Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CLIX--Little Feat: Willin'

I was one of about three people who watched the Showtime series, Roadies, which I watched as much for the music as I did for the show itself.  Each week I'd watch with a notebook in hand and write down any songs (of which there were usually several) from each episode that I wanted to check out later.  Near the end of its one and only season, one of the characters was asked what his favorite song of all time was, and he replied, "It's a little tune called 'Willin'' by Little Feat."  I wrote the song in my notebook and at show's end went to Spotify and gave it a listen.   About ten seconds in I said to myself, "I'm going to love this song for the rest of my life."  I may have been a little late to the party, but I've been making up for lost time over the past couple of years.

Formed in 1969 in L.A. by Lowell George and Bill Payne, Little Feat has had a career that's hard to recap in a paragraph or two.  Their first two albums were critically acclaimed and they developed a fine reputation as a live band, but had little commercial success and disbanded.  A couple of years later they reformed, continued to be critically acclaimed, had a bunch of dissension, and disbanded again.  Sadly, Lowell George passed away in 1979, from a heart attack at the all too young age of 34.  The band would reunite again, had some commercial success in the late eighties which brought their older work to a new audience, and have continued to record and tour, in several different incarnations, to this day.  All told, the band has released 16 studio albums, countless live records, and the respect they have garnered from their peers through the years is phenomenal--it'd be easier to find bands who haven't covered a Little Feat song than ones who have.

The band's name, by the way, comes from A) a comment about George's "little feet," and B) the spelling of "Feat" being a tribute to the Beatles.

"Willin'" has been released in a couple of different versions, but the one I'm familiar with is the version from their Sailin' Shoes LP in 1972.   The song was originally written by George when he was in Frank Zappa's back up band, The Mothers of Invention, and if George is to be believed, led to him being kicked out of the band due to its drug references (Zappa was notoriously anti-drugs).  While the song was not released as a single, it has become Little Feat's signature song, and has been covered by numerous artists, including Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, and the infamous cast of Roadies, among many others.

The song itself is a sparse ode to life on the road, specifically that of a trucker.  It features some nice acoustic guitar, some nice slide guitar, a nice piano interlude, and some stark, yet heartfelt vocals from Lowell George.  It's a song about the human spirit, in both its defiance and its frailty--believe me, the only thing I know about truck drivers is how to cuss them out when they get in my way while I'm weaving through traffic.  But when you listen to this song, it's hard not to admire the driver's steadfastness in the face of all his losses--and like him, to be willin' to keep movin'....

Fun Fact:  Despite their rather odd names, the cities noted in the chorus all actually exist.  Tucumcari (Pop. 14,000+) is in New Mexico, Tehachapi (Pop. 2600+) is in California, and Tonapah (Pop. 5300+) is in Nevada.  Amazingly enough, Tucson (Pop. Lots of Arizonans) is still located in Arizona.

Lyric Sheet:  "And I've been kicked by the wind/Robbed by the sleet/Had my head stoved in/But I'm still on my feet..."

Enjoy:

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