Hey alls, and how time does fly! Summer's 2/3 over and I have not been to this here site in a long time. In part that's on account of some major renovations to the Designated Rock Zone at the Harpswell Estate. In part it's account of summer being here. In part it's on account of some travels hither and yon. It's hard to focus on the music/ site when your gear's all stowed, when the weather's fine and there's work and play to do outside, and when you're faraways on the road. In any event, we hopefully should be back on track...
To break the fast, here's a "3-fer" of holdovers from the 2013 Harpswell sessions with Johnny Stackpole and Paulie Cardillo. We've already lapped ourselves, having just played and recorded some stuff last month down in the NY metro area, so this is all long overdue, but it's good stuff and also thematically related, pulling on the strands of some of my recent-years faves: the extended (Small Faces) fambly.
"Song of a Baker" comes off the Small Faces psychedelic classic "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" from '68. Though I prefer their amped-up R&B offerings, the Small Faces rarely let you down, and it's impossibly fun to try and recreate the vibes of so many giants, especially the ever-underrated Ronnie Lane (bass)/ Kenny Jones (drums) rhythm section. Add on some of those vintage Ian MacLagan keys and try your best Stever Marriott yelp and what more could you ask for?
After Marriott split, Ronnie, Jonesy and Mac persevered, picked up Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood from the Jeff Beck group, dropped the "Small", and proceeded to put out some of the best live and studio music of the mid-70's as (the) Faces. This here is one of Ronnie Lane's cuts, Rod the Mod only singing a bit on the bridge section. Ronnie was a master of both the good-timey and the bittersweet, and "Debris" is one of the latter, from 1971's "A Nod is As Good As a Wink... to a Blind Horse". Man, they could've released that LP with nothing but this song and their big hit "Stay With Me", and I'd still pay full fare.
The other former Small Face, Steve Marriott, ended up throwing in with some other gents and forming the quasi-supergroup Humble Pie in 1969 (Peter Frampton being the most famous of the other members). Especially after Frampton decamped in 1971, the Pie dealt in much harder arena-style boogie rock than the Faces' slop/ blooz/ rock/ heart-on-sleeve raveups. "30 Days in the Hole", released in '72, was maybe their biggest hit, and it gets to a lot of the overconsumption that would largely do Marriott in. Lordy, but it's a shouter! I had several runs at it, but it's just out of my range, and after each I just ended up woozy and frustrated. The vocal tracks on it are my closest approximation, so please accept my apologies, but I do hope you like the version.
More fine listeneables shortly!
jk out!
Song of a Baker (Small Faces): https://app.box.com/s/jtp1q4zx4dlnm2u3sm8b
Debris (Faces): https://app.box.com/s/xau1boyx20zo6np2iz1z
30 Days in the Hole (Humble Pie): https://app.box.com/s/0ych5k0qsa885mqffgph
