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.
