![]() Every inch of Marriott’s person is heard in album anthem Lazy Sunday, some of Marriott stage experience as the Artful Dodger heard on his “roo do dee do” scats. Lucky then that the soul so readily played by the four-piece band is evident in the lyrics and vocals heard on Ogden’s. ![]() As admirable as their work was, these men were primarily players, not writers put it crudely, would you rather ask Johnny Marr or Andy Rourke about the writing of The Queen Is Dead? Some of the art process will never be discovered with the aid of hindsight. Ogdens’ changed all that, a bonanza of blue eyed soul and wit, Steve Marriott’s apex as both a guitar player and performer all that, with narration from comic legend Stanley Unwin (he invented Unwinese!)Īnd much like much of their career, the band’s due came far too late in the lives for the album’s principal writers to enjoy, Marriott succumbed to a house-fire in 1991, Lane lost his near twenty year multiple sclerosis battle in 1997, leaving the two surviving members to overlook the re-issues of the band’s masterpiece, a three disc compendium the ultimate accolade this wonderful L.P deserved unleashed in 2012 (sadly, Ian McLagan also died in 2014). Though Small Faces mastered the single from day one ( Itchycoo Park, All or Nothing and Tin Soldier, all three complete with Ronnie Lane’s aggressive psych bass playing, remain radio standards to this day), they never quite got the album just right before 1968. So Small Faces get this one – it wasn’t Pete Townshend who brought the rock opera to life, it was Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane). Sorrow, note that came out in December 1968, six months after Ogdens Nut Gone Flake. It was a simple story, and one that only lasted the second half of a record, but it had the distinction of being rock’s first story (before anyone mentions The Pretty Things’ more complete S.F. Richard Burton’s The War of The Worlds earnestness is a million miles from Stanley Unwin’s narration, making Ogden’s something the equally ridiculous The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars weren’t hilariously funny.”īefore Ziggy played guitar, before Rael got lost in New York, before Pink waited for worms, before Neil Peart paid homage to Ayn Rand and even one year before Tommy was cured of huis deaf, dumb and blind condition, there came a record about Happiness Stan as he searched for the missing half of the moon. “There was no escaping this was as much a script/story as it was an album. ![]() Are you sitty comftybold, two-square on your botty? Then I’ll begin… ❉ An appreciation of the kaleidoscopic album, released on this day in 1968. ![]()
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