littldixie

Letter of the Week – “I’ve come to expect my socks to get blown off every time.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Little Feat Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom, 

Stop putting records I want on your site. I’m finding them very difficult to resist. I’ve come to expect my socks to get blown off every time.

The recent Dixie Chicken was no exception, by the way. I dropped the needle on side one and knew within a couple of seconds, “Oh yeah, this is the shit!” My socks were across the room, needless to say.

Robert B.

Robert,

So very glad to hear it.  Such a great album but so hard to find in good condition on the original Green Label.

Here is what we had to say about a recent Hot Stamper pressing of the album.

The All Music Guide (and lots of other critics) think this is Little Feat at their best. With tracks such as “Two Trains,” “Dixie Chicken,” “Fat Man in the Bathtub” and “Roll Um Easy,” who’s gonna disagree?

I guess I am. I prefer Waiting for Columbus and The Last Record Album, but cannot deny that Dixie Chicken is probably the best of the albums that came before them.

Thanks for your letter.

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Little Feat / Dixie Chicken

More Little Feat

  • Here is a vintage Green Label pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in more years than anyone can remember) that was doing just about everything right, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • You get lovely extension up top, good weight down low, as well as remarkable transparency in the midrange, all qualities that were much less evident on the average copy we played
  • It’s the rare copy that’s this lively, solid and rich… drop the needle on any track and you’ll see what we mean
  • No Burbank label copy earned a better grade than 1.5+, and even most of those fell short, not to mention the truly awful later label
  • 5 stars: “It all adds up to a nearly irresistible record, filled with great songwriting, sultry grooves, and virtuosic performances that never are flashy. Little Feat, along with many jam bands that followed, tried to top this album, but they never managed to make a record this understated, appealing and fine.”

Hot Stamper sound on both sides — yes, it is possible, and this very copy is Proof with a capitol “P.” Most copies of this album sound like cardboard, especially the later pressings on the Palm Tree and tan labels. To get the best sound, you need originals of this album, and Warner Brothers Green Label originals are getting pretty darn hard to find as more and more collectors and audiophiles are coming to the realization that the unending stream of Heavy Vinyl reissues flooding the market leaves a lot to be desired. (Our desire for them is at zero, as we no longer bother to order the stuff.)

Folks, this is no Demo Disc by any means, but the later pressings strip away the two qualities that really make this music work and bring it to life: Tubey Magic and big bass. This copy has both in spades.

Listen to how breathy and transparent the chorus is on the first track. Now layer that sound on top of a fat and punchy bottom end and you have the formula for Little Feat Magic at its funky best. This is the sound they heard in the control room, of that I have no doubt, and it is all over this copy.

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Dixie Chicken – Our Shootout Winner from 2010

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Little Feat Available Now

White Hot Stamper sound on side two — yes, it is possible, and this very copy is Proof with a capitol P.

Most copies of this album sound like cardboard, especially the later pressings on the palm tree and tan labels.

To get the best sound you need originals of this album, and Warner Brothers green label originals are getting pretty darn hard to find as more and more collectors and audiophiles are coming to the realization that the unending stream of heavy vinyl reissues flooding the market leaves a lot to be desired. (Our desire for them is at zero as we no longer bother to order the stuff.)

Folks, this is no demo disc by any means, but the later pressings strip away the two qualities that really make this music work and bring it to life: Tubey Magic and Big Bass. This side two has both in SPADES.

Listen to how breathy and transparent the chorus is on the first track. Now layer that sound on top of a fat and punchy bottom end and you have the formula for Little Feat Magic at its funky best. This is the sound they heard in the control room, of that I have no doubt, and it is all over this side two. No side of any copy we played was better.

This is A Triple Plus As Good As It Gets Little Feat Sound, the best we have ever heard for any of the early albums.

That WB Sound

Side one earned a grade of A+ to A++. It lacked the top end that lets the sound open up in the choruses, a very common problem with early WB pressings which have a marked tendency to be dull. (We know; we’ve played them by the hundreds, from Deep Purple to the Doobie Brothers to America to Van Morrison and scores of others too numerous to mention. There are ten dull WB pressings for every one that’s bright. )

The bass is excellent and the piano really sounds right on Dixie Chicken, but when you flip the record over you will hear what it could have sounded like (and practically never does).

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