By Request: Stay With Me by The Faces

       1971 was a very good year for Rock and Roll.  The Allman Brothers rocked the Fillmore East, Black Sabbath burst onto the scene with Paranoid, Led Zeppelin IV came out including the song Stairway To Heaven, and The Doors put out their last album L.A. Woman.  This list goes on and on with classic offerings from The Rolling Stones, ELP, Jethro Tull, Elton John, Janis Joplin, The Kinks, Traffic, The Who and dozens of others.
       One of the best singles to come out that year was called Stay With Me by The Faces.  At their formation the band was deservedly described as a super-group. They proved it by induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.  The personnel in the band reads like a who's who of rock legends including keyboard player Ian McLagan, bassist Ronnie Lane, drummer Kenny Jones, guitar player Ronnie Wood, and vocalist Rod Stewart.  Wood with The Rolling Stones, and Stewart as a solo artist, are in the R&R HOF twice.
      The Faces emerged as a revamped version of The Small Faces when Stewart and Wood joined the band after singer/guitar player Steve Marriott left the band to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton, Greg Ridley, and Jerry Shirley.  With new songwriters and a completely different sound they rightfully believed themselves to be a new band, hence the name change.  At first this caused problems with Warner Brothers who feared the change would confuse fans and effect sales.  Faces went on to prove the Label had nothing to fear when they surprised company execs by flexing their sales muscle.
      After the breakup of the Beatles, The Rolling Stones emerged as the number one band in the world. The critics of the day believed the only band that rocked as hard as The Stones with a chance to rival them was The Faces. While that never quite materialized, they did put out some hard rocking songs that certainly gave credence to the theory.
       Stay With Me is the tawdry tale of a rock star inviting a groupie back to his hotel room for sex, provided she leaves in the morning without any questions.  He calls her a slut then facetiously says "Lets go upstairs and read my tarot cards".  He even tells her she's ugly implying that he's having sex with her simply because she is available and willing.  While he is disrespecting and degrading her, many bands have observed that groupies will aggressively seek sex with a near maniacal zeal.  Lynard Skynard's song What's Your Name and The Rolling Stones Star Star illustrates the ubiquitous nature of this sexual phenomenon which explains the contempt but doesn't necessarily forgive it.  Stay With Me, as a pure piece of rock and roll art,  just plain rocks.
       It gets moving right out of the gate with a rollicking paced Ron Wood fuzzed up guitar that is easily one of the most recognizable riffs ever recorded.  Right from the opening note you can picture an audience jumping to its feet in excitement. The song is carried by Rod Stewart's voice at his roughhouse best and Wood's rhythm guitar seductively interwoven with McLagans piano and is powerfully driven by the Lane/Jones rhythm section.  Overdubbed guitar leads, some of which are played with a slide, push the song to the highest levels of goose bump raising rock.  Eventually the song returns to the opening frenetic rhythm while featuring the band taking turns at leads. This includes some of their best guitar work and is a perfect example of what Keith Richards refers to in his autobiography entitled Life as "guitar weaving".
       If you're thirsting for a great rock and roll song to make your day then I strongly recommend

Stay With Me by The Faces