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Rewind: Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus (2002 Deluxe Edition)

In August 1977, Little Feat recorded seven concerts in London and Washington, D.C. - where, in the latter location, the criminally under-appreciated band enjoyed an inexplicable hotbed of fan support. The result, released in 1978 as the double LP Waiting for Columbus, is often cited as one of the greatest live albums of all time.

That’s a bit of a stretch, because Little Feat was one of those rare bands that somehow managed to wrangle all its firepower on to its studio LPs. And one could make the case that its studio recordings were stronger, by virtue of the polish and sultry female backing vocals they used so well and which are missing here.

Be that as it may, Waiting for Columbus does find Feat - a sextet nearing the end of its original run by the time this album was issued - putting out powerful performances of some of its best-loved material backed by the always-on-point Power of Tower Horns, who add a bit of New Orleanian jazz to the band’s trademark swampy funk-rock. At their best, Little Feat were an unstoppable train, powered by the locomotion of percussionists Richie Hayward and Sam Clayton; the engine repeatedly stoked by the incendiary guitar interplay between Paul Barrere and Lowell George, whose prowess with the slide provided the band with a sound no other group has come close to replicating. When former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor joins the band with a second slide on “A Apolitical Blues,” the results are staggering.

The barreling powerhouse that was Little Feat in its prime is most effectual when the core band kicks into overdrive on tracks such as George’s “Fat Man in the Bathtub,” which opens the set following the fans’ charming F-E-A-T cheer, and “Rocket in my Pocket” and Barrere’s “Old Folks Boogie” and “Time Loves a Hero.” Combine a bit of lyrical humor with the boys’ all-serious playing, and you have a combination that’s nearly impossible to deny.

The Horns are used sparingly but effectively and provide sizzle to the tale of “whisky and bad cocaine” that is “Spanish Moon” and to not one - but two - versions of “Skin it Back,” which, despite a small lyrical change from “Georgia” to “D.C.,” proves that Feat tended to play its songs similarly from night to night. Tower of Power shines most brightly on an extended version of the band’s best-known track, “Dixie Chicken,” which features an instrumental breakdown that includes a ragtime improv from keys man Bill Payne and a Dixieland-jazz showcase for the horn section.

The almost-a cappella “Don’t Bogart that Joint” gives the band a chance to show off its sublime - and perfectly raggedly - vocal harmonies, which are, as always, underpinned by Clayton’s bass singing. And the band gives spirited performances of what might be considered its two theme songs, “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” and “Rock and Roll Doctor.”

Two degrees in bebop/a Ph.D, in swing/he’s a master of rhythm/he’s a rock ‘n’ roll king/if you like country with a boogie beat, he’s a man to meet/if you like the sound of shufflin’ feet, he can’t be beat/if you wanna feel real nice/just ask the rock ‘n’ roll doctor’s advice

The 2002 deluxe edition adds 10 tracks that didn’t appear on the original, including two - the jazz-fusion hybrid “Day at the Dog Races” and the Doobiesque “Red Streamliner” (featuring Brothers Patrick Simmons and Michael McDonald on backing vocals) - that show the fracture that was beginning to splinter the rest of the band from its founder and guiding light, George.

That George was none-too-pleased with the his bandmates’ developing fascination with fusion is evident in the fact that “Dog Races,” at 12 minutes, an overindulgent track that sounded dated soon after its release on Time Loves a Hero, is credited to the entire band, save George. Similarly, Payne’s “Red Streamliner” sounds like a Doobies’ rip off from what, in retrospect, was a low point for the always-high band of Brothers.

In 2016, Waiting for Columbus’ biggest flaw is its age. Some of the extended jams that sounded so delicious in 1978 come off a tad bloated with 38 years behind them. And Payne’s then-cutting edge snyth sounds - which he thankfully uses fairly conservatively - make the modern listener long for more piano and organ in their place.

Waiting for Columbus was the original Feat’s best-selling and most well-regarded album. It was also the last one the original band would complete as an ensemble; 1979’s Down on the Farm was cobbled together from studio leftovers after Lowell’s death earlier that year at age 34 and after the band had already reportedly broken up.

Fans of this record would be wise to go back and explore Little Feat’s studio catalog. For as good as Waiting for Columbus is, it paints a limited picture of the band. Its seven studio albums - though saddled with some filler - provide a more complete cross section of the magical musical machine was the original Little Feat from its 1971 debut as a quartet spun off from Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention to its 1979 swan song as a funky sextet rooted in the fecund soil of American music.

Grade card: Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus (Deluxe Edition) - B+