Willin' : the story of Little Feat

314 Pages·2013·2.47 MB·English

by  Fong-Torres

WILLIN’
ALSO BY BEN FONG-TORRES
Eagles: Taking It to the Limit
Grateful Dead Scrapbook: The Long, Strange Trip in Stories, Photos, and
Memorabilia
Becoming Almost Famous: My Back Pages in Music, Writing, and Life
The Doors by The Doors
The Hits Just Keep on Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio
Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll
Hickory Wind: The Life and Times of Gram Parsons
The Rice Room: Growing Up Chinese-American from Number Two Son to Rock
’n’ Roll
WILLIN’
The Story of
LITTLE FEAT
BEN FONG-TORRES
DA CAPO PRESS
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1: The Contenders
Chapter 2: The Birth of Little Feat: Mothers and In-Laws
Chapter 3: “You Got Ugly Little Feet,”
Chapter 4: Feat’s First
Chapter 5: Easy to Slip
Chapter 6: Two Trains
Chapter 7: Finger-Pickin’ Good
Chapter 8: Feats Don’t Fail
Chapter 9: Not Quite “The Last Record Album,”
Chapter 10: “What Is This? Weather Report?”
Chapter 11: Waiting for Columbus
Chapter 12: Warped by the Rain . . .
Chapter 13: From the Forum to the Farm
Chapter 14: Let it Roll, Again
Chapter 15: The Lightning-Rod Woman
Chapter 16: ’Net Gains
Chapter 17: Feats Walk On
Bibliography
Interviews
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This has been, by far, the most difficult project I’ve tackled. But the reason for
this has little to do with Little Feat. Its members, past and present, and its
associates—fellow musicians, managers, producers, record company executives
and staffers—have been most helpful. So have family, friends, and fans.
My problems were personal, and they’ll be briefly addressed soon enough.
But I am grateful that, from start to finish, I found so many people willing to
help—with personal stories, anecdotes, research materials, and suggestions for
others who might shed additional light on this much-loved band.
I am including a list of all the people I interviewed. I’m not one to play
favorites, but I need to note that, among the band, Bill Payne and Paul Barrere
were especially helpful. Among Lowell George’s family, Hampton, his brother,
and two of his kids, Luke and Inara, were generous with their memories. So
were his first wife, Patte, and the love of his life, Elizabeth, who gave as much as
she could while steadfastly trying to guard her and their privacy.
There are a few musicians who did not respond to requests for interviews,
but they were outnumbered by those who spoke with enthusiasm about a favorite
band. Special thanks to Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Buffett, Linda Ronstadt, John
Sebastian, Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers, Page McConnell of Phish, and
Van Dyke Parks.
I am also grateful that Lenny Waronker and Joe Smith, presidents of Warner
Bros. Records; Peter Asher, the manager; and Russ Titelman and Ted
Templeman, Little Feat’s first two producers, granted time to me. Others who
were especially close to the band as well as to Lowell George and who were of
great help included Gene Vano, George’s faithful roadie and driver; Martin
Kibbee; his childhood friend and cowriter; journalists Bud Scoppa and Daisann
McLane; and managers Cameron Sears and John Scher.
It was appropriate that one of my first interviews was with Lynn Hearne,
who as a teenager in Southern California became a fan of rock bands and met
Lowell George while he was in the Factory. She compiled binders full of Feat
press clippings and memorabilia over the years, exemplified the lifelong Little
Feat fan, and introduced me to the band’s Grassroots movement.
There, I found Chris Cafiero, online keeper of all things Feat, along with two
radio broadcasters, Ed O’Connell of WHCN in Connecticut and “Cerphe”
Colwell of WHFS in Maryland, who shared their encounters with George as well
as two others, Gary Bennett of KSHE in St. Louis, and David Moss, who each
produced and hosted long-running Little Feat radio shows. Moss’s son, Matt, is
an example of Little Feat’s reach into the current generation. He is the drummer
in the band Steel Toed Slippers, who’ve opened for Little Feat and whose 2012
CD was coproduced by Feat bassist Kenny Gradney and Johnny Lee Schell, the
guitarist who engineered Little Feat’s latest, Rooster Rag.
For editorial assistance I thank my longtime friend Bobbi Cowan in
Hollywood and Elizabeth Valente, a former student of mine when I taught a
magazine-writing class at San Francisco State University; Elizabeth was
invaluable in helping me cross the finish line. At the Perseus Books Group,
Carolyn Sobczak and Josephine Mariea were wonderful in their capacities as
project editor and copy editor, respectively.
In every book there are two women I thank. One is Sarah Lazin, my
colleague for years from Rolling Stone who became one of the best literary
agents in the business. I’ve been fortunate that she’s kept me on her roster and
led me to a Little Feat fan who happened also to be an editor at Da Capo Press. I
am grateful that this editor, Ben Schafer, saw fit to entrust me with the
assignment of telling the improbable story of the band that was always . . .
willin’.
Second, and most of all, I thank Dianne, who had grown accustomed to my
meeting and beating deadlines for my previous books and was shocked—
shocked!—that I had to push my delivery date several times. But, of course, she
understood. Soon after I agreed to the Little Feat project my family and I
suffered a series of tragedies that were almost beyond comprehension. I won’t
get into it here; that’s what personal websites and blogs are for. Suffice it to say
that we miss my younger sister, Shirley, and my younger brother, Burton, and
that we are taking turns visiting my mother at her nursing care facility in
Oakland.
The personal losses took their toll on my work schedule and must have taxed
everyone involved. But they also gave me additional empathy for the losses
Little Feat’s family endured, from band members like Lowell George, Richie
Hayward, album cover artist Neon Park, road manager Rick Harper to family
members like Fran Tate Payne, studio engineer, vocalist, and wife of Bill Payne.
Finally I thank the family members who, for the last two years, saw a
particularly more rushed version of me than usual, including my sister Sarah and
Dave Watkins; my niece Tina Pavao and her family, Matt and the girls; Maggie
and Stella; my niece Lea; and my nephew Jason Watkins and his wife, Wendy
Todd. My in-laws in Los Angeles saw me not at all except when I swung by to
see Little Feat working on Rooster Rag. I look forward to longer visits with
Robin and Chuck Ward as well as with Eileen and Richard Powers.
PROLOGUE
MY FIRST BOOK, MANY YEARS AGO, WAS ABOUT GRAM PARSONS, THE flawed
country-rock pioneer whose legend continues, despite the fact that in a career
that spanned eight years and several bands, including the Byrds and the Flying
Burrito Brothers as well as a most harmonious pairing with Emmylou Harris, he
never had a hit record.
My most recent book, just a couple of years ago, was about the Eagles, who
followed in Parsons’s footsteps but found all the success that was denied to
Parsons.
And now, ladies and gentleman, we come full circle with Little Feat. Many
music fans who still can recall the artists and sounds of the seventies may ask,
“Little Who?” Like Parsons, Little Feat never scored a hit record. Like Parsons,
Lowell George, the band’s cofounder and leader, died too young and for no good
reason. Like Parsons, Little Feat were favorites of music critics and disc jockeys
and got radio exposure, especially on FM rock stations unencumbered by such
restrictions as formats and formulas.
Songs like “Oh Atlanta,” “Easy to Slip,” “Rock and Roll Doctor,” and
“Dixie Chicken,” with their finely tuned nods to all manner of American music,
especially the sounds of the South, earned plenty of airplay. And when fellow
artists began covering the songs composed by Lowell George and partners,
including childhood friend Martin Kibbee and keyboardist Bill Payne, Little Feat
got just a little bit bigger.
The main song was “Willin’.” Covered in 1975 by Linda Ronstadt on her
breakthrough solo album, Heart Like a Wheel, it brought George (and his band)
some acclaim—and precious time.
They seemed always to be running out of that commodity at their record