Poll, Poll, Poll: Little Feat - Sailin' Shoes

Straight up classic album, but I find myself randomly singing "Willin'" way more than the others.

Van Halen's cover of "Apolitical Blues" is so irritating it was years before I could listen to the song again. I'll probably vote "Willin'," but there's a close tie for 2nd place between "Trouble" and the last three.

"Easy To Slip" has been one of my favorite songs for practically my entire life but maybe I'll give this a spin and see if I feel like voting for anything else.

Yeah, "Willin'" is the obv. choice for me but I'll have to relisten to be sure.

"Willin'" is the shit but I'm not sure if the one on this album is even my favorite studio version of it.

"Tucson to Tucumcari/ Tehachapeh to Tonapah" - one of the more beautiful lines in the canon

Has to be Willin'

This is a great album with country, weirdo blues and lots of WTF lyrical absurdist moments. WIllin' will most likely win this, but you can't go wrong with Easy to Slip.

always been a fan of teenage nervous breakdown. first time i ever heard it was on a nazareth album!

(loud 'n' proud by nazareth might have their best covers on it. little feat, joni's this flight tonight, and their epic 9 minute version of dylan's ballad of hollis brown.)

Does anyone sound like (or sound influenced by) early Little Feat nowadays? Nobody comes to mind, which is both a shame and a surprise.

there's a band called Apollo Sunshine whose 2nd album i like to compare to Little Feat, although it's probably something of a stretch. probably a good amount of roots rock and country bands out there w/ huge early LF influences who don't get called on it much because of slick modern production.

Easy to Slip or Tripe Face Boogie

"Does anyone sound like (or sound influenced by) early Little Feat nowadays? Nobody comes to mind, which is both a shame and a surprise."

Little Feat still sounds amazingly like Little Feat! Go see them. You won't regret it.

http://www.littlefeat.net/index.php?page=tourdates

actual fan testimonial:

Little Feat Fuckin' Rocked Tonight!!!!

actual classic thread, that one

oh man feat in jamaica in 2010. absolutely no need whatsoever to bogart that joint.

I know Little Feat sound like Little Feat; I was wondering if anyone was copping their steez. Haven't seen 'em live in quite a few years, but they were consistently awesome every time all through the late 80s & 90s.

70 bucks to see them in glorious fall river. that's steep. but only 40 bucks to see them in majestic torrington AND hot tuna are playing too.

i've actually heard a couple of songs by clutch that sound like little feat! but clutch don't generally sound like little feat.

most of those drive by truckers kinda bands SHOULD try and sound like little feat but they always just end up sounding like the long ryders or the gin blossoms or something.

none of them can groove or swing very well. (and the jam bands that DO try to groove and swing are usually really embarrassing.)

i dunno, feat could funk and rock and jazz and prog and blues and pop! nowadays you are lucky if a band can do even one of those things successfully.

i mean is there even a band out there doing anything as entertaining as nrbq used to do? let alone little feat.

sorry. sound like old man...

I'm right with you Scott - I want to hear 100 bands that try the gumbo that is Little Feat. Clutch does mix an occassional touch of Little Feat in their steroidal ZZ Topisms, but I want more.

Guess I'll just have to listen to Little Feat more often. Not a tough chore!

i always mean to listen to some latter-day los lobos. they might be the best bet, actually. they have a ton of albums i've never heard and i know people swap recordings of their live sets a la dead and feat.

and they've always loved to mix stuff up style-wise. and they do know how to groove. and they even love country music.

I always think of Los Lobos ans this weird singularity - though, you're right in how they have their own melting pot style not far from Little Feat. I still play Kiko pretty often, and the Latin Playboys stuff.

Guess I'll just have to listen to Little Feat more often

^ when in doubt, i always listen to Little Feat. What an astonishingly great band.

Ted Templeman = still one of my favourite producers

"Easy to Slip." Also believe this to be their greatest LP. Wasn't this tune an attempt to get this band on the radio? One of the most unfortunate drug casualties in rock; everything he ever appeared pretty unmistakably wore his influence. Yeah, Templeman did "Clear Spot," too, the Captain's Little Feat LP.

two templeman albums that are two of my favorite productions of the 70's: van halen debut and doobie brothers captain and me album.

Also Montrose s/t. That kicks all sorts of ass.

most of the stuff he did with the doobie brothers sounds amazing to me.

he did tupelo honey too! i love that record.

man this is tough. "Cold, Cold, Cold" is a monster. the version of "Trouble" on LF's last album w/ Lowell George's daughter on vocals was pretty adorable.

mm, I was under the impression that Templeman did Ladies of the Canyon as well as all those other good'uns, but I was wrong. Too bad...but I guess that just makes "Easy to Slip" all the more appropriate a choice.

I'm going with "Willin'" after listening through yesterday.

most of those drive by truckers kinda bands SHOULD try and sound like little feat but they always just end up sounding like the long ryders or the gin blossoms or something.

my morning jacket is another one that has some theoretical kinship, but like the dbts they seriously lack for grooves. to me it's really the rhythm sections that set that era apart, what i think of as the boogie era. i don't know why people don't/can't play like that anymore. i guess the same reasons blues records don't sound like chess anymore, just a different time. what was in the air, what people were reacting to and what they absorbed. and when i say "rhythm sections," i guess i don't really mean just the bass and drums, i mean the rhythms themselves, which are in the guitars and pianos too. it's just an approach to groves, a whole sound that's more or less lost. you can have people play it note for note now and it won't sound the same. (which is not a knock on the rhythms of the current era, there are a lot of great ones. they're just different.)

an approach to grooves, not groves

My theory is that what's missing is church. Those were great training places for music in the south. I think about lots of music today. And it's not that music is inexorably worse for it. But something's been lost.

er should read "I think THAT about lots of music today", that what's missing is church.

man i always forget that this album ends almost as strong as it starts, "Cat Fever" and "Texas Rose Cafe" are fucking awesome

if those dudes in antibalas and nomo and budos band and daptones can get it together to groove, then ONE rock band should be able to. problem is, a lot of the indie twangers come from indie rock backgrounds. dudes in the 70's were all in garage/cover bands that played EVERYTHING. soul, old rock and r&b, garage rock, etc. they, in many cases, had years of experience playing many styles. plus, they could actually play. a lot of indie rock dudes never learned even the basics.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Robert Palmer's version of SS with the meters and LG is pretty good but LG beats him as a vocalist easy