I think The Small Faces are my favourite of the 60s beat bands- they looked so good, like a unit, their Decca stuff is proper 60s mod/r 'n' b, their Immediate stuff is inventive and moving and full of brilliance, to say nothing of Marriott's voice and the band's playing and the Lane/Marriott songwriting.
I can't decide which clip of All Or Nothing is better though- this one from a TV show in 1966, playing live and sounding great...
Or this one of them miming on a street corner somewhere in Europe, collars turned up against the cold, a hat put out for small change.
10 comments:
If i must decide for one clip I would choose the live version that shows all their qualities, Swiss Adam. A forgotten band and Steve Marriot reminds me at Paul Weller in the way he act
Top song Adam. Well done.
There has to be something to both The Jam and Pistols name checking Small Faces during their time in the spotlight. Cook and Jones joined the Pistols looking to be in a Small Faces type band (yeah that didn't exactly work out) and for all the Kinks and Who stylizing of early Jam, their brand of brash Punk inflected Mod was more akin to Small Faces. Weller certainly explored this sound in his early post TSC solo work, even giving in to the Small Faces more psychedelic side for influence. I'd venture to say Britpop was more informed, in the end, by Small Faces style rock than The Kinks -which might have been the more obvious line to draw at the beginning with bands like Blur.
I love them little Small Faces. Love love love them. Probably my favourite of the 60s bands - including Beatles Kinks and Stones. It's the sound, the voice, the guitars, the organs. It just is.
As a little detour, if you don't already know it, look for a Booker T & The MGs tune called Carnaby Street, which was intended as a Small Faces tribute and ended up influencing their tune Tin Soldier. It's so much a SM sounding thing, despite SM claiming the MGs as a huge influence. It's one of my favourite Booker T & CO moments.
Hmmm. I read an interview years ago about the Booker T tune being an influence on Tin Soldier, and that was McLagan talking about it, but here's a newer small piece, where he says he was mistaken it was the other way round.
http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/the-faces-ian-mclagans-11-career-defining-tracks-485997/2/#!1
Another interview where he mentions it, he must have been blown away to know one of his heroes was influenced by his old band!
http://thelosangelesbeat.com/2012/05/real-fun-an-exclusive-interview-with-ian-mclagan-of-the-small-faces/
*whispers*
people looking for the Booker T Carnaby Street tune might want to go here:
http://www.halfhearteddude.com/2013/03/any-major-london-vol-2/
Love them to bits but am I the only one who thinks a lot of 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake' is just silly dippy bollocks?
No you're not! I don't have that on the ipod at all. Everything else, absolutely everything on there except Ogdens.
I like Ogdens. Although Stanley Unwin gets a bit wearing.
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