Tomatoes are high in vitamin C. But according to Fred Tackett, Little Feat is not on a campaign to ensure you are getting your recommended dosage. I asked him what the tomato symbolism means to the band.
“Waiting for Columbus… it’s just this hot little tomato waiting to become a star.”
He’s referring to the band’s 1978 live album, which went platinum in ’89 after the gold success of Fred’s debut with the band on Let It Roll. The cover features a saucy looking anthropomorphized tomato lounging in a hammock. Despite huge credentials the band has never truly broken through to become the mainstream standards that many of their contemporaries and colleagues are. The original lineup formed out of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. Jimmy Page called them his favorite American band in a 1975 issue of Rolling Stone. So is the band still waiting for Columbus to pluck them from an unknown world and deliver them to their rightful status as international staples? From what Fred told me they’re comfortable just where they are.
“Well we’ve probably made as much money as the bigger bands; we’ve just done it over a much longer period of time.”
So perhaps Little Feat isn’t yearning for the limelight anymore, but what had ever kept them out of it?
“Well we have an album called ‘Under The Radar.’ …Maybe if we had followed the rules.”
Little Feat doesn’t follow the industry protocol, or what Fred described as “the grooming,” “the toys,” and “the machine.” Instead they follow a strategy that is typically most identified with their subculture counterparts, that is, the punk/hardcore world. They are quite possibly one of the hardest working bands in America. “We just keep kinda touring all the time… it’s usually between 80 and 100 shows a year.” Over the course of 42 years they have released 16 studio albums, or on average an album every 2.5 years.
42 years in the music world is like a species surviving multiple epochs of geologic time but somehow Little Feat has managed to escape extinction. How has Little Feat evolved through the years?
Referring to the band’s recording techniques, “It took us 20 years to get back to where we started.”
The band embraced digital recording while the technique was still young. Compare the texture of 1988’s Let It Roll with the texture of their 1970 self-titled debut and their latest Rooster Rag. There’s an organic warmth that fills the latter two, something that gets lost when overdubbing and working with digital media. They embraced long days in the studio overdubbing multiple parts and have since returned to the quicker and more natural process of recording as a group. So what about the future, how does Little Feat feel about programs like Spotify?
Referring to music sales of singles on 45’s in the 50’s and 60’s, “it’s kinda like how it used to be... It’s more democratic now.”
Shortly after conducting the interview I read an article describing how programs like Spotify and iTunes Match conduct business. It made me worried for the future of music. Spotify determines their pay rate based on an artist’s popularity and for many artists it’s less than a penny per stream. How will musicians survive when all they can expect is an album’s compensation per 1000 listens?
Musicians and listeners may find their inspiration and solace at a Little Feat show.
““You have your family on the road and you’re family at home.””
That’s Fred’s answer as to how they maintain their sturdy work ethic, as well as why he sees no end in sight. Leave it to an “old hippie” to show us the meaning of family values and that old puritan American work ethic.