Little Feat box set "Rad Gumbo"

[jazzbo]

Released March 4, "Rad Gumbo: the Complete Warner Bros. Years 1972 to 1990"--- 13 cds from Little Feat.

Nice price at amazon, about 62 dollars.

A review:

http://markattheflicks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/rad-gumbo-complete-warner-bros-years.html

[mjzee]

A band that's owed its due. I followed them at the time, but lost interest with The Last Record Album.

[jazzbo]

The Last Record Album is actually my favorite of theirs. I love Llowell George, and when he passed I never quite got into the next version of the band. But those albums with George. . .. wow.

[etherbored]

nice. i snagged the catalog on japanese mini lp's a few years ago. i'll bet they use the same mastering for this set just as they did for the ry cooder set.

[A Lark Ascending]

Love Little Feat. There's a certain sound to rock music from the American South (yes, I know they were from the West Coast but spiritually...) that always sounds to me like the ground's about to give way; the Stones locked into that for a short time at the end of the 60s and Little Feet brought it to perfection.

The Last Record Album was my entry point and it's still my favourite - infectious rhythms that seem to constantly land on unexpected accents, getting that woozy feel. Lowell George's lazy voice sliding over the top and again landing in odd places adds to whole effect of a world about to turn on its side. You can't beat 'Mercenary Territory'.

Won't be buying the box - I've got what I need and never cared for what I heard after the George years. But this is a band that certainly deserve the royal treatment.

[etherbored]

i know what you mean for sure, but there's only two non-george recordings included here and they're pretty happening. after 'representing the mambo' they really dropped off my radar (although i have three released after it....).

[felser]

I like those WB sets, have the ones they did for Joni Mitchell and for the first four Neil Young albums. Nice sound great prices nice packaging (though no notes).

[king ubu]

I've got the Original Album Series with the first five, plus the two-disc ediition of "Waiting for Columbus" ... guess that's all I really need. But I would be tempted if I hadn't got these already!

[etherbored]

how's the mastering on the original album series? surely better than the original transfers...

[mjzee]

In the link that Jazzbo posted, the author surmises that these will be remasters, and stated that the OAS had older masterings.

[mjzee]

Little Feat, for me, was a story of unfulfilled promise. Lowell George started a great band, but I guess his drug use knocked the wind out of their sails. When Feets Don't Fail Me Now came out, I was shocked to see that without the live performance that ends the record, there was less than 30 minutes of new songs. When The Last Record Album came out, they admitted that Paul Barrere was taking a larger role with songwriting because George's output was dwindling. Unfortunately, (for me) Barrere wasn't anywhere near as interesting a songwriter as George.

[JSngry]

I agree, mostly, but Barrere had enough wind in his sails to get them through Time Loves A Hero, which was a hot eclectic mess in the way that only a late-70s L.A. jazzy-rocky hot eclectic mess could be. It was like they had a band, and Lowell was still alive, so it seemed like they were all going full speed ahead thinking like, ok, fuck you Lowell, we can do this without you, and then he goes and dies, and well, uh...we can't do THIS without you at least THREATENING to be here, and then that's when it turned into a retro-gimmicky self-cover band for me, and ok, game over.

But 62 bucks for 13 CDs? That's a good price just for the ones I'll play more than once, never mind all the extra waste thrown in to eat up space and look impressive. I think I might go in for this!

Also-again, yeah, Time Loves A Hero, all bands on the verge of self-destruction should sound so good. I had to hear so much drooljizz about Jeff Beck going "fusion" with Jan Hammer yadayadayada wank on, pass, thanks, "Day At The Dog Races", one stop shopping, one tune, that's that whole thing wrapped up, over and done with, out the door, flip the record over and keep going, and thank you so much for doing that, Little Feat, whoever you were and/or were not then.

[king ubu]

how's the mastering on the original album series? surely better than the original transfers...

Can't tell you ... haven't heard any other editions (besides an MSFL or whatever those are called of the debut album that a friend once copied).

[jazzbo]

how's the mastering on the original album series? surely better than the original transfers...

From an amazon.com review:

SOUND:

Some CD sites selling these sets seemed to have automatically 'presumed' that each is "digitally remastered", but it categorically does NOT state that on the outer box or any of the card sleeves or discs - and rather too conveniently - neither website for Rhino USA or UK has any info on the series at all. But what's not hard to discern is what your ears are actually telling you.

Like most fans I have the crappy Eighties CD issues just to have the music and these 2010 versions seem to be pretty much the same. To put this into an audio context, when you compare the 2000 "Hotcakes & Outtakes" genuine remasters of say "Two Trains", "Willin'", "Roll Um Easy", "Rock And Roll Doctor" and especially "Long Distance Love" (lyrics above), the sound quality is infinitely better on the Box Set versions - truly gorgeous stuff. The sound quality here is merely good at best (maybe better in some places), but it's absolutely not the upgrade fans were hoping for on 'all' of the albums.

[king ubu]

The "Box Set versions" being? The ones in the new complete box?

[jazzbo]

No, "Hotcakes & Outakes," as mentioned in the review.

Edited February 25, 2014 by jazzbo

[felser]

I own a few boxes from this series and several of the OAS sets, and the sound quality difference is night and day. OAS is clearly just whatever was already laying around, and this series has wonderful remastering, at least on the boxes I have (Joni Mitchell and early Neil Young).

[etherbored]

i was thinking the 'original album series' wasn't as well regarded as these new warner/rhino series. i'm glad i snapped up the little feat mini-lp series. they shine!
but there is the matter of that 'hotcakes and outtakes' disc...

[etherbored]

...and speaking of little feat, wouldn't it be nice to have a good version of robert palmer's sneakin' sally through the alley? surely no little feat fan here is without that masterpiece...

[king ubu]

No, "Hotcakes & Outakes," as mentioned in the review.

Apologies ... having not been aware that "Hotcakes & Outtakes" was a box set, I thought the comparison ran between "Hotcakes & Outtakes" and some un-named (the 2010 Album Series possibly) box set. Darn, why does everything always have to be so complicated? It commenced so simpil, as Krazy once said

[etherbored]

answer: to extract maximum cash from our wallets....

[felser]

Couple of notes on this.

1 - It does contain everything from Hotcakes and Outtakes, has a 13th disc to cover the stray cuts.

2 - $49.99 shipped from popmarket.com today, ordered mine. That's $3.85 a disc, too good for me to pass up.

[Head Man]

I own a few boxes from this series and several of the OAS sets, and the sound quality difference is night and day. OAS is clearly just whatever was already laying around, and this series has wonderful remastering, at least on the boxes I have (Joni Mitchell and early Neil Young).

Is this the Joni Mitchel boxset that you say has been remastered, felser?

[romualdo]

I own a few boxes from this series and several of the OAS sets, and the sound quality difference is night and day. OAS is clearly just whatever was already laying around, and this series has wonderful remastering, at least on the boxes I have (Joni Mitchell and early Neil Young).

Is this the Joni Mitchel boxset that you say has been remastered, felser?

I have a copy of this set - produced by Rhino & 2012 release (10 discs) the discs come in mini LP sleeves & gatefold where the original LPs had this -> better quality than the OAS series sleeves though the print is still minuscule

Didn't come with a booklet & no details re remastering but it's not part of the OAS series

Don't have earlier JM CDs (only vinyl) so can't make a comparison but generally I'm very happy with the SQ

[Head Man]

I own a few boxes from this series and several of the OAS sets, and the sound quality difference is night and day. OAS is clearly just whatever was already laying around, and this series has wonderful remastering, at least on the boxes I have (Joni Mitchell and early Neil Young).

Is this the Joni Mitchel boxset that you say has been remastered, felser?

I have a copy of this set - produced by Rhino & 2012 release (10 discs) the discs come in mini LP sleeves & gatefold where the original LPs had this -> better quality than the OAS series sleeves though the print is still minuscule

Didn't come with a booklet & no details re remastering but it's not part of the OAS series

Don't have earlier JM CDs (only vinyl) so can't make a comparison but generally I'm very happy with the SQ

Thanks, Romualdo, it's just that I have all the albums in the set already, bought when they were first re-issued on CD many years ago and wondered whether the copies in this boxset would sound any better. I get the impression from the little I've managed to find elsewhere that they probably don't.