Kenney Jones – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Small Faces – You Need Loving

This song exemplifies why I like the Small Faces so much. I’ve been listening to this song for years, and I can’t believe it was made in 1966. It was at least a couple of years before its time. Jimmy Page was listening very closely. Steve Marriott was asked to join Zeppelin later on, but his manager put a stop to it. Robert Plant has said he was heavily influenced by Steve Marriott, and if you want proof, listen to this recording. This song was written by Willie Dixon, and I think Zeppelin listened to this version more than Dixon…because Whole Lotta Love came out of it.

Looking back, this is more than just an album cut; it’s an early marker of what British rock would become. You can trace a direct line from this track to Zeppelin, Free, and all the blues-rock that followed. I always thought the Small Faces never got the credit they deserved. People in America only heard Lazy Sunday and Itchycoo Park because their manager would never let them tour the US.

The Small Faces were a band that always played bigger than their small size. If the Small Faces had had a good or even decent manager, they might have had a longer career and be more remembered today. They had a couple of great songwriters, Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. A superb drummer with Kenney Jones and keyboard player Ian McLagan. They were laying down some of the rawest R&B-inspired rock coming out of Britain. This song, on their debut album Small Faces, is a perfect example.

A YouTube comment on this song was crude and rude, but I endorse: Steve m*thaf*ckin’ Marriott. The ultimate rock & roll voice.

You Need Loving

Woah you foolin’Come and get coolin’I’m gonna send you right back to school, alrightMake your way down the new side girlYou know how woman, you need lovin’, lovin’, alrightI know you need lovin’ you here, oh yeah, alright

That’s right, well I’ve been yearnin’Hey baby you’ve been burnin’We’ll have a fun time, alrightYou’ll get some lovin’Cause baby we’re gonna excite youDeep in your heart woman, you need lovin’, yeah,oh lovin’, alrightThat’s all you need, lovin’ baby, yeah, alright

Eeny-meeny-miney-moEeny-meeny-miney-moCan’t take it no moreI can’t monkey and I can’t dogCan’t do the monkey, yeahI said you know how to ponyMony-baloney, I took you to the flyerPassed me byOh rock your ponyMashed potatoSaid I want to show youI want to show youIt’s alright, it’s alright…

Woman you need loving, yeah

…

Faces – Stay With Me

For the longest time, this is the only song I knew by The Faces. I found out how good they were not just by this one but by their other songs. This is the Rod Stewart I think of when I think of him. Absolutely killer on stage at this time with this band powering it on.

I usually don’t like gimmicky instruments, like in the 1980,s they had guitars with what looked like hockey sticks. I have one of those, and the strings break like crazy. Or the guitars with no headstocks…I hated those. One guitar I did like in the late sixties, early seventies was the one that Ron Wood is playing in the live video clip. The “See-Through” Ampeg Dan Amstrong Guitar. Keith Richards played one as well, and they sound dirty and raunchy. They are now worth 2-6 grand. All of you non-guitar fans…sorry. The one below can be had for $5500.

This song was written by Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart, which became the Faces’ biggest hit. Stay With Me peaked at #17 in the Billboard 100, #6 in the UK, and #4 in Canada in 1972. I’ve always liked the dirty, filthy sound of the song. It’s not my so called favorite song by them. That would be Ooh La La by the Faces in 1973.

This band was formed from the Small Faces when Steve Marriott quit and Ron Wood and Rod Stewart took his place. Steve was both a great guitarist and even better singer. I remember seeing a clip of the 1993 Brit Awards on some TV show and saw a reunion of the Faces with Bill Wyman of the Stones filling in for Ronnie Lane.

Stay With Me

In the morning
Don’t say you love me
‘Cause I’ll only kick you out of the door

I know your name is Rita
‘Cause your perfume smelling sweeter
Since when I saw you down on the floor
guitar

Won’t need to much persuading
I don’t mean to sound degrading
But with a face like that
You got nothing to laugh about

Red lips hair and fingernails
I hear your a mean old Jezebel
Lets go up stairs and read my tarot cards

Stay with me
Stay with me
For tonight you better stay with me

So in the morning
Please don’t say you love me
‘Cause you know I’ll only kick you out the door

Yea I’ll pay your cab fare home
You can even use my best cologne
Just don’t be here in the morning when I wake up

Stay with me
Stay with me
‘Cause tonight you better stay with me
Sit down, get up, get down

Stay with me
Stay with me
Cause tonight your going stay with me
Hey, whats your name again
Oh no, get down

Who – Sister Disco

The Who Are You album was not the best album The Who released but it has its bright spots. Pete Townshend wrote this song and he said The Who would never use any disco elements in their songs. To his credit, they never used any. At this time Pete was hanging around with some of the punk bands like The Clash…so that makes sense.

The Who Are You album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and #6 in the UK in 1978.

Kenney Jones had the hardest job in the music world at the time. Replacing Keith Moon was an impossible task. He didn’t play in the same style, although not many did, but he did a good job. He was eventually forced out of the band 3 years later when Roger wanted something different. Roger said that Jones was a great drummer but didn’t fit The Who.

The Who after Moon’s passing was this… whether to get a Moon-styled drummer or get someone more traditional. If they’d gone with the former, Blondie’s Clem Burke or Mitch Mitchell would have fit the bill, as Zak Starr does now. But I doubt Clem was known enough to warrant consideration. That leaves a candidate who would not duplicate Moon’s frenetic approach…in Kenney Jones. Pete Townshend wanted stability and more of a straight beat. That is fine…but when they did that they didn’t sound like themselves as much…and Pete was probably happy about that fact.

I liked the Face Dances album a lot when it was released and I still do. Kenney did a great job on that album but with older Who fans…the drums were just as big of a part of the music as the singing and guitar. In other words, Kenney Jones could not win. He was more of a traditional drummer in a band that was not known for that. Entwistle also toned down his bass playing because he would play off of Moon and be all over the place.

Sometimes I wish they would have packed it up like Zeppelin did after Bonham died but I enjoyed a lot of the music that The Who released after Moon died. Jones was in a no-win situation.

Pete Townshend: With ‘Sister Disco’, I felt the need to say that the group would never, ever, in any way do anything like the Bee Gees. We stand over here and what we stand with is all right. They might say we’re boring old farts but we still feel more at home with the boring old farts than any of that crowd.

Pete Townshend: For this track I spent a lot of hours programming my analogue sequencers in my ARP 2500 studio synthesizer. It isn’t quite Kraftwerk, but in 1976 I don’t think they were doing much better. This is a perfect example of the progression I was making towards theatrical music writing. I was trying to evoke absurd Baron Munchausen musical textures. Roger sounds so seriously intent about everything that the pomposity becomes real and threatening rather than pictorial.

Pete Townshend: It’s got nothing to do with disco at all! It’s only a series of lines put together. The chorus ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, now I go where the music fits my soul’…that is not an indictment of disco music. I like a lot of disco music; I even like discos. It’s to do with saying goodbye to, I think, a sort of self-conscious poseur kind of thing The Who had been for such a long time.

Roger Daltrey: I really like ‘Sister Disco’ but I don’t necessarily understand what he’s saying. I do understand what he’s trying to say but I don’t know whether it comes off. It was a song about getting too old for discos and that whole line that Pete sings, ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, I go where the music fits my soul,’ is kind of operatic; it’s a bit pompous. That’s why I personally didn’t sing that line because I can’t…when Pete sings it he’s got enough kind of tongue-in-cheek quality to get away with it and it works, but if I sang it, it would be a total disaster.

This is a rehearsal version with Kenney Jones on drums getting ready for the 1979 tour. The first without Keith Moon.

Sister Disco

As I walked through that hospital door
I was sewn up like a coat
I got a smile from the bite of the wind
Watched the fresh fall of snow

I knew then that my life took a turn
I felt strong and secure
And with adhesive tape over my nose
I felt almost demure

Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps

Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

Bye, goodbye Sister Disco, now I go
I go where the music the music fits my soul
And I, I will never let go, I’ll never let go
‘Til the echo of the street fight has dissolved

I will choose nightmares and cold stormy seas
I will take over your grief and disease
I’ll stay beside you and comfort your soul
When you are lonely and broken and old

Now I walk with a man in my face
Ooh, a woman in my hair
I’ve got you all lookin’ out though my eyes
My feet are a prayer

Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps

Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

Books I Would Recommend…Part 3

Keith Moon: Dear Boy – Tony Fletcher

I didn’t think I would ever see an extensive book (nearly 600 pages) on Keith Moon. Tony Fletcher wrote this book and he thoroughly researched Keith and he had been a fan since his teenage years. As a teenager, he actually met Keith before he died.

Fletcher talks to everyone of importance in Keith’s life. The only disappointing thing for me and for Fletcher himself is he had to debunk some of the myths about Keith. The great story of him driving a car in the pool of a Flint Michigan Holiday Inn… didn’t happen… but the real story is just as interesting though.

The veil is drawn back on a lot of myths. It’s not a book full of Keith doing wild things like the book “Full Moon”. This one shows his ugly side also. Keith had one of the most dangerous traits you could have…the ability not to be embarrassed. Think about that…that keeps us in check at times. With Keith, anything could happen at any time.

Trouble Boys – Bob Mehr

One of the only books about The Replacements. After this book, I started to understand the reckless and sabotaging behavior of the band. It also goes through the tough decision of Bob Stinson leaving the band only to die a few years later.

It was interesting to see the relationship they had with other bands such as REM at the time. They would goad each other into making better albums. I was a fan before I read it but it increased my interest by a bunch afterwards.

Up and Down with the Rolling Stones – Tony Sanchez

This was the first book I read on the Rolling Stones when I was around 13. It’s an easy but dark read. It’s written by Tony Sanchez, Keith’s drug dealer and sometimes partner in crime. Tony was also a photographer who took photos of the Stones and the Moody Blues. Spanish Tony, as he was called hung around with the Stones, Moody Blues and also knew the Beatles.

It’s full of wrecked cars, heroin, dead friends, sleazy characters, and some eventful journeys. At first, I would take some of the stories with a grain of salt but most of the events were verified by Keith’s book “Life.”

Let The Good Times Roll – Kenney Jones

Kenney Jones was the drummer of three of England’s most influential bands – The Small Faces, The Faces and for a few years The Who. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Kenney keeps the book interesting from his childhood, teen years, swinging London, the Swinging Seventies, up til now.

I never knew much about the Small Faces and Faces and this book answered some questions I had about both bands. He gave much more information than Roger Daltrey did in his book about Jone’s tenure as the drummer of the Who and their difficulties. Personally, I don’t think Kenney was the right drummer for the Who but then again…I don’t think anyone could have taken Moon’s place. He does give an interesting perspective on it though.

I didn’t’ realize that Keith Moon and Kenney were as close as they were. Kenney had played with the Who before in sound checks when the Small Faces and Who were touring with each other and Moon couldn’t be found. After Moon died a few strange things happened to Kenney right before Bill Curbishley (The Who’s Manager) called to see if he would join. The strange events helped him make the decision.

Living The Beatles Legend – Kenneth Womack

I did a review on this last year but I wanted to get it in here.

I’ve been waiting on this book since I read about the Beatles in the 70s as a kid. I knew the story…after a showdown with police Mal Evans was shot and killed on January 5, 1976. He was working on his autobiography at the time. Evans was the last person you would think would die that way…and in this case…he wanted it. Could the police have handled it better? Yes, but Mal had said that is how he wanted to go out. He forced the situation. He was only 40 years old.

Mal Evans along with Neil Aspinal were the roadies for the Beatles. Imagine that…2 roadies for the world’s biggest band. Mal worked at a telephone company in the early ’60s but he loved rock and roll…especially Elvis Presley. He would go see bands at the Cavern and struck up a friendship with George Harrison. George told him since he loved music…take a part-time job as a bouncer at The Cavern. The Beatles automatically liked him from the start. He was a big guy at 6’4″ but he never wanted to use violence. More times than not…he talked his way out of trouble. Aspinal was their only roadie and when Love Me Do and then Please Please Me came out…they needed another person because Aspinal was worn out.

I would highly recommend this book. Kenneth Womack had full access to his diaries and used many of the entries. This book turned up a lot of things about them that I had no clue about. It also gave a different look at their personalities on an everyday basis. Near the end, Mal went to the 2nd Beatles convention and spoke. He started to battle depression in the seventies after living in California and missing his wife and kids back in London. He picked up a girlfriend in California and that made his guilt worse. Drugs also affected him in the end.

Small Faces – Song Of A Baker

Another band this week that didn’t break America but should have.

A great pop song by The Small Faces with Ronnie Lane on the lead vocal. Ronnie Lane was inspired to write this song by a book of Sufi wisdom given to him by Pete Townshend. The song was credited to Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott. The Small Faces

In 1966-67 Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott moved into a Westminster apartment, and a new drug entered their orbit that expanded their artistic vision almost beyond all recognition… LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide).

This song came off of their best-known album, Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. In its initial release, the album was packaged in a mock tobacco tin that was a circular metal container with oversized folded paper as one finds in a pipe tobacco tin. It proved to be too expensive and impractical, so later releases were packaged in conventional cardboard album covers. A compact disc reissue also was marketed in a mock Ogdens tin.

Ogden’s Nut-brown Flake was a tobacco brand produced in Liverpool from 1899 onwards by Thomas Ogden.

The album was a psychedelic concept album. It was one of rock’s first concept albums coming before The Who’s Tommy. Side two follows a boy named Happiness Stan who is trying to find the missing half of the moon. The story was thought of on a boating trip to teh river Thames.

Ian McLagan on touring Australia and New Zealand: “[The Australian press] gave me hell from the very beginning, because I’d just been busted, I was on my way to Athens for a holiday but never got further than Heathrow. As I was showing my passport they smelt the hash on me, searched and busted me. As soon as we landed in Australia we had a press conference, so we’re all lined up in front of the television cameras and the first guy goes: ‘Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, Ian McLagan… you’re the drug addict right?’”

“On our way to New Zealand we had to stop off in Sydney. You couldn’t drink on internal flights back then, but one of Paul Jones’ Australian backing band passed a bottle around and the police were called. We weren’t even drinking but they arrested and held us in the first-class lounge where a waitress came straight up to us and said: ‘What would you like to drink?’ “So we drank. The police arrested us as soon as we arrived in New Zealand, but we ended up having a great time. Steve had his 21st birthday party; Keith [Moon] wrecked his room; it was business as usual.”

Kenney Jones: “The lyrics came from Ronnie’s Sufi investigations, with the importance of the ‘wheat in the field’ and all that, I love his melodic bass playing on it. He used to think like he was playing lead guitar and that mentally fused into his bass playing.”

Ian McLagan: “It was weird that they allowed Here Comes The Nice to come out at all, we were dabbling in all kinds of chemicals and Methedrine was one of them. We were wrong to have written about a speed dealer. They weren’t the nicest people. The guy you bought your hash from was usually just a head, but a speed dealer – like a coke or heroin dealer – was only interested in getting your money. It was quite different. They weren’t your friends.”

Son Of A Baker

There’s wheat in the field
And water in the stream
And salt in the mine
And an aching in me

I can no longer stand and wonder
Cause I’m driven by this hunger
So I’ll jug some water
Bake some flour
Store some salt and wait the hour

While I’m thinking of love
Love is thinking for me
And the baker will come
And the baker I’ll be

I am depending on my labor
The texture and the flavor

…

Rod Stewart – Every Picture Tells a Story

Spent time feelin’ inferior
standing’ in front of my mirror
Combed my hair in a thousand ways, but I came out lookin’ just the same

*If you are on the main site…sorry for the formatting but if I correct the spaces it will publish everything as one huge paragrah…thanks WP*

This is my favorite song by Rod Stewart hands down. It’s an acoustic-driven
rocker with Rod never relenting on the lyrics. The song has a
stream-of-consciousness feel to it. Every Picture Tells a Story was written by
Stewart and Ron Wood.

For my money…this is Rod Stewarts best era. He sounds sharp, the music is
alive, and he is not following a trend. I just wish they would have saved some
of these songs for The Faces also. This song has something some of his later
songs did not…a raw energetic sound.

He had some guests on this song. Maggie Bell with vocals, Long John Baldry with vocals, Ian McLagan on Hammon organ, Ronnie Wood on lead and acoustic guitar, and Kenney Jones on drums.

Stewart went from recording the second Faces’ album Long Player,
while also squeezing in tour dates with the group, to starting up the sessions
for Every Picture Needs a Story. He also produced this album and
laid the songs down fast. This album made Rod Stewart in a lot of ways. The
album had Maggie May, Reason To Believe, (I Know) I’m Losing You (with the
Faces), Mandolin Wind, and of course the title song. It is my favorite Stewart
album. I grew up with most of the singles.

One lyric that I’ve heard wrong…well not really heard wrong. In the line On
the Peking ferry I was feeling merry, sailing on my way back here. I knew
what he was singing…but I thought it was “Peking Ferry I was feeling Mary“
which I think would have fit perfectly.

Rod Stewart: “I can remember the build up. You
know what the song’s about – your early teenage life when you’re leaving home
and you’re exploring the world for yourself. Ronnie (Wood) and I rehearsed
round my house at Muswell Hill and recorded it the next day. That whole album
was done in 10 days, two weeks, about as long as it takes to get a drum sound
right nowadays.”

Every Picture Tells a Story

Spent some time feeling inferiorStanding in front of my mirrorCombed my hair in a thousand waysBut I came out looking just the same

Daddy said, “Son, you better see the worldI wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to leaveBut remember one thing, don’t lose your headTo a woman that’ll spend your bread”So I got out, whoo

Paris was a place you could hide awayIf you felt you didn’t fit inThe French police wouldn’t give me no peaceThey claimed I was a nasty person

Down along the Left Bank, minding my own, whooWas knocked down by a human stampedeGot arrested for inciting a peaceful riotWhen all I wanted was a cup of teaI was accused, whoo

I moved onDown in Rome, I wasn’t getting enoughOf the things that keep a young man aliveMy body stunk, but I kept my funk, whooAt a time when I was right outta luck

Getting desperate, indeed I was, yeahLooking like a tourist attractionOh, my dear, I better get outta hereFor the Vatican don’t give no sanctionI wasn’t ready for that, no, no

I moved right out east, yeahListenOn the Peeking ferry, I was feeling merrySailing on my way back hereI fell in love with a slit-eyed ladyBy the light of an eastern moon

Shanghai Lil never used the pillShe claimed that it just ain’t naturalShe took me up on deck and bit my neckOh, people, I was glad I found herOh, yes, I was glad I found her, whoo-hoo

Wait a minuteI firmly believed that IDidn’t need anyone but meI sincerely thought I was so completeLook how wrong you can be

The women I’ve known I wouldn’t let tie my shoeThey wouldn’t give you the time of dayBut the slit-eyed lady knocked me off my feetGod, I was glad I found her

And if they have the words I can tell to youTo help you on the way down the roadI couldn’t quote you no Dickens, Shelley or Keats‘Cause it’s all been said beforeMake the best out of the bad, just laugh it off, haYou didn’t have to come here anyway

So, remember, every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it? WhooEvery picture tells a story, don’t it?

Every picture tells a story, don’t it? WhooEvery picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?

Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?

Every picture tells a story, don’t it? WhooEvery picture tells a story, don’t it? WhooEvery picture tells a story, don’t it? WhooEvery picture tells a story, don’t it? WhooEvery picture tells a story, don’t it? Whoo

Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?Every picture tells a story, don’t it?

Small Faces- Rollin’ Over

They have become one of my favorite 60s rock bands. The biggest reason is their lead singer + guitarist…Steve Marriott.

If the Small Faces would have had a good or even decent manager they might have had a longer career and be more remembered today. They had a couple of great songwriters, Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. A superb drummer with Kenney Jones and keyboard player Ian McLagan

In my opinion, they had the best singer of any band at that time with Marriott. Other singers like Paul Rodgers and Robert Plant have said they both owed a debt to Marriott. The pure energy he gave off live is incredible. If I could build a rock band from scratch with anyone I wanted…Steve Marriott would be my singer…plus he was a great guitarist. Keith Richards wanted him to replace Mick Taylor when he left the Stones.

I always thought America had a skewed view of Small Faces. The only two songs played in America were Lazy Sunday and Itchycoo Park. One of them sounds like a music hall song and the other psychedelic. I like them but they were a driving band with a harder edge than either of those songs. Rollin’ Over is not their best song but I always have liked it. It was the B-Side to Lazy Sunday.

This song was off their biggest album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. It’s a rocking song that reminds me of what was to come in Marriott’s Humble Pie and the later Faces. It was written by Marriott and Lane as was most of their songs. Listen to this song and All or Nothing and see the difference between the two hits in America.

The album peaked at #1 in the UK and #159 on the Billboard 100. The reason they didn’t hit more in America? Their manager Don Arden would not pay for them to tour here per Kenney Jones. During their peak in the UK, Arden paid the band just £20 a week (around $50 at that time) plus a clothing allowance. Kenney Jones said they have just recently received some of the royalties that were stolen from them by Arden.

Rollin’ Over

Goodbye sunshine, I’m on my wayI’ll be long time gone by the break of dayTell everyone that I’m gonna find itThere ain’t nothin’ gonna stop me

Rollin’ overRollin’ over (save all your lovin’ ’til I get home)Rollin’ over (ooh, the sweetest lovin’ sunshine that I’ve ever known)Tell everybody I’m gonna find itThere ain’t nothin’ gonna stop me

Rollin’ over, shak-do-wayWah-wah-doo, yeah-yeah-yeah (rollin’ over)Shak-do-way (rollin’ over)Yeah-yeah-yeah (rollin’ over)Shak-do-way (rollin’ over)Yeah-yeah-yeah (rollin’ over and over)Shak-do-way (rollin’ over)Yeah-yeah-yeah (rollin’ over)Shak-do-way (rollin’ over)Yeah-yeah-yeahShak-do-way

Faces – Maybe I’m Amazed ….Under The Covers Week

This week I want to mix it up a bit so I’m doing cover versions all this week. I thought I would kick it off with The Faces. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a version of this that I don’t like. A blog that I would highly recommend that specializes in covers is Randy at Mostly Music Covers. Check him out when you can…he goes in-depth on music covers.

The Faces were fun…any band that would have a bartender on stage with a bar…has my vote. Ronnie Lane would sing the first part of this song with Rod the Mod Stewart would pick it up after the first verse. I like Ronnie’s voice a lot…it wasn’t Rod Stewart but it was very rootsy. Lane was a very good singer in a band with a great singer…twice. He was in the Small Faces with Steve Marriott and The Faces with Rod Stewart. Those two types of singers don’t come very often.

The song was on their album Long Player… They did an excellent version of this song. They added to it without losing its charm. The album was their sophomore album and it peaked at #29 on the Billboard Album Charts, #32 in Canada, and #31 in the UK in 1971. Their next album A Nod Is As Good As a Wink… to a Blind Horse (that is a great title!) peaked at #6 on the Billboard Album Charts later that year.

This song was written by Paul McCartney on his debut album. It should have been released as a single. He did release it as a single in 1976, a live version off the triple record set…Wings Over America. Paul wrote this song for Linda who helped pull him through a bad depression after The Beatles broke up. I did read an interesting fact about this song. “This was the first song with the word “amazed” in the title to reach the Hot 100. Another didn’t appear until 1999 when Lonestar charted with “Amazed.”

It’s hard to believe that the Faces single didn’t chart because McCartney never released it as a single himself…you would think the market would have been ready for it. Although FM stations did play the McCartney version.

Stewart always called Ronnie Lane the heart of the band and that was probably true. Lane got frustrated not being able to sing many songs and was upset at Stewart’s lack of commitment… and quit. After Lane quit in 1973, Tetsu Yamauchi took his place for touring but then they broke up in 1975 when Ron Wood joined the Stones and Stewart continued his solo career.

Ron Wood talks about Maybe I’m Amazed and has a special guest in this 1:24 clip.

Maybe I’m Amazed

Baby I’m amazed at the way you love me all the time
Maybe I’m afraid of the way I’ll leave you
Baby, I’m amazed at the way you fool me all the time
You hung me on a line
Baby, I’m amazed at the way I really need you

Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
I’m a lonely man who’s in the middle of something
That he doesn’t really understand
Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
You’re the only woman that could ever help me
Baby, won’t you try to understand

Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
I’m a lonely man who’s in the middle of something
That he does not really understand
Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
You’re the only one that could ever help me
Baby, won’t you try to understand

Baby, I’m amazed at the way you’re with me all the time
Baby, I’m afraid of the way I’ll leave ya’
Baby, I’m amazed at the way you help me sing the song
You right me when I’m wrong
Baby I’m amazed at the way I really need you

Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
I’m a lonely man who’s in the middle of something
That he does not really understand
Baby, I’m a man, oh baby,
You’re the only woman that could ever help me
Baby, won’t you try to understand

Faces – Richmond

A great song by the Faces that was written by Ronnie Lane. Lane was a very good singer in a band with a great singer…twice. He was in the Small Faces with Steve Marriott and The Faces with Rod Stewart. Those two types of singers come just once a generation.

He takes the lead in this song. The Faces were a raucous fun band. They stormed the stage with a full bar and bartender. They WERE banned from the Holiday Inn chain…but that didn’t stop them from staying there. They soon started to check in at Holiday Inns as Fleetwood Mac…and it worked! They didn’t take anything seriously and wanted to have fun and take the audience with them.

One US tour billed as a Rock’n’Roll Circus, involved sharing the bill with jugglers, acrobats, Blinko the clown, and a Chinese high-wire stripper called Ming Wung. All the while they were leaping about the stage, swapping mics, whispering in huddles, and booting soccer balls into the crowd.

This song came off of their album Long Player released in 1971. The album peaked at #29 on the Billboard Album Charts, #34 in Canada, and #41 in the UK. Their next album A Nod Is As Good As a Wink… to a Blind Horse would peak at #6 in the same year.

Drummer Kenney Jones: “It wasn’t just at gigs, everywhere we went we fell on the floor – airports, restaurants, hotels, bars. We were saying to people that you don’t have to take rock’n’roll too seriously. Every gig was like going to a party. The Faces were undoubtedly the most fun band I was ever in.”

Kenney Jones: “We were the first to do a lot of things, we’d have a white stage, and insist that Chuch Magee, who was our roadie, wore black trousers, a white shirt, and a waistcoat, so he looked like a barman. So he’d tend the bar, then quickly do Woody’s guitar and various other things. And we’d have palm trees on stage with us. It was very over-the-top. We took the piss out of ourselves, more than anything.”

Kenney Jones: “Rod summed it up really well, he told me that once Ronnie Lane left the band, the spirit of the Faces left too. Ronnie was integral to the band. It was the complete line-up when he was there. It never quite felt the same afterwards.”

Free Drummer Simon Kirke: .“Touring with the Faces was wonderful, they were at their peak and had Rod Stewart singing. Jeez, he could sing so well back then. He’s like Paul Rodgers, really; he never sung a bad show, he just had variations on brilliant. They always had such fun on stage. There were drinks in abundance, and Woody was there with the ever-present ciggie hanging out of his mouth or tucked in the end of his guitar. Ian would be grinning from ear to ear. And they dressed so flamboyantly, too, all silks and satins and flares. I loved ’em. They just had a great time, whereas Free were slightly serious.”

This video is just 7 minutes long…it is Ronnie Lane’s son talking about his dad and Cat Stevens is at the end of the video.

Richmond

I wish I
I wish I was in Richmond
I do, I would I
I wish I
I wish I was back home

I’m waitin’
Here in New York City
The rain is falling
There’s no one who cares
There’s no one loves me here

The women
They may look very pretty
And some they know it
But some look good
They show a leg and smile
But they all look like the flowers
In someone else’s garden
I’ve no act of love
for anyone but you

Small Faces – Lazy Sunday

The Small Faces were indeed small… all of them were between 5’4″ and 5’6.” They would later grow when the taller Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood joined and they became the Faces.

Lazy Sunday came off the classic album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. The Small Faces didn’t intend to release this song. Steve Marriott was against his manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s decision to release this as a single and that was one reason why he left the group shortly afterward to be replaced by Stewart. The band didn’t take the song seriously and made it into a joke. Steve sang some of the voices with a cockney accent.

They were touring Germany and they picked up a music paper and saw it was not only released but a hit. Steve wanted a tougher image for the band, and this was more of a novelty pop song.

This song is not a good example, but Steve Marriott may have had the best voice of all his peers. Robert Plant and Paul Rodgers have cited Marriott as an influence. Personally, I would take him over those two and that is saying a lot.

The Small Faces also recorded this critically acclaimed concept psychedelic album in 1968 with their new record company Immediate Records. They never followed it up and only performed it once live in its entirety on a television show called Colour Me Pop. It spent 6 weeks at number one on the UK Album Charts.

Lazy Sunday peaked at #2 in the UK, #42 in Canada, and #114 in the Billboard 100.

This song was written by Steve Marriott. Marriott and Ronnie Lane did most of the writing. Their songs were clever and catchy. This band should have been bigger than they were… With the right record label, manager and push, they might have broken through.

Kenney Jones: “Steve had been a child actor, he was the first Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart’s Oliver in the West End. He brought back that theatricality to this.”

Ian McLagan: “When Steve came in with this it was slower. We started taking the piss out of it while he was out of the room. The ‘Root-ti-doo-ti-di-day’ thing stop and he laughed when he came back in and heard us. So we cut it like that. It was a piss take!”

Lazy Sunday

A-wouldn’t it be nice to get on with me neighbours?
But they make it very clear, yhey’ve got no room for ravers
They stop me from groovin’, they bang on me wall
They doing me crust in, it’s no good at all, ah
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I’ve got no mind to worry
I close my eyes and drift away-a
Here we all are sittin’ in a rainbow
Gor blimey, hello Mrs. Jones, how’s old Bert’s lumbago? (he mustn’t grumble)
(Tweedle-dee) I’ll sing you a song with no words and no tune (twiddly-dee)
To sing in the khazi while you suss out the moon, oh yeah
Lazy Sunday afternoon, I’ve got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift away-a

Root-de-doo-de-doo, a-root-de-doot-de-doy-di
A-root-de-doot-de-dum, a-ree-de-dee-de-doo-dee (doo-doo, doo-doo)
There’s no one to hear me, there’s nothing to say
And no one can stop me from feeling this way, yeah
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I’ve got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift away
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I’ve got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift a-
Close my mind and drift away, close my eyes and drift away

Who – The Quiet One…Sunday Album Cut

I posted a song from Face Dances a little while ago and Deke brought up a song on that album called The Quiet One. I really like that song also. It was written by who I think was the best bass player in rock ever…John Entwistle.

When I bought the album this is one of the songs I zeroed in on. I’ve always liked John’s writing that got overshadowed by Pete. John had had some black humor and wit in his songs.

This song was the B side to the hit You Better You Bet released in 1981. On their farewell tour in 1982 he replaced his older song “My Wife” with this one on stage. In the later tours, this song was never played again… “My Wife” was brought back.

John Entwistle: “It’s me trying to explain that I’m not really quiet. I started off being quiet and that’s the pigeon hole I’ve been stuck in all these years. It started when I heard Kenney playing a drum riff and I thought ‘that would be really great for a song and give Kenney a chance to play that on stage.’ So I got Kenney to put down about three minutes of that and I worked along with it and came up with the chorus of ‘The Quiet One.’ I wrote ‘Quiet One’ especially to replace ‘My Wife’ onstage. I had gotten tired of singing that and ‘Boris the Spider.'”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJDlbgwzxhU

The Quiet One

Everybody calls me the quiet one
You can see but you can’t hear me
Everybody calls me the quiet one
You can try but you can’t get near me
I ain’t never had the gift of gab
But I can’t talk with my eyes
When words fail me you won’t nail me
My eyes can tell you lies

Still waters run deep so be careful I don’t drown you
You’ve got nothing to hear I’ve got nothing to say
Sticks and stones may break your bones
But names can never down you
It only takes two words to blow you away

Everybody calls me the quiet one
But you just don’t understand
You can’t listen you won’t hear me
With your head stuck in the sand
I ain’t never had time for words that don’t rhyme
My headd is in a cloud
I ain’t quiet – everybody else is too loud

Still waters run deep so be careful I don’t drown you
You’ve got nothing to hear I’ve got nothing to say
Sticks and stones may break my bones
But names can never down you
It only takes two words to blow you away.

Who – Another Tricky Day

This was the first album the Who made without Keith Moon called Face Dances. Kenney Jones was playing drums and the album had a substantial hit with You Better You Bet. It was also the first new Who album I ever bought. The other ones had been collections of their older hits. I can’t say that I don’t the Moon version of the Who but the album did have some good songs on it.

This song is one of the best songs off of Face Dances. To my surprise it was not released as a single.

The album peaked at #4 in the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in the UK, and #1 in Canada in 1981.

Roger Daltrey: “Pete’s a very complicated bunch of people… And you never know which one of him you’re going to get. There’s one that’s so wonderful, so caring, so spiritual. But there are others that are horrendous-and I mean horrendous…. That’s the madness of genius, so I accept it. I don’t judge him. I love him. I love all of hims.”

Another Tricky Day

You can’t always get it
When you really want it
You can’t always get it at all
Just because there’s space
In your life it’s a waste
To spend your time why don’t you wait for the call

(Just gotta get used to it)
We all get it in the end
(Just gotta get used to it)
We go down and we come up again
(Just gotta get used to it)
You irritate me my friend
(This is no social crisis)
This is you having fun
(No crisis)
Getting burned by the sun
(This is true)
This is no social crisis
Just another tricky day for you

You can always get higher
Just because you aspire
You could expire even knowing.
Don’t push the hands
Just hang on to the band
You can dance while your knowledge is growing

(It could happen anytime)
You can’t expect to never cry
(Patience is priceless)
Not when you try to fly so high
(Just stay on that line)
Rock and roll will never die
(This is no social crisis)
[etc.]

Another tricky day
Another gently nagging pain
What the papers say
Just seems to bring down heavier rain
The world seems in a spiral
Life seems such a worthless title
But break out and start a fire y’all
It’s all here on the vinyl
(No crisis)
[etc.]

[Repeat verse 1.]

(Just gotta get used to it)
Gotta get used to waiting
(Just gotta get used to it)
You know how the ice is
(Just gotta get used to it)
It’s thin where you’re skating
(This is no social crisis)
[etc.]

Just another tricky day for you fellah

Small Faces – All Or Nothing

The Small Faces were very popular in the UK in the 1960s. Because of management they never toured in America. Their best-known songs are Itchycoo Park and Lazy Sunday in America but had many hits in the UK.

All or Nothing was written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. The song peaked at #1 in the UK in 1966.

The Small Faces would splinter in 1969 and Steve Marriott would start Humble Pie with Peter Frampton. The Small Faces would welcome Ron Wood and Rod Stewart and become the Faces…Kenney Jones would later replace Keith Moon in the Who.

It was said to be written either about Marriott’s break up with his with ex-fiancée Sue Oliver, or for his first wife who once dated Rod Stewart. It is possible that both these explanations may be true…somehow.

Drummer Kenney Jones: “It was us getting to where we wanted to be musically. It wasn’t as poppy as our previous hits, but still commercial enough and better than anything we’d done before.”

Steve Marriott in 1984: “I think ‘All Or Nothing’ takes a lot of beating. To me, if there’s a song that typifies that era, then that might be it.”

From Songfacts

Not to be confused with a later song of the same title, “All Or Nothing” was recorded by the Small Faces in 1966. In his 2004 autobiography Mr Big, their manager at the time, Don Arden, said this was “top-drawer…[and] still gets played on the radio today”. Arden produced the record. Co-written by guitarist Steve Marriott and bass player Ronnie Lane, it was backed by “Understanding” and was written

For Marriott it was very much all or nothing; he married three times and appears to have sired at least two children out of wedlock. He died in a fire in April 1991, apparently after lighting a cigarette in bed and falling asleep. Prior to his death, he had taken cocaine as well as Valium and alcohol.

Here are two quotes about the song from 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh.

Kenney Jones recalled to Uncut magazine: “We were on tour and staying in the Station Hotel, Leeds, when Steve suddenly run down the corridor screaming, ‘I’ve got it! I’ve just written our next hit!”‘

Jones based his opening drum fill on the intro of Wilson Pickett’s “In The Midnight Hour.”

All Or Nothing

I thought you’d listen to my reason
But now I see, you don’t hear a thing
Try to make you see, how it’s got to be

Yes it’s all, all or nothing
Yeah yeah, all or nothing
All or nothing, for me

Things could work out
Just like I want them to, yeah
If I could have
The other half of you, yeah
You know I would,
If I only could

Yes it’s yeah, all or nothing
Oh yeah, all or nothing
You’ll hear my children say,
All or nothing, for me

I didn’t tell you no lies
So don’t you sit there and cry girl
Yeah, all or nothing
Oh yeah, all or nothing
Oh yeah, all or nothing

Do you know what I mean
You got to, got to, go to keep on trying, yeah
All or nothing, mm yeah
All or nothing, to keep on working on to me
All or nothing for me, for me, for me

Come on children, yeah
All or nothing, yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah
All or nothing, I kept on singing to myself
All or nothing, yeah for me, yeah

Ooh La La 1973

What a great song from The Faces. The song was written by Ronnie Lane and Ronnie Wood and sung by Wood. That is strange because The Faces had one of the best lead singers around at the time…Rod Stewart.

Stewart by this time was soaring as a solo artist and his interest in the Faces was waning. He claimed the song was not in his key to sing. He did do vocals for it then and Lane but Wood ended up singing the released version.

The Faces had one big hit…Stay With Me but this song is their greatest song to me. Rod Stewart finally covered the song in 1998 for a tribute to Ronnie Lane. Ronnie Lane did his own version with his band Slim Chance. Ronnie Wood also does it live in solo shows.

A song between Granddad and Son about the ways of love. The song never ages because the subject matter never changes and it is continually passed along. The song creates an atmosphere and Wood not known for his singing ability did a great job on this one.

The song was included in the 1998 film Rushmore and enjoyed renewed popularity.

It’s one of my favorite songs of all time. Just a beautiful melody and words.

Poor old granddad
I laughed at all his words
I thought he was a bitter man
He spoke of woman’s ways

They’ll trap you, then they use you
Before you even know
For love is blind and you’re far too kind
Don’t ever let it show

I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was younger
I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was stronger

The can can’s such a pretty show
They’ll steal your heart away
But backstage, back on earth again
The dressing rooms are gray

They come on strong and it ain’t too long
Before they make you feel a man
But love is blind and you soon will find
You’re just a boy again

When you want her lips, you get a cheek
Makes you wonder where you are
If you want some more and she’s fast asleep
Then she’s twinkling with the stars

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, ooh la la la yeh

I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was younger
I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was stronger