A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse

Rating

The Faces' third album, A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse, finally gave the group their long-awaited hit single in "Stay with Me," helping send the album into the Billboard Top Ten, which is certainly a testament to both the song and the album, but it's hard to separate its success from that of Rod Stewart's sudden solo stardom. In the mere months that separated Long Player and A Nod, Rod had a phenomenal hit with "Maggie May" and Every Picture Tells a Story, his third solo album, something that would soon irreparably damage the band, but at the time it was mere good fortune, helping bring them some collateral success that they deserved. Certainly, it didn't change the character of the album itself, which is the tightest record the band ever made. Granted that may be a relative term, since sloppiness is at the heart of the band, but this doesn't feel cobbled together (which the otherwise excellent Long Player did) and it serves up tremendous song after tremendous song, starting with the mean, propulsive "Miss Judy's Farm" and ending with the rampaging good times of "That's All You Need." In between, Ronnie Lane serves up dirty jokes (the exquisitely funny "You're So Rude") and heartbreaking ballads (the absolutely beautiful "Debris"), the band reworks a classic as their own (Chuck Berry's "Memphis") and generally serves up a nonstop party. There are few records that feel like a never-ending party like A Nod -- the slow moments are for slow dancing, and as soon as it's over, it's hard not to want to do it all over again. It's another classic -- and when you consider that the band also had Long Player to their credit and had their hands all over Every Picture in 1971, it's hard to imagine another band or singer having a year more extraordinary as this.

Tracks:
1. Miss Judy's Farm
2.You're So Rude
3.Love Lives Here
4.Last Orders Please
5.Stay With Me
6.Debris
7.Memphis
8.Too Bad
9.That's All You Need

Album: A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Miss Judy's Farm
2)	You're So Rude
3)	Love Lives Here
4)	Last Orders Please
5)	Stay With Me
6)	Debris
7)	Memphis
8)	Too Bad
9)	That's All You Need

Performer Notes

Personnel: Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane (vocals); Ron Wood (guitar); Ian McLagan (keyboards); Kenney Jones (drums).
Recording information: Olympic Sound Studios, Barnes London, England (03/1971).
When this was released in 1971, the Faces also released LONG PLAYER (following the dropping of "Small" from the band's name) and frontman Rod Stewart released the seminal EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY. The three-album output was especially remarkable for the Faces, as the band was more known for skirt-chasing and carousing than recording music. NOD found the Faces fusing together a grittier blues and soul sound than on past efforts, which were marked by a rather modish sound and Stewart's then-folkier leanings.
The group includes enough heartfelt ruminations to add a sentimental edge to the otherwise rip-roaring mix of material. Among the latter class of songs are a shambling cover of Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee" and "Stay With Me," the Faces' only hit and the quintessential groupie kiss-off. Stewart's talents as a balladeer are no less effective, with songs like the poignant "Love Lives Here" and the Ronnie Lane-penned duet "Debris," an unheralded classic every bit as emotionally devastating as "Wild Horses." Lane's singing and songwriting also shine on the barroom anthem "Last Orders Please" and the whimsically swaggering "You're So Rude," a song about getting caught in a compromising position with a sassy girlfriend during a family visit.