Rod Stewart & Faces - Snakes And Ladders : The Best Of Faces
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COMPILATION
Rod Stewart - vocals [click here to see more vinyl featuring Rod Stewart]
Ronnie Wood - guitar, harmonica, backing vocals, lead vocals (A3) [click here to see more vinyl featuring Ronnie Wood]
Ronnie Lane - bass, guitar, percussion, backing vocals (except A1, B1)
Kenney Jones - drums, percussion
Ian McLagan - piano, organ
Tetsu Yamauchi - bass (A1, B1)
Harry Beckett and Bobby Keyes - horns (B2)
1 LP, standard sleeve
Limited edition
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : RTI
Label : Friday Music
Original Label : Warner Bros Records
Produced by Faces (A1, A4, A6-4), The Small Faces (A5-6, B6), Glyn Johns (A2-3, B3-5)
Remastered by Joe Reagoso
Originally released in 1976
Reissued in 2014
Tracks:
Side A:
- Pool Hall Richard
- Cindy Incidentally
- Ooh La La
- Sweet Lady Mary
- Flying
- Pineapple and the Monkey
Side B:
- You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything
- Had Me a Real Good Time
- Stay With Me
- Miss Judy’s Farm
- Silicone Grown
- Around the Plynth
Reviews:
“A non-stop alcholic lurch, The Best Of The Faces proves that Messrs Stewart, Lane, Wood, McLagan, Jones and occasionally Yamauchi were the finest good-time boozers’ band this country, or any other, has ever produced.
But although this is a hard, stomping, staggering album that frequently goes well over the top (after all it includes such gems as ‘Had Me A Real Good Time’, ‘Stay With Me’, ‘Cindy Incidentally’, ‘Pool Hall Richard’ and ‘You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything’) The Best Of The Faces is nevertheless a lot more than just a collection of greatest hits.
From the riotous rock’n’roll, blues and soul of their 1970 debut album First Step to those final chart topping singles it traces the steady development of the Faces’ inimitable musical style to the very day that Rod the mod was drawn irresistibly to the sirens and spotlights on Hollywood Boulevard. It charts the course that took them from a shambolic combination of Small Faces and Jeff Beck band cut-outs to a high calibre pop act well within the superstar bracket.
Listen to ‘Around The Plynth’, ‘Sweet Lady Mary’ and ‘Three Button Hand Me Down’ (with a refrain that runs dangerously close to the R’n’B classic ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’) all on the first side and you’ll hear prototype versions of the three basic Faces styles. That’s Ron Wood’s slide guitar scorchers, Ian McLagan’s piano based whimsy and, of course, the football club special in Stewart satin which audiences all over the world learnt to know and love. Check out ‘Flying’ and you’ll find the Tartan Terror’s own solo career is there on the drawing board too.
The characteristic Faces sound is also readily identifiable from the start, even though it’s in poor focus. Before Glyn Johns came on the scene they produced themselves and came up with a strange, almost acoustically chaotic texture to the obviously electric instruments which immediately created a feeling of warmth and intimacy. By the time they’d cut their second album, the partially live Long Player, the Faces defined themselves as the band-next-door. That connection made with the kids, take-off was only a countdown away.
And yet, viewing the band’s recorded achievements in some kind of retrospect, The Best Of The Faces suggests that it was more discipline and not simply good vibes that really pulled them through. Much has been made of the Faces’ hedonism, I know. And indeed, the non-stop partying and round the clock raving lay at the very core of their musical identity. But listen to them crowd-pleasing now, all these years after the event, and great as they doubtless were live, stage-numbers like ‘Around The Plynth’, ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, ‘Memphis’, ‘That’s All You Need’ and ‘Miss Judy’s Farm’ are remarkably heavy-handed, even tedious on record. In many cases it seems that the song itself was but a weak excuse for some pretty flatulent looning and, well, once Ron Wood steps out solo from behind his blow-torch rhythm guitar, the band suddenly becomes very ordinary if not actually clumsy.
The singles, on the other hand, represent a fine distillation of the Faces magic. Three minutes of staggering bass, lurching drums, a pub piano and a hangover guitar carefully slotted together in a care-free fashion that cannot hide a keen sense of drama and economy.
The perfect backing for one helluva fine singer. Okay, so Rod Stewart you like or Rod Stewart you don’t like, but you can’t deny he did his job well. The Best Of The Faces features his Southern Comfort voice on all but three tracks (Plonk Lane’s mellower songs ‘Nobody Knows’, ‘Ooh La La’, Ron Wood’s vocal debut, and ‘Flags and Banners’ being the exceptions) and, in fact, the album, like the band before it, rapidly becomes a showcase for Stewart’s talents. But his talents when he was still hungry and hard, when he was strutting rather than prancing, when he was an earthy R’n’B shouter with a rude twinkle in his eye and not the all round Mr Wonderful he is now:
And as such this album is a classic in the same way as those Beatles’ greatest hits albums are, or the Shadows’ golden greats (or whatever it’s called). An enjoyable set of ‘do you remember when?’ memory jerkers as well as a not unimportant piece of rock documentary. One question though. After the rap at the beginning of McCarney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, who sang the first five lines? It doesn’t sound in the least like Rod or the two Ronnies.” Sounds, April 1977
Ratings :
Discogs : 3,98 / 5