Songfacts®:

• "Mercenary Territory" is a song Little Feat leader Lowell George wrote with lyrics based on a letter his wife wrote to him calling him out for his lies, cheating and betrayal.
  
  "That was from a letter I wrote to him in a moment of fury and frustration," she told Mojo magazine May 2010. "It's self-explanatory. 'My nights turn into your mornings...' and this isn't so cool and I'm not the only parent here."
  
  A "little" background: Lowell George formed Little Feat in 1969, and by 1975, when this song was released, his behavior was rather erratic. He and Elizabeth had a daughter (Inara, who became an acclaimed singer-songwriter) in 1974, but that didn't stop Lowell from using his time on the road for dalliances, including with Linda Ronstadt, who had no idea he was married. He was a little portly, but George seemed to have some kind of special powers over women, perhaps because he could reach their souls with his songs and could sing like he was sent from the heavens. He was also at odds with his bandmates, so it seems like this song could have been a message from them as well - George was forever griping about them and prone to rehearsal no-shows; he was generally driving everyone 'round the bend.
  
  Lowell and Elizabeth kept their marriage together but his health deteriorated, and in 1979 he died of a heart attack in a hotel room where she and Inara were also staying. By this time, Little Feat had parted ways and Lowell was touring as a solo artist, but with the band's history it seemed likely they would soon return to action. His death put a nail in their coffin but they resurrected in 1987 with founding member Bill Payne leading the charge.
• The studio version of "Mercenary Territory" in on Little Feat's 1975 album The Last Record Album, but many fans known it from the live version included on their album Waiting for Columbus, which they recorded at four London shows in 1977 and released the following year. They were backed on these shows by the Tower of Power horn section, whose leader, Emilio Castillo, told Songfacts: "We were prominently featured on the whole recording, but 'Mercenary Territory,' to me, was the highlight. The tenor solo by Lenny Pickett, playing off of Lowell George's searing guitar is completely off the chart!"