Little Feat “Down on the Farm”

I’m not crazy about this record, but I’m warming up to it, over time, which is exactly what you want to happen, as opposed to the other way. Still, for me, it’s an uneven record, based on my feelings about each individual song each time I listen to them, so it makes since to go song by song. Aside from the frogs, “Down on the Farm” is a good opener with a nice groove. “Six Feet of Snow,” while blessed with a fine title, is too jaunty—there’s a time and a place for that, of course, but not in my evening. “Perfect Imperfection” is plenty sleazy and sounds like a questionable niteclub where you can get into trouble—a fine soul number, nearly my favorite. “Kokomo” has nice slide guitar but is a bit slight—but it’s Ray Speen’s favorite, for obvious reasons (his hometown, the one in Indiana, which is not that obvious, I guess). “Be One Now” sounds like a song that’s wanting to do something but is getting only halfway there. “Straight From the Heart” is kind of great and kind of bugs me—I guess you could say I’m on the fence, I’m torn, I’m conflicted—it’s catchy, and nice, but also sounds like the opening credits for a TV show from 1980. “Front Page News” is my favorite on the record just because of the groove—at least until it goes all synth-y—well that creates a contrast, I guess—a device, I’ll go with it. “Wake Up Dreaming” sounds like the title song for a TV show called “Wake Up Dreaming,” starring the most TV star of 1979—I sure can’t remember—wearing a hardhat, comically, and eating sandwiches. “Feel the Groove”—I don’t. I read that they were going to break up after this record, anyway, but then, sadly, Lowell George died. So that was it, at least for a while, until they reformed, and carry on, in some version, to this day. There’s a bit of a liner note tribute to LG on back—and it sounds like they considered it their last record—kind of ironic, since an earlier LP was called “The Last Record Album”—and it was, at least for a while—until the one after it.

I used to have a few Little Feat records, lost them, I guess, and now I only have this one, which I found recently. They’re hard to find in the cheap record bins, or so it seems to me (sometimes it’s just luck). I think they’ve got a lot of fans. Like the kind who hang onto their records, at least until they croak. So… I’m trying to find affordable playable copies of the records before this one, including their first live record. All of those, I believe (except the very first), have covers with art by Neon Park—great album covers. That was a solid gold decision, getting that nut involved, and sticking with him. Probably makes them even harder to acquire, now. This is one of the better ones—a half woman half duck sitting in a folding chair by a pool applying fingernail polish which is on the table next to her, along with a mint julep and riding crop. (What’s a half woman half duck? I guess you have to see it/her.) Across the pool, in the background, there’s a tiger—you’re guessing he might hungry (for woman-duck?) but then, if you look closely, he’s pretty relaxed and indeed has a glass of wine or brandy or something. He might even be yawning. The inner sleeve sports full lyrics on one side, while on the other there’s a blown-up black and white snapshot of Lowell George (one can only assume, it’s from the back) walking away, looking like he’s heading up the gravel path to Heaven. It’s grim, but with the right slant, I suppose you could find it humorous, in a gallows way.

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