Search - Small Faces :: Small Faces (40th Anniversary Edition)

Mod Power !! (definitive edition)

J P Ryan | Waltham, Massachusetts United States | 04/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Back when the Small Faces were together (1965 - 69) they registered as a rather minor British group, if at all, here in the States, They managed one big hit single ('Itchycoo Park'), included on an album that barely dented the Billboard Top 200 LPs, and never even once toured the US. "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" was noticed, of course, for its round cover, but their Immediate era work was offten seen as precious, English whimsy - unsurprising, perhaps, what with song titles like 'Happydaystoytown' and 'Happiness Stan'. Their peers, like the Byrds, Hendrix, and Rolling Stones kew better of course, and the SF were hugely popular across the Atlantic, with a string of big hits starting with their debut, 'What'cha Gonna Do About It' in the summer of 1965. Of course after Steve Marriott left the group, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenny Jones recruited Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, and as neither Wood nor Stewart was exactly diminutive in stature, Small Faces evolved into another, equally great band, Faces - who crisscrossed the US many times, quickly establishing themselves as one of the major British groups of the '70s. Steve Marriott, who left the SF to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton. The Pie, after much early promise (check their first three or four albums), sadly degenerated into a self-indulgent live act, and following Frampton's departure soldiered on as a merely decent boogie/r&b/hard rock band.. But if time deals the hardest blows, it has been kind to the Little Mods That Could. The CD era has seen the Small Faces' body of work, and plenty more never intended for public consumption, made readily available, and the music has surely grown in stature. What they accomplished in less than four years absolutely proves SF were one of the great bands to emerge during a true renaissence period for popular music.

This 'fortieth anniversary' edition of the Small Faces' Decca debut - first released in the Spring of 1966 is a classic slab of raw power circa '65-66, and an incendiery blast of rock 'n' soul that equals the Who's 'My Generation' and perhaps even the Stones' 'England's Newest Hitmakers', blowing practically everything else of its ilk out of the water. Without this album Led Zeppelin would have been a very different band, and 'Small Faces', finally, in this meticulously mastered edition, is sheer sonic savagery cut with soul - punkier, more amphetimine-driven, caked in more sweat and grunge than all but the most blistering classics ("The Clash" "Never Mind The Bollocks", L.A.M.F.") of the punk era this album precedes by more than a decade.

The SF at the start were certainly more immersed in contemporary soul and r&b than the Stones, who cut some classic Wilson Pickett and Solomon Burke covers but were more deeply rooted in blues. And if Mick Jagger was a master of irony, distance, ambiguity, using veils and scrims vocally (compare his deliberate, feline 'Little Red Rooster' to the feral howl of Howlin Wolf's original), vocalist/guitarist Steve Marriott is a thunderbox of manic energy; you can hear the spit on the microphone, the sweat dripping off his face at the climax of the nightmarish 'E Too D' or 'Come On Children'. Marriott, with bassist/vocalist Ronnie Lane, evolved into one of the major songwriting teams of the era - with a second and final Decca set, "From The Beginning" (1967) followed by the more carefully, deliberately crafted 'studio'-oriented gems for Immediate, "Small Faces" (1967 - get the '35th anniversary edition'), "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" (1968) and the various singles and more pensive, emotionally nuanced material recorded for the unfinished "Autumn Stone" (1969). But this debut is a roar of energy that would never be repeated, with Marriott, Lane, keyboards player Ian McLagan, and drummer Kenny Jones all still in their teens and playing like their lives depended on it. I know most of you have the 1997 Deram edition of this set, but you still need to grab this new edition, even if you know" the album from Deram's '97 transfer, or own the "Decca Anthology 1965 - 67". The 40th Anniversary edition - now expanded, and finally taken from original source tapes, is revelatory: the sound leaps out of your speakers, and where the 'French ep' (some really just alternates) versions sounded rather drab on the '97 edition, here they come alive; it seems Decca discovered the master tapes four decades on. Plus we get all the relevent non-album single sides, finally, some of which are the equal of anything on the original classic album: 'What's A Matter Baby' (from August 1965, the b-side of their debut single), the moody, brooding 'I've Got Mine', later rewritten for the title track to "Ogden's" (November '65), 'Grow Your Own' (January 1966), 'Almost Grown' (April '66) and 'Hey Girl' previously included on "From The Beginning". Exult with Marriott in the sheer exuberence of 'You Better Believe It' as he sings, no revels, in his youth and the good good fortune. I'm reminded of Ray Davies' lines "I feel good / 'cause my life's just begun", the realization that this girl really LOVES him. The joy and confidence are infectious. Remember, or maybe hear for the first time just where Led Zeppelin stole 'Whole Lotta Love' almost word for word ('You Need Lovin''). Wallow in the barb-wired guitar, feedback, and sheer electricity of 'Own Up Time' and 'E Too D' the latter a nightmarish lyric of speed-induced paranoia. Discover this classic NOW, for the first time or - if you bought that now dispensable '97 edition - for the first time, again! You Better Believe It."