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Faces: Faces: Stay With Me Anthology

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Faces: Faces: Stay With Me Anthology
Something of a miniature cross between the 4CD hardbound set, Five Guys Walk Into a Bar (Rhino, 2004) and the five-disc box You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (1970-1975) (Rhino, 2015), this double disc package contains official album recordings, (in recently remastered form), singles and live cuts that, combined with a passionate, insightful essay by David Fricke, accurately reaffirms the infectious impact of a band that, while they were together, seemed alternately a sidebar and a full-fledged chapter in the story of contemporary rock and roll.

Yet as casually as they coalesced, Faces had their history. Emerging from the rubble of the original Jeff Beck Group, vocalist Rod Stewart and guitarist/bassist Ron Wood united with bassist/vocalist Ronnie Lane, keyboardist Ian McLagan and drummer Kenney Jones the remaining members of British pop stars the Small Faces, whose career careened when vocalist/guitarist Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton.

Stewart's coincidental solo endeavors brought him increasing success, commercial and otherwise, and while the Faces strove mightily to maintain their own unity, while also allowing The Mod the flexibility to pursue his own work, this concert performance of the titlesong of his second album, Gasoline Alley (Mercury, 1970) belies his marked absence from sessions for what proved to be Faces' the final album: even the continuing tutelage of producer Glyn Johns, with his pedigree from work with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who, , couldn't offset the loss of Stewart's galvanizing presence: Wood sang the composition he wrote with Lane to give the album its name.

Little wonder, then, the pinnacle of collaborative writing on A Nod Is As Good As A wink...To A Blind Horse (Warner Bros., 1971) gave way to more contributions of Lane's material and his subsequent departure from the group. And, in marked contrast to the resulting folk-orientation here, presaging not only that man's solo career, but, ironically, the earliest of Stewart's, there is the earthy soulful quality of the first two albums, influences as transparent in culls from First Step (Warner Bros., 1969) and Long Player (Warner Bros., 1970) such as "Flying" and "Sweet Lady Mary," as in covers ranging from Chuck Berry ("Memphis, Tennesse") and Robert Johnson ("Love in Vain") to Bob Dylan ("Wicked Messenger") and Paul McCartney ("Maybe I'm Amazed" that further illustrate the group's pragmatic hero worship.

Ultimately, Stay With Me stands as a vivid aural, pictorial and textual collage that captures Faces as a group transcending a faux Rolling Stones persona that often dogged them their handful of years together. Consequently, the single of the title track from the 2015 set of CD's (released, at least in part, to coincide with a charity reunion concert) doesn't sound any more forced in its expression of jocular vulnerability or open-hearted homage to rock and roll roots than the one which came out subsequent to the final album, Stewart/Wood's "Pool Hall Richard," itself almost a microcosm of Faces as a living, breathing testament to high spirits laced with tender sentiment. "Ooh La La" indeed!

Track Listing

Disc: 1 Stay With Me; Miss Judy's Farm; Cindy Incidentally; You're So Rude; Flying; That's All You Need; My Fault; Had Me A Real Good Time; Richmond; Too Much Woman (For A Henpecked Man); Love Lives Here; Debris; Just Another Honky; On The Beach; Wicked Messenger; Too Bad; Rear Wheel Skid; Love In Vain. CD2: Ooh La La; Maybe I'm Amazed; Memphis, Tennessee; Pool Hall Richard; Bad 'N' Ruin; You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything; Last Orders Please; Around The Plynth; Three Button Hand Me Down; As Long As You Tell Him; Glad And Sorry; Pineapple And the Monkey; Flags And Banners; Sweet Lady Mary; Silicone Grown; Shake, Shudder Shiver; Borstal Boys; Gasoline Alley.

Personnel

Faces
 

Rod Stewart: lead vocals; Ron Wood: guitars, bass, harmonica, lead and background vocals; Ronnie Lane: bass, lead and background vocals, guitar, tambourine; Ian McLagan: piano, Hammond organ, harmonium, clavinet, background vocals; Tetsu Yamauchi: bass, background vocals (Disc 2, tracks 4 and 6); Kenney Jones: drums and percussion.

Album information

Title: Faces: Stay With Me Anthology | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Rhino

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