''First Step'' is the debut album by the British group

Faces The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affe ...

, released in early 1970. The album was released only a few months after the Faces had formed from the ashes of the

Small Faces Small Faces were an English rock band from London, founded in 1965. The group originally consisted of Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, with Ian McLagan replacing Winston as the band's keyboardist in 1966. The ...

(from which

Ronnie Lane Ronald Frederick Lane (1 April 1946 – 4 June 1997) was an English musician and songwriter who is best known as the bass guitarist and founding member of Small Faces (1965–69) and subsequently Faces (1969–73). Lane formed Small Faces ...

Kenney Jones Kenneth Thomas "Kenney" Jones (born 16 September 1948) is an English drummer best known for his work in the groups Small Faces, Faces, and the Who. Jones was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 as a member of Small Faces/Faces ...

and

Ian McLagan Ian Patrick McLagan (; 12 May 1945 – 3 December 2014) was an English keyboardist, best known as a member of the rock bands Small Faces and Faces. He also collaborated with the Rolling Stones and led his own band from the late 1970s. He was in ...

hailed) and

The Jeff Beck Group The Jeff Beck Group was a British rock band formed in London in January 1967 by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck. Their innovative approach to heavy-sounding blues, rhythm and blues and rock was a major influence on popular music. Firs ...

(from which Rod Stewart and

Ronnie Wood Ronald David Wood (born 1 June 1947) is an English rock musician, best known as an official member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, as well as a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. Wood began his career in 1964, playing guitar with a nu ...

hailed.) The album is credited to the

on all North American issues and reissues, while record labels for initial vinyl printings give the title as ''The First Step''. The album cover shows Ronnie Wood holding a copy of Geoffrey Sisley's seminal guitar tutorial ''First Step: How to Play the Guitar Plectrum Style''. While the album was recorded after the group's official formation and signing to

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

in the Autumn of 1969, the band members had been rehearsing, performing and recording together in various combinations since May of that year. At 46:22, ''First Step'' is the band's lengthiest original release and many modern critics regard it as promising, but sprawling and unfocused - their least cohesive and most undisciplined offering. It is however perhaps the most democratic of the Faces releases, highlighting the band's talents as a unified whole and affording each member at least one composer credit, as opposed to the perceived dominance of Stewart and his songwriting partnership with Wood as their career progressed. On 28 August 2015, the album was reissued in a remastered and expanded form, including two previously unreleased bonus tracks recorded shortly after the album's release, "Behind The Sun" and "Mona: The Blues" (the latter was remade and refined by Lane and Wood in 1972 for their '' Mahoney's Last Stand'' film soundtrack).

Reception

The album reached #119 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Reviewing in 1970 for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'',

Joel Selvin Joel Selvin (born February 14, 1950) is an American San Francisco-based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', which ran from 1972 to 2009. Selvin has written books covering various aspects of p ...

found the Faces to be "a fine rock band" but also "highly derivative" and who "play with more control than soul", going on to say, "They know exactly what they are doing and they do it well, as good musicians should, but the precision and purity of their sound seems a little sterile, and they lack the drive and power to make their music work without subtleties." Reviewing in '' Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981),

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

viewed the record as "one more complication in the Rod Stewart mystery", saying, "With

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...

he parodies himself before he's established a self to parody. With

Lou Reizner Lou Reizner (born Chicago 1934, died London 26 June 1977) was a record producer, A&R executive and head of Mercury Records European operations. He produced Rod Stewart's first two solo albums, the orchestral version of The Who's rock opera Tomm ...

he establishes himself as a singer-songwriter of uncommon spunk and a vocal interpreter of uncommon individuality. And here he steps into the shoes of a purveyor of Humble Pie to pose as the leader of a mediocre white r&b band. Best cut: Ronnie Lane's 'Stone.'"

Track listing

All lead vocals by Rod Stewart except where indicated Side One # " Wicked Messenger" (

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

) - 4:00 # "Devotion" (

) - 4:48 (lead vocals: Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane) # "Shake, Shudder, Shiver" (Lane,

) - 3:09 (lead vocals: Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane)(duet) # "Stone" (Lane) - 5:33 (lead vocals: Ronnie Lane) # "Around The Plynth" ( Rod Stewart, Wood) - 5:45 Side Two # "Flying" (Lane, Stewart, Wood) - 4:10 # "Pineapple and the Monkey" (instrumental) (Wood) - 4:23 # "Nobody Knows" (Lane, Wood) - 4:05 (lead vocals: Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane)(duet) - 4:04 # "Looking Out the Window" (instrumental) (

) - 5:00 # "Three Button Hand Me Down" (McLagan, Stewart) - 5:30 2015 Reissue bonus tracks # "Behind The Sun" (Jones, Lane, McLagan, Stewart, Wood) # "Mona: The Blues" (instrumental) (Lane, Wood) # "Shake, Shudder, Shiver" BC Session(Lane, Wood)(lead vocals: Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane)(duet) # "Flying"

ake 3 Ake (or Aké in Spanish orthography) is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It's located in the municipality of Tixkokob, in the Mexican state of Yucatán; 40 km (25 mi) east of Mérida, Yucatán. The name ...

(Lane, Stewart, Wood) # "Nobody Knows"

ake 2 Ake (or Aké in Spanish orthography) is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It's located in the municipality of Tixkokob, in the Mexican state of Yucatán; 40 km (25 mi) east of Mérida, Yucatán. The name ...

(Lane, Wood) * The 2015 reissue replicates the US edition of the LP, containing minor edits not present on the UK original, most noticeably the omission of Stewart shouting "That's yer lot!" at the end of "Around the Plynth".

Personnel

* Rod Stewart -

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and backing vocals, harmonica, banjo (track 4) *

- bass, rhythm and acoustic guitars, backing vocals, lead vocal (track 4), co-lead vocal (tracks 2,3 & 8) *

, rhythm and acoustic guitars, second bass guitar (track 10), backing vocals *

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

, Wurlitzer electric and acoustic pianos, backing vocals *

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

and percussion *

Martin Birch Martin Birch (27 December 19489 August 2020) was a British music producer and sound engineer. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, W ...

- engineer *

- producer

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:First Step (Album) 1970 debut albums Faces (band) albums Warner Records albums Albums produced by Kenney Jones Albums produced by Ronnie Lane Albums produced by Ian McLagan Albums produced by Ronnie Wood Albums produced by Rod Stewart