Faces Five Guys Walk Into a Bar...

"Really? Rod Stewart?!?"

That phrase, or a variation of it, enters the conversation within the first 60 seconds almost every time I mention the Faces to anyone. With some of the things he's subjected the listening public to, I can almost understand that. Never mind "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", even though I love the bassline to that song, anyone remember that horrible "Love Touch" song from the mid-80s? But I quickly can end any argument on Stewart's merits with one of two sentences: 1.) Yeah, he put out some cringeworthy stuff, but you cannot deny that "Young Turks" is one of the best songs from the 80s and 2.)Yeah, but he was in the Faces.

First, I have to say that you can have a great debate about this one at your own bar that you frequent or at work on a slow day, but I feel that the Faces are the most evenly talented band ever, all five of them together. You can definitely talk about other guitarists being better than Ron Wood (not many), but does that other guitarist have a bassist in their band half as good as the late Ronnie Lane? Probably not. Or a drummer as solid as Kenney Jones? Most likely not. They definitely don't have a keyboardist on par with Ian "Mac" McLagan because there is no one else with the feel that Mac has. Others may sound like him, but you have to him to get that feel. To each instrument, this band has some of the most amazing musicianship ever assembled.

And Rod? He sings the hell out of this stuff. Bluesy, soulful, powerful, raspy, it's all there. And he never sounds like a singer with a backing band. His phrasing and delivery make his voice just another important instrument to the whole formula. He's a force while being totally complementary.

I have a best of, Good Boys...When They're Asleep, that's a good place to start and readily available. The original albums are still in print as well. But this box set is the way this band was meant to be heard. There are remastered tracks from the originals that still sound great, but the Faces were reputed to be a storming live act. Their shows, with bar on stage, were said to be a party. A party that extended backstage, to the hotel, to the bus and on to the next town. Five Guys Walk Into a Bar... is a perfect title for this set. And there's a bunch of live BBC recordings and other live tracks that illustrate how they just started with the song and could take off in any direction they wanted.

And it's something you can easily hear in other bands. Just look at some of the folks that write testimonials in the booklet for this: Jeff Tweedy (you can really hear influences in the first two Wilco albums), Glen Matlock (who had Mac in his touring lineup of the Rich Kids in the late 70's), Paul Westerberg (in a lot of ways I've learned to love the Replacements more since I've heard the Faces), Rich Robinson (again, especially evident in the early Black Crowes records). But even with all these great musicians influenced by them, no one truly sounds like the Faces. They are the sum of these five excellent musicians that no other band lineup could ever match.

Not to mention the good luck they had to have three great writers in one band in the persons of Lane, Wood and Stewart. You can have all the chops in the world, but it wouldn't amount to anything without the riffs or the songs. And they are there. In the booklet, McLagan, who produced this collection, mentions that he originally set it up chronologically, but opted for a listing that flowed more like a live set. And it works. It doesn't matter that some songs appear twice, sometimes on the same disc. The live and studio versions all have their own quirks and charms and, as a whole, the four discs do play nicely on their own as a single record.

I try to tell as many people as possible about this band. Quite a few get thrown off by Rod, though I don't really get it. Their loss. The Faces packed a ton of great music into the five years they recorded together, 1970-1975. They are one of few bands that repeated listens don't wear you out on them; it just makes you hear different parts of the songs that you never heard before. They're the kind of band that you reach for when you want to hear something you always know you're going to be in the mood for. I could hear them every day and never get sick of them.

If you have one of those download internet jukeboxes where you drink, shoot pool, bowl, whatever, it's a terrible jukebox unless there's some Faces in it. But don't just take my word for it; click on what's below, a performance of one of their best known songs, "Stay With Me", from a TV show circa 1972, I think. They could've extended the end of this song for another five minutes and I'd still be riveted...



And then I also found this one. It's a performance of their cover of McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed"