Ooh La La (Faces album)
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''Ooh La La'' is the fourth studio album by the English
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
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 March 1973. It reached number one in the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
in the week of 28 April 1973. On 28 August 2015, the album was reissued in remastered form on vinyl, and remastered and expanded on CD as part of the box set (along with the rest of the Faces catalogue of studio recordings) ''1970–1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything...''.


Background

By the end of 1972, following the critical and commercial successes of
Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...
's solo albums, the singer had become increasingly distanced from some of his Faces bandmates, who were frustrated by the fact that by this point they had come to be perceived by the public (and even by some concert promoters) as little more than Stewart's backing band for live work. Stewart himself was reportedly distracted enough by his newfound stardom that he missed the first two weeks of recording sessions for the latest Faces album entirely. The production of the album would continue to be hampered by the singer's apparent lack of commitment to the project, with Stewart not appearing in any capacity on three of the LP's ten released tracks. As a result of this situation, ''Ooh La La'' was, according to
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 ...
, " Ronnie anes album", with founder member Lane's contributions setting the tone of the LP's quieter, more reflective second side. Despite the difficult circumstances of the recording sessions, producer
Glyn Johns Glyn Thomas Johns (born 15 February 1942) is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer. Biography Early history Johns was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. He had three siblings, two older sisters and a younger brother, Andy ...
held the group together, helping to placate internal tensions (as he had with
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
during their ''
Get Back "Get Back" is a song recorded by the British rock band the Beatles and Billy Preston, and written by Paul McCartney though credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. It was originally released as a single on 11 April 1969 and credited to ...
'' sessions); his efforts enabled the Faces to record a focused, concise album in the manner of its predecessor, '' A Nod Is As Good As a Wink... to a Blind Horse'' (the band's first two albums were, in contrast, lengthier self-produced affairs). Once the recording of ''Ooh La La'' was completed, the album's credits optimistically suggested an intention to work with Johns again in the future, with the comment: "Produced by Glyn Johns (see you in a year)".


Subsequent events

Shortly after ''Ooh La La''s March 1973 release, Stewart reported to the ''
New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' that he felt that the LP was a "stinking rotten album". He expounded further in the pages of ''
Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...
'', stating that the album was "A bloody mess. But I shouldn't say that, should I? Well, I should say it in a few weeks' time. Not now. I mean, the public ain't gonna like me saying it's a bloody mess. It was a disgrace. Maybe I'm too critical. But look, I don't like it ... All that fucking about taking nine months icto do an album like 'Ooh La La' doesn't prove anything. But I'm not going to say anything more about it." A subsequent attempt to qualify these statements only served to highlight his earlier lack of tact, when he told ''
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 ...
'' magazine that what he had actually meant to say was that the group was "capable of doing a better album than we've done. I just don't think we've found the right studios, or the right formula". Despite Stewart's misgivings the LP reached number one in the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
during April, being the only collection of original Faces material to achieve that distinction. Rather than celebrate their success, however, the rest of the group were understandably dismayed by the harshness of Stewart's comments, especially considering his perceived lack of commitment to fully participate in the album's recording. In his 2000 autobiography ''All The Rage'', Ian McLagan wrote: "The week the album came out he did all he could to scuttle it and told anyone who would listen how useless it was". Ronnie Lane, having assumed the creative workload due to Stewart's apparent disinterest, was especially stung by the vocalist's criticism. No longer content with the prospect of being increasingly sidelined in the band that he had co-founded with
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 ...
back in 1965, Lane left the Faces early in June, a decision that he would reportedly later regret (if not creatively, then at least financially). His role as bassist (but, tellingly, not as songwriter or secondary vocalist) was filled shortly thereafter by former Free bassist
Tetsu Yamauchi is a Japanese retired bass guitarist. In the 1970s, he was a member of several popular hard rock bands, including Free, where he replaced former bassist Andy Fraser before the band's final album ''Heartbreaker'', and the Faces, where he replace ...
. Faces went on to record two further singles, but while they toured extensively over the next two-and-a-half years, with Lane gone they never again recorded a full album of original studio material (aside from a brief, abortive attempt early in 1975). The group eventually ground to a halt in November 1975 as Stewart seemed to lose interest in them entirely, while guitarist
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 ...
moonlighted in
the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
prior to his official enlistment as
Mick Taylor Michael Kevin Taylor (born 17 January 1949) is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, h ...
's replacement. For the remainder of the 1970s Lane went on to a more creatively fulfilling but financially unrewarding solo career, while Jones and McLagan briefly reunited with
Steve Marriott Stephen Peter Marriott (30 January 1947 – 20 April 1991) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He co-founded and played in the rock bands Small Faces and Humble Pie, in a career spanning over two decades. Marriott was inducted po ...
in a reformation 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 band w ...
.


Album cover

The cover of the album was designed by Jim Ladwig, around a stylised photograph of "Gastone", a stage character of 1920s Italian comedian
Ettore Petrolini Ettore Petrolini (13 January 1884 – 29 June 1936) was an Italian stage and film actor, playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is considered one of the most important figures of avanspettacolo, vaudeville and revue. He was noted for his numerou ...
. The original LP's
art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
-inspired cover was constructed in such a way that when the top edge of the sleeve was pressed down, a concealed die-cut design element would descend that made Gastone's eyes appear to discolour and move to the side, and his jaw would appear to drop into a leering smile. The back cover also featured art deco-inspired design elements, and detailed song information and album credits alongside tinted individual photographic portraits of the band members. The original gatefold sleeve's inner design depicted a large stylised
photomontage Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image ...
of the band in typical 'laddish' pose, admiring the charms of a Can-can dancer (referencing the lyric of the title track). The album was reissued in a remastered and expanded form on 28 August 2015, including early rehearsal takes of three of its tracks. The vinyl reissue did not contain any bonus tracks, but did replicate the original LP cover with the animated picture of Gastone.


The tracks

The LP included one composition by the whole band (excepting Stewart), the instrumental "Fly in the Ointment". This was the only joint composition by the four instrumentalists to make it onto any of their original albums; usually their efforts were relegated to the
B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...
s of singles - such as "Ointment"s contemporary, "Skewiff (mend the fuse)" (which served as B-side to the " Cindy Incidentally" single, a UK No. 2). Stewart's compositions for the album were written mostly in tandem with Wood and McLagan, although in a departure from the norm two more songs were written by Stewart in sole partnership with Lane. One of these, "Flags And Banners", featured (again unusually) Stewart accompanying Wood on either banjo or a secondary guitar part, while Lane handled vocal duties. The
title track A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title. Title track may al ...
, by Wood and Lane, featured the only solo lead vocal performed in the studio by Wood during the band's existence, recorded at Glyn Johns' suggestion after neither Lane nor Stewart were said to be satisfied with their own attempts at it. Stewart apparently claimed at the time that the song was in the wrong key for him, but he later covered the song on his 1998 album ''
When We Were the New Boys ''When We Were the New Boys'' is the eighteenth studio album by Rod Stewart released on 29 May 1998. It was Stewart's last studio album to be released by Warner Bros. Records. It produced the singles " Ooh La La", " Rocks", and "When We Were t ...
'', in tribute to the recently deceased Lane. Lane himself performed the song he co-wrote on many occasions during his own post-Faces solo career. Two other tracks from the sessions were released at the time; "Skewiff (mend the fuse)" as a B-side, and "Dishevelment Blues" (a throwaway blues parody in which the band - including Stewart - played and sang deliberately badly for comic effect) which was released as part of an album sampler
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given away with copies of the ''New Musical Express'' to promote the LP. These two tracks (the latter long-prized by fans as a collector's item) were eventually compiled on the '' Five Guys Walk into a Bar...'' box set in 2004. Five outtakes from the sessions were also released as part of ''Five Guys...'', while a number of other outtakes, mostly instrumentals, have also circulated unofficially among collectors over the years. The album's title track "Ooh La La" is featured at the end of Wes Anderson's film '' Rushmore'' (1998), in the comedy film ''
Without a Paddle ''Without a Paddle'' is a 2004 American adventure comedy film directed by Steven Brill, written by Jay Leggett and Mitch Rouse, and based on a story by Harris Goldberg, Tom Nursall, and Fred Wolf. The film stars Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, Dax ...
'' (2004), and in numerous commercial and television soundtracks released since the year 2000. The song "Glad and Sorry" is featured in the films ''
Blow Blow commonly refers to: *Cocaine *Exhalation * Strike (attack) Blow, Blew, Blowing, or Blown may also refer to: People * Blew (surname) * Blow (surname) Arts and entertainment Music *The Blow, an American electro-pop band Albums * ''Blow ...
'' (2001) and '' I'm Your Woman'' (2020). The
Golden Smog Golden Smog is an alternative country-rock supergroup of loosely connected musicians mostly from the Minneapolis area. At various times, members of Soul Asylum, The Replacements, Wilco, The Jayhawks, Run Westy Run, The Honeydogs and Big Star h ...
album, '' Down By The Old Mainstream'', (1995) features a cover of "Glad and Sorry".


Track listing

Lead vocals by Rod Stewart except where noted. ;Side one #"Silicone Grown" (
Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...
,
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 ...
) – 3:05 #" Cindy Incidentally" (
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 ...
, Stewart, Wood) – 2:37 #"Flags and Banners" (
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 in ...
, Stewart) – 2:00 (lead singer: Ronnie Lane) #"My Fault" (McLagan, Stewart, Wood) – 3:05 (lead singers: Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood) #"Borstal Boys" (McLagan, Stewart, Wood) – 2:52 ;Side two #"Fly in the Ointment" (instrumental) (
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 ...
, Lane, McLagan, Wood) – 3:49 #"If I'm on the Late Side" (Lane, Stewart) – 2:36 #"Glad and Sorry" (Lane) – 3:04 (lead singers: Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan) #"Just Another Honky" (Lane) – 3:32 #" Ooh La La" (Lane, Wood) – 3:30 (lead singer: Ronnie Wood) 2015 reissue bonus tracks # "Cindy Incidentally" BC Session(McLagan, Stewart, Wood) # "Borstal Boys" ehearsal(McLagan, Stewart, Wood) # "Silicone Grown" ehearsal(Stewart, Wood) # "Glad and Sorry" ehearsal(Lane) # "Jealous Guy" [live at Reading Festival, Reading, UK, 25 August 1973, with
Tetsu Yamauchi is a Japanese retired bass guitarist. In the 1970s, he was a member of several popular hard rock bands, including Free, where he replaced former bassist Andy Fraser before the band's final album ''Heartbreaker'', and the Faces, where he replace ...
on bass] (John Lennon)


Charts


Personnel

Track numbering refers to CD and digital releases of the album. *
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 in ...
– bass, rhythm and acoustic guitars, percussion, tambourine & lead vocal (tracks 3 & 8) *
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 ...
– lead electric, slide, acoustic and rhythm guitars, electric
bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
, co-lead vocal (track 4 & 8) & lead vocal (track 10) *
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 ...
– piano, organ, harmonium, backing vocals & co-lead vocal (track 8) *
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 ...
– drums & percussion *
Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...
– lead vocal (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 & 9), banjo & secondary electric guitar (track 3) - not present on tracks 6, 8 & 10 Note: Stewart is only credited with playing electric guitar on track 3 in the ''Five Guys...'' booklet, so this credit may be in error (or may be the correction of an earlier omission). *Neemoi "Speedy" Aquaye – congas, shakers & percussion (track 6) *
Glyn Johns Glyn Thomas Johns (born 15 February 1942) is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer. Biography Early history Johns was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. He had three siblings, two older sisters and a younger brother, Andy ...
– producer, engineer *
Ron Nevison Ron Nevison is an American record producer and audio engineer. He started his career in the early 1970s as an engineer on ''Quadrophenia'' by the Who and Bad Company's debut album. He eventually became a producer, working with artists including M ...
- engineer


References

{{Authority control 1973 albums Faces (band) albums Warner Records albums Albums produced by Glyn Johns Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios