>Someone who knew Simon well wrote this

“Simon turned up in the seventies. He had a bus with “We’ve come to take your daughters” written on the front.

I was 9, or so.
I found this alarming.

Simon seemed the impersonation of a mythical Sixties. He always said he had been to Woodstock, though we didn’t believe him. He introduced my curious family to The Band, Little Feat, Southern Comfort and irony.
He had a way of raising his eyebrow while making deadpan fun of rule followers or hypocrites. That gravelly voice! He called the police PIGS. He orchestrated the smoko snail races at my great uncles plant nursery, where we all worked one rainy school holidays. He had an unusual, reedy, seemingly educated elegance: a Balliol dandy in a corrugated iron shed.
Partly this effect was due to wit, vocabulary and timing; partly to his habit of “a cigarette and a look around” for breakfast.”

I knew he liked The Mutton Birds and Don McGlashan (and I hope he got to WOMAD this year to see him)

But I didn’t know he was a Feat man.
Or a Band man.

Figures, though.

So there’s a fair chance he’ll like this bunch:

Kicks off with Feat (Lowell by hisself with a little Japanese metronome machine, actually)
Two Trains (Lowell Demo) [Listen]– Little Feat from Hotcakes & Outtakes
and then drifts along to Robert Palmer with Feat
Sneaking Sally Through The Alley [Listen]– Robert Palmer from Best Of The Test
who really rocked with Elkie Brooks back in the early 70s
So long – Vinegar Joe [Listen]from 45s
Feat as a session band again (This one thanks to Evi Seibert and a belated happy birthday, my dear)
You’re not the rule (You’re the exception)[Listen] – Helen Watson from Blue Slipper
and again
A Stone’s Throw Away [Listen]– Valerie Carter from Just A Stone’s Throw Away
The Meters, who played on Valerie Carter’s album
Cissy Strut [Listen]– The Meters from Funkify Your Life: The Meters Anthology
and who are forever linked with Allan Toussaint
Two Trains [Listen]– Allen Toussaint and Leo Nocentelli from Rock And Roll Doctor – A Tribute To Lowell George
who wrote this for Bonnie Raitt
What do you want the boy to do? [Listen]– Bonnie Raitt from Home Plate
who sang harmony with Warren
Join Me in L.A. [Listen]– Warren Zevon from Warren Zevon
who was discovered by Jackson Browne
Missing persons [Listen]– Jackson Browne from Hold out
who wouldn’t been have as good as he is is without Dave
You Done Me Wrong [Listen]– Rakoto Frah from A World Out Of Time, Vol. 2: Henry Kaiser & David Lindley in Madagascar
who can also do Cajun
Petit Fleur [Listen]– David Lindley from El Rayo-X
as can Dr John
Tipitina [Listen]– Dr. John from Dr. John’s Gumbo
who played in The Last Waltz with The Band
It Makes No Difference [Listen]– The Band from The Band: The King Biscuit Flour Hour
and Rick Danko
New Mexicoe [Listen]– Rick Danko from Rick Danko
and Ronnie Hawkins was there
Who Do You Love? [Listen]– The Band from The Last Waltz
dressed like a cowboy which is a bit of a stretch to a band from just up the road in Hamilton
Giddy Up [Listen]– Katchafire from Revival
and then it’s coasting along with
Envy of Angels [Listen]– Mutton Birds from Envy of Angels
and Don McGlashan
I Will Not Let You Down [Listen]– Don McGlashan from Warm Hand
who sang
Rain [Listen]– Hone Tuwhare from Classic New Zealand Poets In Performance
on Tuwhare and Graham Brazier did
Friend [Listen]– Graham Brazier from Tuwhare
on the same album and they haven’t done an album of Denis Glover’s poetry yet
Threnody [Listen]– Denis Glover from Classic New Zealand Poets In Performance
but it’s only a matter of time until Charlotte Yates gets around to it.

So here’s one for the road
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer [Listen]– George Thorogood & The Destroyers from George Thorogood And The Destroyers
and Rod Stewart’s Scottish
Every Picture Tells A Story [Listen]– Rod Stewart from Every Picture Tells A Story
so we can squeeze that in

And the Eddystone Light isn’t Scottish, but I can just imagine him singing this [Listen]

“Captain Doddery’s wee tune as he opened up the throttle.”

Then the phosphorus flashed in her seaweed hair.
I looked again, and my mother wasn’t there
But her voice came angrily out of the night
“To Hell with the keeper of the Eddystone Light!”
Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,
Oh for the life on the rolling sea!