Raunchy Faces Back on Tour

photo courtesy of the Faces Originally published in Rolling Stone, 27 February 1975

LONDON – “We’re playing as one now like our life depended on it,” Rod Stewart announced, looking down eagerly at his game pie in a posh London restaurant. “This American tour is a turning point for the Faces. If we can get that same rapport going with our audience that we had four years ago, then I’ll say we’ve accomplished something. Then I’ll say we’ve become one of those bands that’s respected. And,” he paused, cutting into the thick, rich feast, “there’s not many of those.”

The Faces are heading stateside for their first tour since the fall of 1973, a trip that resulted in the uninspired Coast to Coast album. Between visits, Stewart released Smiler, guitarist Ron Wood did a solo album, and drummer Kenny Jones recorded a Jackson Browne tune for a British single.

“There wasn’t much to grasp onto then,” Wood said of the band’s last American outing. “We’d spent a lot of time going in different directions, getting further away from where we wanted to go. By the end of that US tour, we began to feel like we were supposed to be having a good time without it coming naturally. But it certainly came naturally on this last British tour.”

During a five-week workout in their homeland, the Faces played with renewed vitality and a newly acquired onstage professionalism. Kenny Jones, Tetsu, Ian McLagan, and Wood ceased being Stewart’s straightmen for the singer’s more flamboyant antics; sloppy, good time atmospheres were replaced by tighter musicianship.

“What sums it up best,” Stewart observed in between bites, “is that the band is much raunchier now but also more professional. Some nights I sit back, more or less sober, and think it can’t be that good. The whole band has improved. We used to think we could kid everybody as long as we had a bottle in our hands. We used to be horrible, have to be blind drunk to walk onstage. But now the confidence is there. Now we drink afterwards. Suddenly, we’ve all grown up.”

“We finally hit into that fluid thing that started to take shape in the beginning,” Wood continued. “But nobody knew what to do with it then. Now the balance is there. In a funny way, I think my album—the fact that I actually went off and did something—pulled us together.” Suddenly people were talking about Ron Wood, and when Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones just before Christmas, Woody was the number one candidate on the replacement list.

“I suppose,” Wood stated cautiously, “that I would join the Stones in another time and another era. I’d join because a lot of my roots and influences are in that band. But it could never happen when I’m with the Faces. The Stones know that, ’cause, ya know,” he said, grinning sheepishly, “they dig the Faces too. It’s just a very tempting little carrot to be dangled.”

Keen to see Wood get the recognition he’s deserved since the days when both men played with Jeff Beck, Stewart has been singing the guitarist’s praises onstage and off. Stewart has repeatedly declared that Woody is the Faces in the same way that Keith Richard is said to be the Rolling Stones.

“Everyone always talks to me about Beck, but to me Woody is the best,” Stewart proclaimed, flashing a cocky smile. “As for his choice of staying with us, well, it’s admirable. Two years ago I was terribly worried about Woody leaving to join the Stones, so this time around it’s a bit of an anticlimax. Lane was still with us the first time we heard Woody was leaving. We played a horrible set that night and afterwards I told Woody, ‘Well, at least you could’ve told me.’”

And if the guitarist did leave?

“If Woody was to go, there’d be no point in me carrying on. He’s a pillar to lean on; we share each other’s tears. But ever since then there’s been no doubt in my mind that Woody is here for the duration.”

Stewart himself still struggles with his twin roles: Solo star and group member. The qualitative differences between group and solo albums have created a complex situation for the Faces. Stewart is the man in charge of solo ventures, while group decisions are split five ways. Yet, painful years spent as Beck’s boy have made the singer sensitive to group morale.

“I know how the lads feel,” Stewart reported in a burst of humility, “so I play down my name. I’ve never dictated, I’ve suggested.

“Elton John is lucky. He’s the dictator; he can play anything he likes. In our band, if the boys don’t think they should play a certain song, I have to go along with it. The problem with us, though, is the big difference between playing onstage and in the studio. That’s been our downfall. We’ve still to accomplish in the studio what we’ve done onstage.”

“The band should be due for a live album this year to rectify Coast to Coast,” Wood added, wincing at a distasteful memory. “The cassettes from the last British tour are infinitely better than the live album. Like, some of the things we do in hotel rooms have got a lot more feel than when you finally record them in the studio. In the studio, you have to re-create that same feel you got on the night that everyone and everything jelled.”

Progress has been made, however, in the form of a new single, “You Can Make Me Dance, Sing, or Anything.” Just released in America, the tune scored heavily on the British charts. Rod calls the vocal his Bobby Womack imitation; his guitar is an imitation of Barry White’s guitarist.

“The single is a good step towards how we’re feeling now and it’s a good direction to pursue,” said Woody. “I’d love to see a good Faces album; it’s just we’re all a bit scared to jump in. The single was a good teaser because it came together quickly, and I don’t see why the album can’t do the same. We’ve got a load of material.

“There’s just a whole lot more group involvement musically and lyrically. The single started off as four separate riffs that Rod had to sew together. In the past, when everyone was involved, things would get confusing, which results in something like Ooh La La. But the new way of doing things results in something like the single.”

Just before they left for the States, the Faces booked studio time. Nobody knows what came out of the sessions, but chances for a group album are strong. And though by summer there should be another Stewart solo to confuse matters more, the record label remains a mystery. The opinionated lead singer insists on changing his mind with the wind, refusing to box himself into a corner he can’t escape from. Rod Stewart thrives on contradictions.

“I am allowed to change my mind, aren’t I?” concluded the singer defensively, finishing up the last of the game pie. “There will be a Faces album soon. No, no, say there won’t be Faces album. That’s my statement for today. Tomorrow will be different.”

Watch: The Faces in 1972 [at youtube.com]