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This Review Along With 240 Others Is Available In My
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LOOKING AFTER NO. 1
Debut Albums 1956 to 1986
Volume 1 of 2
Artists from A to L...
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
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A
bizarre album in many respects - "Thanks I'll Eat It Here" was the March
1979 debut solo LP for Little Feat's charismatic Lead Singer, Guitarist and
Principal songwriter Lowell George – issued at a time when his main band were
arguably at the very peak of their popularity and critical acclaim.
And
I say weird, because given that it was Lowell George and the staggering musician
crew he had with him making the record (see list below), 'Eat It' should
have rocked and frankly didn't. I thought it was a huge disappointment at the time (when I was deeply invested in Little Feat) and it used to turn up in record sales bins with alarming regularity. But maybe it's time for a reassess and a tentative hug.
"Eat It..." felt hurled
together – a spattering of originals and co-writes alongside Jimmy Webb, Ann Peebles, Allen Toussaint and
Rickie Lee Jones cover versions tacked on to up the 9-track numbers. Even
so, "Eat It..." isn't all dogs and turkeys of course, there are moments of brilliance –
the remake of "Two Trains" and that opening Allen Toussaint cover version that
might as well have been written for George. And without any notice or
indication on the rear inlay or packaging, there is a Bonus tagged on at the
end as Track 10 – a Previously Unreleased Demo done with Valerie Carter called
"Heartache". And the Warner Archives Audio Remaster is clean and ballsy. Let's
get to the details...
UK/EU
released September 1993 - "Thanks I'll Eat It Here" by LOWELL GEORGE
on Warner Archives 7599-26755-2 (Barcode 075992675529) is an Expanded Edition
CD Reissue and Remaster with One Previously Unreleased Bonus Track that plays
out as follows (34:04 minutes):
1.
What Do You Want The Girl To Do (4:46 minutes) [Side 1]
2.
Honest Man (3:45 minutes)
3.
Two Trains (4:32 minutes)
4.
I Can't Stand The Rain (3:21 minutes)
5.
Cheek To Cheek (2:23 minutes)
6.
Easy Money (3:29 minutes) [Side 2]
7.
20 Million Things (2:50 minutes)
8.
Find A River (3:45 minutes)
9.
Himmler's Ring (2:28 minutes)
Tracks
1 to 9 are his debut solo album "Thanks I'll Eat It Here" – released
March 1979 in the USA on Warner Brothers BSK 3194 and March 1979 in the UK on
Warner Brothers K 56487. Produced by LOWELL GEORGE – the album peaked at No. 71
in April 1979 on the US Billboard Rock LP charts (didn’t chart UK).
BONUS TRACK:
10. Heartache (2:28 minutes)
(Un-credited on the rear inlay as a) PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Demo with Valerie Carter written by Lowell George and Ivan Ulz (no recording details)
The four-leaf foldout inlay of
this 1993 CD reissue unfortunately takes the lazy road and simply reproduces
the long string of text that was deriguere for Little Feat releases at the time
– a list of musicians of calibre without saying who played what on where.
To give you an idea - guests
included Keyboardist Bill
Payne, Drummer Richie Hayward and Guitarist Fred Tackett of Little Feat, Drummer Jeff Porcaro and Keyboardist David
Paich of Toto, Keyboardist James Newton Howard of The Elton John Band, Guitarist Jimmy Greenspoon and
Drummer/Vocalist Floyd Sneed of Three Dog Night, Keyboardist David Foster, Drummer Chilli
Charles, Guitarists Dean Parks and Stephen Bruton, British Keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, Saxophonist and Drummer John
Philips of The Mamas and The Papas, Pedal Steel Guitarist Herb Pedersen,
Vocalists J. D. Souther and Bonnie Raitt, Drummers Jim Keltner, Michael Baird
and Jim Gordon and many others including the likes of Steve Madaio – long-time
Trombonist with Stevie Wonder’s band and formerly with Paul Butterfield's Blues
Band.
It's infuriating that no one thought to look through the logs and finally
tell who played where and why – and the only extra dialogue on the foldout
inlay is to inform that LEE HERSCHBERG did the Digital Remaster which is
beautifully full and restrained at one and the same time. You might want to crank this mother, but when you do, you'll get the full whack of all that top-class funked-up musicianship. To the tunes...
Sounds like the whole guest-musician-gang feature on the cool and funky cover of Allen Toussaint's "What Do You Want The Girl To Do" - a New Orleans hip-shakin' mama groover that had first turned up on Toussaint's 1975 album "Southern Nights" on Reprise Records. The sexy sway of "What Do You Want The Girl To Do" opens with a slink that stylistically crosses Little Feat with Steely Dan, George employing the Brass of Jim Horn and Steve Madaio with the Vocals of former Ikettes singer Maxalyn Lewis and Maxine Willard Waters to give the whole thing that wall of oomph. It's a great start that is followed by something similar - "Honest Man" co-written with his Little Feat Guitarist Fred Tackett - those funky keyboards swelling in your speakers.
Better still (and for me one of the best tunes on a so-so record) is his remake of "Two Trains" - a Lowell George Funk-Rock classic that first turned up on Little Feat's January 1973 third album "Dixie Chicken". Here he really taps into that fantastic funk groove that Little Feat used to attain when live - piano and slide guitar neck-jerking across your speakers like a drugged up Ry Cooder doing "Bop Til You Drop". It's so damn good.
Side 1 continues the groove with a cover of the Ann Peebles Soul-Funk classic "I Can't Stand The Rain" first outed in July 1973 on Hi Records. George goes for full-on Meters New Orleans Funk with his rendition, ably assisted with a second vocal from Maxalyn Lewis sounding like Tina Turner (I think it's her). But then he ends the Side with a Rosarita Mexican shuffle called "Cheek To Cheek" - co-written with him, Van Dyke Parks and Martin F. Kibbes - which I find kind of insufferable. The audio though is gorgeous.
When her stunning debut album "Rickie Lee Jones" first appeared in late February 1979 (also on Warner Brothers) - Lowell George must have been seriously impressed because he promptly cover her "Easy Money" for his Side 2 opener - his album released only weeks later. The brass is great and the sound glorious, but again, it feels uneasy to me somehow. There then appears what is the only other real solo song - "20 Million Things" being an acoustic smoocher and it's just so lovely. The wall of male voices that accompany him as he sings "I've got 20 million things to do...but all I can think about is you..." gives the song a loveliness of feel - like classic Little Feat.
"Find A River" is a Fred Tackett song, another softer acoustic moment that feels demo-like with its in-the-moment intro laden with hiss. Love that "hope you think about me" doubled-vocal and the piano as it sails in though. Crank this and it will reward you. The LP ends on a Jimmy Webb ditty called "Himmler's Ring" - a sort of stab at Leon Redbone caricature that fails. There then follows a 2:28 minute surprise - "Heartache" being a Previously Unreleased Demo with Valerie Carter. It's hissy for sure and unplugged obviously and only all right - but still a find for fans.
I'm conflicted by "Thanks I'll Eat It Here" - half of it is magic, and amplified in stature by this muscular Remaster for sure. But the duffer stuff still gets to me. Lowell George would be gone all too soon and that artwork photograph of him holding up a less-than-successful fishing catch, always makes me sad. Still, if you have to own it and want to crank those better moments - then this forgotten Warner Archives CD Remaster is the solo hombre for you...
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