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Faces to Release Boxed Set in May
03/09/2004 6:30 PM, Reuters
The Faces, a band known as much for
its excess as for its music, will return for one more round
with the four-disc box set "Faces: Five Guys Walk Into a
Bar..."
Due May 25 from Rhino, the collection includes material
from the band's four studio albums, recorded between 1969 and
1973, as well as plenty of rarities.
Among the treats are covers of John Lennon 's "Jealous Guy,"
Free's "The Stealer," Luther Ingram's "(If Loving You Is Wrong)
I Don't Want To Be Right" and Paul McCartney 's "Maybe I'm
Amazed," sourced from album recording sessions and BBC
television and radio appearances.
"I don't remember too many gigs," singer Rod Stewart
remembers in the set's liner notes. "Still, we were never so
drunk we couldn't play. It was an air of merriment."
When Small Faces singer Steve Marriott exited the band in
1969, organist/piano player Ian McLagan, drummer Kenney Jones
and bassist Ronnie Lane decided to continue. They recruited
Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood from the Jeff Beck Group and
changed their name to the Faces.
The collection also boasts alternate takes of many tracks
and outtakes, as well as captured tomfoolery in the studio and
hotel room recordings the band made while on the road. Liner
notes written by Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke
include interviews with all of the band's surviving members.
McLagan also contributes anecdotes from the band's heyday, as
well as memories of Lane, who lost his fight with multiple
sclerosis in 1997.
"He was a rascal and charmer," McLagan writes. "And he
always seemed to get away with it. And though he never rated
himself highly, he was simply the most melodic and subtly
inventive bass player I've ever heard... A lot of people don't
know who he is anymore, but he shines throughout here."
Lane exited the band following the recording of 1973's "Ooh
La La," opting for a solo career that remained active through
the 1970s. The rest of the band threw in the towel after a tour
the following year. Stewart continued in earnest with the solo
career that began to take off in 1971, while Wood would go on
to join the Rolling Stones. Jones served as the drummer in the
early '80s incarnation of the Who, following the death of Keith
Moon .
McLagan played with everyone from the Stones and Buddy Guy
to Bonnie Raitt and Billy Bragg . Last year, he appeared on Ryan Adams ' "Love Is Hell" EPs (Lost Highway) and Robert Earl Keen 's
"Farm Fresh Onions" (Audium) and released the solo album "Rise
and Shine" (Gaff Music).
Reuters/Billboard
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