[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Lowell was known more for electric slide than acoustic, but I know we have some Little Feat fans on the AGF.

I got turned on to this movie by a thread about a John Fahey documentary. At the end of that movie one of the suggested links was to a documentary about Lowell. They are both on Amazon, free if you have Prime.

This is a must see for any Little Feat fan. It is probably about twice as long as it needs to be, the interviews with some of the journalists could stand some serious editing. And no one from the band participated, but there is quite a bit with sometime songwriting partner Martin Kibbe and producer/arranger Van Dyke Parks. Parks blames Warner Brothers for killing George, and he is quite serious about that. In fact he has a picture on his twitter page of Lowell signing a contract with WB with the caption "signing his death warrant."

Much of the movie is given over to pre-Feat days and Lowell's influences. Everyone talks about Zappa, but it is pretty clear he developed his vocal style from Howlin' Wolf. And his slide playing was a fortuitous accident, which I don't want to spoil by mentioning here.

The take away here is that like so many, he was a tortured genius and couldn't deal with the demands of the monster he created. I kept thinking about the parallels with Jerry Garcia while watching it.

I've think I have mentioned previously that I had a chance encounter with Lowell and Richie Hayward about a year or two before Lowell died. I was able to talk with both of them for quite a while. Richie was charming. Lowell was pretty much incoherent, until he put down the bottle (he was drinking hard liquor, I believe Scotch, from a 7 oz. beer glass) and hoped up on stage with a local band. He was transformed, belting it out for 50 people at 1 am in a small club in the middle of nowhere.

Lowell George remains one of my favorite musicians. He was on his way to being an American version of Van Morrison, in my opinion. RIP Lowell and Richie, you guys created something special.

A hearty "hear hear." Good, even if imperfect, documentary.