Faces: Good Boys...When They're Asleep
Rod Stewart and his drinking mates were one of the seventies' most appealing, lovable and honest rock bands. Here is a superb compilation covering a bunch of their greatest, bourbon and beer-swilling songs. Having just covered Free, from the same period, I was immediately inspired to do this one. The Faces' four albums are reviewed individually (click the Faces link at the bottom of this review).
Anyway, without more ado, let's get down to brass tacks before old Rod starts eyeing my lady.....
Flying is classic Faces blues funky rock. A bit hissy, sound-wise in places (despite being remastered), but again, it doesn't really matter - just turn it up. Check out that organ break in the middle. This was Faces at their most unique, not trying to be anyone else here.
Three Button Hand Me Down is an absolute copper-bottomed Faces classic to close the album. A rocking tribute from Stewart to his father for handing him down a suit. It has a Status Quo style riff, played on acoustic and bass guitars and a killer vocal from Stewart. The guitars throughout the track are exhilarating, as indeed are the organ breaks. It still sounds great today. Despite it hailing from 1970, BBC Radio Newcastle's new wave "Beat Surrender" Saturday evening show used to regularly play this. I am not surprised.
The lads' cover of Bob Dylan's Wicked Messenger is a marvellous, noisy thrash. No gentle folk rock here - loud, crashing drums, blues guitars up to the max, swirling organ and Rod Stewart's throaty rasp all make a superb concoction.
Sweet Lady Mary is classic Faces, although it could very much be classic Rod Stewart, as it would fit very much on to his solo albums from the same period, with its acoustic guitar backing, slide guitar solo and swirling organ. Add to that Stewart's country soul-style vocal and you have a classic Faces-Stewart number.
Bad 'n' Ruin has a lot of Rod Stewart's Gasoline Alley album about it - that down 'n' dirty electric guitar-drums-acoustic guitar interplay and Rod Stewart's rasping, throaty bluesy vocal. He is developing that strange enunciation too, notable in the way he sings "reck-awwg-naahse". This was something he would do for many subsequent years. It became as unique as Elton John's strange mid-Atlantic twang and Mick Jagger's odd US accent.
Had Me A Real Good Time is typical Faces barroom, rollicking, rousing rock. The Faces at their best. "The skinny girl made it clear that she only came here for the beer....". Great stuff. Excellent saxophone, guitar and drums at the end too.
Debris is a Ronnie Lane track, again with a solid backing and some genuinely touching lyrics about his father. It features some great guitar in the middle. Miss Judy's Farm is a Faces classic, packed full of riffs, heavy bass and a sublime, rasping Stewart vocal.
I have never been as big a fan of Ronnie Lane's songs as much as the Rod Stewart-led ones, and on the debut album, I find his ones by far the worst. However, You're So Rude is a really good one - bluesy, rocking and powerful, despite Ronnie's less than robust voice.
It is back to Stewart for the melodic but solid ballad, Love Lives Here, which is also an impressive cut. Listen to that big, deep bass as it complements Stewart's gruff but soulful, yearning vocal. Ian McLagan's organ breaks are great too. Too Bad is a corker of a Stewart-led rocker with a fuzzy Stay With Me-style riff. Absolute stonking stuff.
Who doesn't love Cindy Incidentally? It was a great, mid-pace rocking single - great guitars, great lyrics, great Rod Stewart vocals. Faces perfection. "Leave the rent with the gent up in the Penthouse...". I always loved that line. I remember for some reason in March 1973, as a teenager, going to the "Ideal Home Exhibition" with a friend. Why, I don't know. I came back with Cindy, however. I am still not sure how. Were they selling records at the show? They must have been. I recall it had a lyric sheet in with it for the song, an unusual thing.
Glad And Sorry is one of Ronnie Lane's best Faces songs, with a great bass line, piano and a fetching vocal (for one whose voice I have never gone for). It has a searing guitar solo in the middle from Ronnie Wood too. Borstal Boys is a rousing, energetic, thumping prison rocker. Again it is full of riffs and another Stewart gritty vocal. Ronnie Wood appears on rare vocals for the now iconic, nostalgic and wise Ooh La La. It is a delightful, folky, acoustic singalong with some killer lyrics.
There is still time for two absolutely cracking non-album singles in the gloriously riffy, breakneck Pool Hall Richard and the criminally underrated Stewart classic in You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything, which really was one of the greatest seventies singles he sang on. I remember buying them upon release and loving them both. That love has never waned. Two copper-bottomed corkers.
Just when you thought the lads had left the building, we are treated to the 1975 rock ballad Open To Ideas. It was supposed to be the title track for a Faces album of the same title that never appeared. What a good album that may have been had it included the two singles above as well.
Anyway, after a fine evening has been had by all and sundry, it's time to put on my old three button hand me down, play some pool and head out into the Richmond night, hoping to bump into Rita on the way home...if I'm lucky....
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