Willin' Quotes

“Rooster Rag was released in the summer of 2012 (with Rounder Records serving as distributors) and quickly leapt onto charts maintained by blues and Americana music sites, tallying airplay on college, public, and alternative radio stations.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Of the early Feat songs his favorite was one he performs with Payne on Join the Band: “Time Loves a Hero.” “It really spoke to me. I”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Buffett’s twenty-sixth, was the first and still only one to top the Billboard charts.) By then Buffett and Payne had been talking about a Little Feat project that would involve selected guest artists and would be recorded at Buffett’s Shrimpboat Sound Studios in Key West,”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“China White” and “Lonesome Whistle” were two of the rarities, obscurities, live cuts, and brand new songs that helped make up the nineteen-track, two-record set called Hoy-Hoy!, released in 1981.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Neon Park was called, once again, for the album cover art. This time, he came up with a towel-headed female duck with ruby red lips, in a robe and nylon hosiery, lounging with a mint julep by a swimming pool, doing her nails while, across the way, a tiger rested with his own cocktail.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Down on the Farm would not be the same album with George completing it. “It’s”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“George contributed the most songs he’d had on an album since Dixie Chicken back in 1973. He wrote or cowrote five of the nine songs, including two with Payne (“Straight from the Heart” and “Front Page News”), one each with Tackett (“Be One Now”) and Keith Godchaux (“Six Feet of Snow,” from his stint with the Dead), and one on his own, “Kokomo,” a sassy celebration of a young woman (“They call her Miss Demeanor”). Barrere, perceived to have taken the reins, along with Payne, of Little Feat an album or two ago, cowrote two songs, “Perfect Imperfection” with Tom Snow, and the title cut, “Down on the Farm,” which he wrote with his son, Gabriel. Payne contributed “Wake Up Dreaming,” which had his wife, Fran Tate, as cowriter.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“his pal Jackson Browne’s The Pretender, •​J. D. Souther’s Black Rose,”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“and played guitar on Linda Ronstadt’s Prisoner in Disguise on his own song “Roll Um Easy.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“John Sebastian’s Tarzana Kid, on which, besides playing on “Face of Appalachia,” the lovely song they wrote together, George played on Sebastian’s version of his “Dixie Chicken.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“expanded CD of Waiting for Columbus, released in 2002, indicate that nothing from “Black Wednesday” made it onto the album except for a bite of “Dixie Chicken” and Mick Taylor’s appearance for “A Apolitical Blues,” on which the Rolling Stones guitarist played sizzling counterpoint to George, then engaged him in a friendly duel. Bill Payne, who was also there and, unlike the horn players, was there the entire concert, said Castillo’s story was “pretty close.” But for starters, it was him, not George, who had Barrere’s amp turned down. He was compelled to act from the first song, he said.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“or Doobies—to the album. Jeff “Skunk” Baxter played dobro, Patrick Simmons played acoustic guitar on “New Delhi,” and he and Michael McDonald added vocals on “Red Streamliner,” giving it a smooth vocal sheen.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Templeman relayed that to Bud Scoppa, writer of the extensive band history included with the CD anthology, Hotcakes and Outtakes, issued in 2000.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Little Feat also put on a show of unity with an appearance on The Midnight Special, a music show on NBC that usually presented an array of pop, rock, and R&B acts performing before a studio audience. On a late Friday night in June Little Feat and Emmylou Harris cohosted the show (George shared Feat’s portion of the MCing duties with Barrere), presenting a dazzling array of roots music talent, including Neil Young, Jesse Winchester, Bonnie Raitt, and the jazz-rock ensemble Weather Report. Little Feat, with the telegenic Harris and Raitt on backup vocals, performed “Dixie Chicken,” “Old Folks Boogie” (with Barrere taking the lead), “Rocket in My Pocket,” and “Rock and Roll Doctor.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“The result was ‘Oh Atlanta.’ It was not a hit record, but it was one of those songs that’s stood the test of time.” The song was inspired by a girl Payne met in Atlanta and by his memory of being in an airport in Cincinnati, watching airplanes taking off. The wistful tune, in which the singer wishes he could be on his way to Georgia, was picked to be the single off Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. And although it didn’t chart, it’s a favorite of Feats fans. And perhaps more important to Payne, it earned some respect from George. In an almost brutally candid interview with Bill Flanagan of Musician magazine in mid-1979, George recalled, “One time I said, ‘Bill, these songs you’re writing.’ I was real blunt with him one time. And right after that he came up with ‘Oh, Atlanta,’ which to me is a very successful song.” (In her 1981 album, Evangeline, Emmylou Harris, briefly a member of the Feats Auxiliary, did a hard-charging version of the song.)”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Fortunately, “Dixie Chicken” became one of the more popular items in the modest George-Kibbee catalog. (Besides “Teenage” and “Dixie Chicken,” they had “Easy to Slip” and “Rock and Roll Doctor.”) “Dixie” would be covered not only by John Sebastian”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Sebastian soon met George, and they wound up producing a song, “Face of Appalachia,” which Sebastian would record for his 1974 album, Tarzana Kid.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“There was much to love about Sailin’ Shoes, from “Easy to Slip’s” chiming guitars (we’d hear something similar months later in the Eagles’ “Take It Easy”)”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“We cut ‘Forty Four Blues’ and ‘How Many More Years’, and they [The Band] never did anything like that.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“The Byrds recorded them for their album titled (Untitled), released in 1970. (“Willin’,” however, was left off the album and would appear years later as a bonus cut on a reissue.) “Willin’,” besides”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Truck Stop Girl” (by George and his occasional house guest Bill Payne) clearly stood out. Other artists”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat

“Gone Dead Train,” which would include Ry Cooder on slide guitar and Randy Newman on vocals.”
― Ben Fong-Torres, Willin': The Story of Little Feat