Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DXXXVI--Faces: Open to Ideas

And it's too late, baby, now it's too late (to blatantly steal a phrase)....

This week's tune was originally slated to be the first post I wrote about a song by this week's artist, but then I worried that this song was a little too obscure and changed it to "Ooh La La."  Almost immediately after I posted that one it dawned on me that one of the reasons I started Friday Night Jukebox was to feature obscure album cuts and added it back to my list.  Only took me roughly six years to get back to it....

This will mark the third song by the Faces that I have written about (Vol. CCXXVI and Vol. CDVII) and as the remaining three members are still alive and I've posted about the deaths of the other two there's precious little to add.  So we'll call it a day on the bio paragraph....

"Open to Ideas" was released as a previously unreleased song on their 1999 retrospective, the rather drowsily entitled Good Boys...When They're Asleep.  As the song was previously unreleased you'll be shocked to learn that it wasn't released as a single, while the album peaked at #87 in Scotland and #79 in the U.K. on their respective charts.

Fun Fact:  "Open to Ideas" was a leftover from the band's final session together circa 1973.  And as the old saying goes, better late than never....

There is no one on this planet who was a better practitioner of blue-eyed soul than Rod Stewart back in the day, and "Open to Ideas" is a stellar piece of blue-eyed soul.  Stewart weaves the tale of a man trying to get in touch via the phone with his girlfriend who is taking a break from their relationship.  And in a plaintive yet soul searching vocal he's letting her know that he's, well, open to ideas about how to continue with their relationship.  The band--Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane, and Kenney Jones--do a marvelous job of subtly keeping the groove going.  Wood gives a nice short guitar solo in the closing instrumental, while the rest of the band closes it out with all the grace it can muster.  Just a beautiful, beautiful ballad of a man coming to terms with the depth of his love, and the limits to holding on to it.

Lyric Sheet:  "Strange that I don't need no break to find out/What it's all about/You and me baby make it really work/But I don't give a damn to shout..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee