I’m Happy Just To Be With You

I had an urge the other day to hear a song by The Small Faces- it was almost overpowering, like the cravings I still very occasionally get for a cigarette (it’s now five and a half years since I last had a ciggie, as you’re asking). And it was a very specific craving- it had to be the 1968-period, Ogden’s era Small Faces, when they’d loosened up and gone a little hippie around their mod edges, Steve Marriott’s soulful voice, Ronnie’s distinctive bass playing, the wheezy organ, Kenny’s thumpy drums. Song Of A Baker would have done perfectly. Or Tin Soldier. Or this…

Afterglow (Of Your Love)

This is the version from Ogden’s Classic Nut Gone Flake, not the single version Andrew Loog Oldham put out after the group had split in 1969. The album version has the acoustic intro that was removed from the single release- I’m not that fussy, both versions are great. Loog Oldham sped it up slightly for the 45 and extended the end section. Both are stunning but I guess this one is the one the group recorded initially and wanted. Marriott’s lyrics were written for his wife, Jenny Rylance, a song that according to his drummer in Humble Pie Jerry Shirley only Marriott could have written, ‘a beautiful love song about what it feels like to have a fag after sex’.

And while I’m here, double bubble two-fer-one, one of the greatest clips in the history of music television, The Small Faces and PP Arnold destroying hearts on French TV in 1968.

You Don’t Know What It’s Like

And then I found this…

Understanding

PP Arnold- what a cutie eh?

PP Arnold sang with The Small Faces and was romantically linked with Steve Marriott for a while. She signed to Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate label and put out several fine solo records. I got one the other day second hand, which contained two too many Beatles covers but had a quite a few corkers too. In 1995 there was a Small Faces tribute album. This song from it united PP with Primal Scream. Primal Scream do their thing, PP does hers.

Understanding

As Recommended By Mr HSD

Someone reversed into me while I drove past their driveway this morning, which just about put the tin lid on it as far as the last week’s concerned. Then my friend Mr HSD recommended this to me via the magic of the internets and all of a sudden… who cares?

Itchycoo Park, (If You Think You’re) Groovy and Tin Soldier. With P P Arnold. Sigh.

>Groovy Times

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Back to The Small Faces and PP Arnold with this song, (If You Think You’re) Groovy, written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, played by the band and sung by the golden voice of PP Arnold in 1967. Nice. It’s nice to be nice.

(If You Think You’re) Groovy

>Your Eyes Are Deeper Than Time

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There’s something about weather like this which makes The Small Faces the perfect soundtrack. Plus, while away camping I read a longish article about them in a heritage rock magazine. It was a toss up between this song and Song Of A Baker (and there aren’t too many songs about bakers), but I’ve gone for Tin Soldier, a brilliant soulful rocker with backing vocals from the lovely PP Arnold. This song should be in your download folder and then played loud through open windows.

Tin Soldier

P.P. Arnold ‘Am I Still Dreaming?’

It’s Friday night, the wine is open, the kids are in bed, so time to cut some rug, to this perfect piece of mod-soul-pop, featuring the killer voice of P.P. Arnold and, I think, some Small Faces on backing, released on Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate label. Simple pleasures are the best.

11 Am I Still Dreaming-.wma