Monday, April 23, 2007

"Dixie Chicken"

This is just great. A slow-burning groove, honky-tonk, soul and blues all wrapped up into one seriously hip-shaking piece of lazy good-time music. Lowell George's voice is just fantastic, a hint of Boz Scaggs' half-swallowed gargle and plenty of raw southern emotion.
It's one of those stories of misadventure that manages to inject humour as well as a little pathos. Instead of pain, we get hungover regret and a sense that he got what he deserved: "Many years since she ran away/Yes that guitar player sure could play/She always liked to sing along/She always handy with a song/But then one night at the lobby of the Commodore Hotel/I chanced to meet a bartender who said he knew her well/And as he handed me a drink he began to hum a song/And all the boys there, at the bar, began to sing along."
Listen to this: these guys are seriously talented. The whole song, the feeling, the rhythm, all are utterly, utterly effortless. I can't shake the image of a bunch of bearded, heavyset guys, sitting round someone's front room and laying down this blistering groove.
"We made all the hotspots, my money flowed like wine/Then the low-down southern whiskey, yea, began to fog my mind/And i dont remember church bells, or the money i put down/On the white picket fence and boardwalk/On the house at the end of town."

3 comments:

Evil Minx said...

That is uncanny!! He sounds exactly like the original (which you so kindly sent me, and I love).

Mind-blowing. Thanks for that, Londinium!

Minx xx

Natsthename said...

Love that one! Lowell died far too young. He was a brilliant performer and songwriter and Little Feat just wasn't the same without him.

Great post.

Have you heard his daughter, Inara? Another great talent!

ALLWENEEDISLOVE said...

footage of keisuke is fab! cool blogging!!

come check our attempt for a world record while raising money for charity and feeling warm and fuzzy...yes, my friend love truly is the bug...

ALL WE NEED IS LOVE...try playing/singing along yourself!!