A new archival album featuring the earliest recordings by legendary British band Faces will be released on October 31. The 10-track collection, titled Early Steps, includes previously unheard tracks from the Rod Stewart-fronted group’s first-ever recording sessions at Olympic Studios in London in the autumn of 1969.
Videos by American Songwriter
The album also features 1969 recordings from Faces rehearsals at The Rolling Stones’ warehouse in the Bermondsey district of London. All of the tracks were pulled from cassette tapes from the Faces members’ own archives.
Early Steps includes alternate and/or early versions of five songs featured on the Faces’ 1970 debut studio effort, First Step. Among them are “Shake, Shudder, Shiver,” “Devotion,” “Flying,” and “Stone.”
The album, which can be pre-ordered now, will be available on CD and vinyl LP. The physical versions of the record will be packaged with a booklet featuring in-depth liner notes.
More About the Faces
Faces were a spinoff band of the popular 1960s U.K. mod group Small Faces. After frontman Steve Marriott quit Small Faces to form Humble Pie, Stewart and guitarist Ronnie Wood—who had been playing together in the Jeff Beck Group—were brought into the band. Small Faces was made up of four diminutive musicians—Marriott, bassist Ronnie Lane, drummer Kenney Jones, and keyboardist Ian McLagan. Stewart and Wood weren’t that short, which was a partial reason why the band decided to drop the Small from its moniker when the duo joined.
Wood recently posted a video clip on his socials in which he recalled the first time Stewart sang with the Small Faces members.
Ronnie explained that he’d been jamming with Lane, Jones, and McLagan, while Rod was hanging out at the rehearsal space.
“We went into full rehearsal with an instrumental band,” Wood recalled. “Ronnie [Lane] and me would do some guide vocals and stuff. … Rod was always hiding upstairs. He was too shy to come down. So one day, Kenney Jones invited him down and said, ‘Come on, Rod. Would you like to come and sing with us?’ And he sheepishly came down the stairs and started to join in. And before we knew it, we had that unit going.”
In a separate video clip, Wood reveals that the first song he ever co-wrote for Faces was “Flying,” a version of which appears on Early Steps.
Faces broke up in 1975, and Wood joined The Rolling Stones that same year. Lane and McLagan subsequently died, respectively, in 1997 and 2014. Stewart, Wood, and Jones have been working on new Faces album that reportedly will feature a mix of newly finished archival songs and new originals. No word on when the album might be completed.
Early Steps Track List:
- “Shake, Shudder, Shiver” (Take 1 Rough Mix, Olympic Studios, Autumn 1969)
- “Devotion” (Take 1 Rough Mix, Olympic Studios, Autumn 1969)
- “Train” (Take 4 Rough Mix, Olympic Studios, Autumn 1969)
- “Flying” (Take 1 Rough Mix, Olympic Studios, Autumn 1969)
- “I Feel So Good” (Rehearsal, Rolling Stones Rehearsal Space, Summer 1969)
- “Evil” (Rehearsal, Rolling Stones Rehearsal Space, Summer 1969)
- “Shake, Shudder, Shiver” (Rehearsal, Rolling Stones Rehearsal Space, Summer 1969)
- “Pineapple and the Monkey” (Rehearsal, Rolling Stones Rehearsal Space, Summer 1969)
- “Stone” (Rehearsal)
- “Devotion” (Rehearsal)
(Courtesy of Rhino)
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.