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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/first_step_4.jpg]]
2 [[caption-width-right:350:Faces in 1970. From left to right: Music/RodStewart, [[Music/TheWho Kenney Jones]], [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Ronnie Wood]], [[Music/TheSmallFaces Ian McLagan]], WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and [[Music/TheSmallFaces Ronnie Lane]].]]
3
4->''"Stay with me,\
5Stay with me,\
6For tonight you better stay with me"''
7-->-- "'''Stay with Me'''"
8
9Faces are an English RockAndRoll group that formed in 1969, as an offshoot of Music/TheSmallFaces.
10
11After lead singer Steve Marriott left the band to form Humble Pie, the remaining three members (Ronnie Lane, Ian [=McLagan=], Kenney Jones) joined forces with Music/RodStewart and Ronnie Wood from The Music/JeffBeck Group. In doing so, they adopted a new sound: raucous, raw-sounding back-to-basics HardRock. They quickly gained a reputation as rock and roll wild men, engaging in all sorts of alcohol-fueled hijinks and general tomfoolery (Wood has compared Faces tours to a Creator/MarxBrothers movie).
12
13They recorded four very popular albums and released a few hit singles, before encountering some internal dissension, with accusations that Stewart was keeping all of the best new material for his own solo career. Lane, who'd been one of the original founders of The Small Faces, quit in 1973. Tetsu Yamauchi took over on bass, but Lane's songwriting and singing capabilities were missed, and their studio output with Yamauchi was limited to two non-album singles. After an abortive attempt to record a fifth album, the band finally split up for good in 1975, spurred on by Stewart's decision to move to California and Wood making guest appearances with Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} (he'd become a full member in 1976). [=McLagan=] kept busy as a sideman, including a stint with the Stones, while Jones went on to have one of the most challenging cases of ToughActToFollow when Music/TheWho chose him to replace the late Keith Moon on drums.
14
15Noted for their influence on PunkRock and {{Britpop}}, the group was inactive for over thirty years in spite of several near reunions that never quite got the whole line-up back together. They finally reformed in 2009 with bassist [[Music/SexPistols Glen Matlock]] replacing the late Ronnie Lane (and [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Bill Wyman]], who had been filling in for previous reunions) and lead vocals were handled by Simply Red lead singer Mick Hucknall. Ian [=McLagan=] sadly died from a massive stroke on 3 December 2014, but this did not stop a reunion with Rod Stewart from happening in 2015, to wide critical acclaim.
16
17----
18!!Principal Members (Founding members in '''bold''', current members in ''italic''):
19
20* Jesse Ed Davis - guitar (1975, died 1988)
21* Mick Hucknall - lead vocals (2009–12)
22* '''''[[Music/TheWho Kenney Jones]]''''' - drums, percussion (1969–75, 1986, 1993, 2009–present)
23* '''[[Music/TheSmallFaces Ronnie Lane]]''' - bass, guitar, backing and lead vocals, percussion (1969–73, 1986, died 1997)
24* [[Music/SexPistols Glen Matlock]] - bass (2009–11)
25* '''[[Music/TheSmallFaces Ian McLagan]]''' - piano, organ, keyboard, harmonium, vocals (1969–75, 1986, 1993, 2009–14, died 2014)
26* '''''[[Music/RodStewart Rod Stewart]]''''' - lead vocals, banjo, guitar (1969–75, 1986, 1993, 2015–present)
27* '''''[[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Ronnie Wood]]''''' - guitar, vocals, harmonica, bass (1969–76, 1986, 1993, 2009–present)
28* [[Music/FreeBand Tetsu Yamauchi]] - bass (1973–75)
29
30----
31!!Studio and Live Discography:
32
33* 1970 - ''First Step'' [[note]]Credited to "Small Faces" in the U.S.[[/note]]
34* 1971 - ''Long Player''
35* 1971 - ''A Nod Is As Good As a Wink... to a Blind Horse''
36* 1973 - ''Ooh La La''
37* 1974 - ''Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners''
38
39----
40!! "I don't need no one's opinion on the matter concerning my Tropes":
41
42* TheAlcoholic: Seemingly a requirement for membership - this was a bunch who hurried through nationally televised live sets in order to make it to last call, after all. Open liquor containers onstage during concerts were common, and they were also known to hand wine bottles out to the audience to pass around.
43** CantHoldHisLiquor: Tetsu Yamauchi, while no stranger to alcohol himself (he'd been in the ArtisticStimulation-heavy Free, after all), tried a little too hard to match the other Faces in this department, downing whole bottles of scotch, and repeatedly went on stage borderline catatonic during his short run with the group. He needed guidance from Stewart to manage the lifestyle.
44* AllDrummersAreAnimals: Kenney Jones was actually one of the more sedate members of the band, but his drumming packed a huge wallop.
45* TheBandMinusTheFace: They were one of the most successful aversions, since the widespread belief after Steve Marriott left The Small Faces was that the other three couldn't succeed without him, a powerhouse singer and stellar guitarist. Instead, they added Stewart and Wood, who easily equaled him in talent. But the later reunions without Stewart play this trope straight.
46* BerserkButton: You might be a really hot woman, and the song's narrator might be into you, but the minute you say something bad about the "Three Button Hand Me Down" suit he's wearing that his father gave him, forget it.
47* BigRockEnding: "Stay With Me" is one of the most iconic examples, where they speed up the tempo, repeat the main chord sequence over and over, punctuated by guitar, keyboard and drum fills, then bring it home with a forceful cold ending.
48* BluesRock
49* BoxedSet: ''Five Guys Walk Into a Bar...'' (2004), sequenced by [=McLagan=] as though it were a live set list. And ''1970-1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything...'' (2015), which contains all of their studio albums in full along with bonus tracks and an additional disc of singles and other stray cuts.
50* BritishRockstar: Alongside such contemporary acts as Music/TheWho and Music/LedZeppelin, they helped to codify this stereotype, especially as it related to SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll (although, while they weren't strangers to other substances, their drug of choice by a wide margin was alcohol) and HotelHellion tendencies. They were one of the first bands to start renting out a separate party suite at their hotels.
51* ConceptAlbum: ''Ooh La La'' sort of loosely counts with some recurring GayParee motifs, starting with the title, and continuing with a picture of the band watching a can-can dancer inside the original vinyl gatefold, the line "At the Moulin Rouge, tell ya baby, we could knock 'em dead" in the opening track "Silicone Grown", and some lines about can-can dancers in the TitleTrack.
52* CoverVersion: A staple of their live sets, many cover songs appear on the ''Five Guys Walk Into a Bar...'' BoxedSet.
53** [[Music/JohnWesleyHarding "Wicked Messenger"]] by Music/BobDylan
54** "I Wish It Would Rain" by Music/TheTemptations
55** [[Music/{{Imagine}} "Jealous Guy"]] by Music/JohnLennon
56** [[Music/{{McCartney}} "Maybe I'm Amazed"]] by Music/PaulMcCartney
57** "Angel" by Music/JimiHendrix
58** "You're My Girl (I Don't Want to Discuss It)" by Music/LittleRichard
59** "Cut Across Shorty" by Music/EddieCochran
60** "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Right)" by Luther Ingram
61** "I'd Rather Go Blind" by Music/EttaJames
62** [[Music/SmileySmile "Gettin' Hungry"]] by Music/TheBeachBoys
63** "Hi-Heel Sneakers" by Tommy Tucker and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" by Solomon Burke, as a medley
64** "The Stealer" by Free
65** "Love in Vain" by Music/RobertJohnson
66** "I Feel So Good" by Big Bill Broonzy
67** "Evil" by Willie Dixon
68* DisneyOwnsThisTrope: A literal example, as Disney apparently made some legal threats over the Mickey Mouse doll on the cover photo for ''First Step'' (as seen in the page image). If you look closely, you'll notice Ronnie Lane is wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt too.
69* DownerEnding: Their final album ''Ooh La La'', which mostly contains their trademark rave-ups, closes with the poignant BreakupSong "Just Another Honky" and the bittersweet title track. All the sadder since they happen to be the final two songs Ronnie Lane wrote for the group.
70* FakeBoobs: "Silicone Grown" is about a woman with these.
71-->I remember you said\
72That we gotta keep abreast of time\
73But obviously you don't know where to draw the line
74* GranolaGirl: Rita from "Stay With Me" seems to be one.
75-->Let's go upstairs and read my [[UsefulNotes/TarotCards tarot cards]].
76* GreatestHitsAlbum: ''The Best of Faces: Good Boys... When They're Asleep''.
77* HarshVocals: Neither Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane or Ronnie Wood had what you'd call a smooth singing voice, which was part of the their nonchalant charm.
78* HomesicknessHymn: "Richmond", in which Ronnie Lane sings about being in New York and pining for his home borough in London.
79* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: "Just Another Honky"
80-->So you can go if you want to\
81I don't own you, go be wild\
82Leave my hand, it's wide open\
83So's the door, forever more
84* InTheStyleOf: "Pool Hall Richard", their first single after Ronnie Lane's departure, takes a lot of musical cues from Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival.
85* {{Instrumentals}}: The album tracks "Pineapple and the Monkey", "Looking Out the Window", "Jerusalem" and "Fly in the Ointment", plus the [[BSide B-Sides]] "Rear Wheel Skid", "Oh Lord I'm Browned Off" and "Skewiff (Mend the Fuse)".
86* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: "Just Another Honky", a weird invocation of JiveTurkey slang for the NonAppearingTitle of a bittersweet BreakupSong.
87* JuvenileHell: "Borstal Boys" is sung by a juvie inmate who hopes he can escape.
88* LiveAlbum: 1974's ''Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners'', which features a mixture of Faces and Rod Stewart solo material along with some cover songs. Surprisingly, given their live reputation, the album was a critical and commercial bomb -- [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff except in Japan]] (the presence of Tetsu Yamauchi on bass might have something to do with that). The 2004 box carries over none of the tracks and recreates most of the songs from other recordings, so it seems [=McLagan=] wasn't a fan either.
89* LogoJoke: The typeface on the cover of ''A Nod is as Good as a Wink... to a Blind Horse'' is a copy of the typeface used for the old Holiday Inn logo, inspired by the fact that, on their American tours, the band almost always ended up staying at Holiday Inns (which they hated because the hotels were identical and usually not located anywhere near a decent bar).
90* LyricalDissonance: "Ooh La La", a bouncy, bright uptempo tune about disappointment and regret.
91* MeaningfulRename: Upon adding Stewart and Wood as replacements for Steve Marriott, the band decided The Small Faces no longer worked as a band name, since the two new members were fairly tall. Also, with the change in musical orientation, they felt the new band was distinct from the old band, so renamed themselves to Faces. Still, for the American release of ''First Step'', Creator/WarnerBrosRecords insisted on billing them as The Small Faces, feeling that the existing name recognition would help sales.
92* NonAppearingTitle: "Devotion", "Around the Plynth", "Nobody Knows", "On the Beach", "Love Lived Here", "Last Orders Please", "Flags and Banners", "Borstal Boys", "Just Another Honky", and several that technically count but the lyrics are merely phrased a little differently from the title.
93* NotStayingForBreakfast: In "Stay with Me", the singer ''begs'' his one-night stand to treat him this way.
94* OldManConversationSong: "Ooh La La" starts off with a grandfather warning his grandson about "women's ways", then ends with the now older grandson doing the same with ''his'' grandson.
95* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Ronnie Lane and Ronnie Wood, though Wood often got credited as Ron to differentiate the two.
96* PackagedAsOtherMedium: In its original UK release, ''Long Player'' was made up to look like it was an old 78 RPM record in a yellowing sleeve, with a center-cut hole to display the label and Art Deco lettering. Unfortunately, Creator/WarnerBrosRecords in America must not have understood or liked this, so they substituted a similar, but much less interesting, package, made to look like brown leather. The band hated the American cover. American CD versions have tended to use the UK art, but for some reason the ''You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything'' box set in 2015 went with the American art.
97* ProductionForeshadowing: "You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything" totally sounds like it could be a bright, upbeat Music/RodStewart pop song from, say, 1985 or so, maybe even recorded to play over the closing credits of some feelgood RomanticComedy. Instead, it was the final Faces single, released at the end of 1974.
98* RecordProducer: They self-produced their first two albums, which both got criticized for being a bit unfocused. In response they hired the highly respected Glyn Johns, and the two albums he produced were considerably tighter and more organized.
99* RedOniBlueOni: A considerable part of their stage presence. The Red Onis were Stewart (who would gesture throughout the songs and made picking up the mic stand and holding it sideways his signature stage move) and Lane (who would strut around the stage in his baggy suit, move his arms rhythmically alongside his bass playing, and try to distract Stewart while he was singing). Wood, [=McLagan=] and Jones were the Blue Onis who stoically focused on their playing.
100* {{Reincarnation}}: "Stone" has the lead singer recalling how his soul took various forms over the years, like rocks, flowers, birds, and so on. It was specifically inspired by the teachings of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meher_Baba Meher Baba]], who Ronnie Lane (alongside his buddy [[Music/TheWho Pete Townshend]]) was a devotee of.
101* RepurposedPopSong: "Ooh La La" is best known as the end credits theme from 1998's ''Film/{{Rushmore}}''. It was also later featured as "Dad's favorite song" in a popular, sentimental Creator/{{Amazon}} Echo Dot commercial.
102* SlobsVersusSnobs: "Too Bad".
103* StepUpToTheMicrophone:
104** Music/RodStewart was the lead singer and frontman, but Ronnie Lane sang lead on at least one track per album, doing three lead vocals on ''A Nod Is As Good As a Wink... to a Blind Horse''.
105** Ron Wood did some backing vocals on a few songs, but got to sing lead on "Ooh La La". Stewart and Lane both attempted vocals on it but producer Glyn Johns didn't find them satisfactory and asked Wood to try it. Stewart and Lane would both record versions of it in their post-breakup careers.
106** Ian [=McLagan=] sang the cover of Music/TheBeachBoys' "Gettin' Hungry", recorded for their abandoned fifth album and later released on ''Five Guys Walk Into a Bar''.
107* TheTeam: They all had fairly well-defined personalities. Stewart was TheLeader, Wood was TheLancer, [=McLagan=] was TheSmartGuy, Lane was the WarriorPoet, and Jones was the CulturedBadass (into polo, even).
108* TheTheTitleConfusion: Everyone assumes that it's "The Faces", but officially there's no "the".[[note]]Though they could be a bit loose with it sometimes. Stewart wrote "I'd like to drink a toast to my old associates and colleagues The Faces" in his sleeve note for ''Every Picture Tells a Story''.[[/note]] This is probably worsened by the fact that they are the successor group to Music/TheSmallFaces, who ''did'' use the definite article.
109* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: They were celebrated for their no-frills rock, but this also applied very literally. Their three most famous original songs ("Stay With Me", "Cindy Incidentally", "Ooh La La") all in fact use just three chords.
110* TitleOnlyChorus: "Three Button Hand Me Down"
111* TokenMinority:
112** Tetsu Yamauchi, who'd moved from Japan to England in the latter part of TheSixties and played bass around the London scene for awhile before joining Free, was the very unlikely replacement for Ronnie Lane after his 1973 departure.[[note]]The band was originally interested in Andy Fraser, Yamauchi's predecessor in Free, but Free drummer Simon Kirke touted Yamauchi instead, and, needing to hire someone quick before their next road dates, they chose Yamauchi without ever meeting him in person or even having him audition. They were shocked to find out that he didn't speak much English.[[/note]]
113** Jesse Ed Davis, a full-blooded Native American from Oklahoma (with ancestry from several tribes), joined as a rhythm guitarist on their final tour in 1975.
114* VocalTagTeam: Their version of [[Music/{{McCartney}} "Maybe I'm Amazed"]] had Ronnie Lane sing the opening verse, with Rod Stewart taking over after that (with occasional harmonies from Lane).
115* WanderlustSong: "Cindy Incidentally"
116-->Oh Cindy, ain't you noticed\
117That several of your friends have moved on?\
118And the street outside is just a little too quiet\
119And your local paper's run out of news?\
120I'm not persuading you or disengaging you\
121But, Cindy, you and me gotta move
122* WeUsedToBeFriends: The band's breakup was rooted in tension between Rod Stewart and Ronnie Lane. As Stewart's solo career took off, he started devoting less time to it. He's completely absent from a few of the songs on what would be their last studio album, ''Ooh La La''. This led Lane to feel like he was being pushed to the sidelines, and he quit in 1973. However, Stewart helped pay for Lane's multiple sclerosis treatments in his final years, and did a solo cover of "Ooh La La" as a tribute to Lane after his death.

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