Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (1968) 24-bit/96kHz Vinyl Rip

There was no shortage of good psychedelic albums emerging from England in 1967-1968, but Ogden's Nut Gone Flake is special even within their ranks. The Small Faces had already shown a surprising adaptability to psychedelia with the single "Itchycoo Park" and much of their other 1967 output, but Ogden's Nut Gone Flake pretty much ripped the envelope. British bands had an unusual approach to psychedelia from the get-go, often preferring to assume different musical "personae" on their albums, either feigning actual "roles" in the context of a variety show (as on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album), or simply as storytellers in the manner of the Pretty Things on S.F. Sorrow, or actor/performers as on the Who's Tommy. The Small Faces tried a little bit of all of these approaches on Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, but they never softened their sound. Side one's material, in particular, would not have been out of place on any other Small Faces release – "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" and "Rene" both have a pounding beat from Kenny Jones, and Ian McLagan's surging organ drives the former while his economical piano accompaniment embellishes the latter; and Steve Marriott's crunching guitar highlights "Song of a Baker." Marriott singing has him assuming two distinct "roles," neither unfamiliar – the Cockney upstart on "Rene" and "Lazy Sunday," and the diminutive soul shouter on "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" and "Song of a Baker." Some of side two's production is more elaborate, with overdubbed harps and light orchestration here and there, and an array of more ambitious songs, all linked by a narration by comic dialect expert Stanley Unwin, about a character called "Happiness Stan." The core of the sound, however, is found in the pounding "Rollin' Over," which became a highlight of the group's stage act during its final days – the song seems lean and mean with a mix in which Ronnie Lane's bass is louder than the overdubbed horns. Even "Mad John," which derives from folk influences, has a refreshingly muscular sound on its acoustic instruments. Overall, this was the ballsiest-sounding piece of full-length psychedelia to come out of England, and it rode the number one spot on the U.K. charts for six weeks in 1968. Bruce Eder, Allmusic

Track listing:

Side one: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake
01. Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake
02. Afterglow
03. Long Agos And Worlds Apart
04. Rene
05. Song Of A Baker
06. Lazy Sunday

Side two: Happiness Stan
07. Happiness Stan
08. Rollin’ Over
09. The Hungry Intruder
10. The Journey
11. Mad John
12. Happydaystoytown

Bonus tracks:

From Immediate single IM 062 (1967)
13. Tin Soldier
14. I Feel Much Better
From Immediate single IM 069 (1968)
15. The Universal
16. Donkey Rides, A Penny A Glass
From Immediate single IM 077 (1969)
17. Wham Bam Thank You Man

Personnel:

Steve Marriott – vocals, guitar
Ronnie Lane – vocals, bass
Kenney Jones – drums, percussion
Ian McLagan – keyboards, vocals
‘Professor’ Stanley Unwin – narration (in ‘Unwinese’) on side 2
P.P. Arnold – backing vocals on 13 & 14
Arranged by Small Faces
Produced by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane