Continuing a series of overviews of records that seem to be universally unloved, but in many cases I actually find something worthwhile lurking in the grooves of these scorned efforts, and I hope to make a case. And other times, I find nothing defensible and I’m compelled to discuss that as well. So… as I usually say when I begin these things:
Faces’ 1973 release Ooh La La is liked by many, but I dare say it’s no one’s favorite Faces album.
By late 1972, front man Rod Stewart’s solo career had taken off to the point that the band was being billed as “Rod Stewart and the Faces”, something which didn’t sit well with the group itself, especially Ronnie Lane, bassist/songwriter and oh yeah, the guy who masterminded the whole “merge with the Jeff Beck guys, drop the ‘Small’ thing to become the Faces no adjective” concept. Lane would say “sayonara” not long after this one wrapped, preferring to tour the country in a gypsy caravan and under the moniker “Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance”. You gotta love the guy. The Faces soldiered on without Lane, adding bassist Tetsu Yamauchi, but while the new guy did his best, it wasn’t the same and Rod’s interest grew ever more tentative, while Keith Richards was flirting with Ron Wood after the departure of Mick Taylor in the Stones. The band broke up early in 1975, only having released a couple of (admittedly very good, in my opinion anyway) singles and a handful of tour dates, and this is what we were left with as the finale of the Faces.
Generally, it’s looked at as a failure, but I’ve come to like it a lot since I first picked it up in a cutout bin around 1975. Here we go, song to song.
Side one opens with “Silicone Grown”, which is more of Rod & Co. passing themselves off as rascally lads… but the subject matter, in which the singer playfully teases a lady friend about her brand new breast augmentation surgery, isn’t quite as funny as it was 50 years ago. It hasn’t aged well to say the least. Even so, it’s got that nice crunchy Wood guitar and McLagan plays his ass off. Kinda hides that really this song is just three or four notes played over and over till it fades. This is a motif for much of the record.
I was gonna remark how similar the nominal “hit” single “Cindy Incidentially” seems to the 10cc song “Oh Effendi”, but then I looked at the numbers, dates, etc. and it turns out that if any nicking went on, it was done by Gouldman/Creme/Godley/Stewart because “Cindy” came out in ‘73, and “Effendi” was on 1974’s Sheet Music. Anyway, it’s a catchy enough song, I suppose; another song with Rod in “rascally lad” mode as he entreats his lady companion to move because the ol’ neighborhood isn’t fun anymore. Hm. This one’s McLagan-driven, but Kenny Jones’ constant rat-a-tat drum pattern doesn’t work for me.
Lane’s “Flags and Banners”, while well played, is barely a song. Some kind of Civil War (or war in general) story/song, it has lots of slide guitar and a good Wood riff, but like the first two tracks, it’s structured in a monotonous fashion. I’m sure it has its fans, but I’m not among them.
“My Fault” is a Soul/R&B style song married to a chugalug Berry-ish guitar riff that seems half-cooked, like if everyone had been getting along and had been inclined to work on it a little longer, it might have really been something. As it is, though, it’s there and gone. This, in hindsight, seems to presage Ron Wood’s solo stuff which featured songs like “Take a Look at the Guy”, which would have fit right in on this album.
“Borstal Boys” works because it’s raucous and fun and has cool horn sounds and features some of the wittiest lyrics on the album, albeit lyrics about being stuck in a boys’ prison. Rod the Rascally Lad once again. Unlike many tracks on this record, it achieves a propulsion that makes it a winner. I like Jones’ thudding drums here quite a bit.
Side two opens with “Fly in the Ointment”, an instrumental and another chugger. It’s well played, rocks a little, and it does stick with you, but it’s ultimately disposable, another sign that the band really wasn’t especially committed to this project. In other words, it’s no “Pineapple and the Monkey”.
“If I’m on the Late Side”, like “My Fault”, seems like another undercooked effort. Rod the Rascally Lover Boy here, promising his young conquest that if he’s late arriving, don’t worry, he’ll be along soon and he’ll make it worth her while. Also like “My Fault”, it’s not a terrible song, but it seems one-note and unfinished. The fadeout is Jones playing a exit march on the drum, and it at least gives the song a little flavor.
I know, I know, I’m being awfully negative about an album that I really do like… but I’m happy to report that “Glad and Sorry”, Ronnie Lane’s cheerio statement to the lads, is a wonderful song with a strong melancholy melody, McLagan’s piano playing wistful notes as Lane muses “If I’m not smiling/I’m just thinking”… and sure enough, he was thinking about starting a new band, which he did not long after this came out. “Can you show me a dream/Can you show me one that’s better than mine?” If more of Ooh La La’s tracks had been as well thought out as this one, it would be an overlooked classic album.
“Just Another Honky”’s lyrics could also apply to Lane’s feelings about the situation, disguised as saying goodbye to a woman he thinks wants to leave a relationship; it too has a feeling of weary resignation. The Wood/McLagan instrumental duet that forms the backbone of the song, though, doesn’t quite captivate, again seeming like half a song.
Finally, “Ooh La La”, the title track, the third of three Lane compositions that round out the album, is one that (amusingly enough) no one wanted to seem to sing; Lane deferred to Stewart, who declined, saying it was in the wrong key for him (amusingly enough, he covered it and had a minor hit with it 25 years later), so Ron Wood stepped up and said “Oi, I’ll do me bit” or something like that, and the result was the only Wood lead vocal on any Faces record. Wood sings it pretty well, belting out the lyrics, and the song about reminiscing about better days of their youth really does resonate. It’s gained in esteem over the years (not Rod’s version, appropriately enough, but the original version on this album) thanks to its use in television commercials and movies. For Lane’s part, this kind of song would inform pretty much everything he recorded with Slim Chance for the next few years.
Gotta mention the album sleeve (see above), which was often more innovative and original than the music it was wrapped around. Designed by Jim Ladwig, Wiki says, and it featured on the front (and I cut and paste here): “…a stylised photograph of "Gastone", a stage character of 1920s Italian comedian Ettore Petrolini. The original LP's art deco-inspired cover was constructed in such a way that when the top edge of the sleeve was pressed down, a concealed die-cut design element would descend that made Gastone's eyes appear to discolour and move to the side, and his jaw would appear to drop into a leering smile.” The inner gatefold featured a foldout hand tinted image of can-can girls with the boys filling up the lower part of the image, “admiring” the ladies. Back cover was more hand-tinted pics of the band, in frames, with all the usual fine print at the bottom. It was quite the distinctive sleeve, I think.
For those of us who miss those halycon days, when Rod and the Faces dealt in raucous rock and roll and tender ballads, this album has aged better than you’d think, I suppose, “Silicone” notwithstanding. This wasn’t the case at the time, and Rod in particular came across as an arsehole when questioned about it in print- he savaged it in the NME for example, saying it was a “stinking rotten album” in the guise of being honest. Maybe it was spite, who knows. The band sans Lane did carry on for a while, released a couple of good singles and embarked on a tour that was “immortalized” on the Overture and Beginners live record that really didn’t take off on a lot of levels. There is a somewhat cringy video out there of the last night of the 1974 tour, with Rod shaking his silk-clad bum incessantly for the camera. In spite of it all, it has its moments, but enough the ass shaking becomes ludicrous.
As farewell statements go, I suppose Ooh La La acquits itself pretty well. One wishes they’d been able to patch up their differences, but with the arc of Rod’s career proceeding the way it was, I guess that would have never worked. By the time they did finally get back together, Lane was dead and it was beside the point.
Listen to Faces’ Ooh La La on the streaming service of your choice.
First encountered the title track in Rushmore and "Glad and Sorry" through the Golden Smog cover. Have never listened to the album - I think I've heard A Nod..., though. As for Rod solo, Every Picture Tells a Story is about the extent of it.