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Lowell George | |
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 George performing inBuffalo, New York, in 1977 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lowell Thomas George |
| Born | (1945-04-13)April 13, 1945 Los Angeles, California, US |
| Died | June 29, 1979(1979-06-29) (aged 34) Arlington, Virginia, US |
| Genres | Rock,roots rock,swamp rock,jam band |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, producer |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals, harmonica, flute, saxophone,sitar |
| Years active | 1965–1979 |
| Labels | Warner Bros. |
| Formerly of | Little Feat Frank Zappa band The Mothers of Invention The Standells |
| Website | littlefeat |
Lowell Thomas George (April 13, 1945 – June 29, 1979) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He was the primary guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the rock bandLittle Feat. Before forming Little Feat, he was a member ofFrank Zappa's bandthe Mothers of Invention.
Lowell George was born inLos Angeles, California,[1] the son ofWillard H. George, afurrier who raisedchinchillas and supplied furs to the movie studios.[2][3]
George's first instrument was the harmonica. At the age of six he appeared onTed Mack's Original Amateur Hour performing a duet with his older brother, Hampton. As a student atHollywood High School (where he first befriended future bandmatePaul Barrere and second wife Elizabeth Levy), he took up the flute in the schoolmarching band and orchestra. He had already started to play Hampton's acoustic guitar at age 11, progressed to the electric guitar by his high school years, and later learned to play the saxophone,shakuhachi andsitar. During this period, George viewed theteen idol-orientedrock and roll of the era with contempt, instead favoringWest Coast jazz and thesoul jazz ofLes McCann andMose Allison. Following graduation in 1963, he briefly worked at a gas station (an experience that inspired such later songs as "Willin'") to support himself while studying art andart history atLos Angeles Valley College for two years.
Initially funded by the sale of his grandfather's stock, George's first band, The Factory, formed in 1965 and released at least one single on theUni Records label, "Smile, Let Your Life Begin" (co-written by George). Members included future Little Feat drummerRichie Hayward (who replacedDallas Taylor in September 1966); Martin Kibbee (a.k.a. Fred Martin), who would later co-write several Little Feat songs with George (including "Dixie Chicken" and "Rock and Roll Doctor"); andWarren Klein on guitar.Frank Zappa produced two tracks for the band, but they were not released until 1993 on the albumLightning-Rod Man, credited to Lowell George and The Factory.[4] The band made an appearance on the 1960s sitcomF Troop as "The Bedbugs". They were also featured in an episode ofGomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., "Lost, the Colonel's Daughter" (season 3, episode 27). They appeared in the scene inside the A-Go-Go club, with their music playing loudly. They received credit at the end of the episode as"'The Factory' Lowell-Warren-Martin-Rich, Courtesy of Universal Records". Following the disbanding of The Factory, George briefly joinedThe Standells.
In November 1968, George joined Zappa'sMothers of Invention as rhythm guitarist and nominal lead vocalist; he can be heard onWeasels Ripped My Flesh,Burnt Weeny Sandwich,You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1,You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 and the first disc ofYou Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5. During this period, he absorbed Zappa's autocratic leadership style andavant garde-influenced conceptual/procedural-oriented compositional methods. He earned his first production credit (in conjunction with Zappa andRuss Titelman) onPermanent Damage, an album recorded by "groupie group"The GTOs. George later asserted that "he performed no real function in the band" and left the group in May 1969 under nebulous circumstances. GTOs memberPamela Des Barres has claimed that George was fired by Zappa for smokingmarijuana, while George claimed at a 1975 Little Feat concert that he was fired because he "wrote a song ["Willin'"] about dope."[5] On the other hand, biographer Mark Brend asserts that Zappa liked the song but thought there was no place for it in the Mothers' set; George himself alternatively claimed that "it was decided that I should leave and form a band" by mutual agreement. George also claimed to have played uncredited guitar onHot Rats.[6]
After leaving the Mothers of Invention, George invited a contingent of fellow musicians (including former Zappa bassistRoy Estrada, keyboardistBill Payne, and drummer Richie Hayward) to form a new band, which they namedLittle Feat. George usually (but not always) played lead guitar and focused on slide guitar, butRy Cooder played the slide on "Willin'" on the debut Little Feat album after George badly injured his hand while working on a powered model airplane, although George rerecorded some of his material and he played the rest of the slide work on the album. Mark Brend wrote that George's "use ofcompression defined his sound and gave him the means to play his extended melodic lines."[7] George began playing slide with the casing of aSears, Roebuck, and Co.Craftsman 13/16"spark plug socket wrench that was given to him by a friend—Steve, whom he had met from New Hampshire—rather than the traditional glass or steel finger tube. (Spark plugs came in two sizes at the time: 13/16" and, later, 5/8"; the former was universal during George's time.)[8][9]
Little Feat signed toWarner Bros. Records through Zappa's efforts and their first album wasLittle Feat, produced byRuss Titelman, but it was not a commercial success and only sold 11,000 copies on initial release.[10][11]
The follow-up album,Sailin' Shoes, produced byTed Templeman, was the band's first record to feature cover artwork byNeon Park, but despite good reviews the album fared no better commercially.
Estrada left the band in 1972 to joinCaptain Beefheart's Magic Band as well as to get away from the pollution in Los Angeles and he was replaced on bass byKenny Gradney. In addition, Little Feat expanded to a sextet by adding a second guitaristPaul Barrere and percussionistSam Clayton, thus cementing the classic line-up, and they took on aNew Orleans funk direction with their next album,Dixie Chicken, the first to be produced by George.[12]
By the spring of 1976, Little Feat were touring North America opening forThe Who.[13]
Little Feat released several other studio albums in the 1970s, includingFeats Don't Fail Me Now,The Last Record Album, andTime Loves a Hero. The group's 1978 live albumWaiting for Columbus became their best-selling album to date.Down on the Farm was their last album to feature George, and was released shortly after his death in 1979.
Tensions within the group, especially between George, Payne, and, to a lesser extent, Barrere regarding musical direction and leadership, led to Payne and Barrere's departure from the group in 1979 and the group's subsequent disbandment. In an interview withBill Flanagan, conducted 11 days before his death, George stated that he was keen to re-form Little Feat without Payne and Barrere, in order to reassert his full control over the group.[14]
George was also a producer and produced theGrateful Dead's 1978 albumShakedown Street, as well as Little Feat's records and his own 1979 solo albumThanks, I'll Eat It Here; he also co-produced a couple of tracks onValerie Carter's 1977 releaseJust A Stone's Throw Away. In 1977 he co-producedJohn Starling's debut solo album,Long Time Gone.
When not playing with Little Feat, George lent his talents as asession player to various artists, most frequently as a slide guitarist. He contributed toBarbara Keith's 1972 self-titled debut,[15]John Cale'sParis 1919 (1973),Happy End'sHappy End (1973), Bonnie Raitt'sTakin' My Time (1973; "I Feel the Same" and "Guilty"),Harry Nilsson'sSon of Schmilsson (1973; "Take 54"),James Taylor'sGorilla (1975; "Angry Blues"),The Meters'Rejuvenation (1974; "Just Kissed My Baby"),[16]John Sebastian'sTarzana Kid (1974) andJackson Browne'sThe Pretender (1976).
Along with The Meters, George's slide work features prominently onRobert Palmer's first solo studio album,Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley, recorded in New Orleans in 1974. A year later, Palmer's second album,Pressure Drop, was effectively produced by George, and Little Feat served as the core band on the sessions.[citation needed] However, Palmer kept the producer's credit because of a dispute betweenIsland Records and Warner Brothers.[citation needed] Later CDs list Steve Smith as producer.
On June 15, 1979, George began a tour in support of his solo album,Thanks I'll Eat it Here. On June 29, the morning after an appearance at Washington, D.C.'sLisner Auditorium, where the bulk ofWaiting for Columbus had been recorded in 1977, George collapsed and died of a heart attack in hisArlington, Virginia, hotel room at theTwin Bridges Marriott. His heart attack was caused by an accidentalheroin overdose.[17][18] George's body was cremated in Washington, D.C., on August 2. His ashes were flown back to Los Angeles, where they were scattered from his fishing boat into the Pacific Ocean.[19][20][21]
According toFred Tackett, "We were driving down theNew Jersey Turnpike in this bus and we stopped at this pizza joint off the highway. Everybody in the band shared a cheese pizza but Lowell bought a large pizza with everything on it, carried it to the back of the bus, and he ate the entire pizza by himself. He died two or three days later. So, when people ask me, 'What really killed Lowell?' I say, 'It was a pizza on the New Jersey Turnpike.'"[22]
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Lowell met Susan Taylor (nickname Jonna) during his days with The Factory. They had Lowell's first child, Forrest Sylvester George, in March 1969. George and his first wife, Pattie Price, had a son, Luke, in April 1970. They divorced, and he became involved with Elizabeth Levy. They had a daughter,Inara George, in July 1974; the couple married in 1976.[27] Inara is half of the musical duoThe Bird and the Bee.
George was stepfather to Levy's son Jed Levy from her previous marriage to Tom Levy.[28]
That's Lowell George playing slide on a song called 'Just Kissed My Baby' on Rejuvenation.
| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by | AMA presidents Award 2009 | Succeeded by Not Yet Awarded |
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