- Format: MP3
# T R A C K S D E T A I L S #
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# Disc 1 #
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1. FLYING
(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood/Ronnie Lane)
From First Step (A) · Also issued as Warner Bros. [UK] single #WB 8005 (2/70)
2. ON THE BEACH
(Ron Wood/Ronnie Lane)
From Long Player (B)
3. TOO BAD
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
From A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse (C)
4. IF I'M ON THE LATE SIDE
(Rod Stewart/Ronnie Lane)
From Ooh La La (D)
5. DEBRIS
(Ronnie Lane)
From A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse (C)
Also issued as the B-side of "Stay With Me," Warner Bros. [UK] #K-16136 (12/3/71)
6. JEALOUS GUY
(John Lennon)
An outtake from Long Player (B)
7. EVIL (Rehearsal)
(Willie Dixon)
From the FACES' first rehearsals (Summer/69)
8. AS LONG AS YOU TELL HIM
(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood)
The B-side of "You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything," Warner Bros.
[UK] single #K-16494 (11/22/74), Warner Bros. single #WBS 8066
(1/22/75) & Warner Bros. single #WBS-8102 (5/28/75)
9. MAGGIE MAY (Live/BBC)
(Rod Stewart/Martin Quittenton)
From the BBC Radio 1 Program Top Gear (9/28/71)
10. CINDY INCIDENTALLY (Alternate Mix)
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart/Ian McLagan)
An outtake from Ooh La La (D)
11. MAYBE I'M AMAZED (Live/BBC)
(Paul McCartney)
From the BBC TV Program Sounds For Saturday: The Music Of The Faces (10/26/71)
12. INSURANCE
(Ronnie Lane/Ron Wood)
An outtake from Ooh La La (D)
13. I CAME LOOKING FOR YOU - Ronnie Lane & Ian McLagan (Rehearsal)
(Ronnie Lane)
From a quick shag at THE MARIE ANTOINETTE HOTEL, New Orleans, LA (7/25/71)
14. LAST ORDERS PLEASE
(Ronnie Lane)
From A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse (C)
15. WYNDLESHAM BAY (JODIE)
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart/Ian McLagan)
An outtake from Ooh La La (D)
16. I CAN FEEL THE FIRE (Live)
(Ron Wood)
From a concert at SWING AUDITORIUM, San Bernadino, CA (3/7/75)
17. TONIGHT'S NUMBER - Ron Wood & Ronnie Lane
(Ronnie Lane/Ron Wood)
From Mahoney's Last Stand/Original Motion Picture Soundtrack,
Atco #SD-36-126 (1976) & Atlantic [UK] #K-50308 (1976)
18. COME SEE ME BABY (THE CHEATER)
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart/Ian McLagan)
An outtake from Ooh La La (D)
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# Disc 2 #
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1. POOL HALL RICHARD
(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood)
Warner Bros. [UK] single #K-16341 (11/30/73)
2. YOU'RE MY GIRL (I DON'T WANT TO DISCUSS IT) (Live/BBC)
(Dick Cooper/Beth Beatty/Ernie Shelby)
From the BBC Radio 1 Program In Concert (4/1/73)
3. GLAD AND SORRY
(Ronnie Lane)
From Ooh La La (D)
4. SHAKE, SHUDDER, SHIVER (Rehearsal)
(Ron Wood/Ronnie Lane)
From the FACES' first rehearsals (Summer/69)
5. MISS JUDY'S FARM (Live/BBC)
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
From the BBC Radio 1 Program In Concert (4/1/73)
6. RICHMOND
(Ronnie Lane)
From Long Player (B)
7. THAT'S ALL YOU NEED
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
From A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse (C)
8. REAR WHEEL SKID
(Ian McLagan/Ronnie Lane/Ron Wood/Kenney Jones)
The B-side of "Had Me A Real Good Time," Warner Bros. single #WB 7442
(10/21/70) & Warner Bros. [UK] single #WB-8018 (11/13/70)
9. MAYBE I'M AMAZED
(Paul McCartney)
Warner Bros. single #WB-7483 (4/6/71)
10. (IF LOVING YOU IS WRONG) I DON'T WANT TO BE RIGHT
(Homer Banks/Carl Hampton/Raymond Jackson)
An outtake from Ooh La La (B)
11. TAKE A LOOK AT THE GUY (Live)
(Ron Wood)
From a concert at SWING AUDITORIUM, San Bernadino, CA (3/7/75)
12. FLAGS AND BANNERS
(Ronnie Lane/Rod Stewart)
From Ooh La La (D)
13. BAD 'N' RUIN (Live/BBC)
(Rod Stewart/Ian McLagan)
From the BBC TV Program Disco 2 (4/19/71)
14. AROUND THE PLYNTH
(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood)
From First Step (A) · Also issued as Warner Bros. single [edit] #WB 7393 (4/29/70)
15. SWEET LADY MARY
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart/Ronnie Lane)
From Long Player (B)
16. HAD ME A REAL GOOD TIME
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart/Ronnie Lane)
From Long Player (B) · Also issued as Warner Bros. single [edit] #WB 7442 (10/21/70)
& Warner Bros. [UK] single [edit] #WB-8018 (11/13/70)
17. CUT ACROSS SHORTY (Live/BBC)
(Marijohn Wilkin/Wayne Walker)
From the BBC Radio 1 Program John Peel's Sunday Concert (5/13/71)
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# Disc 3 #
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1. YOU'RE SO RUDE
(Ian McLagan/Ronnie Lane)
From A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse (C)
Also issued as the B-side of "Stay With Me," Warner Bros. single #WB-7545 (12/8/71)
2. (I KNOW) I'M LOSING YOU (Live/BBC)
(Norman Whitfield/Eddie Holland/Cornelius Grant)
From the BBC TV Program Sounds For Saturday: The Music Of The Faces (10/26/71)
3. LOVE LIVES HERE
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart/Ronnie Lane)
From A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse (C)
4. I'D RATHER GO BLIND (Live)
(Billy Foster/Ellington Jordan)
From a concert at SWING AUDITORIUM, San Bernadino, CA (3/7/75)
5. HI-HEEL SNEAKERS/EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY TO LOVE
(Robert Higginbotham)(Bert Berns/Solomon Burke/Jerry Wexler)
From the FACES' last recording sessions (F)
6. GETTIN' HUNGRY
(Brian Wilson/Mike Love)
From the FACES' last recording sessions (F)
7. SILICONE GROWN
(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood)
From Ooh La La (D)
8. OH LORD I'M BROWNED OFF
(Ron Wood/Ian McLagan/Ronnie Lane/Kenney Jones)
The B-side of "Maybe I'm Amazed," Warner Bros. single #WB-7483 (4/6/71)
9. JUST ANOTHER HONKY
(Ronnie Lane)
From Ooh La La (D)
10. OPEN TO IDEAS
(Ian McLagan/Rod Stewart/Ron Wood)
From the FACES' last recording sessions (F)
First issued on the compilation Good Boys...When They're Asleep/The Best Of Faces (**)
11. SKEWIFF (MEND THE FUSE)
(Ron Wood/Ronnie Lane/Ian McLagan/Kenney Jones)
The B-side of "Cindy Incidentally," Warner Bros. single #WB-7681 (2/5/73) & Warner Bros. [UK] single #K-16247 (2/9/73)
12. TOO BAD (Live)
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
From a concert at TAMPA STADIUM, Tampa Bay, FL (4/30/72)
13. ROCK ME
(Ian McLagan)
From the FACES' last recording sessions (F)
14. ANGEL (Live/BBC)
(Jimi Hendrix)
From the BBC Radio 1 Program In Concert (4/1/73)
15. STAY WITH ME (Live/BBC)
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
From the BBC TV Program Sounds For Saturday: The Music Of The Faces (10/26/71)
16. OOH LA LA
(Ron Wood/Ronnie Lane)
From Ooh La La (D) · Also issued as Warner Bros. single #WB-7711 (6/6/73)
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# Disc 4 #
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1. THE STEALER (Live/BBC)
(Andy Fraser/Paul Rodgers/Paul Kossoff)
From the BBC Radio 1 Program In Concert (4/1/73)
2. AROUND THE PLYNTH/GASOLINE ALLEY (Live/BBC)
(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood)(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood)
From the BBC Radio 1 Program Top Gear (9/15/70)
3. YOU CAN MAKE ME DANCE, SING OR ANYTHING (EVEN TAKE THE DOG FOR A WALK,
MEND A FUSE, FOLD AWAY THE IRONING BOARD, OR ANY OTHER DOMESTIC SHORT
COMINGS) (UK Single Version)
(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood/Kenney Jones/Tetsu Yamauchi/Ian McLagan)
Warner Bros. [UK] single #K-16494 (11/22/74), Warner Bros. single [edit] #WBS-8066 (1/22/75)
& Warner Bros. single [edit] #WBS-8102 (5/28/75)
4. I WISH IT WOULD RAIN (Live)
(Barrett Strong/Roger Penzabene/Norman Whitfield)
The B-side of "Pool Hall Richard," Warner Bros. [UK] single #K-16341 (11/30/73)
5. MISS JUDY'S FARM (Live/BBC)
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
From the BBC TV Program Sounds For Saturday: The Music Of The Faces (10/26/71)
6. LOVE IN VAIN (Live/BBC)
(Robert Johnson)
From the BBC Radio Program John Peel's Sunday Concert (5/13/71)
7. MY FAULT (Live/BBC)
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart/Ian McLagan)
From the BBC Radio 1 Program Radio 1 Club (2/12/73)
8. I FEEL SO GOOD (Rehearsal)
(Big Bill Broonzy)
From the FACES' first rehearsals (Summer/69)
9. MISS JUDY'S FARM
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
From A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse (C)
Also issued as the B-side of "Stay With Me," Warner Bros. single #WB-7150 (10/6/72)
10. THREE BUTTON HAND ME DOWN
(Rod Stewart/Ian McLagan)
From First Step (A) · Also issued as the B-side of "Flying," Warner Bros. [UK] single #WB-8005 (2/70)
11. CINDY INCIDENTALLY
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart/Ian McLagan)
From Ooh La La (D) · Also issued as Warner Bros. single #WB-7681 (2/73)
12. BORSTAL BOYS
(Ian McLagan/Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
From Ooh La La (D) · Also issued as the B-side of "Ooh La La," Warner Bros. single #WB-7711 (6/6/73)
13. FLYING (Live/BBC)
(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood/Ronnie Lane)
From the BBC Radio 1 Program Dave Lee Travis (3/10/70)
14. BAD 'N' RUIN
(Rod Stewart/Ian McLagan)
From Long Player (B)
15. DISHEVELMENT BLUES
(Rod Stewart/Ron Wood/Ronnie Lane/Ian McLagan/Kenney Jones)
Warner Bros. [UK] flexi-disc single #SFI-139 (4/5/73) [free with the April 1973 issue of New Musical Express]
16. STAY WITH ME
(Ron Wood/Rod Stewart)
From A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse (C)
Also issued as Warner Bros. [UK] single #K-16136 (12/3/71), Warner Bros. single
#WB-7545 (12/8/71) & Warner Bros. single #WB-7150(D)
There has never been a better box set than the Faces' Five Guys Walk into a Bar.... There has never been a box that captures an artist so perfectly, nor has a box set taken greater advantage of unreleased and rare material, to the point where it seems as essential and vital as the released recordings. Simply put, there's never been a box set as necessary as this, since it tells the band's entire tale and explains exactly what the fuss is all about. Unfortunately, some explanations are in order, since the Faces never made it big, resigned to cult status in America and Britain alike. Nevertheless, if you love rock & roll with an all-consuming passion, you may consider the Faces the greatest rock & roll band ever. And you'd be right. Other bands were certainly bigger and plenty wielded a stronger influence, but the Faces were something unique, an endearingly ragged quintet that played raw, big-hearted rock & roll as hard as the Rolling Stones, but with a warm, friendly vibe that would have sounded utterly foreign coming from the Stones. At the turn of the '60s, that warmth was unusual in rock & roll, since most of the big bands were larger than life; even the Kinks, the quaintest and quietest of the titans of the late '60s, had a theatrical bent that lent them a mystique.
In contrast, the Faces were utterly without mystique. They were unpretentious to a fault, coming across like the lovable lads from the neighborhood who were always out for a good time, whether it was before, during, or after a gig. They were unassuming and mischievous, with their raggedness camouflaging a sweetness that flowed throughout their music; they were charming rogues, so endearing that even the infamously cranky, trendsetting British DJ John Peel had a soft spot a mile wide for them. That raggedness resulted in exhilarating music, but also made the Faces inconsistent on-stage and in the studio. At their peak, nobody could touch them, but even their greatest albums were sloppy, never maintaining their momentum. They would also throw away great songs on non-LP singles, and their live performances -- including BBC sessions for Peel -- often had a raucous energy not quite captured on their albums. All of these elements taken as a whole add up to a great band, but no single album, not even the first-rate 1999 compilation Good Boys When They're Asleep, captured each of these elements.
Five Guys Walk into a Bar... does. Produced and sequenced by their keyboardist, Ian McLagan, the set throws all conventional rules of box sets out the window. It's not assembled in a chronological order. A grand 43 of its 67 tracks are non-LP cuts and rarities, including a whopping 31 previously unreleased tracks. It has all the B-sides never released on CD. Several songs are repeated in alternate live or studio versions. Such a preponderance of rarities would usually mean that a box set is only for the devoted, but that's not the case here -- these rarities are the very reason why Five Guys Walk into a Bar... succeeds in a way none of their original albums do, since they fill in the gaps left behind on their four studio albums. This does mean that it features several Rod Stewart solo cuts that worked their way into the Faces' repertoire (partially because the band backed him on his solo albums, too), but that was an important part of their history (plus, the BBC version of "You're My Girl [I Don't Want to Discuss It]" is blistering hot), and while this showcases Stewart at his best -- he never was better than he was in the early '70s, whether it was fronting the Faces or on his solo records -- he never overshadows his mates on this box.
The focus is on the band as a whole, which means that the spotlight is shone on the late, perpetually underappreciated Ronnie Lane numerous times on each of the four discs, and that Ronnie Wood has his turn at the microphone on a wonderful live "Take a Look at the Guy." McLagan's song sequencing may appear to have no logic behind it, since it doesn't group recordings together by either era or scarcity, yet his seemingly haphazard approach makes musical and emotional sense, flowing like a set list yet remarkably maintaining momentum through its four lengthy discs. While it may sound like hyperbole, there's never a dull moment here, not a bad track among these 67 songs -- it's consistent in a way the Faces never were when they were together. It's a joyous, addictive listen, too. It sounds like a party, one where everybody's invited and where the music doesn't stop playing until the break of dawn. That makes a perfect tribute for a band that never got the respect they were due, and never made the great album they should have made. With Five Guys Walk into a Bar..., the Faces finally have that great album and not just that, they have a box set that's as infectious and satisfying as any classic rock & roll album and a box set that's quite possibly the greatest box set ever made. Plus, it's just one hell of a good time.