First Step (Faces album)

First Step was the first album by the British group Faces, released in early 1970. The album was released only a few months after the Faces had formed from the ashes of the Small Faces (from which Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan hailed) and The Jeff Beck Group (from which Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood hailed.) The album is credited to the Small Faces on all North American issues and reissues, while record labels for initial vinyl printings give the title as The First Step.

Contents

• Faces first step full album
• The faces wicked messenger
• Track listing
• Personnel
• Songs
• References

It is generally regarded as their weakest studio effort, recorded at London's famous De Lane Lea Studios too soon after the group's formation, and reached no higher than #119 on the Billboard charts., however it is also viewed as the most democratic of the Faces releases, affording as it does each member of the group at least one composer credit. Highlights include Ronnie Lane's "Stone", "Shake Shudder, Shiver", "Three Button Hand Me Down" (on which both Lane and Wood play the bassline, affording the track a unique sonic quality in the Faces catalogue), and the album's centerpiece, "Flying".

The album cover shows Ronnie Wood holding a copy of Geoffrey Sisley's seminal guitar tutorial First Step: How to Play the Guitar Plectrum Style.

On 28 August 2015, the album was reissued in a remastered and expanded form, including two previously-unreleased bonus tracks recorded shortly after the album's release, "Behind the Sun" and "Mona the Blues" (although the latter was remade by Lane and Wood in 1972 for their Mahoney's Last Stand film soundtrack).