Track Listing

1. Flying
2. Three Button Hand Me Down
3. Wicked Messenger
4. Sweet Lady Mary
5. Bad 'n' Ruin
6. Had Me A Real Good Time
7. Debris
8. Miss Judy's Farm
9. You're So Rude
10. Too Bad
11. Love Lives Here
12. Stay With Me
13. Cindy Incidentally
14. Glad And Sorry
15. Borstal Boys
16. Ooh La La
17. Pool Hall Richard
18. You Can Make Me Dance Sing Or Anything
19. Open To Ideas

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2176 in Music
• Released on: 2009-06-08
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Best known for their alumni (Rod Stewart, the Stones' Ron Wood, the Who's Kenny Jones), the Faces' brief early 1970s run was as musically rewarding as it was boozy and sideshow spectacular. A revamped, bluesier edition of '60s English pop notables the Small Faces, the Faces established a rollicking musical identity that threatened to overshadow the Stones at their own game. Though the group dissolved under the pressures of Stewart's burgeoning solo career and Wood's recruitment into comfortable career Stonedom, the Faces were about much more than just individual talents. The folksy vulnerability of the late bassist, songwriter, and vocalist Ronnie Lane (well-represented here by "Debris" and "Ooh La La") kept the lads close to roots both geographical and class, while keyboardist Ian McLagen alternated between barrelhouse-boogie and Hammond B-3 soulfulness and Jones loosely locked into irresistible grooves. They could pillage Motown ("Three Button Hand Me Down") and Chuck Berry ("Cindy Incidentally") for riffs, and turn from countrified blues ("Sweet Lady Mary") to the breakneck boogie of "Too Bad" in a heartbeat. They may have been cheated of hits, but the Faces' music remains warm, heartfelt, and enthusiastic--a legacy that's aged much better than the cheap hootch they once drowned themselves in. --Jerry McCulley

CD Description
This best-of collection celebrates all the endearing strengths of the Faces. After the Small Faces lost founder Steve Marriott, they shortened their name and added the lanky duo of Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. Their four studio albums were released in three years at the beginning of the '70s. The bandcombined a bracing mix of confidence and innocence, as wellas the casual abandon of their playing and songwriting smarts. The Faces toured constantly, making the stage their home, and in between tours they'd record their albums, then get right back out on the road.
This set culls the wonderful highlights from those albums along with a few selections from their short tenure after Ronnie Lane departed the band. Asrough-and-tumble as the band sometimes sounds, there's never a note here that doesn't sound completely honest. For anyone unfamiliar with the pleasures to be had from the Faces, start here.

Customer Reviews

Ooh La La
A mate emailed me a copy of of Ooh La La about a year before we headed down to play cricket at the Alice Springs Masters Games, with the message "How good would this be for a team Walk-Out song?" The two Ronnies (Lane & Wood) probably never imagined when they penned it that a bunch of Aussie "old-fart" cricketers would proudly stride out to the middle with this brilliant song echoing around the MacDonald ranges in the central Australian outback!

So on the strength of one song; incidentally sung by Ronnie Wood and not Ronnie Lane or Rod Stewart; I bought this album. Yes, I'd heard a few tracks back in the 70's by the band and recognized a few track names on the site, but to be honest I only bought it because the compilation box-set of "Red Dwarf" was on special at the same time.

The best way I can recommend this album to anyone contemplating whether or not to go ahead and buy it, is to compare it to a really good take-away curry. Enjoyed it the first time you got into it and the next day the left-overs tasted even better. By the fourth listen you will truly appreciate the fact you've got something that will stay with you forever and not a dud you'll be attempting to break the world frisbee throwing record with at the local dump!

This was the beginning of some very talented musicians plying their trade with genuine skill and unbridled conviction. ENJOY!

Great stuff
This is a superb album for those who have only heard "Stay With Me". It has complimentary rockers like "Bad 'n' Ruin" and especially "Too Bad", but also the softer Ronnie Lane songs like "Debris".

It's got that Stonesy, tight-but-loose, early 70's feel to it, but with a good time vibe instead of the undercurrent of menace that the Stones albums of the same era had.

Well worth buying to remind you that Rod was once great (see also "Every Picture Tells A Story") and that Ronnie Lane's stuff is well worth seeking out.

Less one star for omitting "I Wish It Would Rain"
Not actually listened to this album, but as a Faces fan I bought all the albums and know 80% of the tracks listed here.

The blues background of the Faces is borne out by tracks such as "Wicked Messenger", "Miss Judy's Farm" and "Borstal Boys", but Rod's agenda comes out with "Sweet Lady Mary" (readers may recall that he had a solo career running in parallel). The 'laddish' culture is inherent in "Three Button Hand Me Down", "Had Me A Real Good Time", "Stay With Me", "Too Bad" and "Ooh La La" (Ronnie Wood on vox). There's even room for a bit of jealousy in "Pool Hall Richard".

I was very disappointed by the exclusion of the well-worked "I Wish It Would Rain" (flip to "Pool Hall Richard"), especially as other 'B' sides ("Debris") made it. "Maybe I'm Amazed" (from their "Long Player" album) wouldn't have gone amiss, either.

There is always "this should have been included", but the tracks that ARE on this album represent an excellent collection.

It all fell apart in the end with the three main songwriters secretly wanting to do different things - Lane wanted to be more folksy, Wood wanted to join the Rolling Stones and Stewart wanted to write romantic ballads. Jones joined The Who, but that was much later, as was McLagan's sessions with the Stones.

Interesting to note that although they produced two good singles after Lane, who quit nearly a year before the end, there were no more studio albums.