Search - Small Faces :: Ogdens Nut Gone Flake

It's all too beautiful...

L. Power | San Francisco | 12/27/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Not so long ago, I was leafing through Ronnie Wood's autobiography. He mentioned how he kept listening to this album till he wore the record out.



And I thought, hmm, if a Rolling Stone listened to this album till he wore it out, it must be good. When I went to buy it, all that was available was a $47 import version. Fortunately, this new version of the album with 14 bonus tracks is now available.



Released in 1968, this psychedelic concept album, went to No 1 in the UK for 6 weeks. Unfortunately, not long after, the group, on the verge of superstardom disbanded. Lead singer Steve Marriott went on to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton. The other members went on to form The Faces with Rod Stewart, and Ronnie Wood...



Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, a parody of a popular tobacco, is a most unusual concept album. It's rock but not as we understand it. It's folky, mythical, fairytale, surreal, original and fun.



I can't really say what it's about. There's a popular prostitute called Rene, and someone's looking for half a moon. Songs you may already know Itchycoo Park, and Lazy Sunday. There is some inspired narration, using nonsense lyrics like Lewis Caroll in Jabberwocky. Mind expanding. Think Alice in Wonderland meets White Album, and you have some idea of its eclecticism:



Over bridge of sighs,

To rest my eyes in shades of green.

Under dreamin spires,

To Itchycoo Park,

That's where I've been.



Personally, I love the opening track, and Here Comes the Nice, and those Jabberwocky tracks.



Ronnie Wood has great taste in music.



I hope this was helpful, and I think you'll love it.

"

Funny & rockin album

Three Heads Are Better Than One | NYC | 11/21/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a brilliant oddity. It's a good contender for the title of first concept album, but it's also a really good one. There's a lot of great songs and some truly odd phrases - listen to it in the right mood and I bet you'll love it.



Some great singing too."

A Masterpiece

Morten Vindberg | Denmark | 02/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" was the album that really established Small Faces as a band that wished to and should be taken seriously. Sadly the band had split up within a year of the album's release. A lot can be (and has been) said about the round tobacco box, I'll stick to giving a few comments about the music.



The original two album sides were more or less two sections, where side one was a regular album, with outstandings songs like "Afterglow", "Song of a Baker" and "Lazy Sunday" - the three other tracks are just good.



Side two is the experimental and ambitious side where the songs are tied together with a strange narration by comedian Stan Unwin. It's a fairytale story about Happiness Stan who goes looking for the other half of the moon.



The songs are all great melodic tunes, with quite an impressive variation in style and instrumentation - several of them sung by bassist Ronnie Lane. The narration overlaps the music in several cases with is quite charming, but personally I would havev liked to hear the music of "Happiness Stan", "The Hungry Intruder" and "Mad John" without Unwin's narration - hopefully some day a version with just the music will be released.



This version contains no less than 14 bonus-tracks - most of them singles A's and B's. A few rarities have been included too, "Groovy" which the band recorded with P.P. Arnold and "Don't Burst my Bubble" from one their last studio-sessions. It seems the band was well half-ways into the recordings of a follow-up album, when Steve Marriott decided to leave and form "Humble Pie" with Peter Frampton".



Many of these recordings were released on the 1969 album "The Autumn Stone", which also included a lot of previously released material.



Other post "ONGF" recordings here are "The Universal", "The Autumn Stone" and "Wham Bam Thank You Mam".



The last two tracks here are 1968 live-recordings."