The Faces - 'Stay With Me'

I listened to this this morning on an early morning drive to yoga. Not exactly the vibe to get me into a zen state or keep me to the speed limits but a great reward for getting up early!

‘Stay With Me’ was the second single I ever bought - ‘Spirit In The Sky’ by Norman Greenbaum being the first. And what a beautiful raucous noise ‘Stay With Me’ is! It’s incredibly raw and powerful. Ron Woods guitar tone is gorgeous and so is Kenney Jones drum sound. Ronnie Lane’s electric piano sound is brilliant too. Rod Stewart sounds superbly gritty on this and at this stage, he was about as cool as front man could be.

It’s a bit of a bizarre arrangement. After a blistering intro and the lovely descending piano riff from Ronnie, the tempo slows right down and stays down there for most of the song. Only after 3/4 of the way through the song does the tempo pick up again for an even more blistering end. This arrangement didn’t stop it being a hit single though back in 1971.

The video here is a live version because it’s so great to watch these guys in action and sounding every bit as good as the studio version.