Neon Guitar (Lowell George)

LOWELL GEORGE April, 13th, 1945 - June, 29th, 1979 (his ashes were dispersed into the Pacific Ocean)

LITTLE FEAT 1996 Double CD Concert Album "LIVE FROM NEON PARK" on Zoo Entertainment/BMG
LOWELL GEORGE TRIBUTE ALBUM "Rock And Roll Doctor" CD on CMC International Records (1998) [Japan 1997]

From MOJO The Music Magazine (London, England) June 1996, Issue #31

"The 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time":

Number 49 - LOWELL GEORGE

"The best singer, songwriter and guitar player I've ever heard, hands down."
-Bonnie Raitt-

HotLinks: LOWELL GEORGE 1975 Interview

LOWELL GEORGE, the "Orson Welles Of Rock", according to Jackson Browne, referred to his songs as "cracked mosaics", their convoluted chord changes revealing a keen sense of the absurd. "That was the way he built his music," said Neon Park, designer of the classic Little Feat album covers, "building logical networks, then inserting key moments of insanity."

The craziness was always tempered by the cool control of his slide guitar: "He was, along with Duane Allman, one of the most influential slide players around," reckons songwriter John Hall. But where Allman was always rooted in blues, Lowell George could've jammed with Thelonious Monk. After serving time with The Standells and Fraternity Of Man, George spent the summer of '69 in the Mothers, leaving at Zappa's suggestion to form Little Feat with Richie Hayward, Bill Payne and Roy Estrada.

The first albums accentuated his quirky songwriting but contained two versions of the classic truckers' anthem, *Willin'*. "Dixie Chicken", with a massive change of personnel, heralded the band's popular acceptance and the increasing suppression of what producer Van Dyke Parks called George's "cartoon consciousness". As the band became more democratic, he lost his taste for the role of spiritual adviser, and, unfortunately, gained a taste for hard drugs; 1977's "Time Loves A Hero" contained just one George 'cartoon', *Rocket In My Pocket*.

His '79 solo debut, "Thanks, I'll Eat It Here", was quirky and entertaining but largely made up of scraps. He died while touring to promote it. Friend Neon Park says, "Ultimately, he was a little misunderstood", but, as Bonnie Raitt attests, "Once you get Feats-itis, you never get rid of it." [by NS aka Neil Slaven]

Guitar: Fender Stratocaster

Highlight: *Fat Man In The Bathtub* from "Dixie Chicken" on Warner Bros. (1973)

Photo Caption: Lowell George: ready, willin' and able
[Lowell concentrates on slide technique using a "wrench socket" on his pinky between fifth and sixth fret of a white strat]

From the Little Feat song *Representing The Mambo*
Peter Asher: "I wonder if by any chance you would like a piece of cake?"
Neon Park: "No thank you. My ears are too sweet now."

Interview with NEON PARK by Charlie Haas from WAX PAPER (v4, 3, circa March 1979):

WP: How did your association with Little Feat begin?

NEON: It began with a hitchhiker. Years ago, right after *Weasels Ripped My Flesh* came out.

WP: Where?

NEON: Sunset and Cahuenga. [Lowell George attended Hollywood High School near there at Sunset and Highland]

WP: And who was that hitchhiker, Neon?

NEON: Ivan. Ivan the ice cream man. Songwriter extraordinaire. He was hitchhiking in the rain in a tee-shirt, didn't have a coat. He was getting very wet. He had a guitar with him, stuffed under his shirt. That's why I picked him up. He was going to Lowell's house. I was coming from the *Mother's* office, where I'd been talking to Herbie Cohen about getting paid.

WP: Did you?

NEON: Yeah. So I was on my way home, and there was this fellow human being in misery, and I picked him up. Almost got hit by a bus doing it. He said I should come with him to Lowell's.

WP: Where was Lowell living?

NEON: Over in Silverlake, by Marshall High School. I had my portfolio with me, so Ivan said I should show Lowell my stuff. Little Feat's first album had just come out. I showed him my stuff and he liked it. Tornado Turner was there, Martin Kibbee, some of the GTOs...

WP: You've suffered with some title changes on Little Feat albums.

NEON: Only once, really. It didn't surprise me when they changed the title of *I'll Eat It Here*.

WP: To *Sailin' Shoes*?

NEON: Yeah. But *Dixie Chicken*, that surprised me...

WP: What was that called originally?

NEON: Handcuffs and Accordians.

WP: Ah.

NEON: Ah! Makes a lot of sense, you look at the painting ... but someone said, "Who's gonna buy an album called Handcuffs and Accordians?"

(WAX PAPER issue is courtesy of LINDA GIBBON, publisher of FEATPRINTS)

NEON PARK remembering LOWELL GEORGE in "Rolling Stone Magazine" August 9, 1979:

"It was strange knowing Lowell and seeing the things people said and wrote about him. Ultimately, I think he was a little misunderstood. It was like being around the offspring of Orson Welles and Howlin' Wolf: he could make things happen, but he also had a fine sense of the absurd. That was the thing that showed in his music: building networks of supreme logic,then inserting key moments of insanity."

"Lowell helped me develop in a way I may never have been able to on my own. We helped heighten each other's sense of the surreal, and I've never known anyone quite like that. And that's the loss I feel most."

HotLink: Ted Alvy COSMOS TOPPER Home Page