In a 1975 interview with Rolling Stone, Jimmy Page famously named Little Feat as his “favorite American group,“ while Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant – in the same interview – told a humorous anecdote about receiving complaints from fellow high-profile guests at the LA Plaza hotel for “playing Little Feat records too loud.“
The band's electric guitar player and leader, the late Lowell George, cast a shadow far greater than the commercial success he achieved would indicate.
Eric Clapton, for instance, covered the George solo tune Honest Man a number of times during his 2014 world tour. The CD version of Van Halen's 1988 album, OU812, meanwhile, featured a cover of the George-penned Little Feat tune, A Apolitical Blues. This, mind you, was years after Van Halen stopped including covers in their albums, as they often did in their earlier days.
So what was it that made George – a man Jackson Browne once referred to as “the Orson Welles of rock” – so magnetic?
A small glimpse of that magic can be seen in the video below, which features George demonstrating – with his bandmates at his side – his slide technique live on the German television program Rockpalast in 1977.
“I don't use a bottleneck,“ George explains before dialing in his Buttercream Stratocaster for an unaccompanied (at least instrumentally) version of Little Feat's China White that sees the guitarist's bandmates join him in singing the chorus.
It's stunning stuff – a passionate, authentic, and raw performance that gets the air poked out of it a little bit when one of the Rockpalast hosts awkwardly asks – upon its conclusion – “is that difficult?“
George humbly points out that – while his left hand works the slide – his right hand is typically playing just two notes: bass notes and “top“ notes, the latter of which, thanks to his deft slide touch, curdle and cry beautifully, showing how much flavor the guitarist was able to get out of the simplest of ingredients.
Seemingly left wanting more, the Rockpalast hosts then ask George to attempt some more challenging slide work for the camera, a request the Little Feat guitarist fulfills with a funkier, more up-tempo instrumental imbued with the slide style of Ry Cooder.
After George gives the hosts an explanation of open tunings, the clip closes with some dynamite slide licks that make use of the full fretboard.
A more complete example of the guitarist's bluesy brilliance can be heard in the live clip below, which captures Little Feat's electrifying performance of Rock and Roll Doctor at the 1976 Pinkpop festival in the Netherlands.
The solo that begins at around the 1:40 mark is nothing short of a slide clinic – a sweeping melodic masterclass punctuated by jaw-dropping displays of vibrato.
George's one-time Little Feat bandmate, the late guitarist Paul Barrere, spoke to the depth and power of George's slide work in a 2008 interview.
“Lowell was phenomenal,“ Barrere said. “He made his slide, which he played with an old spark plug, conjure up Hawaiian melodies or pedal steel.“
Should these videos inspire you to incorporate some of Lowell George's mojo into your own playing, check out four slide tips you can glean from the late maestro.
