Chords for Lowell George - Feats First- Preview

_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G]
At the beginning of [Bb] the 1970s, a [G] band emerged from Los Angeles.
It was a band so eclectic and unusual in style and sound
that almost no one could say where it had come from.
It [D] was a band that instantly captured the admiration of rock [G] stars,
producers, music writers.
A band [C] that radio [Gm] DJs rushed to play.
[D] It was a band that struggled to sell any records,
that [G] seldom troubled the charts,
that was rarely seen on television,
that was never called to award ceremonies.
But it was a band that was loved with uncommon fervour
by all that heard its music.
[D] The band was called Little Feet.
_ [G] Yeah, they were an incredible live band,
[C] but that other thing that they were putting [D] across
while they were being a great live band
is [G] what made people just go absolutely gaga over them.
And [C] gaga is not a bad word
for the feeling [F] that Little Feet was able [G] to generate
while Lowell was [D] alive.
At the centre of the Little Feet [G] story is Lowell George,
the group's frontman and principal [Gm] songwriter.
Over the course of a decade [D] leading the [Gb] Feets,
George [D] wove a unique tapestry,
a [G] singular artistic vision that ended tragically
with his untimely death in 79,
but that left an [C] indelible mark on the history [G] of rock and roll.
Anyone who saw Little Feet [D] or loved Little Feet
or knew [G] Lowell George
_ remembers [C] him with enormous affection
and [D] loves what he stood for,
which was [G] something really individual, really different,
very [C] sensual, funky,
[G] poetic, _ surreal, [D] and funny.
_ [G] _ _ He was the guy [Gm] you wanted to hang out with, you know.
He was someone I looked up [D] to.
The concentration, the focusing,
[G] the intensity with which [C] he approached his music
[D] was a real example.
[G] _ Lowell was [Bb] a [G] hyperbole of anarchy [C] and rebellion.
[Gm] He was an [G] iconoclast.
[D] Somehow or another, I don't get the idea
that [G] Lowell would have accepted a Grammy.
_ [Gm] I think that [D] he was beyond that.
He [G] felt strongly that he knew _
what music was sincere [C] and credible [G] and artful.
He thought that music could [D] change the world,
thought that he could make a [G] song
that would change [C] people's minds.
_ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Dm] _ [G] _
_ _ _ [C] _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ [A] _ _ _ [G] _ [A] _ _
_ [C] _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
Los [D] Angeles, [Am] 1965,
[A] and the rebirth of American rock and roll is underway.
_ [D] Fired by the arrival of the Beatles
and the accompanying [C] wave of British bands
that had [A] overwhelmed the music scene a year earlier,
local [D] musicians had [A] deserted the folk clubs
and coffee [G] houses of the [A] early 60s
and [D] traded in their acoustic guitars
for amplifiers [Am] and drum kits. _ _
[C] [D] A new youth culture emerged,
Locus LA's Sunset Strip, [G] its [Ab] leaders the [A] Byrds.
It was the era of folk rock,
and [Ab] music's center of [A] gravity [D] shifted
from the gray skyscrapers [C] of New York
[D] to the glittering beaches of California.
[E] _ It was very vibrant.
[Bm] Sunset Strip had a number of clubs
[C] that were very teen [B]-oriented.
A few of [Gbm] them had no, they didn't [G] serve alcohol.
[E] You know, you could get underage kids
to go [Bm] in a place called Pandora's Box,
[C] which I had a band that played there
and another club called It's [A] Boss.
The [G] kids were up and down the street by [Gb] the thousands.
There was nothing like it before or since.
I mean, it was the most magical [F] time ever.
There was this huge opportunity to find talent,
to somehow, [E] hey, we gotta move units,
we gotta sell, because there's opportunity.
So a lot of [Bm] bands got signed,
and a lot of stuff was happening [Am] very quickly.
[C] Byrds being obviously the biggest [Em] example,
but a lot of smaller [E] bands
were part of this local scene here.
For [Bm] that brief period of time,
from mid [C]-60s to mid-70s,
it was the reason why [Em] everybody came here.
It was the reason why [Gb] people from all over the world
figured if they got to LA,
they'd have a shot at musical stardom.
[F] The few that survived, that got through,
[G] that became these names that we know all these years later,
_ were just the very tip of the iceberg.
There were hundreds of bands, and The Factory was one [Ab] of them.
[C] _ _ In amongst the [Gm] throng of folk [Am] rock aggregations,
ersatz beat groups, blues [A] bands and harmony singers,
[Am] Lowell George, frontman of an obscure local group
called The Factory, was trying to make a name. _
[D] He was [Am] quintessentially California.
The Georges [G] had a great ranch.
They spent some time in Nevada.
They were part of the early pioneer families
that pushed west and created the frontier
and expanded it, went beyond it, moved it,
and Lowell was like that.
So it's fair to say that although I didn't know him at the time,
Lowell was equally influenced by this new _ sense of self
that the Byrds gave every aspiring California