First Step (Faces album)

First Step
Studio album by Faces
Released March, 1970
Recorded August 1969-January 1970 at De Lane Lea Studios, London
Genre Blues rock, hard rock
Length 47:13
Label Warner Bros.
Producer The Faces
Faces chronology
First Step
(1970)
Long Player
(1971)
Singles from The First Step
  1. "Flying"
    Released: 1969
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

First Step was the first album by the British group Faces, released in early 1970. (The album is credited to the Small Faces on all North American issues and reissues[2])) The album was released only a few months after the Faces had formed from the ashes of the Small Faces (from which Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan hailed) and The Jeff Beck Group (from which Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood hailed.)

It is generally regarded as their weakest studio effort, recorded at London's famous De Lane Lea Studios too soon after the group's formation, and reached no higher than #119 on the Billboard charts.,[3] however it is also viewed as the most democratic of the Faces releases, affording as it does each member of the group at least one composer credit. Highlights include Ronnie Lane's "Stone", "Shake Shudder, Shiver", "Three Button Hand Me Down" (on which both Lane and Wood play the bassline, affording the track a unique sonic quality in the Faces catalogue), and the album's centerpiece, "Flying".

The album cover shows Ronnie Wood reading a copy of seminal guitar tutor "First Step" by Geoffrey Sisley.

On 28 August 2015, the album was reissued in a remastered and expanded form, including two previously unreleased tracks recorded shortly after the album's release, "Behind The Sun" and "Mona The Blues" (although the latter was remade by Lane and Wood in 1972 for their Mahoney's Last Stand film soundtrack).

Track listing

All lead vocals by Rod Stewart except where indicated

Side One

  1. "Wicked Messenger" (Bob Dylan) - 4:05
  2. "Devotion" (Ronnie Lane) - 4:54 (lead vocals: Ronnie Lane, Rod Stewart)
  3. "Shake, Shudder, Shiver" (Lane, Ronnie Wood) - 3:14
  4. "Stone" (Lane) - 5:38 (lead vocals: Ronnie Lane)
  5. "Around the Plynth" (Rod Stewart, Wood) - 5:56

Side Two

  1. "Flying" (Lane, Stewart, Wood) - 4:15
  2. "Pineapple and the Monkey" (instrumental) (Wood) - 4:23
  3. "Nobody Knows" (Lane, Wood) - 4:05
  4. "Looking Out the Window" (instrumental) (Kenney Jones, Ian McLagan) - 4:59
  5. "Three Button Hand Me Down" (McLagan, Stewart) - 5:44

2015 Reissue bonus tracks

  1. "Behind The Sun" (Jones, Lane, McLagan, Stewart, Wood)
  2. "Mona The Blues" (instrumental) (Lane, Wood)
  3. "Shake, Shudder Shiver" [BBC Session] (Lane, Wood)
  4. "Flying" [Take 3] (Lane, Stewart, Wood)
  5. "Nobody Knows" [Take 2] (Lane, Wood)

Note: The 2015 reissue replicates the US edition of the LP, containing minor edits not present on the UK original [most noticeably, Stewart's cry of 'That's yer lot!' at the end of track 5 has been omitted].

Personnel

References

  1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Faces: First Step > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
  2. "Small Faces* – First Step". discogs.com. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
  3. "First Step > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums" at AllMusic. Retrieved 10 August 2014.

External links

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