Lowell George - ...and on guitar (1977)

Lowell Thomas George was born in Hollywood, California, on 13 April 1945, and his first instrument was the harmonica, appearing at the age of six on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour performing a duet with his older brother, Hampton. As a student at Hollywood High School he took up the flute in the school marching band and orchestra, and had already started to play Hampton's acoustic guitar at age 11, progressing to the electric guitar by his high school years, and later learning to play the saxophone, shakuhachi and sitar. During this period he viewed the teen idol-oriented rock and roll of the era with contempt, instead favoring West Coast jazz and the soul jazz of Les McCann and Mose Allison. Initially funded by the sale of his grandfather's stock, George's first band The Factory formed in 1965 and released at least one single on the Uni Records label, the George co-write 'Smile, Let Your Life Begin'. Members included future Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward (who replaced Dallas Taylor in September 1966), Martin Kibbee (a.k.a. Fred Martin) who would later co-write several Little Feat songs with George, including 'Dixie Chicken' and 'Rock And Roll Doctor', and Warren Klein on guitar, with Frank Zappa producing two tracks for the band which were left unreleased at the time. When The Factory broke up George briefly played in The Standells, before joining Zappa's Mothers Of Invention as rhythm guitarist and nominal lead vocalist, playing on 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh' and 'Burnt Weeny Sandwich', and during this period he absorbed Zappa's autocratic leadership style and avant garde-influenced compositional methods. In 1969 he earned his first co-production credit on The GTO's 'Permanent Damage' album, and later that year he left The Mothers Of Invention under nebulous circumstances, enticing fellow musicians Roy Estrada (bass), Bill Payne (keyboards), and Richie Hayward (drums) to jump ship with him and form a new band that he named Little Feat. George mostly played lead guitar, but focused on slide guitar, although he had to get Ry Cooder to play the slide on 'Willin'' on their debut album after George badly injured his hand while working on a powered model airplane. Neither 'Little Feat' nor it's follow-up 'Sailin' Shoes' were commercially successful, leading to Estrada leaving the band in 1972 to join Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, and he was replaced on bass by Kenny Gradney. 

In addition, the band expanded to a sextet by adding Paul Barrere as second guitarist, thus cementing the classic line-up that took on a New Orleans funk direction with their next album, 1973's 'Dixie Chicken'. While recording and releasing this now-classic trio of albums, George was in demand as a session slide guitar player, adding his distinctive licks to albums from artists such as Nilsson, Carly Simon, Barbara Keith, Van Dyke Parks, and John Cale. Further Little Feat albums followed in the mid 70's including 'Feats Don't Fail Me Now' in 1974 and 'The Last Record Album' in 1975, and 1976 was a particularly busy year for George's session work, appearing on albums by John David Souther, Jackson Browne, and Kate and Anna McGarrigle, among others. In 1978 the band recorded their best-selling album, the live 'Waiting For Columbus', but tensions within the group, especially between George, Payne, and Barrere led to the latter pair's departure in 1979, leading to the break-up of Little Feat after the release of their 'Down On The Farm' album. George released his only solo album 'Thanks, I'll Eat It Here' in 1979, and carried on with his session work, but the early 70's were busiest for him, with enough guest appearances between 1970 and 1977 alone to fill three discs in this series. George led an overindulgent lifestyle of binge eating, alcoholism and drug-taking, becoming morbidly obese in the last years of his life, and on 29 June 1979 he collapsed and died of a heart attack, brought on by an accidental cocaine overdose, in his Arlington, Virginia, hotel room. He was just 34, but in his unjustly short life he produced some of the best US rock music ever made, with Little Feat gaining more appreciation after his death than they ever did before it, and his many contributions to records by his fellow musicians stand as a testament to his skill on his beloved slide guitar.   

Track listing

Disc One
01 Do Me In Once And I'll Be Sad, Do Me In Twice And I'll Know Better (Circular Circulation)

                                                                        (from 'Permanent Damage' by The GTO's 1969)
02 Dream Goin' By (from 'Moments' by Judy Mayhan 1970)
03 Memo From Turner (from the soundtrack from the film 'Performance' 1970)
04 Grand Illusion (from 'The Ice Cream Man' by Ivan Ulz 1970)
05 Sylvie (unreleased track from Country 1970)
06 Somebody's Gone (from 'No Apologies' by Nolan Porter 1971)
07 Detroit Or Buffalo (from 'Barbara Keith' by Barbara Keith 1972)
08 FDR In Trinidad (from 'Discover America' by Van Dyke Parks 1972)
09 Take 54 (from 'Son Of Schmilsson' by Nilsson 1972)
10 Waited So Long (from 'No Secrets' by Carly Simon 1972)
11 San Francisco Song (from 'Tret Fure' by Tret Fure 1973)
12 Macbeth (from 'Paris 1919' by John Cale 1973)

Disc Two
01 Gengis (from 'The Master' by Chico Hamilton' 1973)
02 I Feel The Same (from 'Takin' My Time' by Bonnie Raitt 1973)
03 Sayonara America Sayonara Nippon (from 'Happy End' by Happy End 1973)
04 Cannibal Forest (from 'Amazing' by Kathy Dalton 1973)
05 Everybody Slides (from 'Blues & Bluegrass' by Mike Auldridge 1974)
06 Let's Burn Down The Cornfield (from 'Come A Little Closer' by Etta James 1974)
07 Face Of Appalachia (from 'Tarzana Kid' by John Sebastian 1974)
08 Gringo En Mixico (from 'Waitress In A Donut Shop' by Maria Muldaur 1974)
09 Monkey Grip Glue (from 'Monkey Grip' by Bill Wyman 1974)
10 Just Kissed My Baby (from 'Rejuvenation' by The Meters 1974)

Disc Three
01 How Much Fun (from 'Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley' by Robert Palmer 1974)
02 Angry Blues (from 'Gorilla' by James Taylor 1975)
03 Roll Um Easy (from 'Prisoner In Disguise' by Linda Ronstadt 1975)
04 May You Never (from 'Not A Little Girl Anymore' by Linda Lewis 1975)
05 Midnight Prowl (from 'Black Rose' by John David Souther 1976)
06 Travelling On For Jesus (from 'Kate & Anna McGarrigle' by Kate & Anna McGarrigle 1976)
07 Denwasen (from 'Japanese Girl' by Akiko Yano 1976)
08 Your Bright Baby Blues (from 'The Pretender' by Jackson Browne 1976)
09 Catfish (from 'Lasso From El Paso' by Kinky Friedman 1976)
10 If I Lose (from 'Sandman' by Herb Pedersen 1977)
11 Dance To The Radio (from 'El Mirage' by Jimmy Webb 1977)

Many thanks to Bonita for suggesting George as a candidate for the series, as I wouldn't have thought that he'd played on many songs from other artists, but this has turned out to be a superb three disc set of his extra-curricular work.