The real reason The Faces broke up, according to Rod Stewart: “We’d lost the soul”
For reasons both good and bad, I find it hard to view Rod Stewart as anything but a solo artist.
His charisma, which has bordered on cringeworthy in recent years, can only be viewed as the byproduct of someone inherently self-assured. As such, his name in the chapter books of music history isn’t limited to “the front man of”; instead, he’s operated under his own steam, his own name, and his own story.
But the fact of the matter is that some of his best vocal takes came in the camaraderie of a band. While his later, more commercial work is what he will be globally renowned for, his time spent in The Faces is when he was creating the work of a humble yet true rockstar.
The gruff tenderness that makes his voice undoubtedly compelling was at its peak there. It was subtly packed with the sort of soul that influenced his performative style, while it always felt as though it could break out into a rock and roll frenzy at any point. It was the sort of voice musicians were scrambling for in the mid-1970s, as they sought to rival a catalogue of bands who were topping the charts and selling out venues.
He was the perfect Prince Charming upon whom the band could project their ambitions, and so he willingly became their poster boy. But that didn’t mean this band was his baby. No, the beating heart of the band’s creative prowess was Ronnie Lane.
While Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and even Jimi Hendrix made their mark on the 1960s London blues scene, Lane was quietly operating in the background. He had mastered the same formula as the band, but with a more angular approach to songwriting that helped craft some of The Faces’ signature songs.
That gelled naturally with Stewart’s charisma at the very start of the group, but it was only a matter of time before the growing stardom of the band’s frontman began to eat away at Lane. Stewart continued to develop his solo discography, which essentially gave way for Lane to go his own way as well, and it’s that very moment the Scottish singer remarked was the end of The Faces.
“We’d lost the soul of the band when Ronnie Lane left to go and do his gypsy tour around Britain. And once we lost Ronnie, then I think the other Ronnie (Wood) was always gonna join The Stones eventually. But hey, they were five hilarious years.”
Stewart can shrug the event off with relative ease, as he knew, like Lane did, this would be for the benefit of his own career. Stewart’s star rose even further after the dissolution of The Faces and he continued on to have one of music’s greatest ever solo careers.
But his time with the band was indeed hilarious and fun, which is evident on every track of theirs. It was packed with the sort of youthful energy we’ve come to mythologise from that era and gave even some of Stewart’s harshest critics a few songs to enjoy.
