Dinner And A Movie - Halloween Speculation

[mbw]

For the record, I think being from LA and pretending you're a southern blues band is better than being from England and pretending you're a southern blues band.  Looking at you, 2009!

[PIE-GUY]

For the record, I think being from LA and pretending you're a southern blues band is better than being from England and pretending you're a southern blues band.  Looking at you, 2009!

Fair enough.

[PIE-GUY]

I think we all agree that the Eagles fucking suck, right?

[Hicks]

I think we all agree that the Eagles fucking suck, right?

Yeah fuck the Eagles.

But let's not let the GD off the hook so easily either, a bunch of guys from the Bay Area singing about Texas all the time isn't exactly the genuine article either.

I mean it's not like they were even from Chico or Modesto where they have actual rednecks. 

And sure ZZ Top isn't the same as LF, they're not nearly as boring.  HEY YO!

[PIE-GUY]

I think we all agree that the Eagles fucking suck, right?

Yeah fuck the Eagles.

But let's not let the GD off the hook so easily either, a bunch of guys from the Bay Area singing about Texas all the time isn't exactly the genuine article either.

I mean it's not like they were even from Chico or Modesto where they have actual rednecks. 

And sure ZZ Top isn't the same as LF, they're not nearly as boring.  HEY YO!

But the Dead singing allegorical songs about old West is not really different from Hollywood making hundreds of Westerns. You've gotta set your story somewhere. Might as well be somewhere with archetypes known by your audience. For American music, that's the South and old West. One doesn't have to live it to find it a useful storytelling tool. Shit, the last true folk singer was Woody Guthrie. He actually rode the trains and shit. Even Pete Seeger was just a singer telling stories based on what the people before him actually lived.

[Hicks]

I think we all agree that the Eagles fucking suck, right?

Yeah fuck the Eagles.

But let's not let the GD off the hook so easily either, a bunch of guys from the Bay Area singing about Texas all the time isn't exactly the genuine article either.

I mean it's not like they were even from Chico or Modesto where they have actual rednecks. 

And sure ZZ Top isn't the same as LF, they're not nearly as boring.  HEY YO!

But the Dead singing allegorical songs about old West is not really different from Hollywood making hundreds of Westerns. You've gotta set your story somewhere. Might as well be somewhere with archetypes known by your audience. For American music, that's the South and old West. One doesn't have to live it to find it a useful storytelling tool. Shit, the last true folk singer was Woody Guthrie. He actually rode the trains and shit. Even Pete Seeger was just a singer telling stories based on what the people before him actually lived.

Sure I get that, and obviously Robert Hunter was a genius storyteller.

But, I will say that with them all dressed up on the Workingman's album cover and whatnot, that at least for a little while early in their career, they were trying to sell the idea that they were in fact cowboys. Is that the same as actors in a movie? Maybe so, maybe not.

But by contrast look at Dylan, he also sang about Old West themes, but I don't think he ever really pretended to be anything other than a Jewish kid from Minnesota. Well except for when he pretended to be a Christian for a bit.   :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

[cactusfan]

The important thing to remember here is that ZZ Top is the shit, and Billy Gibbons is fucking amazing.

Everyone should go listen to their album Tejas right now, because no one ever talks about that one, and sure, other albums have their biggest songs, but Tejas is the best front to back listen.

[rowjimmy]

The important thing to remember here is that ZZ Top is the shit, and Billy Gibbons is fucking amazing.

Everyone should go listen to their album Tejas right now, because no one ever talks about that one, and sure, other albums have their biggest songs, but Tejas is the best front to back listen.

If you go listen to the first Little Feat album, I'll go crawling around the Zs and get out some ZZTop.

[cactusfan]

The important thing to remember here is that ZZ Top is the shit, and Billy Gibbons is fucking amazing.

Everyone should go listen to their album Tejas right now, because no one ever talks about that one, and sure, other albums have their biggest songs, but Tejas is the best front to back listen.

If you go listen to the first Little Feat album, I'll go crawling around the Zs and get out some ZZTop.

Deal.

[rowjimmy]

The important thing to remember here is that ZZ Top is the shit, and Billy Gibbons is fucking amazing.

Everyone should go listen to their album Tejas right now, because no one ever talks about that one, and sure, other albums have their biggest songs, but Tejas is the best front to back listen.

If you go listen to the first Little Feat album, I'll go crawling around the Zs and get out some ZZTop.

Deal.

You got it.
I actually own those ZZTop records and have heard them before. It'll be fun to pull them out.

[cactusfan]

The important thing to remember here is that ZZ Top is the shit, and Billy Gibbons is fucking amazing.

Everyone should go listen to their album Tejas right now, because no one ever talks about that one, and sure, other albums have their biggest songs, but Tejas is the best front to back listen.

If you go listen to the first Little Feat album, I'll go crawling around the Zs and get out some ZZTop.

Deal.

You got it.
I actually own those ZZTop records and have heard them before. It'll be fun to pull them out.

If you're doing multiple ZZ albums, I'd most highly recommend ZZ Top's First Album, Tres Hombres, Tejas, and Deguello.
I'm guessing you have vinyl, but just on the off chance you're doing digital, and don't know about this, ZZ's albums, when first released on CD in the '80s, were remastered so badly, so outrageously, the music is borderline unlistenable. So make sure to avoid any '80s masterings.

For the purposes of science, I'll listen to the first three Little Feat albums.

[mbw]

But by contrast look at Dylan, he also sang about Old West themes, but I don't think he ever really pretended to be anything other than a Jewish kid from Minnesota. Well except for when he pretended to be a Christian for a bit.   :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

Joni Mitchell would disagree that Dylan was authentic. 

[Caravan2001]

No way does Little Feat come anywhere near their legacy outside a few jamdorks out there that think some dudes from LA pretending to be from New Orleans is somehow the height of cool. 

Don't get me wrong, it's respectable music, but LF is pretty much middling dad rock. To me it's like ZZ Top without the hits and inferior guitar work or Dire Straits without the songwriting or amazing production. 

I bought WFC at a garage sale shortly after the AC shows and I've never had the desire to play it.

I'm sorry, but I have to address this... Not gonna try and make you like LF as all music appreciation is objective, but you are describing the Eagles, not Little Feat.

Let's start with Lowell George - a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention before leaving to form LF. He played on Weasels Ripped My Flesh - one of my favorite recordings of all fucking time. Then he started writing songs and, well, Zappa wasn't looking for another songwriter in his kingdom. That's his thing.

So, Little Feat is born... and honestly, if you want a primer, start with the eponymous first album. Listen to the slide guitar work and tell me it's not sublime. Listen to the songwriting and tell me it's not a tremendous opening salvo for a career. Truck Stop Girl, Willin'...  great imagery, perfect tunes. Not to mention, Lowell produced Shakedown Street... but hey, it's just the Grateful Dead... dad rock, for sure.

Fast forward a few years and add Paul Barrere to the mix and now you've got two gun-slingers on guitar and, along with Bill Payne, three great songwriters. This is not miller-lite dad rock. Time Loves a Hero is an really good song. A lot of their songs are. And the ability to boogie with an amazing piano player in the mix with guitar heroics that can be as subtle as they are difficult is basically the architecture of Phish.

I'm just sayin'.

That's a lot of words to not tell me why they're better than ZZ Top or ABB.   

As for Shakedown Street being well produced or even a good album, well. . .

And yeah it's about time somebody ruffled some feathers in this ghost town.   :evil:

Agreed, Shakedown Street sucks. As far as comparisons between LF, ZZ Top and Alllmans, I don't think either of those bands is even close enough in style to even compare.  It's like comparing apples to spaghetti.  Sure, Allman Brothers and ZZ are blues bands, but that's obviously such a wide genre. But to me none of those bands are comparable.  But Little Feat is it's own thing, and again, I think you should listen to good copies of the first several albums on vinyl at a healthy volume.  It's far from boring.  And there is a funk and disco element to LF that the Allmans or ZZ could never touch, even though ZZ has it's own brand of funk for sure.  Allmans have their place in history and Duane is one of my fave guitarists of all time, but to me they are boring to listen to tbh.  Maybe a song or two and then I am done.  It's classic for sure but I don't need to hear it for the umpteenth million time. But that's just me.

[anthrax]

This afternoon, I enjoyed both Little Feat and Tejas very much.  I plan to give a better listen to each soon.  Now I'm thinking about spaghetti for dinner.  Great recs all around!

[cactusfan]

The important thing to remember here is that ZZ Top is the shit, and Billy Gibbons is fucking amazing.

Everyone should go listen to their album Tejas right now, because no one ever talks about that one, and sure, other albums have their biggest songs, but Tejas is the best front to back listen.

If you go listen to the first Little Feat album, I'll go crawling around the Zs and get out some ZZTop.

The first Little Feat album...didn't do a whole lot for me. I understand it's supposedly their 'weirder' album, but I can't say I really heard much weirdness. It's not bad, it just feels a little like it's not quite anything, I guess, specific. It's generally okay music. In a sense. It just didn't grab me. I spun it twice and nothing really stood out the second time around either.

But.

Sailin' Shoes, on the other hand, is really good. It's like they figured out what they wanted to sound like, plus it's got this nice grittiness to it. Spun this one twice too and liked it even better the second time around. A keeper!

Dixie Chicken appears to be the favorite, the one where they really hit on the New Orleans thing. Definitely the most polished of these three, and of course I've got a love for On Your Way Down, and yet...this more or less matched my previous sense of Little Feat. Good, but nothing all too notable about them. Still, I liked this one better than their first album. Only listened once, so I'll keep it around for another go, and maybe like Sailin' Shoes it'll stick around.

I likewise don't see much similarity to either ZZ Top or the Allmans. I mean yes, they're all '70s rock bands playing bluesy music, but you could say that about a whole lot of bands.

On the whole, glad I gave these guys a chance. Thanks for talking me into it.