relationship between Faces and Rod Stewart

I've never been clear about the relationship between The Faces and Rod Stewart.

I purchased the Storyteller boxset recently (basically an overview of Stewart's career from 1964 to 1989/90).

That resulted in me doing some reading about the Faces and how that band was formed in the ashes of The Small Faces. This in turn, sent me looking for a copy of the "Five guys walk into a bar..." box set.

I'm now clear who's playing on albums credited to the Faces... but I'm unclear who played on the albums credited to Rod Stewart.

Was the relationship kind of like with Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, and Rockpile ? Namely, did the same cast of musicians play on different albums with different credits - but it's pretty much the same people?

Clearly, sometimes Rod isn't singing on Faces album - but it seems like they played his stuff live and it doesn't sound very different from the studio versions I'm familiar with.

Was it clear what musicans backed Rod Stewart on the albums he released between 1969 and 1973 ?

I've always assumed Ron Wood was involved on those Stewart records but never thought too much about who else was involved.

Reading credits for Rod's albums (as listed on wikipedia)... it seems like most or all of the Faces were involved with each album - but maybe not every song on each record.

Seems like the "answer" isn't an easy one to formulate - partly because the public perception might have been that they were constantly working with each other... in the studio and/on the road.

Maybe the best way to think of it is if you bought a Faces album, you could expect to hear some of the songs sung by Ronnie Lane or Ron Wood (in addition to Rod Stewart).. but if you bought a Stewart album, he sang all of the songs


I loved the comment by McLagan in the opening to his liner notes in the "5 Guys..." box set.

"We all had to share a hotel room - but it was a hassle - because we were on different schedules. Rod usually like to go to bed early, as did Kenny... but Ronnie was always trying to shag your bird and Woody already had."

 

Rod's solo albums on Mercury would usually feature Ron Wood on many tracks, along with the other Faces members in various combinations with other musicians. To the best of my knowledge, there are 3 "Rod Stewart" tracks on Mercury that should actually be credited as "Faces" songs, since all the members play on them , and that is "I Know I'm Losing You", "True Blue", and "Jodie"...and there might be others that I am not aware of

 

basically Faces was Rod's b i t c h.

 

I believe they all played on the remake of "My Way Of Giving" if I remember correctly from the Faces book.

 

But progressively so, as he enjoyed success as a solo act. Kind of crappy for the three guys who earlier got shafted by frontman Steve Marriott when he bolted from the Small Faces, Jones, Lane and McLagan. Woody was tight with Stewart from the Jeff Beck Group days and the two joined the Small Faces survivors when they (Wood and Stewart) had been jettisoned by Beck and were down and out.
I'm sure there are other sides to the story, but that's my understanding of how things went down. Ironies abound.

 

I always thought it was rough that Rod Stewart's early solo albums rarely credited the musicians who played on them. But I guess that was pretty normal back then.

 

My recollection is that they had extensive credits. That's how we knew the Faces were on them. Which Mercury ones didn't?

 

I think Ever Picture Tells A Story is pretty vague on credits. Rod couldn't even remember the name of the mandolin player on Maggie May. Never A Dull Moment was more specific, with a group photo of all the musicians on a soccer field. Rod wasn't one for giving credit much.

 

I can tell you one thing....all of the Faces Lp's and all of Stewart's first 4 Lp's are ESSENTIAL, regardless of who is playing what. Thats a lot of quality work in a very short time frame

 

Rod used a whole load of musicians. Smiler has an even bigger group photo. Not all musicians, but I do think he used around 20 on that one.

That was the last one to feature his Faces mates, minus Lane on that one, who had or was just about to....leave the Faces. Tetsu replaced Lane on tour with Faces, after Ooh La La was released.

Ron Wood got a pretty good job in the end, I think.

 

Maybe on CD but on the triple-gatefold LP (one panel is especially for Rod's backside shot) everyone is named and it even has big pictures of the main band. There's a small-print mention for the mandolin player "from Lindisfarne", Ray Jackson. Here's an interview with him about that very solo on Maggie May.
Even Mateus Rose gets a credit...



DD

 

I always took the reference to not remembering Ray Jackson's name as a joke. Lindisfarne, and hence Ray, were very well known at the time. Everyone seemed to know it was Ray who played on that track.

 

I think to understand the relationship you need to look back further than the Faces. Ron Wood and RS both played with Jeff Beck.
And British musicians during rock had a tendency to be quite flexible on playing on each others albums, or outside their bands, or in having outsiders play on bands albums.
I suspect the relations RS had with the musicians on his solo albums had less to do with bands he played in as much as it had to do with the British music community in general.

 

Check out the Rod Sessions 71-98 box, the Faces back him up on some of the outtakes on disc one. Some of the stuff and Faces songs/outtakes
are also released on the recent Rarittes album last year (some were culled from the Sessions box and Faces Box).


There was also the Uncut special that was release late last year or eariler this year w/ tons of articles/info on Small Faces/Faces

http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/uncut-editors-diary/small-faces-faces-ultimate-music-guide-in-shops-now



Apparently there were a few new songs too on a recent

 

The problem is that not all of the Mercury albums told which combination of musicians played on each song and not all the musicians on the albums played together on every track on the album.

 

Check out Rods's Session box for more Faces outtakes.

 

Digging out the couple Mercury lp's I have to hand it appears that the credits aren't as absent as my memory! Some (like Smiler) are printed on the inner sleeves, which may have been missing on the lp's I originally heard these through.

 

Rod's SOL for a reunion now.

 

I think maybe it was easily the other way around during Faces, up to the point where madison avenue discovered that Rod Stewart was a rock version of David Bowie that could be easily marketed as a pop singer too.
I wish Faces had gone on with a different singer. They could have. Much as Rod Stewart was a great front man for the band, there were others out there who could have done it, possibly better. And the bands true talents were in the musicianship, they could do any song and make it sound good.

 

They did try The Small Faces again - plus Marriott, minus Plonk - but the magic was gone.

 

A true reunion would have been impossible the day Ronnie Lane became incapacitated to the point of not being able to perform. He was essential to The Faces. A reunion of the remaining members would have been interesting, but with a different bass player/songwriter couldn't have been the real deal.
The death of Mr McLagan set it in concrete.

 

What they tried was to go back to the pre-Stewart days. The Marriot Small Faces and Stewart Faces was two different things.
Isn't it a bit interesting that Humble Pie was at times a kickass rock band and Faces was the same, but Small Faces with Marriot was more of a British Invasion type of band?

You would think that after Faces and Humble Pie them reforming would have been more of a boogie band doing kickass hard driving music.

 

Except those who thought it was John Peel...

 

Ian has been trying to get a reunion since the 90's.

They could have done the last couple of years/shows.

 

And everyone but Mr. McLagan is playing on "You're My Girl (I Don't Want to Discuss It)"; is this correct?

So it would be five Faces songs credited to Rod Stewart (?) :
I Know I'm Losing You (Cornelius Grant/Eddie Holland/Norman Whitfield) 5:21
True Blue (Rod Stewart/Ronnie Wood) 3:31
Jodie (Ian McLagan/Rod Stewart/Ronnie Wood) 3:08
My Way of Giving (Steve Marriott/Ronnie Lane) 3:55
You're My Girl (I Don't Want to Discuss It) (Beth Beatty/Dick Cooper/Ernie Shelby) 4:27

Can anyone confirm this list and chime in with approximate recording date/year?