The Small Faces get bigger Part Two

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“… in the mornin’ don’t say you love me”

5 More Stars

***A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse. As soon as the Band’s fans heard this, they shared it across the planet and the Faces became International Stars.***

Audio CD (paid link)

(Continued from last week) First up on ‘A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse’ is ‘Miss Judy’s Farm’, a great fat slab of Rock ‘n’ Roll from the combined pen of Stewart/Wood, giving the band a chance to stretch their wings.

Click here for part 1

Next up is one of Ronnie Lane’s most amusing and rascally songs, ‘You’re So Rude,’ it’s basically just a cleverly played twelve bar stomper, but for this dog it is the lyrics that steal the day, opening up with…

“My Mum she likes you, she thinks your swell,

Got the makin’s of a dance hall girl,

Your low-cut frock and your bird’s nest hair,

Stiletto heels and the way that you swear,

She says to take you back to see my folks again on Sunday,

Why it looks as though there’s nobody in,

They’ve all gone out to see my Auntie Renee.”

I say be fair. Does that not bring a smile to the old laughing gear? Beautifully, the band follows this with an emotional ballad ‘Love Lives Here.’ The haunting organ chords from Ian McLagen prove that he knows exactly when to stick to the piano or when to bring out the Hammond Organ. It’s about knocking down old homes and the memories that go with them; Rod Stewart has never sung better.

**You can see the guys desperately trying not to laugh as the cameraman takes the shot.**

‘Last Orders’ by Ronnie Lane is a cruising, bluesing pub song about the misunderstanding between the sexes.

Then it is ‘Stay With Me’ time. The hit single from the album is about as Faces as you can get. One of the best lads songs ever written. The entire band plays their collective hearts out, with everybody being given solo space as the song is brought to a thunderous conclusion at the end of its four and a half minute run. The sort of thing head banging was invented for. But still, it is the lyrics that add wit and soul to the proceedings. Just before the band go wild, Rod sings out:

“So, in the mornin’, please don’t say you love me,

‘Cause you know I’ll only kick you out the door,

Yeah, I’ll pay your cab fare home,

You can even use my best cologne,

Just don’t be here in the mornin’ when I wake up.”

Pace wise, the foot is taken off the peddle for the next four and a half minutes for Ronnie Lane to sing his classic homage to growing up and becoming famous while leaving others behind, and to the duties that come with it. Debris. A classic ballad.

But from here on out it is pure barnstorming Faces’ style good time music. A romp through Chuck’s ‘Memphis’ with some truly magnificent slide from Woody, the delights of being evicted from your own party ‘Too Bad’, and the perfect closer in ‘That’s All You Need.’ The latter two Stewart/Wood compositions bring it all round in a circle in the style of ‘Miss Judy’s Farm.’

*Ooh La La. Rushed released at the insistence of the*
*record company suits but still a great album.*

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Of course it couldn’t last. After one more chart topping album (‘Ooh La La’ in April 1975) Ronnie Lane left. Although he was replaced, it was never the same. As Rod Stewart gained more and more of the spotlight, tension mounted, but it was Ronnie who left first. He joined ‘The Rolling Stones’ as Mick Taylor’s replacement, and eventually took Ian McLagan with him. Kenny Jones went on to the unenviable position of replacing Keith Moon in ‘The Who,’ and, of course, Rod Stewart went onto solo superstardom. However, to these old ears none of them ever reached this peak again.

As they say, “A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind horse,” and if that is not enough for you, you could try their greatest hits album, which was released over twenty years ago (2001) ‘Good Boys Whilst We Are Asleep.’ It collects the best from all four albums plus assorted hit singles, but fortunately nothing from their dreadful live album ‘Coast to Coast,’ which was recorded on their last tour of America, and did not find the band on a good night. A dreadful shame really, as the period that this album comes from they were one of the best live rock ‘n’ roll bands in the world.