This Day in Music
January 25th
A country-rock pleasure, a blues-rock tragedy, and the King goes to prison, on this day in music.
Releases
1973: “Dixie Chicken,” the third studio album from American rock band Little Feat is released. Although the album received critical acclaim, rated 5-Stars by AllMusic and B+ in Christgau’s Record Guide, it didn’t reach a wide audience.
The album features future solo star Bonnie Raitt on backing vocals, and on the band’s 1977 performance for The Midnight Special, Emmylou Harris also sings backing vocals.
A defining record for the band, it rounded out their unique sound, blending country-style rock with blues and New Orleans-style funk. The title track ranks among the band’s most famous songs, along with “Willin’,” from “Sailin’ Shoes,” and “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now,” from the album of the same name.
It’s not a well-known record, but it is a delight from beginning to end, which earned its ranking as No. 563 in the 3rd edition of Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1,000 Albums.
2000: American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon releases his tenth studio album, “Life’ll Kill Ya,” to widespread critical acclaim. Rolling Stone stated it was his best work since “Excitable Boy” in 1978.
As the title suggests, many of the songs on the album are about death and dying. The album is sadly prescient as Zevon, who had a phobia of doctors and rarely sought preventive medicine or check-ups, would learn only two years later that he had developed mesothelioma. Finding the cancer in its later stages did not provide much time for Zevon, and he died only a year later on September 7, 2003 at 56 years old.
In addition to great WZ originals like “I Was in the House When the House Burned Down,” “Porcelain Monkey” (co-written with Jorge Calderón), and “Don’t Let Us Get Sick,” the LP features an excellent cover of the Steve Windwood song, “Back in the High Life Again.”
The album only reached No. 183 on the Billboard 200 because its appeal was to older audiences, but it scored well on the US Independent Albums chart, peaking at No. 8. It is rated 4-Stars by The Encyclopedia of Popular Music and 4.5-Stars by The New Rolling Stone Record Guide.
Events
1983: Catastrophe strikes The Allman Brothers Band again as a third member of the band, Lamar Williams, dies young at only 34 years old. The cause of death was lung cancer believed to be the result of his exposure to “Agent Orange” during his tour of duty in the Vietnam War between 1968 and 1970. The ABB had already lost their original bassist, Berry Oakley, to a motorcycle accident in 1972 only a year after Duane Allman also died in a motorcycle accident. The band would lose yet another bassist in August of 2000 when Allen Woody died of a heroin overdose.
The Daily Elvis
1958: Elvis's "Jailhouse Rock" becomes the first-ever song to debut in the UK at the top of the charts.
Pictured: Little Feat in 1973. From L to R, standing then sitting: Richie Hayward (d), Sam Clayton (perc), Bill Payne (key), Paul Berrere (g; v), Lowell George (g;v), and Kenny Gradney (bg).
