Lowell George & The Factory - Lightning-Rod Man

So I was going to put this up yesterday, but I was tired and still am, so please forgive me tardiness. Anyway, big props to bumkuncha for identifying the track, Lightning-Rod Man, which is taken from the compilation of the same name, a collection of early recordings by Lowell George, founder of Little Feat, and his late-sixties band, The Factory. As far as I can tell, none of the material on the CD was officially released prior to 1993, when the compilation was issued on the long-dead Bizarre Records imprint via Warner Brothers. As to why this happened when it did, especially with Bizarre and Straight Records long having been put to bed, is a mystery, but it may have had something to do with Frank Zappa's then very recent or impending death. Perhaps Herb Cohen thought he could get away with it, although that doesn't appear to have quite worked out. The CD is out of print but you can purchase the release digitally via Amazon, so I won't be posting the whole thing here, but a few tracks never hurt.

Lowell George was a member of The Factory circa 1966 and had gotten in touch with Frank Zappa and his then business partner, Herb Cohen, about a possible contract, to which I get the impression a deal may have been made, but as is evident with all of Zappa's labels created with Cohen, apart from Zappa/MOI releases, everything else happened whenever Cohen got around to it. Such individuals as Tim Buckley (Jeff's father, just in case you didn't know), Alice Cooper and Tom Waits were signed to Bizarre, Straight or DiscReet. Waits' didn't even see a record issued during his contract, although a lawsuit was brought against Herb Cohen regarding some of Waits' early demos being sold without his consent, which I assume are the contents of Waits' Early Years compilations, also issued via Bizarre/Straight.

Zappa produced two songs for The Factory, the aforementioned Lightning-Rod Man and The Loved One, although it doesn't appear they saw release apart from Lightning-Rod Man appearing on some Zappa-related bootlegs. These two songs, several performances from an audition for Zappa and Cohen, and some post-Factory demos by George round-out the Lightning-Rod Man compilation. If you're expecting Little Feat, you'll probably be disappointed, but as a document of the era, with psychedelia on George's mind as well as strong songwriting from him and his various writing partners, it serves it's purpose very well. Mr. Lowell George would later join Zappa's Mothers Of Invention before forming his own band, Little Feat, and achieving success both with that band and on his own, but you knew that, right?

Just for the record, some of the tracks featured on Lightning-Rod Man have appeared on Little Feat's 2000 box set, Hotcakes & Outtakes, so don't be too surprised if you see them there. You can purchase Lightning-Rod Man digitally here, although I am including three tracks for your sampling enjoyment. Generally, I always want to see the artist supported, but with George having passed away in the late seventies, I haven't a clue who receives the benefits from recordings like these. Nonetheless, I urge you to purchase this legally, but I don't think anyone will lose sleep if Herb Cohen's "Trust" loses a few dollars. He died quite recently you know, but no hard feelings here. Just another record-label scumbag and his lawyer brother out to make a fast buck by abusing their artists. Hope it was worth it fellas.


Lowell George & The Factory

Lightning-Rod Man
Candy Cane Madness
Teenage Nervous Breakdown


PS - As pointed out by James E B, my mistake for ignoring the ID3v1 tag. Don't generally think of it nowadays with iTunes and foobar. Oops!