Little Feat – Rock and Roll Doctor

I love Little Feat. A musician’s band that sounds great. This song is filled with funk and southern-fried sophistication. It’s really tight at 2 minutes and 57 seconds; this track from Little Feat’s Feats Don’t Fail Me Now album is equal parts swagger, groove, and swampy gospel-tinged funk. It captures everything that made the Lowell George-led era of the band so distinct: tight arrangements, terrific guitar, and soulful vocals. 

Only Little Feat could’ve made this record. The band was already deep into their groove by 1974, but this album is where the voodoo met the vinyl with that sound. Lowell George, rock and roll’s most underrated guitarist and a man who sounded like he’d lived three lifetimes by 29, delivers a great vocal as well. “Two degrees in be-bop, a PhD in swing / He’s the master of rhythm, he’s a rock and roll king!” It’s a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the healing power of boogie, but also a serious testament to Little Feat’s freakish musical chemistry and ability. 

The whole track hangs on that in-the-pocket rhythm section.  The band is in lockstep throughout, Richie Hayward’s drumming is crisp and funky, Paul Barrere and Lowell George’s guitars weave effortlessly, and Bill Payne’s piano rides just behind the beat, and it could have carried the song alone. There’s even some gospel call-and-response in the backing vocals.  It’s a shuffle, but it’s never lazy. It’s slick, but not slick-slick.

George’s slide solo? It says something and punctuates the song. Feats Don’t Fail Me Now peaked at #36 on the Billboard Album Charts and #40 in Canada in 1974. The song peaked at #34 on the Billboard 100 later in 1981. 

Rock and Roll Doctor

There was a woman in Georgia didn’t feel just rightShe had fever all day and chills at nightNow things got worse, yes a serious bindAt times like this it takes a man with such style I cannot often findA doctor of the heart and a doctor of mind

If you like country with a boogie beat he’s the man to meetIf you like the sound of shufflin’ feet he can’t be beatIf you wanna feel real nice, just ask the Rock and Roll doctor’s advice

It’s just a country town but patients comeFrom Mobile to Moline from miles aroundNagodoches to New OrleansIn beat-up old cars or in limousinesTo meet the doctor of soul, he’s got his very own thing

Two degrees in be-bop, a PHD in swingHe’s the master of rhythm he’s a rock and roll king

If you like country with a boogie beat he’s the man to meet (he’s the man to meet)If you like the sound of shufflin’ feet he can’t be beat(I say he can’t be beat)If you…If you wannaIf you wanna feel real nice, just ask the Rock and Roll doctor’s advice

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

37 thoughts on “Little Feat – Rock and Roll Doctor”

      2. Not the entire album no…but guess what? I just pulled it up on youtube and I’ll do the same on spotify…I’ll be listening today!

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    1. What got me interested in them was reading about them since they were not played every day on the radio except for Dixie Chicken…I read where music stars of the day would go to their concerts whenever they played. I knew it had to be something great about them…and it was.
      The only other band even remotely like them to me…were The Allman Brothers…a different style with LIttle Feat having more funk….. all great musicians.

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  6. Pingback: Little Feat – Rock and Roll Doctor – MobsterTiger

    1. I remember Demento! My cousin would tape it on his reel to reel… I loved that line: My sister and I are going
      to the new new Christy Minstrel show at the Playhouse tonight and I was wondering what I should take? A GOOD BOOK…. lol

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  9. I first found Little Feat on a soundtrack – I can’t remember for which movie – and All That You Dream with Linda Ronstadt…then I think on a Bonnie Raitt album (Home Plate?)…..and well, Dixie Chicken…..they and various members of that band seemed to show up everywhere on music by various usually California acts like Jackson Browne and others….a good track

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    1. Yea they were great musicians who could have played with anyone. So much talent in that band. Yea Dixie Chicken is the first thing I heard from them when I was a kid.

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      1. I always kind of envisioned them, and I seem to be wrong, but still, I thought they were sort of a second-rate, Grateful Dead wannabe. I guess there’s more to them!

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      2. Oh no dude…Lowell George and Bill Payne were tops of their field as with the rest. The song you probably know by them was Dixie Chicken…I think they are still together…a form of them anyway. Lowell died in 1979

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  11. Good in every way, that easy shuffle don’t come easy, so to speak. I remember Lowells solo album was a bit of a disappointment somehow… I haven’t listened to it since Adam picked up a banjo but if I recall it lacked something? Maybe he needed the band to bounce off?

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    1. Yea that sounds right…or he was in a dry spell and the band got the best of his riffs at the time…but with these guys I would imagine they needed each other.

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  12. Love this group. Great live one. Bill Payne gets my vote for one of the tops in his field. The stuff he plays is just unreal. Love the whole band.

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    1. I can’t add more to that. I got into them a little later with the exception of Dixie Chicken but I love them.

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    1. I’ve heard them a little…I really like what I’ve heard and you are right…they are on the same path

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  15. Some excellent descriptions of Feat in this post. Thank you. They were so good.

    You mention you were going to look into Asleep At The Wheel. I recommend “Homo Erectus,” a tune they did with Reckless Kelly, written by the great Kinky Friedman. I think it is still on You Tube. A fun little tune. Asleep at the Wheel (Roy Benson is the leader and it is his band) are western swing revivalists. MaryAnn Price was a member for at least one album, after leaving Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks, an album on which they did Hicks’ “Up Up Up.”

    As for great art work, that is Neon Park. He did many of the Little Feat album covers until he passed a few years ago.

    Yes, Feat is still playing.

    Also, if you look at liner notes and musician credit, you’ll see Bill Payne over and over again. He is in high demand.

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    2. When I originally posted the message I am replying to (some kind of talking to myself) I didn’t know how to post a link.

      Home Erectus was written by Kinky Friedman. Here it is by Asleep at the Wheel and Reckless Kelly from the tribute album to Friedman.

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  16. My great aunt, a woman who I respected but didn’t particularly like very much, loved Kinky Friedman. Her taste usually ran toward Shostakovitch. She was an amazing, if for me unsufferable, lady. She introduced me to the work of Stanton MacDonald Wright, who I have already mentioned is my favorite painter.

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