnick: Well, welcome to this week's episode of For What It's Worth and our series, The Space in Between. This episode is called Little Feat A.G. I'm your host, Blake Mellick, and I'm joined by my co-host of the space, Cameron Brown Cam. Nice to have you back on the show. 

[00:00:47] Cam Brown: Good to be back, Blake

[00:00:49] Blake Melnick: as our listeners know, we've been doing a fairly deep dive into the music of Little Feat. I had a great interview with Mr. Bill Payne, co-founder and pianist for the band, and during that interview we [00:01:00] discussed the need to encourage new listeners to Little Feat and what came outta the interviews, both with Bill and with some of the fans on the street before their show in Seattle this past summer was fans are a little bit stuck in the past.

[00:01:13] For many hardcore Little Feat fans, the band essentially ended with the death of Lowell George in 1979. And yet the band has continued to evolve and progress and introduce new musical stylings along with a range of new vocalists following the death of Lowell George over 40 years ago. So we thought we'd do a follow up episode where we start from their latest studio record released in 2012 called Rooster Rag, and then move backwards from there to their comeback album after the passing of Lowell George called, Let It Roll.

[00:01:46] Cam and I are going to go through nine albums and talk about our favorite songs from each and tell you why we think they're great songs. We're also gonna try something a little different and provide you with an interactive experience.[00:02:00] We've created a Spotify playlist with all the songs that we're gonna talk about in this episode.

[00:02:05] As a companion piece, you'll be able to access the playlist while listening to this episode. In the interview transcripts, we've put markers for each of the records and songs we will discuss. So if you want to listen to part of the episode and then listen to a couple of songs from a particular record and then flip back again and listen to the interview, you can use the markers for each record in the show notes and get right back to where you left off.

[00:02:31] Listen to it any way you wish, either. Listen to the playlist first. Listen to the episode first. Listen to them both in tandem, but it should provide a unique experience. And if this works well, we'll continue to use this kind of format in the future. This episode is really designed to help introduce new listeners to Little Feat and hopefully move some of those old, hardcore fans to the point where they realize Little Feat is not a Cover Band they are Little Feat [00:03:00] A.G. 

[00:03:01] In my interview with Bill Payne, he told me Little Feat 's going to be releasing some new records. They're also going to be releasing a documentary, hopefully September, 2023. We'll keep you posted all that, but with all this new stuff coming out, we think it's important that we start with where the band is at now and work backwards so that new fans get a sense of how the band has grown and progressed over these many years. We're gonna start with the album Rooster Rag recorded in 2012. That features Paul Barra on lead vocals, bill Payne, Sam Clayton, and Fred Tackett, who have been members of the band for a long time. 

[00:03:38] So over to you, cam. Let's, let's hear your top two songs from Rooster Rag. Mellow down Easy, I think was. Was my favorite. That's a final song on the album. And, another one was, Jamaica Will Break Your Heart. When I first saw that, it caught my eye . So I listened to that first, really liked it. It's one of the ones I sort of started listening to. [00:04:00] Those song choices may change. Right. You know, as I give it more of a lesson. and one thing I might say too, Blake, is another thing that you commented on was in doing the research this last little while, I've talked to my brother and one or two of his older friends who were friends of mine, they got about four years on me and they got me into Little Feat.

[00:04:19] And it's amazing to send them links and. You never have heard, Ain't Had Enough Fun. And they've gotten back to me like, where is this stuff? It's like, okay, little Feat didn't die with Lowell George. 

[00:04:34] Cam Brown: They've always been a band who have showcased new singers. I guess Lowell j sang predominantly in the beginning. But didn't Bill Payne 

[00:04:42] Blake Melnick: sing as well? Yeah. Bill Payne sang Paul Barr sung as well as Sam Clayton.

[00:04:47] Cam Brown: What were your favorites on that one? 

[00:04:48] Blake Melnick: I had Mellow Down Easy as well. Real funky blues tune with Sam Clayton singing vocals in the background and, I like it anytime Sam Clayton sings.

[00:04:57] I like that, that deep bass voice that he [00:05:00] has. The rhythm section was fantastic. Again, Sam Clayton and the guitar work outstanding as well. And I love Bill Payne's piano solo on that song. , so that was one of my faves. The other one was Church Falling Down. This is a real jazzy number.

[00:05:15] It strikes me as a Bill Payne song. Usually on a Little Feat record. Bill Payne has one song, or that seems to be the Bill Payne song, the Magnus Opus, so to speak. I love this track. It was slow and jazzy Fred Tackett plays amazing mandolin. What I love about Little Feat, and again, I attribute this to Bill Payne, I may not be correct, but they change tempos in the middle of the song quite often.

[00:05:38] And while this is essentially a jazz number, there's a point in the tune where it changes and has real, Mexicali/ Spanish undertones. And you can certainly hear classical music influences of Bill Payne on this song I love the way it's juxtaposed with Paul Barr's subtle and tasteful slide guitar playing.

[00:05:57] So those are my two favorites. I also wanted to [00:06:00] mention something about Jamaica will Break your Heart. For 20 years, little Feat has held a band camp at a resort in Jamaica where fans come to see little Feat shows hang out with the band, et cetera.

[00:06:10] So I'm going to assume this song was inspired by the time on the island. 

[00:06:14] Cam Brown: You know, in listening to them again and again, I find when people say I don't really know them, I say to them, imagine a group like The Band that had so many great players in it and so many different crossovers genres, and put them together with Los lobos, and you got Little Feat 

[00:06:32] Blake Melnick: I think The Band is an apt comparable with Little Feat I mean, you had multiple singers, great musicians, instrumentalists. You had Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, all singing and contributing to the lyrical sound of The Band, and I think you're right. Little Feat is very similar to that. 

[00:06:50] Cam Brown: And you had Garth Hudson the keyboard who in the beginning basically taught them to play other instruments.

[00:06:55] Blake Melnick: . I think Garth Hudson and Bill Payne are fairly parallel as well.

[00:06:59] Mind you, Little [00:07:00] Feat are all just outstanding musicians. Not one of them is an average player. So we've got, Mellow Down Easy, and the, and Church Falling Down.

[00:07:09] We'll put Mellow Down Easy on the playlist because, we both seem to think that was a great tune.

[00:07:15] The next album on our list is called Join the Band. It was released in 2008 and features Shaun Murphy singing lead vocals. This is the first time Little Feat has had a female lead vocalist. And on this record, the Feat are joined by a star-studded cast of some of the greatest musicians around. Jimmy Buffet, Bob Seger, Sonny Landreth, Dave Matthews, Craig Fuller, Vince Gill Brooks and Dunn. Sam Bush, Bella Fleck, Inara George, Lowell George's daughter, Emmy Lou Harris. Chris Robinson from the Black Crows and Mike Gordon from Fish. And it's a really accessible album. It's really well. Produced, . If I was to recommend one album to new listeners, people that had not heard Little Feat before, it would probably, be this one.[00:08:00] This record includes a lot of their old numbers, like Dixie Chicken and Old Lana and Spanish Moon and Time loves a hero, but with a different twist because all of these songs are now influenced by the personal playing styles of the guests on the record. , there's also a number of recognizable classic tunes such as the bands, the weight, and Woody Guthrie's Land is your land. So what are your picks from Join the band? 

[00:08:24] Cam Brown: Well Join the band, as you said to me is a great one.

[00:08:28] We're coming into the Christmas season, if you thought, you know what? I'd love to get my nephew. I'd love to get my niece, whoever, into Little Feed. It's a great way because not only do you have, as you said, the guest singers, but you have the band also singing as well, right On this one.

[00:08:44] I picked Dixie Chicken cuz I always love that song. I love that album. And Vince Gill, I'm aware of him as country singer, but I didn't recognize the name Sunny Land. Right. And I looked him up. He's a blues guitarist known for a slight guitar. Yes.

[00:08:59] , you know, it's kinda [00:09:00] interesting. You hear a song that you've always liked and sometimes the covers aren't so great. This is not really a cover, it's a fresh look at it, and same with my second choice, which is, oh, Atlanta with Chris Robinson from the Black Crows.

[00:09:11] I've always loved that band. It's too bad they're not around as much anymore. But he's got a great voice. Just a fantastic voice. And the only way I'd want to hear it is with someone who could capitalize , on the song and take 

[00:09:23] it an extra step. 

[00:09:24] Blake Melnick: Both great tunes. . Atlanta was a Bill Payne song, and in our interview,  he said, I wanted to write a hit song, a pop song, and Oh, Atlanta was that? He said, eh, it didn't really resonate as a pop song, but he said, I tried . He said, that's why I introduced the chorus. Right away. Both great tunes, and as you say, with those guests playing on them, it adds a different dimension to those songs that I think is really interesting.

[00:09:49] So for me, I actually went a little more, obscure on this one. And I picked something in the water, written by Al Anderson, Bob DiPirro, and Jeffrey Steel. With Bob Seeger on vocals. And I [00:10:00] just thought, you know, Bob Seeger's been a, an old pal of the bands, I think for many years.

[00:10:04] To me this is a drive and rock and roll song that's very much in Bob Seeger's wheelhouse. I it just fits, if you like Bob Seeker, you're gonna like this song. And the second one I picked was, don't You Just Know It? And it was a song written by Johnny Vincent and Huey Piano Smith back in 1958.

[00:10:23] I love the vocal harmonies between Shaun Murphy and Sam Clayton. Again, I'm a big fan of Sam Clayton's, singing. The song has a real New Orleans jazz, mixed with a Cajun feel to it. I really liked it. I went back and listened to the original version, by Huey Smith, and they do such justice to the song, but make it way better in my opinion.

[00:10:43] But again, technology is such, the recording sounds so much better, but I love this tune. So those are my two. 

[00:10:49] Cam Brown: We should note too that these guys are such a talented band that over the years other artists have hired them on to record on their own. Um, I was a Bob Seger fan and [00:11:00] I should point out, and I'm sure a lot of see fans know this, that Hollywood, the piano playing, that's Bill Payne.

[00:11:06] Blake Melnick: They're old pals. He's an old friend of the band and Robert Palmer. And Robert Palmer, yeah. Yeah. Sneaking Sally Through The Alley.

[00:11:12] Cam Brown: I think they were the backup ban for him on that. Yes, they were. Or most of them. 

[00:11:16] Blake Melnick: I think that's part of what, keeps Little Feat fresh for me is they all play on other people's records. So when they're not playing with Little Feat, they're not sitting around doing nothing.

[00:11:26] They're playing on everybody else's records. Sam Clayton played with, jimmy Buffet for years. Bill playing plays piano for the Doobie Brothers. So they're all getting other influences from, the other bands they play with and they're bringing it back to Little Feat.

[00:11:39] So it's always evolving the little fe out. I think that's one of. The keys to their longevity, and staying together is they're fresh, they're playing other stuff with other people all the time. And again, bringing back what they learned and incorporating it into that little feed sound.

[00:11:55] Cam Brown: And in doing the research for this, I think I told you, I came by a Travis tri song [00:12:00] called Bible Belt they back '

[00:12:01] em up on that one,

[00:12:02] Blake Melnick: right? Yeah. They've played with so many people. It's quite astonishing when you look at it. 

[00:12:08] Now under the next album, it's called Kicking at the Barn. It was released in 2003. Shaun Murphy sings lead vocals on that, but all members of the band also share in the singing. Now, this is a really interesting record. It's almost impossible to find. I assume it's been deleted. It just didn't get enough sales, and I gotta think that's because of poor promotion rather than anything else, because I think it's one of their best records a.

[00:12:33] And what I love about this record is number one, it was recorded live at Fred Tats barn in Togo Canyon, and they actually cut two versions of this record, one the CD album version, and then they did a second version in Surround Sound. And if you can find it, it's on music DVD. It has a whole new level of sound.

[00:12:52] And if you have a surround sound system, the sound is absolutely incredible. And because it was recorded live, there are very few [00:13:00] overdubs. So what you hear is what you.

[00:13:01] get If you want to hear Little Feat, at their best this is the record to me there isn't a bad song on it. It's a shame that it's been deleted. So I'm not sure how we're gonna get these songs on the playlist.

[00:13:12] I don't think we can upload to Spotify. But we'll try to figure out a way to do it. Or we'll provide a link to some other, source where people can actually listen to these songs. I had , two picks here and one was Night on the Town, I liked the whole feel of it. And it did really feel like a night on the town. Just great playing all the way around. And the second one I picked was Stomp. Now this is a Bill Payne song. It's an instrumental song, Little Feat don't do a lot of purely instrumental, tracks.

[00:13:42] This one is just incredible. Now it's not gonna appeal to everybody. Those people that loved Soul Sacrifice by Santana are gonna love this song cuz it's in that same vein. It's just brilliant. It's, a jazz fusion instrumental track Bill [00:14:00] Payne’s playing on it. Unbelievable. It's very different from a lot of little fe stuff, I think. But well worth the listen. Do you have any from that record? I know that one's a hard one and we've been having a bit of a time trying to share it, but do you have any picks from that record? . 

[00:14:16] Cam Brown: Well, I did get it from you earlier.

[00:14:17] I didn't have a chance to really go through it but I know the town did stand out, but what I really liked is at the very last was Bill's River Blues. 

[00:14:26] Blake Melnick: Yeah, I like that tune as well. The intro, the piano intro reminded me of the intro to morning is broken.

[00:14:33] Okay. Our next album is Chinese Work Songs recorded in 2000. Again, lead vocals. Shaun Murphy. What are your picks from that record?

[00:14:42] Cam Brown: Chinese work songs was good. , it was interesting when, years and years ago, you and I think my brother went down to see Little Feat at the docks. Here in Toronto and Schaumburg, if he was a singer. I remember being blown away What I really liked on this one was Eula. It starts off like a jam session. Like the band [00:15:00] is sort of getting together in their studios. People are coming in, picking up their instruments. And to tell you the truth, if Mick Jagger ever heard that song, that would be a great song for him to cover it cuz it's got that really soulful accent to words 

[00:15:12] So that was one of my favorites. The other one was just another Sunday. A beautiful blend of I don't wanna say power ballot cuz that's like an eighty’s kind of term, but the way it builds up. It would be hard to say that It doesn't also sound like a jam session like at one point they're started jamming in the on to see how it would turn out. It was great. I love both of those songs. And in fact, turned my brother onto, EULA this morning. 

[00:15:33] Blake Melnick: I really like this record. I like Shaun Murphy. You know, it was an adjustment for me to go from, a band that I knew really well with, predominantly well with all male vocals, to a female vocalist.

[00:15:44] But I really like Shaun Murphy. Not everything. But I really did like a lot of the things that she brought to the band. 

[00:15:52] So I picked Rio Esperanza. It's a beautiful ball. I think it really suited Shaun Murphy's voice. She sang in that raspy [00:16:00] broken China voice, that I love so much, with Bill Payne accompanying her on piano. And like you, my other pick was just another Sunday fabulous song. And you know, funny about this song.

[00:16:11] I listen to this song a lot and it does remind me of driving in my car with a top down on a Sunday. It just has, I kind of feel that laid-back lazy Sunday. Beautiful song.

[00:16:22] Cam Brown: I did enjoy the Rio, but I was worried about how to pronounce the last part of the song , 

[00:16:27] Blake Melnick: not that second word. Yeah. So that, you know what, 

[00:16:30] Cam Brown: maybe someone else will take it,

[00:16:31] yeah. There's also one there too. Like it was a really close, like a follow up it could change next week if you ask me, but there's a great one there. It takes a lot to laugh. It takes a train to cry. Right. And to me, you know what, when I listened to that, I. This sounds like a Ray Charles song. 

[00:16:48] It doesn't sound like Ray Charles, but if he was still around I could see him covering it. 

[00:16:52] Blake Melnick: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . It's that strong song. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. This was a really good record. I'm curious about the title Chinese work songs.

[00:16:59] [00:17:00] I'm not sure where that came from, but, maybe I'll ask Bill Payne at some point if we get a chance to talk again.

[00:17:05] Next up is under the radar recorded in 1998. Again, Shaun Murphy, assumes lead vocals. You got some picks there. 

[00:17:12] Cam Brown: Under the radar? Yes.

[00:17:13] There was Eden's Wall. Okay. And again, you know, when I listen to music for the first time, I often compare it to other stuff. I'm a big fan of Peter Townsend It kind of reminded me a little bit of something he might have written. It's got a great blend of instruments. Starts up with an accordion again, we're.

[00:17:30] Kind of takes you to the band. Back in the day someone would've been smart to put Little Feat on the road with the band as a double tour, and, again, I gotta give you a follow up, calling the children home. 

[00:17:40] Blake Melnick: Yeah, great talk. 

[00:17:41] Cam Brown: I think that's a great song.

[00:17:42] What are yours? 

[00:17:43] Blake Melnick: , I had two different ones. I had home ground. I love little Fe's funk groove. Anytime.

[00:17:49] They drop into that sort of heavy funk groove with Kenny grad's bass playing and, Richie Hayward's drumming. I find that funk groove really opens the songs [00:18:00] up to some beautiful guitar playing, by Paul Barrare. 

[00:18:03] The other one is Ho Hoi, which features John Murphy on vocals with Sam Clayton. So one thing I've noticed is Sam Clayton and Shaun Murphy together pair extremely well vocally. They just seem to be in sync. Great background. fills by Sam Clayton. This one feels to me like the old time original Little feed song.

[00:18:24] Enhanced by Clayton's percussion. He is an amazing conga player. I love the shift in tempo in this song from Little Feat Funk again to kind of south of the border that, Mexico or Texacali feel That Little Feat has introduced into the music fair bit the last number of years.

[00:18:41] So those are my two picks. . 

[00:18:44] So that brings us to, Ain't Had Enough fun, released in 1995. Again, Shaun Murphy singing lead vocals. What are your picks from that record? 

[00:18:53] I must say, shaky cam, which, should have been a huge single, [00:19:00] you could have thrown that into one of the Beverly Hills Cop movies, had Eddie Murphy being chased around I love Shaky Town. I used to, as you know, back in the day, DJ office parties, DJ weddings. I put on Shaky Town. The dance floor would be packed even though 90% of people would who the band was, right? I this sounds great. Let's go to the dance floor.

[00:19:19] And then, you know what, the title Track eight had enough fun. It's a really great track and it's got a bit of humor to it. Their band that was not afraid to do some things tongue in cheek. But, , you play this for, in a room and you have a five or six-year-old around, you're gonna see that kid.

[00:19:35] Right. It just got that kind of really, entertaining, holiday family flow, whatever. 

[00:19:43] This was the first record, where Shaun Murphy had joined the band. So it really featured her on vocals.

[00:19:48] She did the vast majority of the vocals. Not on a, had enough fun. That was Paul Barrare. But, and I had that too as one of my picks for the same reasons. I thought it was funny. Tongue in cheek, . And the other one was, that's a pretty good [00:20:00] love and I have an affinity for this song.

[00:20:02] I was directing a play back, I think in 1996. Called, true Love by Sam Shepherd, and it was a marvelous experience for me as a director. It was a great play. Won all kinds of awards and won the showcase for the Serious Festival 50th anniversary. The play was essentially, pros about love, and we created characters and vignettes out of the pros. And I wanted to introduce that whole concept of love to the audience to set the stage for this play. And I was trying to find a song, and the song that came to mind was, that's a pretty good love.

[00:20:36] And to me, this is like the old Chicago Jazz show number. In fact, I could imagine it being . In the production of Chicago. And I had two dancers in Whiteface coming down a set of stairs, all dressed in formal attire, top hats, canes, white gloves. And to that song just setting the stage for the play, I think it's a fabulous song.

[00:20:56] I really, really love it. So that would be my, that was my second [00:21:00] choice from that record. But I like this whole record. I thought if you're gonna introduce a new singer, and after a long hiatus, and introduce a female singer, which of course the band had never had.

[00:21:11] I thought this was a great introduction to Shaun Murphy as a singer. Well produced record. The instrumentation is really good. The other song I liked on it was borderline blues. Again, a slow moving, beautiful song. Great lyrics. 

[00:21:24] Now we're going to 1991 with the album Shake Me Up, which had Craig Fuller, a singing lead vocal. Now, Craig Fuller was from Pure Prairie League. He joined the band and the story by it was somebody had heard him sing. Said, well, you know, this guy sounds a lot like Little George and I guess, pushed that over to the band and said, Hey, here's a guy you might consider, as little George's replacement.

[00:21:46] So 1991 Shake Me Up. Got some choices from that album. 

[00:21:51] Cam Brown: , the title track, for sure another, classic Little Feat song. And I would say

[00:21:58] it's a tie between [00:22:00] things happen and clowning. I'll probably go with things happen. I like the words a lot as well. This was an album that, I did previously research this cuz I went off Spotify. It's not on the Spotify list, but I had this on CD at one point and uh, they had it on vinyl.

[00:22:14] I would've worn it out. 

[00:22:16] Blake Melnick: I have to be honest, this was not my favorite little feed album, but, like you, I also had Shake Me Up as one of my picks. It's a great driving rock song, great dance song. This is a song that gets people out of their seats. 

[00:22:28] . Yeah. And then I had two other picks, I had clowning as well. I really liked that song. And the other one I had was boombox car. It's Little Feat playing funk at their very best.

[00:22:40] I really love. Richie Hayward's drumming on this record. His drumming is outstanding. So yeah, those would be , my choices. Good funk songs, good, hard driving rock songs. Yeah, and I think that sort of characterizes that record, , in general. 

[00:22:57] Okay, so now we're going one year before [00:23:00] with the album representing the Mambo, again with Craig Fuller singing lead vocals.

[00:23:05] What are your choices? 

[00:23:08] Cam Brown: My choice is, the title track. I love it. It is, for lack of a better description, Little Feat with a Santana twist. Or if you played this song for Billy Joel, he'd do a cover. Right.

[00:23:18] Although he seems to not record anymore. He performs live. But it's just, it's got such flavor to it. It moves different modes. It's almost like the start of a classic Hollywood film, and then it just rolls into a whole other sort of adventure. I really thought it was, , great and then, Texas Twister is another one that at my , DJ days.

[00:23:36] I put it on whether people knew who it was or not. It, they just cut on the dance floor. Yeah, they just went on the dance floor and then listen to this again. Also, I should say. And I'll be listening to this one again when we're through this episode, but those Feat Will Steer You Wrong, I'm not a big country fan, but that is a great country 

[00:23:52] rock song.

[00:23:53] Blake Melnick: . I had, representing the Mambo is one of my picks too. I think that's a brilliant , composition. That's a Bill Payne composition for [00:24:00] sure. It's again, yeah, for sure. As you notice on a lot of the records, there's one song that's clearly influenced by Bill Payne's love of jazz, 

[00:24:07] and that's certainly one of them. We talked about this in the interview, you know, he said, this is a really complicated piece. , you know, teaching this piece to the band, he had to do it in sections. . He said, there's no way I could just hand this over. We had to work through it in sections to get it right. But it is a beautiful piece of music. It truly is. Lots of changes. Oh, quite piece of music. Yeah. Yeah. Lots of changes and tempo and, I think the best. Track on the record. , 

[00:24:31] and I had those feats will steer you wrong sometimes. Story song. Song is about a guy being pulled over by the cops for speeding. Officer comes to the window and says, why are you driving so fast? And he goes, well, I'm in the feed. I'm driving from town to town, I'm listening to them on the radio and they get my feet a tapping and my hands are slapping, and so on and so forth.

[00:24:51] And you and I talked about this story and I don't know whether it's true, I meant to ask Bill this during our interview, but there's been a story circulating for years. [00:25:00] That in fact this is a true story. The driver of the car was Bob Seger and he was explaining to the police officer that he was driving so fast cuz he was grooving to the Little Feat beat.

[00:25:10] Cam Brown: , well, you know what, I gotta tell you, I remember where I heard that story was on the liner notes to Bob Seeger's Greatest Hits.

[00:25:16] And it was about Hollywood Nights. And so it, it was in the liner notes, back in the days when they still had liner notes. And he explained it just like I'm coming from the studio listening to one listening to Hollywood Nights and listening to Bill. Piano solo in that song, which is unbelievable.

[00:25:32] Right. One of my favorite pop singer songs. . So check your Wikipedia folks, if you doubt me.

[00:25:37] Well, anyway, this song, may, that song maybe a reference to Bob Seeger, maybe at a time when they were playing in the same band together or Bob Seeger was accompanying little feat, but it does sound like the same story at any rate. And the police officer ends up letting them go because you know, the fe will steer you wrong sometimes.

[00:25:55] Blake Melnick: Bob here, . Yeah, right, exactly. Anyway, so those are our [00:26:00] picks. We'll have one of those on the playlist, and then our final, album to talk about is Let It Roll. This is Little Feat’s comeback record after the death of Lowell George released in 1988.

[00:26:10] He died in 1979. And Bill said to me, when we talked about Lowell George, the influence of Lowell George, and he said, he had originally been quoted in People Magazine saying the band couldn't survive without Little George. I'm glad he was wrong, and I'm sure he is. 

[00:26:24] He said that. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Yeah. People magazine. Yeah. No, no. He said he said it, but he said, people keep asking about it. He said, well, I was wrong, , I've changed my mind. But anyway, this record was their comeback record. , it was a really good comeback record.

[00:26:42] I don't know if it was their biggest selling album, but I suspect it might have been, certainly the title track, got a lot of radio play. I remember when it came out, , Craig Fuller as a lead vocalist, but, what were your picks there?

[00:26:53] Well, of course the song Let It Roll. The title track was great. Again, a DJ's favorite. You're, you're [00:27:00] playing music at a party. You want to get people out of dancing, you put it on, let it roll it. It was great. but really listening to this again, I forgot that, Cajun.

[00:27:08] Right. Great song. This reminds me of a combination. If you don't know Little Feat, you'd say, well, imagine the band and Los Lobos getting together in a jam. I love Voices on the Wind

[00:27:18] That's a third one, but that's a beautiful song and. It's a ballad you'd play at a wedding or something like that.

[00:27:24] I'm with you. I like Let it Roll. I mean, it's hard not to like that song. , like Texas Twister, Shake Me Up.

[00:27:30] It's one of those classic rock and roll songs that Little Feat do so well. It got a lot of radio play. I saw the show when that album was released. 

[00:27:39] My other pick is Hanging On To the Good Times Because the lyrics just spoke to me. Yeah. , My wife and I listened that song all the time, and it reminds us, to hang on to those good times and remember those good times and I just love the song -  always have. So that's, my second pick.

[00:27:57] Well, that brings us to the end of our episode, [00:28:00] Little Feat A.G.. After George, we've put together great selection of songs, which demonstrates the breadth of Little Feat, song writing, playing, and musical stylings. And I think our listeners, especially those new to Little Feat, are really gonna dig this playlist 

[00:28:15] you'll find the link to the Little Feat A.G. playlist on Spotify in the show notes for this episode on the Straight From the Heart show blog page, and on our show Facebook page. For what it's worth, the podcast series.

[00:28:29] on the next episode. For what it's worth, we're going to turn our attention to innovation and our series, the Many Faces of Innovation …for what it's worth.