The Small Faces - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1966-1968 | Albums That Should Exist

 

The Small Faces - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1966-1968

Paul says: Here's the second out of three BBC albums I'm posting for the British band the Small Faces.

As I mentioned in my write-up for Volume 1, I posted two Small Faces BBC albums in 2021. But I am completely overhauling them, thanks to the music blog of Prof. Stoned. That person found a bunch of BBC performances that I had missed. So a big thanks to him.

Volume 1 was nearly exactly the same as what I'd posted previously, with almost all of the songs from the official album "The BBC Sessions." But Volume 2 is the opposite. Most of the performances are ones I'd previously missed, from unreleased sources. Only three songs, tracks 8, 9, and 10, are from the official album I just mentioned. 

Unfortunately, the likely reason most of these weren't included on the official album is because, in most cases, these are just live vocals sung over the studio versions. But there's so little live Small Faces music that has survived that I figure even these versions are worth hearing. There are five such songs, which have "[Live Vocals Only]" in their titles.

Everything here is from BBC sessions (except for the bonus tracks, which I'll get to in a minute). Check out the mp3 tags for more of the details. Three of the songs have "[Edit]" in their titles, due to my wiping the BBC DJ talking over the music, using the MVSEP program. No songs here are repeated twice. But some of the songs are repeats of songs on either Volume 1 or Volume 3.

The bonus tracks are exactly the same as in the version of this album I posted in 2021. So I'll just repost the same paragraph I wrote about them back then: 

The three remaining bonus tracks aren't from the BBC, or any other radio or TV show, for that matter. It's just that I think they're really cool and I don't have a better place to put them in my music collection, so I've stuck them here. All three are alternate versions of Small Faces songs that are done in a solo acoustic style. Two are mixes with everything but the vocals and acoustic guitar removed. The other one, "The Autumn Stone," is an alternate take. That take was just made public a few weeks prior to my posting of this album, as a free CD that came with an issue of Mojo Magazine. It's meant to be a teaser for an expanded version of "The Autumn Stone" album that's in the works. 

This album is 34 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

01 Sha-La-La-La-Lee (Small Faces)
02 All or Nothing (Small Faces)
03 Here Comes the Nice [Live Vocals Only] (Small Faces)
04 Itchycoo Park [Live Vocals Only] (Small Faces)
05 Tin Soldier [Live Vocals Only] (Small Faces)
06 Lazy Sunday [Live Vocals Only] (Small Faces)
07 Get Ready [Instrumental Version] (Small Faces)
08 If I Were a Carpenter [Edit] (Small Faces)
09 Lazy Sunday [Edit] (Small Faces)
10 Every Little Bit Hurts [Edit] (Small Faces)
11 The Universal [Live Vocals Only] (Small Faces)

Red Balloon [Stripped Down Mix] (Small Faces)
Show Me the Way [Stripped Down Mix] (Small Faces)
The Autumn Stone [Jenny's Song] [Take 1] (Small Faces)

Paul notes: I don't know where or when the cover photo is from. But it almost certainly is from a TV show appearance. I found it interesting that it shows the band's lead singer Steve Marriott playing piano, as I didn't know he did that. And it looks like the band's drummer Kenny Jones is singing, along with bassist Ronnie Lane, which is also interesting.

The Small Faces - The Autumn Stone

The Small Faces - The Universal

The Small Faces - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1965-1966 RE-BOOT | Albums That Should Exist

 

The Small Faces - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1965-1966

Paul notes: Back in early 2021, I posted two BBC albums for the Small Faces. (Technically, they were just "Small Faces," but I can't help use the "the.") I have deleted those today, because I'm doing a complete overhaul, and turning two albums into three. Here's the first one.

This overhaul wouldn't have happened had it not been for Prof. Stoned and his music blog. I highly recommend you check it out, here:

Prof Stoned: Rare & Deleted 

He shares my interest in BBC recordings from the 1960s and early 1970s. An official BBC album has been released for this band, simply titled "The BBC Sessions." But Prof. Stoned has dug deep and found more and more that that album missed. Eventually, I noticed there was enough for this overhaul. So all the songs I'm adding for the first time are thanks to that blog.

As it so happens, the vast majority of the tracks on this first volume are from the official BBC album. The only exceptions are tracks 4 ("You Really Got a Hold on Me") and 14 ("My Mind's Eye"). Everything here is from BBC studio sessions, though the two unreleased tracks were performed before small audiences. (I've removed the crowd noise on those, using MVSEP.) As usual, you can look at the mp3 tags for each song for more details about where and when the songs were recorded.

If you look at the song list, you'll see several songs with "[Edit]" in their titles. That's due to the usual problem from that era of BBC DJs talking over the music. I always like removing that talking, using the UVR5 or MVSEP programs. But Prof. Stoned feels otherwise, so if you want hear the DJs, check out his Small Faces collection.

Since all but two songs are officially released, the sound quality is excellent. The sound quality is a bit rougher for those, but still acceptable. Also, one song here, "Jump Back," is also on the stray tracks album "Grow Your Own," because the only recording the band did of it is from one of their BBC sessions. 

This album is 37 minutes long.

01 Whatcha Gonna Do about It 
02 Jump Back 
03 Baby Don't You Do It [Don't Do It] 
04 You Really Got a Hold on Me [Edit] 
05 Shake [Edit]
06 Sha-La-La-La-Lee
07 You Need Love [You Need Loving] [Edit]
08 Hey Girl
09 E Too D [Edit]
10 One Night Stand [Edit] 
11 You Better Believe It [Edit] 
12 Understanding 
13 All or Nothing
14 My Mind's Eye 

The cover art photo comes from an appearance on the "Two of a Kind" TV show in 1967.