Little Feat - Let It Roll

This one goes out to D, the biggest Little Feat fan that we know.

For all intensive purposes, there were two Little Feats.  The first version came out of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, and formed in the late 1960s.  This group was led by singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Lowell George, and built a following in the 1970s.  They were the prototypical swamp rock act, best known for "Dixie Chicken."

Unfortunately, George's erratic behavior and drug use (and differing views as to the musical direction of the band) led to Little Feat's demise by 1979.  George made conflicting statements about whether he would re-form a new Little Feat or remain a solo act, but this was all rendered moot when he died of a heart attack later that year.  He was 34.

The remaining members of the group managed to release one last album (1979's Down on the Farm), at which point Little Feat officially broke up.  However, the now former bandmates remained in the industry, playing with other artists. In 1987, the surviving members re-formed the band, added a couple of new musicians, and set out to record an album.  This became the second version of Little Feat.

Their 1988 album, Let It Roll served to successfully relaunch the band and further grew their audience. While we don't recall seeing much of them on MTV, the songs were all over rock radio in 1988. For the blog, we went with the title cut off the LP.  Yes, the vintage hot rod is a little ZZ Top derivative, but the blending of cars and the band performing live mostly works, in our opinion. 

While Let It Roll was Little Feat's last top 40 album, the band retained their loyal fan base, and remains active (with a few lineup changes) to the present day.

The Radiators - Like Dreamers Do

"Like Dreamers Do" is a rare, catchy and slightly eccentric pop song that unfairly received only a modicum of airplay. It is by by the Radiators, a hard-working New Orleans band that was the spiritual successor to Little Feat.

The song was from the 1987 album Law of the Fish, which was the band's third album (although the first for major label Epic).  Law of the Fish rose to #139 on the Billboard charts, and ushered in the Radiators' brief period as a modestly successful commercial act (the band released two other albums on the Epic label before being dropped in 1990).

In the aftermath of leaving Epic, the band continued to tour and play, and developed a core following of fishheads.  The Radiators wrote and performed more than 300 original songs (many never recorded for an album) and also performed over 1,000 covers.  Their shows, which included long jam sessions, often ran over three hours.  In short, the Radiators became the New Orleans party band of choice.  Cool trivia fact:  the Radiators' members did not change through the years; the original 1978 lineup remained intact until the band called in quits, in June of 2011.