Snakes and Ladders / The Best of Faces

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Snakes and Ladders / The Best of Faces
Snakes & Ladders (Faces).jpg
Compilation album by
Released1976
Genre Rock and roll, boogie rock
Length49:05
Label Warner Bros.
Faces chronology
Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners
(1974)
Snakes and Ladders / The Best of Faces
(1976)
Good Boys... When They're Asleep
(1999)

Snakes and Ladders / The Best of Faces was an October 1976 best-of album (the 7th album and 2nd compilation album) by British rock group Faces. While the first released Faces compilation was a repackaging of the group's first two LPs as a double album, this US-only release presented the first attempt to compile the popular songs from the group after they had disbanded in 1975. Featuring photography by Tom Wright and unique cover art by guitarist Ronnie Wood, it was only eventually superseded in the US market by the CD compilation Good Boys... When They're Asleep in 1999.

Contents

The selections are however heavily biased in favour of Rod Stewart's contribution to the group, with only one track featuring Wood on vocals, and none featuring Ronnie Lane, the group's secondary vocalist and songwriter. Although he had left the band in 1973, Lane was a prominent founder member of the band and sang on and solely composed several tracks on each of the group's four original studio albums, but his songwriting is also under-represented here with his contributions confined to co-credits with Stewart and/or Wood. Lane is also not pictured in the collage of snapshots featured on the cover, while Jesse Ed Davis - who was only hired for the group's final tour of fall 1975 - does appear in some of them, despite never appearing on any of the studio tracks recorded by the group. Subsequent compilations, however, would go to great lengths to redress this collection's lack of representation of Lane's work - the first of these being a 1977 UK/European-only double-LP retrospective simply titled The Best Of The Faces, which effectively served as this album's expanded and more balanced counterpart in non-US markets.

The track listing of the original vinyl release of this compilation still remains unique however, in that the version of "Had Me a Real Good Time" presented there is the original 1970 single release, which is a noticeably different earlier mix to the 1971 Long Player album version (later reissues would substitute this mix with a short edit of the 'Long Player' mix). The original single mix, which runs at 3.49, has still not been recompiled elsewhere or released on CD as of 2019.

"Pineapple and the Monkey" would not appear on a Faces compilation again until the release of Faces: The Definitive Rock Collection in 2007.

Professional ratings
Review scores
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Christgau's Record Guide B+ [1]

Track listing

Side one
  1. "Pool Hall Richard" (Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood)
  2. "Cindy Incidentally" (Ian McLagan, Stewart, Wood)
  3. "Ooh La La" (Ronnie Lane, Wood)
  4. "Sweet Lady Mary" (Lane, Stewart, Wood)
  5. "Flying" (Lane, Stewart, Wood)
  6. "Pineapple and the Monkey" (Wood)
Side two
  1. "You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (Even Take the Dog For a Walk, Mend a Fuse, Fold Away the Ironing Board, or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings)" (Kenney Jones, McLagan, Stewart, Wood, Tetsu Yamauchi)
  2. "Had Me a Real Good Time" [single version] (Lane, Stewart, Wood)
  3. "Stay with Me" (Stewart, Wood)
  4. "Miss Judy's Farm" (Stewart, Wood)
  5. "Silicone Grown" (Stewart, Wood)
  6. "Around the Plynth" (Stewart, Wood)

Personnel

Track numbering refers to CD and digital releases of the album.

Note: Track 1, "Poolhall Richard", was recorded very shortly after Ronnie Lane's departure from the band and before his replacement Tetsu Yamauchi was hired. It is actually Wood who plays the bass guitar on the recording.

Additional information

Track numbering refers to CD and digital releases of the album.

Related Research Articles

Faces are an English rock band formed in 1969 by members of Small Faces after lead singer and guitarist Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie. The remaining Small Faces—Ian McLagan (keyboards), Ronnie Lane, and Kenney Jones —were joined by guitarist Ronnie Wood and singer Rod Stewart, both from the Jeff Beck Group, and the new line-up was renamed Faces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronnie Lane</span> English rock musician (1946–1997)

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Mahoney's Last Stand is an album by Faces bandmates Ronnie Wood and Ronnie Lane, recorded in 1972. It is the music soundtrack album of the low-budget 1972 Canadian film Mahoney's Last Stand starring Alexis Kanner, Sam Waterston and Maud Adams. The film itself, little seen at the time of its release and even less so since, charts the progress of city-dweller Mahoney (Kanner) who abandons his urban existence to become a homesteader, and the drama that ensues. Pete Townshend, who guests on guitar on some tracks on the album, also receives a credit in the film for providing 'special electronic effects', alongside Wood and Lane's musical score.

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"My Way of Giving" is a song written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. Initially demoed by their band Small Faces in 1966, it was given to British singer Chris Farlowe, who released his version as a single in early 1967. It was Farlowe's first single not written by Jagger–Richards since 1965's "The Fool". The Small Faces themselves decided to go on and record a version which was released on two different albums on two different record labels.

<i>The Definitive Rock Collection</i> (Faces album) 2007 compilation album by Faces

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References

  1. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: F". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved 24 February 2019 via robertchristgau.com.