“Willin'” by Little Feat

Lowell George wrote "Willin'" while he was still a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, and when he played an early version for the boss, Zappa told him to go start a band of his own. Little Feat was the answer, and the song landed on the group's self-titled debut in January 1971, produced by Russ Titelman with Ry Cooder sitting in on slide guitar.

It's a road song told from the cab of a truck: a bone-tired driver running the long desert highways, smuggling contraband and people up from Mexico, with a country lope that sounds as dusty as the miles. The band cut it again, slower, for Sailin' Shoes in 1972, and that take did far better; a live reading from 1977 later turned up on Waiting for Columbus. Truckers have long since claimed it as one of their anthems.

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