Little Feat have announced the upcoming release of a Deluxe Edition of their fourth studio album, “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now”. The expanded title from Rhino features rare and unreleased alternate versions and outtakes from the album sessions, along with a previously unreleased 1975 concert. The set arrives June 14th, 2024, to celebrate the 1974 original’s 50th anniversary. It joins the label’s growing list of Little Feat reissues, including 2023’s Deluxe Editions for “Sailin’ Shoes” and “Dixie Chicken” and 2022’s massive “Waiting for Columbus” boxed set.
The expanded “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” will be available on 3-CD and 2-LP in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. Both versions include the studio album newly remastered from the original multi-track and two-track stereo tapes. A previously unreleased alternate version of “Spanish Moon” from the forthcoming set was made available on April 8th.
A wealth of unreleased music is included in the new Deluxe Edition, including alternate versions of album tracks (“Rock & Roll Doctor” and “Oh Atlanta”) and early versions of songs destined for future albums, including “Long Distance Love” (“The Last Record Album”) and an unfinished version of “Day at the Dog Races” from “Time Loves a Hero”.
The presence of any session recordings from “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” is a minor miracle. The studio where the band made the album, Blue Seas Recording Studio in Baltimore, was a converted barge that sank into the harbour in 1977. Until recently, the session tapes were believed to be lost.
The CD version of “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” (Deluxe Edition) includes a show recorded in Paris at L’Olympia in February 1975. The setlist leans heavily on songs from the album with “Skin It Back” and “Oh Atlanta,” while also weaving in earlier classics like “Willin’” and “Fat Man In the Bathtub.”
Originally released in August 1974, “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” was the band’s fourth album overall but only the second recorded by the classic line up of singer-guitarist Lowell George, drummer Richard Hayward, keyboard player Bill Payne, singer-guitarist Paul Barrere, bassist Kenny Gradney, and percussionist Sam Clayton. The album also features the R&B funk group Tower of Power on horns.