Lowell George & The Factory - Lightning-rod Man (1993)

Is er iemand die mij wat meer over dit album kan vertellen? Ik ben hier toch wel razend nieuwsgierig naar.....

Ik ook.

Maar kennelijk kent niemand het ...jammer.

Ik ken alleen het titelnummer van een Frank Zappa-bootleg (hij was de producer tijdens die sessie), dat is wel een aardig nummer, maar nou ook weer niet van Little Feat-kwaliteit. Over de rest kan ik helaas ook niets zinnigs zeggen.

Na wat gegoogel:

" All Music Guide Review:


Before emerging as a cult star in the 1970s, Lowell George was a presence on the L.A. folk-rock/psychedelic scene in the 1960s. With his group the Factory, he only managed to release one single during this time. Lightning-Rod Man rescues 15 tunes cut by this unit, including the single and over a dozen outtakes and demos.

Almost exclusively original material, most of these tracks were recorded in 1966 and 1967. They show the group pursuing a slightly eccentric folk-rock vision that neither bears much similarity to George's more famous work nor matches the best work done in this genre by their L.A. peers.

At times they echo Kaleidoscope in their vaguely spacy, good-natured folkish rock; just as often, they take cues from Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa in their skewed blues rock and obtuse songwriting.

In fact, Zappa himself produced and played on a couple of the demos, and one-time Mothers of Invention members Elliot Ingber and Roy Estrada show up on a few others.

A few songs cut towards the end of the decade feature a heavier, bluesier sound that show George edging in a different direction. An enjoyable vault find, but not a major revelation.

-- Richie Unterberger "

En op de site http://www.furious.com/Perfect/lowellgeorge.html , valt het volgende te lezen:

The Factory was Lowell George's first serious attempt at carving out a career for himself in the music business. Consisting of Martin Kibbee (bass), Martin Klein (guitar), Richie Hayward (drums) and Lowell George (guitar, lead vocals and assorted instruments such as flute and clarinet), the band soon established itself on the Los Angeles rock club circuit. As to what this group sounded like, the best existing artifact to check out is Lightning Rod Man, a collection of tracks recorded for the Uni label in 1966. As evidenced by such tracks as "Lost," "Candy Cane Madness" and "Smile, Let Your Life Begin," the music of The Factory reflects a late-sixties folk-punk rock style as championed by such LA bands as Love, The Music Machine and The Seeds.

Towards the end of 1967, things were winding down for The Factory. They had been a mainstay of the club scene and had even appeared in episodes of the popular television sit-coms F-Troop and Gomer Pyle but they had failed to create any hit records. One of their last projects was to record two demo songs for the Original Sound record label that were produced by Frank Zappa. These two tracks, "Lightning Rod Man" and "The Loved One" (both included on the Lightning Rod Man CD) contain familiar Zappa production elements. Actually, it is on the track, "Lightning Rod Man," that Lowell George hits his first serious stride as a musician. Written by George and Kibbee and based on a Herman Melville short story, "Lightning Rod Man" finds George delivering a tour de force vocal in a style that recalls the early work of Captain Beefheart. In fact, before this track had been properly identified as a recording by The Factory, many collectors assumed it was a rare Captain Beefheart outtake. George's brief time in the studio with Zappa apparently had quite an influence on the young musician as his later work as a producer of Little Feat records would indicate. Like Zappa, he adopted studio work habits that involved staying in the studio for several nights running and not leaving until a particular track was finished to his satisfaction.

While the remaining members of The Factory formed a new band called The Fraternity of Man, George found himself working as a hired gun for The Standells, who were running out their proverbial 15 minutes of fame after the success of their hit "Dirty Water." In a 1975 interview in Zig Zag magazine, George described his experience with The Standells, "I replaced Dicky Dodds, the lead singer. %u2026he quit because he couldn't stand it. And I finally quit because I couldn't stand it either." In his typical style of going from one extreme to another, George left The Standells to become a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, the most cutting edge rock band at that time.

Het lijkt wel Capt. Beefheart op zang in titelnummer (een single in '66) en wordt wel (abusievelijk) aan hem toegeschreven.
De verdere muziek is a-typisch (denk aan The Hourglass voordat ze The Allman Brothers werden of Asylum Choir als aanloop voor Leon Russell, The Beefeaters een pre-flyte voor The Byrds, enz.) voor de muziek die Lowell George later met Little Feat zou maken, 'Crack In Your Door' en 'Teenage Nervous Breakdown' komen daar ( natuurlijk) het dichtstbij. Let op: Juliet is geen Juliette! En The Factory niet verwarren met een obscuur Brits bandje! Verder de curieuze cover 'Framed' van The Coasters.
Interessante plaat / interessante periode!
Als je het naadje van de toenmalige kous om het voetje van L.G. wilt weten, check also:
The Fraternity of Man - Get It On
Michele O'Malley - Saturn Rings