The longing, sadness, and resignation embodied in the song speak well enough for themselves, but the title and first verse find a way of putting it that's endearing as well as sad -- the guy is calling as if to report a "missing person" though really it's not that the woman is truly "missing," as in lost, he's just missing her and sad to realize he will never win her love or have her back.
The Little Feat version of this song isn't a great recording; it doesn't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody all that well. But I first heard this song on a Jackson Browne bootleg album (a vinyl LP) where he introduces it and then plays it live in concert on piano. He says he learned it from Lowell George's rough tape recording "when Lowell got so drunk at my house he couldn't ride home on his motorcycle and hold on to the tapes at the same time." So Jackson played the tape Lowell had left behind and learned the song from it. His version (bootlegged though it is; he never released a studio or live version intentionally) does capture the essence of the song. Wish I could share it with you.
I have two more things to add to my comment -- one is that I think the line after "her toes were so pretty" either is or should be "and her lies (were) so sweet," not "her life so sweet," though I think the lyric shown on the LF album liner notes also says "life." Also, taking the Jackson Browne connection a step further -- when Lowell George died Jackson did a fundraising concert (at least one) for his family, and then on his next album at the time (Holdout) he included a song that was written to Lowell's...
I have two more things to add to my comment -- one is that I think the line after "her toes were so pretty" either is or should be "and her lies (were) so sweet," not "her life so sweet," though I think the lyric shown on the LF album liner notes also says "life." Also, taking the Jackson Browne connection a step further -- when Lowell George died Jackson did a fundraising concert (at least one) for his family, and then on his next album at the time (Holdout) he included a song that was written to Lowell's daughter, and it's called "Of Missing Persons," which I take as a double-entendre reference to this song. The lyrics of that song are clearly about the death of a great musician.
@greendreamer I can tell you don't know to much about music, sayning that "Little Feat's version of this song isn't a great recording" you even go on to say that "it dosen't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody". I almost sence a dose of asbergers. He literally starts of the song with a greifing "aah hello" , and don't even get me started on how amazing performede and recorded the rest of the song is. Listen the amazing syncopations or how well itäs hormonised and you will realize how much of a fool you are. Then you refere...
@greendreamer I can tell you don't know to much about music, sayning that "Little Feat's version of this song isn't a great recording" you even go on to say that "it dosen't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody". I almost sence a dose of asbergers. He literally starts of the song with a greifing "aah hello" , and don't even get me started on how amazing performede and recorded the rest of the song is. Listen the amazing syncopations or how well itäs hormonised and you will realize how much of a fool you are. Then you refere to a version by Jackson Browne wich is a really quite statically sung compered to little feats version. And not to mention the horrrible recording quality. I enjoyd the lyric analysis though.
@greendreamer I can tell you don't know to much about music, sayning that "Little Feat's version of this song isn't a great recording" you even go on to say that "it dosen't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody". I almost sence a dose of asbergers. He literally starts of the song with a greifing "aah hello" , and don't even get me started on how amazing performede and recorded the rest of the song is. Listen the amazing syncopations or how well itäs hormonised and you will realize how much of a fool you are. Then you refere...
@greendreamer I can tell you don't know to much about music, sayning that "Little Feat's version of this song isn't a great recording" you even go on to say that "it dosen't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody". I almost sence a dose of asbergers. He literally starts of the song with a greifing "aah hello" , and don't even get me started on how amazing performede and recorded the rest of the song is. Listen the amazing syncopations or how well itäs hormonised and you will realize how much of a fool you are. Then you refere to a version by Jackson Browne wich is a really quite statically sung compered to little feats version. And not to mention the horrrible recording quality. I enjoyd the lyric analysis though.
The longing, sadness, and resignation embodied in the song speak well enough for themselves, but the title and first verse find a way of putting it that's endearing as well as sad -- the guy is calling as if to report a "missing person" though really it's not that the woman is truly "missing," as in lost, he's just missing her and sad to realize he will never win her love or have her back. The Little Feat version of this song isn't a great recording; it doesn't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody all that well. But I first heard this song on a Jackson Browne bootleg album (a vinyl LP) where he introduces it and then plays it live in concert on piano. He says he learned it from Lowell George's rough tape recording "when Lowell got so drunk at my house he couldn't ride home on his motorcycle and hold on to the tapes at the same time." So Jackson played the tape Lowell had left behind and learned the song from it. His version (bootlegged though it is; he never released a studio or live version intentionally) does capture the essence of the song. Wish I could share it with you.
I have two more things to add to my comment -- one is that I think the line after "her toes were so pretty" either is or should be "and her lies (were) so sweet," not "her life so sweet," though I think the lyric shown on the LF album liner notes also says "life." Also, taking the Jackson Browne connection a step further -- when Lowell George died Jackson did a fundraising concert (at least one) for his family, and then on his next album at the time (Holdout) he included a song that was written to Lowell's...
I have two more things to add to my comment -- one is that I think the line after "her toes were so pretty" either is or should be "and her lies (were) so sweet," not "her life so sweet," though I think the lyric shown on the LF album liner notes also says "life." Also, taking the Jackson Browne connection a step further -- when Lowell George died Jackson did a fundraising concert (at least one) for his family, and then on his next album at the time (Holdout) he included a song that was written to Lowell's daughter, and it's called "Of Missing Persons," which I take as a double-entendre reference to this song. The lyrics of that song are clearly about the death of a great musician.
@greendreamer I can tell you don't know to much about music, sayning that "Little Feat's version of this song isn't a great recording" you even go on to say that "it dosen't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody". I almost sence a dose of asbergers. He literally starts of the song with a greifing "aah hello" , and don't even get me started on how amazing performede and recorded the rest of the song is. Listen the amazing syncopations or how well itäs hormonised and you will realize how much of a fool you are. Then you refere...
@greendreamer I can tell you don't know to much about music, sayning that "Little Feat's version of this song isn't a great recording" you even go on to say that "it dosen't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody". I almost sence a dose of asbergers. He literally starts of the song with a greifing "aah hello" , and don't even get me started on how amazing performede and recorded the rest of the song is. Listen the amazing syncopations or how well itäs hormonised and you will realize how much of a fool you are. Then you refere to a version by Jackson Browne wich is a really quite statically sung compered to little feats version. And not to mention the horrrible recording quality. I enjoyd the lyric analysis though.
@greendreamer I can tell you don't know to much about music, sayning that "Little Feat's version of this song isn't a great recording" you even go on to say that "it dosen't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody". I almost sence a dose of asbergers. He literally starts of the song with a greifing "aah hello" , and don't even get me started on how amazing performede and recorded the rest of the song is. Listen the amazing syncopations or how well itäs hormonised and you will realize how much of a fool you are. Then you refere...
@greendreamer I can tell you don't know to much about music, sayning that "Little Feat's version of this song isn't a great recording" you even go on to say that "it dosen't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody". I almost sence a dose of asbergers. He literally starts of the song with a greifing "aah hello" , and don't even get me started on how amazing performede and recorded the rest of the song is. Listen the amazing syncopations or how well itäs hormonised and you will realize how much of a fool you are. Then you refere to a version by Jackson Browne wich is a really quite statically sung compered to little feats version. And not to mention the horrrible recording quality. I enjoyd the lyric analysis though.