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Rating:
During these six months of membership, I had the pleasure of employing my not-so-great musical knowledge. All my reviews have resulted from readings, experiences, and thoughts. The judgments have been somewhat positive, but a bit more negative since 60% of the music I've reviewed is light pop or adolescent.
This time I'll be a bit more limited than usual because the album I'm reviewing received an impeccable judgment and a 5-star review from Ringostarfish. The Small Faces arrive at "Ogdens'" with three years of career and a good number of successful singles where, in my opinion, "All Or Nothing," "Itchycoo Park" (a song dedicated to a London park with veiled references to drugs), and "Tin Soldier" stand out.
When Steve Marriott (guitar and vocals), Ronnie Lane (bass and vocals), Ian MacLagan (preceded by Jimmy Winston) (piano), and Kenney Jones (drums) come together to produce the masterpiece with which they will end their career, they have returned home after a disastrous tour in Australia and New Zealand with the Who, equipped with only music and various ideas for the new album.
But no idea yet for the lyrics. Their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, suggests spending a week on the Thames by renting a boat. The idea is absurd (none of them know how to row) but it works. When one of the nights passes in places suitable for "cooking their food, making a racket, and playing their guitars" one of the four, dazed, sees the half-moon wondering where the other half is; this sparks the idea that will give rise and shape to the b-side of the album. The character Happiness Stan is a young man who, almost falling in love with the moon, becomes depressed when he sees it eaten away by time until the moon returns to its full glory, and Stan regains his happiness.
A wonderful album that starts with an instrumental title track and presents us not only with a masterpiece but also the group's historic song: "Lazy Sunday", written by Steve Marriott about the arguments he had with his neighbors. Great video (magnificent YouTube) and a live performance with an appearance and disappearance effect of the group and a large clock in the background. About "Song Of A Baker" I read an interesting detail: it opposes the Sufi religion (a mystical branch within Islam) to supporters of heavy metal (in the '60s musicians had lots of ideas!).
I discovered who Stanley Unwin is, the narrator's voice that intertwines between tracks: a '60s English comedian who, by distorting English, created his own language called "Unwinese".
Last year I discovered the Small Faces thanks to YouTube, and "Lazy Sunday" was the first song I listened to (then I endured the noises and screams of "Wha'cha gonna do about it" and "Sha la-la-la lee" to "Beat! Beat! Beat!" in Germany from the live performance of '66 and the beauty of the songs mentioned at the beginning, still on YouTube).
I also remembered the forty years of "Ogdens'" by buying it in London and reviewing it this month, the year marking forty years since the group's dissolution (Steve Marriott's return in the '70s with only McLagan and Jones was unsuccessful).
The death of Marriott in '91 due to a fire in his home in Essex and Lane in '97 due to pneumonia (in the '70s he was struck by multiple sclerosis) are the bitter notes in the story of the Small Faces.
But I still enjoy them, renewing my compliments to Ringostarfish and inviting you to read his review.
Boop7
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