CoronaVinyl Day 271 (L): Feats Don't Fail Me Now by Little Feat

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

I meant to post this Friday, but things got away from me, so I moved it to today.  Today's CoronaVinyl category is "L," and I'm going with Little Feat's fourth studio album, 1974's Feats Don't Fail Me Now.

Little Feat is another one of those bands whose name I often hear, but for one reason or another, I just don't know much about them.  I also mix them up with Little River Band, though I understand that their genres don't always cross.

But anyway, Little Feat was played mostly southern rock, swamp rock, blues rock, boogie rock, and country rock, with some jam band tendencies.  The had some pretty decent success in the '70s, despite not having any big radio hits.  From my CoronaVinyl listening over the past 14 months, I know that various members of Little Feat made appearances on many other artists' albums, and main lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Lowell George (who had previously been a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention) was well-loved and respected.  

I enjoyed Feats Don't Fail Me Now, which has George Washington and Marilyn Monroe driving on a mountain pass on the cover.  The music on the album is pretty much what I described above.  It's just a good rock and roll album, with a southern/country tinge, with some jamming.  For me, it felt like an extension of The Band, which is a huge compliment.  The band had contributions from the likes of Bonnie Raitt and Emmy Lou Harris on backing vocals, funk band Tower of Power on horns, and future Earth, Wind & Fire drummer Fred White on drums on one track.

The album went to #36 on the Billboard album chart.  The band would release three more studio albums in the '70s and broke up in 1979, shortly before George died of a heart attack at the age of 34.  Remaining members reformed the group in 1987, and they released nine more studio albums between 1988 and 2012, with relatively little turnover.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Rock and Roll Doctor"
The album starts off with a bluesy, swampy number that sounds like a combination of early '70s Stones and early '70s Grateful Dead.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Cold Cold Cold/Tripe Face Boogie"
The last song on the album is a jammy ten-minute medley of two songs, including the only song of which I'm aware that has the word "tripe" in it.  The first half reminds me of some of Lynyrd Skynyrd's bluesier songs, and then the second half turns into a southern rock jam.