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This Review Along With 310 Others Is Available In My
- Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
RATING: ****
"...Weed, Whites and Wine..."
Alongside their Reissue Brother from another Mother Rhino Records – Warner Brothers (or Warner Records as they seem to call themselves these days) have finally seen to plug in two humungous Remaster holes in the mighty catalogue of Little Feat. Both 1972's "Sailin' Shoes" and 1973's "Dixie Chicken" have been given June 2023 '2CD Deluxe Edition' treatments – Remasters and tasty unreleased. And about Tripe Face Boogie time too. To the guacamole details...
UK released Friday, 23 June 2023 - "Sailin' Shoes" by LITTLE FEAT on Warner Records/Rhino R2 6953721 – 603497837434 (Barcode 603497837434) is a '2CD Deluxe Edition' Reissue with the 11-Track 1972 Album Newly Remastered in 2023 on CD1 and 21 Bonus Tracks on CD2 (16 of which Previously Unreleased). It plays out as follows:
CD1 "Sailin' Shoes 2023 Remaster" (37:53 minutes):
1. Easy To Slip [Side 1]
2. Cold, Cold, Cold
3. Trouble
4. Tripe Face Boogie
5. Willin'
6. A Apolitical Blues
7. Sailin' Shoes [Side 2]
8. Teenage Nervous Breakdown
9. Got No Shadow
10. Cat Fever
11. Texas Rose Café
Tracks 1 to 11 are their second studio album "Sailin' Shoes" – released February 1972 in the USA on Warner Brothers BS 2600 and May 1972 in the UK on Warner Brothers K 46156. Produced by TED TEMPLEMAN – it didn't chart in either country. NOTE: Original copies of the British LP spelt the song "Willin'" on both the inner sleeve and label as "Willing".
For "Sailin' Shoes" LITTLE FEAT was:
LOWELL GEORGE – Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals and Harmonica
BILL PAYNE – Keyboards and Acordian (Lead Vocals on "Cat Fever" only)
ROY ESTRADA – Bass and Backing Vocals
RICHARD HAYWARD – Drums, Percussion and Backing Vocals
ROY ESTRADA
Guests:
Milt Holland plays Percussion of "Easy To Slip" and "Trouble"
Debbie Lindsey sings Backing Vocals on "Cold, Cold, Cold" and "Sailin' Shoes"
Sneaky Pete Kleinow plays Pedal Steel on "Willin'" and "Texas Rose Cafe"
Ron Elliott plays Electric Guitar on "A Apolitical Blues"
CD2 "Hotcakes, Outtakes & Rarities" (78:32 minutes):
1. Sailin' Shoes (Demo)
2. Easy To Fall (Easy To Slip) (Demo for The Doobie Brothers)
3. Texas Rose Café (Alternate Version)
4. Cold, Cold, Cold (Alternate Version)
5. Roto/Tone
6. A Apolitical Blues (Alternate Version)
7. Boogie – Tripe Face Boogie
8. Trouble (Alternate Version)
9. Doriville
10. Willin' (Alternate Version)
11. Easy To Slip (Mono Single Version)
THANK YOU! I'LL EAT IT HERE: Live At The Palladium, Los Angeles, CA, August 28, 1972"
12. Tripe Face Boogie
13. Hamburger Tonight
14. Cat Fever
15. Willin'
16. Strawberry Flats
17. Got No Shadow
18. Texas Rose Café
19. Snakes On Everything
20. Hot Rod (Eldorado Slim)
21. Teenage Nervous Breakdown
NOTES on CD2:
Tracks 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9 were first issued as Unreleased Versions on the 4CD "Hotcakes & Outtakes" Book Set in September 2000.
Tracks 1, 4, 6, 8 and 10 are previously unreleased Demos, Alternate Versions and Outtakes from the "Sailin' Shoes" sessions; Track 11 is a Previously Unreleased Promo Only Mono Mix of a US 45 Single Side while Tracks 12 to 21 are Previously Unreleased Live Recordings done Live At The Palladium in Los Angeles, California 28 August 1972.
Fans will know that true Remasters of tracks from these albums first showed in September 2000 on the "Hotcakes & Outtakes" 4CD Hardback Book Set – and glorious they were too. February 2014 saw both full albums show in some form of Remaster quality for the 13CD Clamshell Box Set "Rad Gumbo: The Complete Warner Bros. Years 1971 to 1990". And then came Mobile Fidelity ULTRADIC II issues – expensive – beautiful – but bare bones too. Here we get smokes and folks smuggled from Mexico to Tehachapi and Tonopah and a few Teenage Nervous Breakdowns in-between.
Put bluntly – the 2023 Remaster of the album by DAN HERSCH and BILL INGLOT (long standing Audio Engineers for Rhino and handlers of huge swathes of the WEA Sixties and Seventies back catalogue) is great – full of muscle – howling harmonica and drums in "A Apolitical Blues" – that sexy Hammond B-3 organ bolster atop Lowell’s slide as "Easy To Slip" begins to open up – the delicate acoustic of the gorgeous "Willin'" and the Jedidiah dime-store guitar hustle of the title track "Sailin' Shoes" with Debbie Lindsey providing backing vocals. And finally I get to hear the Bill Payne-written Keyboard-Slide-Guitar Funk-Rock of "Got No Shadow" groove across my living room in all the 5:07 minute clarity this deep album dive has always been denied. And that guitar-battle towards the end of "Texas Rose Cafe" comes stomping out of your hi-fi with bovver boots on. YES! It's all clear folks. And at 78:32 minutes – you cannot accuse CD2 of slacking with the Rarities and Unreleased even if half of that so-so recorded live material has remained in cans for a reason (lifeless crowd too).
Reissue Produced by JASON JONES - the Card Digipak packaging allows three flaps to use outtake period photos of our Band of Four goofing about outside some garage (two beneath the see-through CD trays) and a pleasingly indepth 24-page booklet to be stuck into the flap in the middle. DAVID FRICKE cannot hide his affection for this exceptional American band providing a very cool overview of the album alongside formation and discovery details. Quite rightly Lowell George and Richie Hayward (who have both passed) get bigged up for their styles that made the Funky Rock of Little Feat such an enticing stew to so many. I do think that sonically and stylistically too – their second album is a bit all over the place and the sheer heartstring-tug of "Willin'" tends to overshadow everything else by a country mile. You can hear it in the audience dead zone that is the 28 August 1972 show. It can actually feel like the band doesn't seem to know what it is – are they Rock – are they Funk – are they a strange kind of hybrid. Which might go to explain the staggeringly low sales for their second album and clearly a big leap forward in the writing department (13,000 copies only while the debut had reputedly only managed 11,000 LPs sold).
Over on CD2 you get two utterly extraordinary moments no self-respecting Little Feat fan will be able to live without – a very clear if not a tiny bit hissy Demo of the title track "Sailin' Shoes" recorded March 1971 with Van Dyke Parks both playing Piano and Producing. The second is a Demo of the mighty "Willin'" recorded during the "Sailin' Shoes" sessions between 7 and 14 July 1971. With a One, Two, Three count in and near perfect Ted Templeman production values – it is close to the finished article except that the piano solo is not as nice or accomplished – seeking those right notes ala Jackson Browne. But what a find – baked by the sun – loving it. The Previously Unreleased Alternate Take of "A Apolitical Blues" has the same snake-like boogie the finished version does – Chairman Mao on the phone approving. Sounds fantastic too – Ted Templeman ramping up that Captain Beefheart-like Harmonica solo to devastating effect. I might actually prefer this to the LP final. For anyone who hasn't got the "Hotcakes & Outtakes" 4CD set – the outtake "Doriville" turns out be a lovely tune left behind without explanation – perhaps Lowell felt it had not been nailed (the ghost of facelessness has followed us here). Though I would admit that the Mono Single Mix of "Easy To Slip" feels less than the Stereo LP cut no matter what speakers it comes out of (Radio or otherwise).
Now with the loud music, the MC shouts to the crowd as Track 12 begins a run of 10 live tracks recorded at The Palladium in Los Angeles on 28 August 1972. Featuring the same four-piece for the "Sailin Shoes'" album – the gig was recorded after the first self-titled album came out, but before "Sailin' Shoes" was released. The Funk-Rock opens with two gooduns - "Tripe Face Boogie" (Bill Payne on Vocals) with Lowell taking lead vocals on the first LP standout track "Hamburger Midnight". Unfortunately his guitar disappears into the background too much even when his playing is fabulous. They bring out the Dr. John-esque then newbee of "Cat Fever" (Bill Payne on Vocals) while the first and second versions of "Willin'" get mixed up into a new brew by Lowell. George introduces "Willin'" as Country and Western but messes up several attempts to begin – worse is the sound that is in and out like a politician's excuses. With more monitor feedback and a decidedly bootleg feel, the band struggles eliciting any vibe from the crowd for "Strawberry Flats". Payne tries to Funk up proceedings with his "Got No Shadow" – both George and Payne energized by the new material and the Funky groove – listen to them dueting at three minutes. And on it goes...
I am genuinely conflicted in saying that this is a five-star reissue – it feels more like a four – but there is no doubting that "Sailin' Shoes" deserved this lavish attention and Hersch and Inglot are to be praised for doing such a stellar job with what had to have been compromised tapes for CD2. But with all those Alternates and the New Demos that genuinely thrill – it’s a winner – if not a flawed one.
I suspect like so many fans who grew up with them in the Seventies and into the Eighties after they continued without their leader Lowell George – I only have look at the Neon Parks artwork and a picture of LG smiling alongside Hayward (both now sadly passed) – and I am on the CD player with a willing passion. RIP you geniuses of the Hybrid Boogie...
