7. Lowell GeorgeThanks, I’ll Eat It Here
I’m a groover really. I immediately latch onto grooves and Lowell’s voice is just beautiful. When I first started singing – singing in a covers band with guitarist Frank Usher – we did a couple of Little Feat covers. I also sang ‘What Do You Want The Girl To Do’ with Spike Edney and the SAS band and singing it feels so sexy because you’re just sitting in the groove.
And then I think of Lowell and he’s that guy in dungarees who’s got a voice from heaven. And Chuck Rainey. His bass is phenomenal.
I adore all the Little Feat albums just because of the groove in them, but that Lowell George album, it’s the only solo album he ever did. On ‘Himmler’s Ring’, songs like that on it, he was so wasted. ‘Twenty Million Things’ has one of my favourite pieces of wordsmithery ever – "mysterious wisteria". What a combination of two words! The thing is, when you’re trying to write lyrics – as with Jon Anderson – you’re trying to make them sound good, but you don’t want ‘sleeping policemen’ – words that bump in your head when you hear them. I always wonder what that guy could have done if he’d have been a little more in control of his senses.
