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

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDVII--Faces: Stay with Me

 I spent a little bit of time during my college years trying to find this week's featured tune on a Rod Stewart album (sounds quaint, but this would have been many years before the internet), only to find out after I began working at Camelot Music that Stewart had been in another band and that they had actually recorded it.  I'm sure it's shown up on one of his many hits packages through the years, but it forced me to give a Faces greatest hits collection a listen, and that was quite fortuitous as they turned out to be a hell of a band in their own right.

I wrote about the Faces in Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXVI, and precious little has changed about the band's history or its remaining members who are still alive (though it was reported last year that those three members were recording new music, but nothing has as of yet been released).  Otherwise, Rod Stewart is still touring and making music, Ronnie Wood is still with the Rolling Stones, and Kenney Jones is doing whatever it is that old fart wealthy drummers who whine about their taxes do.

"Stay with Me" was the first single from their 1971 album, the wondrously titled A Wink Is as Good as a Nod...to a Blind Horse (would easily rank in the top ten of all time cleverest album titles).  The single reached #17 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and #6 in their native U.K. but it's best showing was at #4 in Canada (so many cool kids in the Great White North!).  The album went to #2 in Great Britain and #6 here in the States.

"Stay with Me" is a rollicking number that tells the somewhat tawdry tale of a man asking a woman to stay the night...but to make sure she's gone in the morning.  Somewhat oddly for a hit single, the band--most notably Ronnie Wood on guitar--plays some balls out rock and roll for almost a minute before Stewart's vocals kick in.  Throughout the song, the band absolutely shines--Ian McLagan on keyboards, Wood on guitar, and Jones on the drums literally push the accelerator to the floor from beginning to end.  All in all, though, the song is a perfect illustration of why Rod Stewart is considered one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time.  With swagger ("Guitar!") and humor ("What was your name again?"), Stewart sings from the gut, and from the heart, and electrifies the band note by note and word by word.  A truly great performance from a truly great band.

Lyric Sheet:  "Red lips, hair, and fingernails/I hear you're a mean old Jezebel/Let's go upstairs and read my Tarot cards..."

Enjoy:

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXXII--Rod Stewart: Every Picture Tells a Story (Album)

It's my birthday week (hit the big six oh this year) so we have our yearly installment of "It's My Birthday So I'll Review an Album If I Want To..."

This year Rod Stewart's album Every Picture Tells a Story is the feature LP.  As these album posts tend to run a wee bit long, we'll dispense with the obligatory stolen from Wikipedia bio, and just note a few facts about the album.  In addition to having one of the truly great album titles and being one of my five favorites LP's of all-time, Every Picture Tells a Story was a number one hit for Stewart both in his native U.K. and here in the U.S. of A.  It finished a surprisingly weak #172 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time (I wondered at the time if its relatively low rank--in Rolling Stone's ten year anniversary issue the album showed up on more of their critics' best of lists than just about any other music of their first ten years save the Velvet Underground's "Heroin"--was because in the late 70's Rod the Mod decided he'd rather make money than art), but is generally considered one of the best albums of the 1970's.  Finally, as Stewart was still singing with the Faces at the time, it includes a heaping helping of their musicianship (especially Ronnie Wood on guitar and Ian McLagan on keyboards/piano).

And away we go...

"Every Picture Tells a Story":  Thanks to Micky Waller's explosive drumming this one is literally a detonation of an opening.  The story of the young Stewart traveling around Europe and trying to find himself (and coming to understand that he'd already found himself at home) is easily the best song Stewart ever did and easily one of the ten best rock and roll songs of all-time.  A masterpiece on the insecurities and the beauty of youth.  Favorite line:  "I couldn't quote you no Dickens, Shelley, or Keats/'Cause it's all been said before/Make the best out of the bad just laugh it off/You didn't have to come here anyway..."

"Seems Like a Long Time":  Stewart and a piano (with some fine backing vocals from Madeleine Bell and friends) in this introspective turn on how slowly time churns as we wait for deliverance from both the personal and the worldly.  Gospelesque at times and really showcases what a magnificent voice Stewart has been blessed with.  Favorite line:  "War time is only the other side of peace time/But if you've ever seen how wars are won/You know what it's like to wish peace time would come..."

"That's All Right"/"Amazing Grace":  Song 1:  In which Stewart gets to show off this blues chops in an old blues standard by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, and the band gets to show off its chops in several different incarnations (another shout out for Waller).  Mostly just a lot of fun.  Song 2:  All I'll say is that when I was in the grips of depression in the nineties, I awoke one morning to this song on the alarm radio and though I'm not a religious man, it gave me a moment's peace at a time when such moments were few and far between.  Song 1 Favorite line:  "I'll be leaving here tomorrow/Leaving here for sure/You ain't gotta be bothered with me/Hangin' round your door..."  Song 2 Favorite line:  No need--you already know the words.

"Tomorrow Is a Long Time":  Stewart covers an unreleased Dylan tune (Dylan would record it himself some years later for his Greatest Hits II) that sure sounds like it should have come from his Nashville Skyline sessions.  Much like "Seems Like a Long Time" this one tells us the waiting is the hardest part (seems I've heard that before...).  A ballad with lots of strings, a quiet portrait of a man recalling the beauty of his missing lover and his pain of being without her.  Favorite line:  "I can't see my reflection in the mirror/I can't speak the sounds that show no pain/I can't hear the echoes of my footsteps/Or remember the sound of my own name..."

"Maggie May":  The song that made Stewart a star--and rightfully so.  A #1 hit here and in the U.K., it's smart pop for the masses as Stewart spins the tale of a young man in love with an older woman who's making a fool of him, but he just can't leave her even though he knows he should.  Great drumming again from Waller, great guitar from Wood, stunning mandolin work from Lindsay Jackson, and an impassioned performance from Stewart.  Little known fact:  there's an instrumental intro to the song called "Henry" that in some versions is treated as an intro and in others as a separate (though at 32 seconds, very short) song.  Favorite line:  "I suppose I could collect my books and get on back to school/Or steal my Daddy's cue and make a living out of playing pool/ Or find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helpin' hand..."

"Mandolin Wind":  Considered by some (though not me) to be the best song on the album, Stewart weaves the tale of a prairie couple surviving the full force of nature and of the man's love for his wife for standing by him through thick and thin.  Amazingly enough, the song contains some mandolin playing (though who it was remains something of a mystery), and some more nice guitar work from Wood.  An understated vocal performance from Stewart and a compelling narrative.  A great song.  Favorite line:  "When the rain came I thought you'd leave/'Cause I knew how much you loved the sun/But you chose to stay, stay and keep me warm/Through the darkest nights, I've ever known..."

"(I Know) I'm Losing You":  For all intents and purposes, this is a Faces song as the entire band is featured and each gets to showcase their particular instrument...and does so brilliantly.  This is the song that probably took me the longest to appreciate, but it is sheer genius.  It's a cover of a 1966 hit by the Temptations about a man who knows he's losing his lover to another man and he's angry, sad, beaten, and the Faces lay it all on the line in this ominous ode.  When the band begins to hum the tune it never ceases to amaze me how perfect--and audacious--it is.  A band at its peak.  Favorite line:  "When I look into your eyes a reflection of a face I see/Oh Lord I'm losing you/I'm hurt, downhearted, and worried girl/'Cause that face doesn't belong to me..."

"Reason to Believe":  Stewart closes the album with a folk tune written by Tim Hardin.  I've never been able to figure out if the protagonist is singing to a lying lover or to God (maybe one and the same?) but it's a beautiful ballad and unsurprisingly, Stewart's vocals nail it (including a brief a cappella turn).  The song should be featured in hymnals spanning the globe--a heavenly ending to an otherworldly album.  Favorite line:  "If I listened long enough to you/I'd find a way to believe that it's all true/Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried/Still I look to find a reason to believe..."

As Youtube has fucked up album videos (to put it mildly), I'll leave you with an album cover and a link to Spotify:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol CCXXVI--The Faces: Ooh La La

As I've noted here a time or two, thrift shop CDs for a dollar have added immensely to my enjoyment of music by allowing me to take a chance on bands that I have missed through the years but don't have the financial means to take said chance.  One such band was Faces, who I knew slightly because of a) my fandom of early Rod Stewart, b) their one big hit, "Stay With Me," and c) this week's tune.  I picked up a two disc hits compilation of theirs for that one dollar figuring I'd listen to it a few times through on my jaunts to work before moving onto the next great musical adventure.  I preceded to spend the next three months alternating between the two discs as it turned out Faces were actually one hell of a band whose output went far beyond a couple of  hit singles.

Faces formed in 1969 in England from the remains of Small Faces after lead singer Steve Marriott left to form the band Humble Pie.  Joining Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones were a lead vocalist and a guitarist of some note--Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood  respectively.  Between their beginning and their end in 1975, the band released four albums (three of which reached the top thirty on the Billboard 200), 11 singles (the aforementioned "Stay With Me" was their only hit, reaching #17--with a bullet!--on the Billboard Hot 100), and were noted for being a hell of a live act (if a bit on the tipsy side as they did so).  Unsurprisingly, Rod Stewart's solo success lead to fissures in the band and they went their separate ways in 1975 (though they have reunited several times through the years).  In 2012 they were elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  In addition to Stewart, their members have gone on to quite some success--Ronnie Wood eventually joined the Rolling Stones and has now spent the better part of forty years with one of the world's most successful bands, and Kenney Jones would go on to replace Keith Moon in the Who for a number of years.  Sadly, Ronnie Lane died of multitple sclerosis in 1997 and Ian McLagan passed in 2014.  Though the band didn't last long, they are considered one of the more influential bands from their era, especially in their native U.K.

Fun Fact:  Small Faces became just Faces because when Stewart and Wood joined the band they were considerably taller than the other members (though only 5'10" and 5'9" respectively) and the remaining members of Small Faces thought they should make a break with the past and focus on the new band.

"Ooh La La" was released in 1973 on Faces' final album, entitled, surprisingly enough, Ooh La La.  It was released as a single but it failed to chart (how in the hell that happened is beyond me).  Rod Stewart--who does not appear on the version being featured this week--did release his own version of it in 1998 and it did hit the top 40 (even though it wasn't a particularly memorable version).  The song has also been featured in a number of movies and television commercials.

"Ooh La La" tells the story of a young man being warned by his granddad about the ways of wily women and the young man rolling his eyes...until he's a little older and wishes that when it comes to women, he knew what he does now when he was younger.  The song is notable because it is the only Faces song that Ronnie Wood sang lead vocals on (though Wood has had a couple of solo projects, being in bands with lead vocalists extraordinaire Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger probably doesn't offer much in the way of chances to sing lead).  Wood also delivers some fine acoustic and electric guitar work, McLagan has some enjoyable piano work in the instrumental break, and Jones, in what may be an FNJ first, plays the maracas (coooolllll) for a bit.  The song has a lot of folksy charm and is one of those that can lighten even the worst of my days, leaving me singing the words "Ooh La La" (and what a great title that is) for days on end.  Just like now...ooh la la, ooh la la la....

Lyric Sheet:  "Poor young grandson, there's nothing I can say/You'll have to learn, just like me/And that's the hardest way/Ooh la la..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee