Of all the great songs on Little Feat's 1972 masterpiece, Sailin' Shoes, the one that keeps coming to the front (for me) is Bill Payne's "Got No Shadow". There are several reasons for this. For one thing, the song requires many hearings before it can be truly appreciated. The melody is elaborate and beautiful (the opening two words - "Take yourself" - require an astonishing ten seconds for the melodic material they contain to unfold); the band plays with the kind of freedom that can only arrive after much disciplined effort (their rhythmic interplay deserves its own listen); the recently deceased Richie Hayward's drumming can only be described as wonderful; and Lowell George's singing and slide guitar playing are at their glittering best. Also, the song seems to point the way that this unique group was going to be heading for the next thirty-eight years: creating American music that is both deeply rooted and entirely original. Here's hoping for many more.

Little Feat's "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" (1974) may have the strongest opening three songs I've heard on any album, and the coolest thing is that each one was written by a different member of the band. "Rock and Roll Doctor", co-written by Lowell George and Fred Martin, is astonishing in its complexity. Its form, rhythms and harmonic content are all at very high levels of sophistication - the song quite literally doesn't repeat itself in any way, and yet it remains a unified, coherent whole. My theory on what George was trying to achieve with the piece is that he wanted to show that rock and roll can be as multi-faceted as jazz, classical or any other type of music - and it makes you want to dance on top of it. He might as well have been writing about himself when he wrote: "Two degrees in bebop/ A Ph.D. in swing/ He's a master of rhythm/ He's a rock and roll king."

Bill Payne's "Oh Atlanta!" and Paul Barrere's "Skin it Back" are two more brilliant rockers that repay multiple hearings. Listen for the combination of surprise and inevitability in the chord changes alone, for example. Of course, the band's performance on these songs (and the rest of the album) deserves close listening as well. Every member of this group had his own style and yet knew how to make it work for the collective. The great bassist Kenny Gradney, in discussing this quality, once called Little Feat a "baseball team band". To which I would add that there aren't many groups, to this day, that could go nine innings with them.

Little Feat recently lost one of its founding members: the great drummer Richie Hayward died on August 12, 2010 of pneumonia and complications from lung disease. To really appreciate his artistry, its important to understand his group. Little Feat's early leader - its singer and main songwriter - was Lowell George, one of the greatest of rock musicians. His talent, work ethic and democratic leadership allowed the band to grow at an incredible rate. Along the way they seem to have amalgamated virtually every form of American music into their style. They released an excellent self-titled first album in 1971, but their second, Sailin' Shoes (1972) was the first of many masterpieces to come. Over the years the lineup changed to include Paul Barrere (guitar), Sam Clayton (percussion), and Ken Gradney (bass), while the original core of Hayward, George and pianist Bill Payne remained intact. (Other important contributions to the Little Feat legacy have been made by Roy Estrada, Shaun Murphy, Craig Fuller and Fred Tackett.) I'm going to write about them for the next few days, but for today, I'm going to recommend you give a listen to the opening track to Sailin' Shoes, "Easy to Slip". It puts many of Richie's greatest attributes on display - his touch, his funk, his use of space, his technical ability. He'll be missed.

Among his many qualities, Elvis Costello has great taste in music. In fact, this attribute is not talked about enough when discussing musicians - how serious listening and discernment are important in building the other skills. Anyway, he once stated that in his opinion the three greatest American rock bands (I don't remember the order, or if he gave one) were Steely Dan, The Band and Little Feat. I've written about the first two several times, but I don't believe I've mentioned Little Feat yet. I'll correct that tomorrow.