Back from permanent vacation: Lowell George and his suitcase of goodies...

Lowell George and his Blue Plate Special have lived a charmed, sun-kissed life on the lovely beaches of False Memory Foam Island, but even long-term residents sometimes have to make room for new time shares and such. Luckily, Mr. George found a new home right away, closer to home, and he has brought a suitcase of goodies with him. So, if you are a long-time island dweller, then this will look and sound familiar to you, but I like to believe that in the last year I've picked up some visitors elsewhere, for whom this will be shiny and new. 

So, what's Blue Plate Special? A compilation of George Lowell moments, an odds'n'sods compilation with and without Feat, but always with a lot of heart. None of the songs on here are mega rare or something, a bunch of them have been issued as bonus tracks or showed up on box sets and such, but not all, and  a lot of them still fall through the cracks.

Without further ado, here are what's in Lowell's briefcase, together with some sand, a couple of Hamburger wrappers, a lot of weed, whites and wine and, uh, snakes on everything: 

Roll Um Easy

Yeah, let’s get rolling with this fine solo remake of the Feat track off Dixie Chicken, done for possible inclusion on his solo album. Maybe he felt a redone “Two Trains” was enough, given the skimpy running time, though, this would have been nice to have on Thank’s I’ll Eat It Here Later. For me, it also beats that Trains remake rather easily

Doriville

One of the loveliest Feat outtakes, originally recorded for Sailin' Shoes. This deserves to be much wider known. Just an absolute beauty.

Good Lovin’

The track that got this whole project started, Lowell being backed by The Grateful Dead on this outtake from the Shakedown Street sessions. It’s raucous, it’s rowdy, it’s slightly off-kilter – it’s very Dead and very very Lowell.

Crack In Your Door

The earliest version, with an embryonic Feat.

Brickyard Blues (Play Something Sweet)

Really good outtake, certainly better than some of the stuff that made the records.

Willin’ 

Lovely live version from 1974 with some quicksilvery, extra lovely piano work from Bill Payne. I might be critical of some of the man’s latter Feat feats, but this is fantastic. 

Feats Don’t Fail Me Now 

Lively alternative version. The classic Feat New Orleans R’n’B.

Easy To Fall (Easy To Slip)

One of two demos they gave the Doobie Brothers. The Ted Templeman connection I guess. The Doobies didn’t use them, too bad for them. I really like the mid-tempo shuffle of this one.

Long Distance Love

The original version of the song with an extra verse before they rejigerred the Feats Don’t Fail Me Album. It sounds more like a demo and the vocal is curiously flat with an odd cadence. Admittedly it’s not a patch on the published version, but not very widely circulated and thus right at home with the assorted odds’n’ends here.

Rock’n’Roll Doctor

Alternative version with a horn section. The song cooks either way, of course, the horns are a nice extra touch they seemingly decided they didn’t need, but let’s be real, it would have been an instant Feat classic in any of these versions.

Fool On The Avenue

Lowell solo demo from 1975, just the man and his guitar. Lovely stuff.

Wait 'Til The Shit Hits The Fan

Early version of “The Fan”, as rowdy and garage-y as early Feat would get. Just listen to those frat boy 'Woh's'.

Juliet

 Like “Crack In  Your Door”, this is from the pre-Warner Brothers session

Two Trains

Lowell’s demo for the band: him, his trusty drum machine and even more trusty guitar. A killer, even in this early unadorned form.

Heartache 

Unfortunately never properly recorded for reasons unknown, the demo with Valerie Carter was attached as a bonus track to Thanks I’ll Eat It Here. This is from a radio appearance in 1974, slightly rough sound quality, but it’s Lowell & Linda. ‘Nuff said. 

Rat Faced Dog

More early, rowdy Feat, cookin’ up some hard boogie. Guitar freaks will love the work out. 

What Do You Want The Girl To Do

From his solo tour, with his really slick backing band, this is almost disco. Lovely background (due to the mix almost duet) vocals by Maxine Dixon. Recorded three days before his death, more proof that reports of him being some sort of unsalvagable wreck at the end were mostly unfounded, at least as far as stage performance is concerned. 

Texas Rose Café

The second demo for the Doobies.

China White

A song that stayed with Lowell from the early 70’s until he finally recorded it in 1978. Published on “Hoy-Hoy!”, from the slow build to the bluesy middle to the full-blown gospel choir, this is a lot of Lowell in a nutshell.

20 Million Things

For me personally, this is Lowell’s masterpiece, and thus there was no other way to end this collection. What a song. “...all the letters never written, that don’t get sent...the time seems to slip away”. Lyrically and in sentiment a close cousin to Jim Croce’s “Time In A Bottle”, both remind us of how both their respective authors had approximately 20 Million Things still left to do, and no time left to do them. That's of course in both cases not what these songs were written about. Croce wrote his after learning of his wife's pregnancy, Lowell's is a love song, even if an unusual one... 

It's still hard to fathom that George died when he was only 34 years old, having already spent what seemed like a life time in the music biz. Forgive the slightly distant sound quality, for extra poignancy this is the last ever “20 Million Things” from the Lisner Auditorium during Lowell’s last concert. Three songs later he would stop singing. One day later he was gone. Time had slipped away. 

And we miss him, still, and always.