SLS: Small Faces To Who

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As is his custom, for the first Song Lyric Sunday of the month Jim is inviting us to play a song that was written or performed by an artist born in that month, i.e. September. His post Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 tells all. And as is my custom I consulted a very helpful website that I have found for this monthly delight, and found more than enough candidates. Having decided not to go with Russ Conway, and suspecting that Freddie Mercury would be a popular choice, I also ruled out Al Stewart and Roger Waters, and decided that the obvious course for me was to go for my own birthday – the 16th, if you want to know when to send the cards! It didn’t look too promising at first – no way was I going for Nick Jonas, and Katie Melua would have been an unlikely choice for me – but I found what I was looking for. Someone who has been part of several bands I’ve loved down the years: Kenney Jones was born on 16 September 1948, which makes him five years older than me.

Who? An appropriate question. Kenney was the drummer for The Small Faces, a founding member of the band, and stayed with them during their transition to being just The Faces, as they added two new members (Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood) who were too tall for the original name. He then went on to play for The Who, and was with them for ten years during which they only made two albums. He left after many debates with Roger Daltrey about his suitability for the band: in Daltrey’s eyes he was a great drummer but wasn’t enough of a lunatic to be the replacement for Keith Moon, though they clearly took a long time coming to that conclusion. He then went on to form bands of his own which don’t appear to have been as successful as his earlier roles.

I thought I’d play you a song from each of those first three bands for today, in chronological order. This is an obvious choice for me from The Small Faces:

All Or Nothing, a true rock classic, and its lyrics are, as always, to be found at genius.com.

The song was written by band members Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, neither of whom is still with us, sadly. It was released as a non-album single in August 1966 (the week after we won the World Cup) and was their first and only UK #1 single, spending a week there in September – the week of Kenney’s and my birthday – knocking the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine off the top. According to Kay Marriott, Steve’s mother, Steve wrote this song about his split with his ex-fiancée Sue Oliver, though his first wife Jenny Rylance has said that he told her he wrote the song for her as a result of her split with Rod Stewart. Both statements are apparently correct (?), according to a later biography of Steve. Following Steve’s death in a house fire in 1991 the song was played as the requiem at his funeral – that seems somehow apt to me, given its lyrics and his lifestyle.

The mention of Rod Stewart is also fitting: as I said, he was one of the two new members brought in to replace Steve Marriott when he left to form Humble Pie. And as the other was Ronnie Wood, that new version of the band has some pedigree! For The Faces, this is my choice:

Apologies for the audio-only clip, but I couldn’t find another that wasn’t restricted or played by a later version of the band. And before I forget, here are the lyrics, from genius.com.

Ooh La La was the title track of The Faces’ fourth and final album, released in March 1973, which went to #1 in the UK and managed #21 in the US. The song was written by the two Ronnies – Wood and Lane (not Barker and Corbett, for the benefit of British readers). It is a jaunty little number with a serious message: the singer didn’t listen to his grandfather when he was sharing words of wisdom, leading to the iconic chorus of “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger.” Bob Seger went down a not dissimilar path in Against The Wind, with the line “wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.” Life can give you belated wisdom! This was released as a single in May 1973, but only in the US, where it didn’t make the charts. However, due to the way streaming has affected the charts in more recent years, despite having not been a single here in the UK the song went Gold in 2023 for more than 400,000 downloads.

Rod Stewart covered Ooh La La for his 18th studio album, When We Were the New Boys, in tribute to the recently deceased Ronnie Lane. It was released in May 1998 as the lead single from the album and reached #16 in the UK. I still prefer the original, though, as I like Ronnie Woods’ vocal better.

After the demise of The Faces Kenney was invited by Pete Townshend to join The Who in 1978. This is a favourite of mine from one of the two albums he made with them:

You Better You Bet, and here is genius.com with the lyrics.

The song was written by Pete Townshend and was released as a single in February 1981, a couple of weeks before it became the opening track on their ninth album, Face Dances. The single peaked at #9 in the UK and #18 in the US, while the album got to #2 in the UK and #4 in the US. As well as being the first single from the album its music video was the fourth aired on MTV in 1981, and was the first to be repeated on the channel – several times, in fact. Pete Townshend wrote the song for his girlfriend at the time, who he described as “one of the loveliest people on the planet.” Fellow band members liked the song too: Roger Daltrey said that the way it bounced along reminded him of Elvis, and Kenney described it as his signature song from his period with the band, commenting “That’s most like me.” I’ve always liked it too!

That’s my lot for today, and I hope you’ve enjoyed my latest trip down Memory Lane. My thanks as always to Jim for running the show, and I’m now off to see who others have chosen to play from the selection of September babies. Have a lovely day, and I’ll see you again for some more Tuesday Tunes 🎶

50 thoughts on “SLS: Small Faces To Who”

  1. We in Canada knew so little about the Small Faces or Steve Marriott. Their first hit here was Tin Soldier (not to be confused with One Tin Soldier by the Original Caste). Not sure if it got to the top, but it was big. Then radio silence. The only album that reached us, at least in Western Canada, was Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake. (Still al favourite of mine.) There might have been one more single in between to hit the charts, but I would have to go searching for it.

    The only band members we knew were Lane and Marriott, no one else. We sure could have used the internet back then!

    The Who were, of course, really big, but after Moon died we had no idea who replaced him, or if we did Kenny’s name was unfamiliar to us. Sad.

    Like the Small Faces, Humble Pie got little or no airplay here. I remember seeing an album, but had no reason to pick it up. The records were stacked by letter in the stores in alphabetical order, so Humble Pie would have been at or near the back. Again, sad.

    Thank you for this bit of info and music. One question, was Kenny the drummer on Baba O’Reilly? I could look it up, but got an appt and by the time I get back this will just be a forgotten memory…

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    • It’s so much easier today, isn’t it! I don’t think Small Faces or The Faces had much success in N America, certainly not as much as they did here.

      Baba O’Reilly was on ‘Who’s Next,’ which came out in 1971. Keith Moon was on that – he died in 1978, after which Kenney replaced him. This song was on ‘Face Dances,’ released in 1981. The album was #1 in Canada and the single #4.

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    • Thank you, I’ll save that for next week. I hope his guitar playing is going well – my older daughter learned violin and passed Grade 8. The early days were a little hard on our ears, though!

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  3. Keeping track of who was in which group and when is quite a task. Which begs the question, does a famous group have its own identity, more important than the individual members or does a group need its iconic characters? My daughter and son-in-law went to a three day soul festival in Margate, while I child sat. They were younger than most of the audience, but really enjoyed the groups with one original old member and the rest young. On the last evening they were home early because the final act was an old group with only one young member and the singing pretty dire!

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    • Some of the bands from those days have lasted the course well, others less so. Even if Kenney did nothing else his membership of three iconic bands would have earned him his place in history.

      It sounds as if your daughter and son-in-law saw one of those who should have given up years ago 🤣

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  4. Clive, thanks for the history lesson. To me, it shows if you are good musician, are known for collaboration and being a good band mate, you will get invitations to join new bands. The shelf life for most bands is short. I had an old management professor who said if you do three things, you will have a chance to be successful in any endeavor – show up, show up on time, and show up dressed to play. This last one means more than what it seems – in this case, a tuned instrument and a good attitude. Keith

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  5. I can honestly say I haven’t heard any of these songs! I liked the first one, but I’m lukewarm on the other two. BUT … unless you have any objections, I’m sharing this post this morning, for I think my readers — at least most of them — will really enjoy this music!

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  9. 3 favorite bands of mine…especially the Who and Small Faces…I liked the Faces as well but it’s hard to be Marriott. Lane and Marriott were wonderful songwriters as well. But gotta love Kenney Jones…he took on the hardest gig in rock music with the Who.

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  10. Clive, too often drummers are underappreciated by the public. Thanks for highlighting this drummer, who played with the best of them. Thanks also for the band chronology for Kenney.

    Did not know Marriott died in a house fire. How horrible!

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  12. I’ve loved the Small Faces ever since discovering their masterpiece, Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, in 1980. Marriott-Lane was just so talented and prolific as a writing team. They had many UK hits during the Beat boom, but “Itchycoo Park” was their only hit here in the states. (I think it reached #17.)

    Thanks for recognizing this great drummer – probably the most “stable” member of all three bands. Townshend made the right choice selecting him to replace Moonie the Looney!

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    • You came to them late but that was a good place to start. If you can find it where you stream music I’d recommend their ‘Autumn Stone’ compilation: all those great singles and some fine album tracks, including the title one, which is stunningly beautiful.

      You could well be right on Kenney’s stability 🤣

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      • Don’t have Autumn Stone, but know of it, and have all the songs on it. (I think I have every song by pre-reunion SF.) You’re absolutely right, the title song – essentially solo Marriott – is beautiful, with that absoutely perfect Chris Wood flute solo. There’s a twinge of sadness, as it was at the tail end of their career.

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  13. Being a fan of drummers in general, I appreciated your homage to Kenny Jones. I was not familiar with the Faces/Small Faces songs but they were great. Like Ange, I’m not crazy about The Who (Roger Daltry is singularly unappealing), but, as it happens, their song was the only one I knew! Nice to hear some cool new (to me) music! 😎

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    • I’m glad you liked the ones you didn’t previously know. Roger Daltrey has always been an arrogant tosser and his move to right wing politics just makes him worse. Good singer for The Who, though.

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  14. Nice choice, Clive going with Kenney Jones who also recorded tracks with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Rolling Stones.  It is a very hard ask to try and replace Keith Moon. Thanks for sharing your music where you made some excellent choices.

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  15. Great choice to go for a drummer Clive they don’t often get the recognition they deserve – ‘All or Nothing’ is a fabulous track it doesn’t seem to age also enjoyed ‘Ooh La La’ with the great Rod. But will pass on the third – I know it may be controversial but I was never a Who fan and I can’t say why that is – but 2 out of 3 is pretty good 😃

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  16. I recall when reading Roger Daltrey’s autobiography he was less than complimentary about Kenney Jones drumming, basically saying he was okay for a upgrade pub band like Rod and The Faces but not The Who. Never been shy with a comment has Roger!

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