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.  

Chris Spedding - ...and on guitar (1972)

Christopher John Spedding was born Peter Robinson on 17 June 1944 in Staveley, Derbyshire, and was adopted by Muriel and Jack Spedding after his father was killed in the war, and they renamed him Christopher John Spedding. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he is best known for his studio session work, although he has also had a fairly successful solo career, releasing a number of well-received albums. He started listening to rock'n'roll in the 50's, starting with Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, and as he'd been learning the violin since the age of 9, he started strumming it like a guitar, until he got his first real instrument when he was 13. At this time Spedding went back to Sheffield and attended Abbeydale Grammar School, where he formed a band called the Vulcans, and in 1961 he left school and moved to London, where he got a job in a music shop. At the same time he was also gigging in a C&W band around the American Air Force bases, which is where he met Frank Ricotti, with whom he started a weekly jazz club in an Islington pub. Spedding mostly played in jazz bands in the early to mid 60's, and when the British blues boom emerged in the late 60's, he disliked playing in that style so much that he only played bass until he found a guitar sound that he felt comfortable with. 

In 1967 he joined Pete Brown And His Battered Ornaments, and wrote 'Sunshades' for their 1969 'Mantle-Piece' album, as well as co-authoring a couple of other songs, and at the same time he also joined the Frank Ricotti Quartet, co-writing 'Late Into The Night' with Pete Brown for their sole 1969 album. Around this time he was much in demand as a session guitarist, with quite a few of his gigs being with jazz or jazz-based musicians, like Jack Bruce, Michael Gibbs, and Bob Downes, and in 1970 he joined Nucleus, who recorded their first album early that year, with 'Elastic Rock' including three Spedding co-writes. His renown as a jazz guitarist was such that he was voted second in the Best Jazz Guitarist category in the Melody Maker poll of 1970, and to capitalise on that he recorded his first solo album, a jazz record titled 'Songs Without Words' later that year, although it was only released in Japan at the time, and was not made more widely available until an edited version sanctioned by Spedding was released in 2015. While a member of Nuclues he continued with his session work, contributing to tracks by Julie Driscoll and Linda Hoyle, as well as jazz saxophonist extraordinaire Dick Heckstall-Smith. However, although jazz was his first love, Spedding could turn his hand to almost any style of guitar-playing, and so early 70's sessions also found him appearing on recordings by Mike d'Abo, Lesley Duncan, Harry Nilsson, Roger Cook, Elton John, and Sixto Rodriguez, who was later the subject of the 2012 documentary 'Searching For Sugar Man'. 

To show just how versatile he was, I've split this double disc set into one of his jazz recordings and one of his pop/rock recordings, and although this post finishes at 1972, his career still had much further to go, forming Sharks that year with ex-Free bassist Andy Fraser and recording two albums with them, before touring and recording with John Cale, and playing with Roy Harper's occasional backing band Trigger, notably on 1975's 'HQ' album. Between 1972 and 1976 he played in Mike Batt's novelty band The Wombles, and confirmed on the Marc Riley show on BBC Radio 6 Music that he once performed on television in a Womble suit, and in 1975 he had his first Top 20 solo hit in the UK with 'Motor Bikin'', which he promoted with television appearances on Top Of The Pops and Supersonic, dressed in leather motorcycling gear, and with greased hair. On his 1976 single 'Pogo Dancing' he was backed by UK punk band The Vibrators, but when further hits failed to materialise, he concentrated on his career as a session guitarist, appearing and recording with Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Elton John, Brian Eno, Jack Bruce, Nick Mason, Art Garfunkel, Typically Tropical, Katie Melua, and Ginger Baker, amongst many, many others. In 1976 he even produced three demo tracks by The Sex Pistols, and there are persistent rumours that he played guitar and bass on their debut album 'Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols', although guitarist Steve Jones emphatically denies this. Spedding's career has continued right up to the present day, releasing a live album just last year, but this is where it all started for him, adding his skill and versatility to dozens of recordings in the early 70's. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Sunshades (from 'Mantle-Piece' by The Battered Ornaments 1969)
02 Late Into The Night (from 'Our Point Of View' by Frank Ricotti Quartet 1969)
03 Tickets To Waterfalls (from 'Songs For A Tailor' by Jack Bruce 1969)
04 Got No Home (from 'Deep Down Heavy' by Bob Downes 1970)
05 Persephone's Jive (from 'Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises' by Neil Ardley 1970)
06 Throb (from 'Michael Gibbs' by Michael Gibbs 1970)
07 A New Awakening (from '1969' by Julie Driscoll 1971)
08 Twisted Track (from 'Elastic Rock' by Nucleus 1970)
09 The Pirate's Dream (from 'A Story Ended' by Dick Heckstall-Smith 1972)
10 Pieces Of Me (from 'Pieces Of Me' by Linda Hoyle 1971)
11 Technology (from 'Solid Gold Cadillac' by Solid Gold Cadillac 1972)

Disc Two
01 Woman In My Life (from 'd'Abo' by Mike d'Abo 1970)
02 Philwit's Fantasies (from 'Philwit & Pegasus' by Philwit & Pegasus 1970)
03 Daffodils (from 'Loudwater House' by Tony Hazzard 1971)
04 Mr. Rubin (from 'Sing Children Sing' by Lesley Duncan 1971)
05 Hampstead Way (from 'Say No More...' by Linda Lewis 1971)
06 Climb Up On My Music (from 'Coming From Reality' by Rodriguez 1971)
07 Down (from 'Nilsson Schmilsson' by Nilsson 1971)
08 Madman Across The Water (from 'Madman Across The Water' by Elton John 1971)
09 Avalon (from 'Matthew Ellis' by Matthew Ellis 1972)
10 Penthouse Pauper (from 'Panhandle' by Panhandle 1972)
11 Virginia (from 'Queues' by Vigrass & Osborne 1972)
12 One More Time Around (from 'Vaughan Thomas' by Vaughan Thomas 1972)
13 Oh Babe (from 'Meanwhile... Back At The World' by Roger Cook 1972)
14 Bonus Track 

For a full history of the life of Chris Spedding, and a complete list of all his session work, then check out http://chrisspedding.com/session/ssn.htm