Friday, December 3, 2021

When They Go Lowell, We Get High Dept.


In swell cross-blog hysteresis. Jonder teams with PJ [albumsiwishexisted - Ed.] to bring us an expanded set of Lowell's session work. Only the cover [above - Ed.] is mine, Frankensteined from various sources, mainly a Robert Williams painting.


Farq (Jonder screeds) has described the days when music obsessives communicated through classified ads, fan clubs and snail mail to assemble versions of the Beach Boys' unreleased opus, Smile.  The tools of tape traders and fanzine publishers (xerox, x-acto, letraset, liquid paper, and rubber cement) have been replaced by sophisticated software.  Almost anything you'd possibly want to read, hear or watch is now immediately available in digital form; and if you don't like the way it looks or sounds, you can edit it to suit yourself.

A number of music blogs feature "albums what oughta exist," and Smile is one of their specialties.  PJ at albumsiwishexisted2.blogspot.com recently created a trilogy of albums to chronicle the adventures of Lowell George as a musician, songwriter, and producer when he was off the clock with Little Feat.  These albums are shared here with PJ's permission.  His blog includes a series called "...and on guitar" which spotlights those moonlighters who have fingered fretboards and lavished licks upon recordings that don't always bear their name.  PJ has featured some great players, and one reader suggested Lowell George.

Lowell was (among other things) a studio rat who lent his talents as a musician, songwriter, and producer to many other artists.  Sometimes one or more members of Little Feat accompanied Lowell on these sessions. Farq has shared Kathy Dalton's 1973 album Amazing (which featured the entire sextet), and Chico Hamilton's 1973 album The Master (with 5/6 of the Feat: Richie Hayward sat out).

PJ's collection is chronological, beginning with a song from 1969's Permanent Damage by The GTOs.  I added a dozen tracks, and the trilogy now ends with the title track from Long Time Gonea 1980 album by John Starling (from The Seldom Scene). There's rock, funk, jazz, blues, bluegrass, folk, and country; much of it laced with the sweet sting of Lowell's slide guitar.


Thanks to PJ for his collaboration!

42 comments:

  1. To qualify for this swell set, you'd think you need a Certificate of Education from France's prestigious Sorbonne College, but no! All you need is a note from your Mom! Something along these lines will suffice: "Please let my boy have the album because [UNCONVINCING REASON HERE], yours truly, his Mom."

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  2. well, i almost brought the note. Mom's locked in a twenty-minute mind loop and all i'm getting is "Oh sunny boy, you don't have little feet!". Will you accept a note from Epstein's mother?

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    1. No, I'm sorry. Rules is rules, and wotta sap I'd look bendin' them your way after just one comment. No note, no elpees.

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  3. A Fine Old English NoblemonDecember 3, 2021 at 7:25 AM

    Please let my boy have the album because this is the only artiste that you've featured in your electrical fanzine that he can claim to have been in the same room as, if you can count Charlton Athletic Foootball Ground as a room that is, yours truly, his mam (sorry couldn't bring myself to pretend I am USAish - hope this doesn't disqualify him).

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    1. Hmm. This note looks suspiciously identical to your typing in other comments.

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  4. But my Mother has been reincarnated somewhere (aren't we all?). Of course, she could have reached Nirvana, but that's doubtful.

    I have a ninety-five-year-old Quebecois aunt up in Canada, would it be OK if she writes me a note?

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  5. Pleese escuse Nathan's n0-homework papir tuday. His dawg et it.
    Hiz Mum

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    1. Oh, wait. That was my note for school & really, my mom wrote it. I have the right one here some place, Just let me look for a minute...

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    2. (straight man voice): What kind of idiot do you take me for?

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    3. a fairly charming and frequently amusing one...? Is this a trick question?

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    4. I would say you are... wait for it... FIRST CLASS!

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    5. Here's my excuse...
      from 1974
      Little Feat - Electrif Lycanthrope Live at Ultra-Sonic Studios
      https://mega.nz/file/sO5WzKhQ#fvvNSMLUhVtjW7nN3rOiiPcnw_8XOPoNTf_fFVGmTOI

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    6. Alternate cover available here: https://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2019/08/little-boots-part-fourth.html

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    7. This is a recently released non-bootleg, if that means diddley.

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  6. Madame, Monsieur,

    Veuillez permettre à Babs ma nièce de télécharger l'album du disque. C'est une fille très gentille qui m'a appris à utiliser un téléphone portable et un ordinateur. À Noël dernier, elle m'a acheté un iPad.

    Votre sincèrement,
    Tante Inès

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    1. Bonjour very much, senorita! C'est un pleasure of you to encrypter un Link de Stealthage© sur this commentaire!

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    2. I promise none of "those" photographs will ever see the light of day (unless anybody offers me money)

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    3. Hmm. Well, okay. The link is hidden behind a comma.

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    4. Aha! Do remember the average age of your followers - had to use a magnifying glass.

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    5. Watch This Space for London All Stars. Lodey.

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  7. My son's chemistry experiment exploded; oxidants happen.

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  8. Poor Bambi has been very busy of late doing lots of revision on Japanese Jazz and he is struggling to keep up with it all. Please Mr Farquar (Jonder), can he have access to the link - however he'll not be able to "bang it on the fi" as he likes to say until next week. Also can he skip games this week as he's feeling a little snotty? Thanks for your understanding Bambis' Mum.

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  9. Please let Clarence have this silly, hooligan music or else he won't polish the dog for me -- Winnifred Pune

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  10. Mom? heck my wife, 99% of my friends{including no less than 5 Ricks)Bike club partners, aunts, uncles,pets have beat me over the Rainbow bridge grandkids do?

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  11. Dear Mr Farq-Jonder,

    Please look favourably on my son and let him have the Lowell music.

    He's been very stressed lately due to his preparations for the school science fair and has been having problems with his gene-splicing project.

    Why, only last night, his attempts to produce a Big Mac/rat hybrid resulted in catastrophe when the mutant creature attacked and devoured his devoted pet, Fido the poodle.

    Yes, the homework really did eat his dog.

    Yours sincerely,

    Mrs Shark

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  12. Your notes have been verified genuine by our resident CSI Forensics team and the link is in comment December 3, 2021 at 9:24 AM.

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  13. Wonder Triplets Activate! "AWW, YEAH!!" is exactly how I feel about this blogosphere 3-way from Farquhar's tasty album art (lovely R. Wilson appropriation), to PJ's great concept and foundation, to Jonder's extrapolation and presentation. Well done lads! Is this the first night of Hanukkah?

    My Mom says, " "Please let my boy have the album because he deserves everything he wants, yours truly, his Mom."

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  14. Lowell George knew my father
    Father knew Lowell George
    Repeat 6 times to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers
    The Rev. Baz

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  15. Is it too early to seek rehabilitation for "Day at the Dog Races" from the Rock Police?

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    1. That whole "I wanna be like Weather Report" really soured the band, although it could have been accommodated better and not caused the band's break up. Interesting that the post-Lowell Feat didn't pursue a similar course.

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    2. Yebbut Lowell wasn't exactly the hardest-working man in show business, and his songwriting output was hampered by being too lazy, stoned and fat to pick up a guitar. I imagine Bill got pissed off at nobody (especially Lowell) coming up with material, and thinking "fuck this". If we're looking at reasons why th' Feat folded, we have to look at Lowell first, and he wasn't too easy on the eyes. Wotta waste.

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    3. The Devil's Dandruff is, I suspect, responsible for both excesses. I think the fusion influence on music in the mid-70s was seen by bands so inclined as signifying being open to the latest jazz-funk sounds, rather than relentless blues-rock boogie, and I for one am all for Fender Rhodes electric pianos and middle-16s. We only move apart when the bass and drum solos start.

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  16. It sure would be swell to have some Robert Williams anthologies to peruse while using the IoF outhouses. Might soften the chaffing of the coconut skins we have to wipe ourselves with (at least those of us not enjoying the comfort and amenities of a luxury trailer).

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