SMALL FACES
The BBC Sessions (Fuel 2000)
Reviewed by Bill Holmes

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I wish Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane were alive to see the adulation that is coming their way. Although the Small Faces were a brilliant burst of light in the English pop scene, their legacy has been about financial misfortune almost as much as cultural contribution. Hopefully documents like this one will set people straight.

The first three tracks feature original organist Jimmy Winston, and although Ian McLagan would soon anchor the band's sound with his Hammond mastery, "Watcha Gonna Do About It" (a live favorite for Marriott throughout his career) and the Who-like "Jump Back" are as good as anything the band ever recorded. "Sha La La La Lee" rocks, and "You'd Better Believe It" is a great soul ballad that gives Mac a chance to shine. Marriott was an incredible vocalist; he rips through "One Night Stand", while on "You Need Loving" one can hear the style (and even the famous phrase) that Robert Plant would emulate years later. "E Too D" is a psychedelic precursor of Marriot's own epic blues rants with Humble Pie.

But even bands with strong songwriters had to live on covers as well in the Sixties. Here "Shake", "Baby Don't You Do It" and even Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter" get soulful workouts. But the meat of the package can be found in two Marriott/Lane numbers, "Hey Girl" and the electric "All Or Nothing", the latter nothing less than one of the best songs of the decade. In a lighter moment, an alternate version of "Lazy Sunday" finds the band less campy and using animal noises and sound effects to enhance the mood of the song (Marriott reportedly hated the album version of the track which he sang way over the top as a lark, not knowing his scratch vocal would be used on the finished product!)

The liner notes are thin, but the booklet does contain some nice period photos along with the song annotation. There are five tracks listed as "rare interviews" which turn out only to be one minute radio excerpts. While they are nothing earth-shattering, they do convey a band brimming with youthful exuberance and unlimited ambition. And rightly so. An excellent, necessary record.

© 2000 - Bill Holmes