SMALL FACES's First Album + Bonus

Original released on LP DECCA LK 4790

(UK 1966, May 13)

Just when the first-generation British Invasion bands galloped ahead into pop art in 1966, the Small Faces worked a heavy R&B groove on their 1966 debut. That's not to say that this pack of four sharp-suited mods were unaware of the times. If anything, no other British band of the mid-'60s was so keenly tuned into fashion, the four Small Faces capturing the style and sound of dancing pilled-up mods better even than the Who, possibly because the group could carry a groove better than the Who, as this tightly propulsive debut amply illustrates. Like many '60s debuts, "The Small Faces" is split between covers, songs the label pushed on the band, and originals, some clearly interpolations of songs they'd been covering in clubs. "Come on Children" echoes James Brown's "Think," and "You Need Loving" is based on Willie Dixon's "You Need Love."

Later, Led Zeppelin would rework the Small Faces' "You Need Loving" into "Whole Lotta Love," and while it's easy to hear how Steve Marriott's raw-throated howl influenced Robert Plant as much as Marriott's heavy shards of guitar influenced Jimmy Page, what's striking about "The Small Faces" is that there is very little blues or rock & roll here: it's all hard-charging, driving R&B and soul, the emphasis all on the groove. By stressing the beat, the Small Faces carry themselves over some slight songwriting - the band's energetic interplay carries them over the rough spots between "It's Too Late," "What'Cha Gonna Do About It," and "Sha La La La Lee," and that concentration even pushes them into trailblazing territory, as on the lean, ominous pulse of "E Too D." Such moments keep The Small Faces sounding fearless and fresh even when by other respects it is very much a record of its time. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic) As bonus, you can find here 9 tracks, all of them Single sides, completing the Small Faces recordings from 1965 and 1966.

SMALL FACES: "From The Beginning"

Original released on LP Decca LK 4879

(UK, June 1967)

The Small Faces only ever officially released one studio album with Decca, their debut “Small Faces”. Following their departure to Andrew Loog-Oldham's Immediate label, Decca released this album, “From The Beginning", cash in's by Decca... not the band. So, this second Small Faces’ album is basically a collection of tunes recorded during the band’s time with Decca - a compilation. Most people I know who have any interest in the Small Faces prefer the Immediate output, but listening to the Decca years you cannot ignore how dynamic, tight, melodic and powerful the Small Faces were as a young British R&B band, Steve Marriott's voice is impeccable. This CD reissue contains five extra tracks: “My Mind's Eye” (French EP version), “Hey Girl” (French EP version), “Take This Hurt Off Me” (different version), “Baby Don't You Do It” (different version) and “What'cha Gonna Do About It” (French EP version).

SMALL FACES: EP "Here Come The Nice"

Original released on EP Columbia (EMI) ESRF 1876

(FRANCE, 1967)

SMALL FACES: EP "Itchycoo Park"

Original released on EP Columbia ESRF 1882 
(FRANCE, 1967)

SMALL FACES: "Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake"

Original released on LP Immediate IML 1001 (mono)

(UK 1968, May 31)

There was no shortage of good psychedelic albums emerging from England in 1967-1968, but "Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake" is special even within their ranks. The Small Faces had already shown a surprising adaptability to psychedelia with the single "Itchycoo Park" and much of their other 1967 output, but "Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake" pretty much ripped the envelope. British bands had an unusual approach to psychedelia from the get-go, often preferring to assume different musical "personae" on their albums, either feigning actual "roles" in the context of a variety show (as on the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album), or simply as storytellers in the manner of the Pretty Things on S.F. Sorrow, or actor/performers as on the Who's "Tommy". The Small Faces tried a little bit of all of these approaches on "Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake", but they never softened their sound. Side one's material, in particular, would not have been out of place on any other Small Faces release - "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" and "Rene" both have a pounding beat from Kenny Jones, and Ian McLagan's surging organ drives the former while his economical piano accompaniment embellishes the latter; and Steve Marriott's crunching guitar highlights "Song of a Baker." 

Marriott singing has him assuming two distinct "roles," neither unfamiliar - the Cockney upstart on "Rene" and "Lazy Sunday," and the diminutive soul shouter on "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" and "Song of a Baker." Some of side two's production is more elaborate, with overdubbed harps and light orchestration here and there, and an array of more ambitious songs, all linked by a narration by comic dialect expert Stanley Unwin, about a character called "Happiness Stan." The core of the sound, however, is found in the pounding "Rollin' Over," which became a highlight of the group's stage act during its final days - the song seems lean and mean with a mix in which Ronnie Lane's bass is louder than the overdubbed horns. Even "Mad John," which derives from folk influences, has a refreshingly muscular sound on its acoustic instruments. Overall, this was the ballsiest-sounding piece of full-length psychedelia to come out of England, and it rode the number one spot on the U.K. charts for six weeks in 1968, though not without some controversy surrounding advertisements by Immediate Records that parodied the Lord's Prayer. Still, "Ogdens'" was the group's crowning achievement - it had even been Marriott's hope to do a stage presentation of "Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake", though a television special might've been more in order. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

NOTE: This is a special edition from 2012, with the original mono album in Disc 1 and 14 previously unreleased tracks in Disc 2.