Product Description
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2003 compilation featuring 50 remastered tracks on two discs,
'The Decca Sessions' & 'The Immediate Sessions'. All their hits
including 'All Or Nothing', 'Lazy Sunday', 'Sha-La-La-Lee',
'Itchycoo Park', 'Here Comes the Nice', 'Tin Soldier', & many
more. Slipcase. Sanctuary.
.co.uk
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The Ultimate Collection is the first comprehensive retrospective
of the Small Faces' recorded legacy. Crucially, this stunning
50-track, double-CD set is the first to feature both Decca (disc
one) and Immediate (disc two) material and it's also the first to
be fully sanctioned by the surviving members of the band. All 14
of the Small Faces UK singles are here, along with 12 B-sides and
an astute selection of album tracks. The Decca disc, 196567,
finds the sartorially sharp quartet majoring in
amphetamine-fuelled R&B ed directly at mod dance floors.
Especially ace are the debut 45 "What'cha Gonna Do About It", its
pivotal riff cheekily pilfered from the Solomon Burke (
/exec/obidos/artist-search/Solomon%20Burke/${0} ) soul shouter
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", and the organ-propelled
instrumental, "Grow Your Own", which melds sonic savagery to a
Booker T & The MGs ( /exec/obidos/artist-search/Booker%20T/${0} )
groove. Disc two, 196769, highlights the band's unique brand of
Cockney music-hall psych, best exemplified by proto Brit-pop
anthem "Lazy Sunday" and various cuts culled from their
brilliantly bonkers concept album Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000076LM/${0} ). This is undoubtedly the
ultimate Small Faces collection. --Chris King
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Review
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Together from 1965 to 1969, the Small Faces were the embodiment
of Sixties London: four plucky, diminutive rascals from the East
End, as wide as the Thames and as deep as the kitchen sink, rich
in humour, impudence and high-octane energy. Steve Marriott,
Ronnie Lane, Ian 'Mac' McLagan and Kenney Jones were pop's Bash
Street Kids: naughty boys climbing the school railings and
thumbing their noses at the establishment. They helped invent
what we now think of as the Swinging Sixties, and this double CD
tells their story.
Crucially, this is the first compilation to draw on the entire
Small Faces back catalogue. It's all here, from the raw power of
their early R'n'B releases, such as ''Watcha Gonna Do About It?''
and ''Sha-la-la-la-lee'' to their unique brand of late-Sixties
Cockney psychedelia, typified by the sing-a-longa hits ''Itchicoo
Park'' and ''Lazy Sunday''. All fourteen singles are included,
along with most of their B-sides, plus a stash of tracks from
their albums From the Beginning (1966), Small Faces (1967), the
classic Ogdens Nut Gone Flake (1968) and the posthumous round up
of hits and misses, The Autumn Stone.
The first CD, spanning the Decca years, emphasises what great
songwriters Marriott and Lane were so early in their career.
''One Night Stand'' and ''I Can't Dance With You'' are superior
versions of the blue-eyed R'n'B that so many beat groups of the
period were producing. The influence of the Small Faces on the
pop to come is clear: ''E too D'' has Steve Marriott rasping the
blues like a young Robert .
The band's releases on Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label make
up the second CD. Here are the classic late-Sixties singles,
''Here Comes the Nice'', ''Tin Soldier'', ''Itchycoo Park'' and
''Lazy Sunday'' (how ''The Universal'' ever made it to
seven-inch, though, is a mystery). The epic ''Afterglow (of Your
Love)'' is, perhaps, Marriott's strongest vocal performance and
''The Autumn Stone'' one of his most tender moments. His tongue
is firmly in cheek on the music-hall knees-up
''Happydaystoytown''. Mustn't grumble, though. ''Green Circles''
and ''Up the Wooden Hills To Bedfordshire'', from Small Faces,
are classic British psychedelia. ''Get Yourself Together'' and
''Talk To You'', the flip to ''Here Comes the Nice'', are sound
rockers with terrific hooks. If all you know is ''Itchycoo
Park'', bunk off school with this collection. It's all too
beautiful... --Rob Webb
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