![]() They only mimed to it for one glorious episode of TV's Colour Me Pop (watch parts 1, 2 and 3). Due to its complex turns and arrangements, the Small Faces never felt able - or willing - to perform the album live. Ogdens' took a year to complete, but it still ended up rushed and cobbled together. Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan dug deep into Stax, Atlantic and R&B sounds for soul bass-lines, Hammond charges, and break-beats and contorted them to their design, rather than taking the wam-bam, populist meat-and-potato approach of The Who. Marriott, who first took the stage as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! eight years previously was cast as the finest, most authentic British white soul singer, but also with Cockney coster overtones. While The Who's transition from beat pop to psychedelia and squally rock was more pronounced and definite, the Small Faces were pulled in both directions at once, and Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake ended up as schizophrenia in full effect. Instead, it became as much an anthem for successions of alienated youth as My Generation. Marriott was enraged when Immediate released the accented Lazy Sunday as a pre-album taster single - "'ello Mrs Jones, 'ow's your Bert's lumbago? Mustn't grumble." - as he thought the song worthy of merely a throwaway album filler. "Forget about the moon!" the story concludes. And the concept was only half-baked, much sillier and infantile than cosmic or profound - a strong LSD trip (at full pelt during The Journey) followed by a back-to-senses Cockney get-together. The fairytale concept behind Ogdens', conceived by Steve Marriott and co while out raving on boat trips on the Thames and strung together by Stanley Unwin's gobbledegook (Spike Milligan turned down the job), only occupied the second side of the album. ![]() Marriott walked off mid-gig at the Alexandra Palace hours before 1969 began, in search of heavier, soul-scorching rock. Just a few years after overseeing a split within the Mod movement between peacocks and lemonheads, the four diminutive Manor Park sharp-dressers split their vessel asunder. The album was a groundbreaker but not just because of its circular sleeve or its psychedelic concept - it was more far-out than that: by unleashing such a split-personality array of songs, such as Lazy Sunday, Rollin' Over, Afterglow, Rene and Happydaystoytown, the Small Faces left listeners befuddled and lost at the very crossroads of rock and pop.Īfter leaving everyone stranded, the Small Faces themselves crashed and combusted. After it hit, rock and pop music were never the same. ![]() Precisely forty years ago, Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake was nearing the end of its six-week stint at number one of the UK album charts. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |