…to a Blind Horse

Best Album of All Time??? When you own approximately a quarter million pieces of music, and listen to around 5 or 6 hours of music every day, it’s pretty ridiculous to consider what your ‘favorite’ song may be, or even your favorite album. Still, I get asked that question quite often. Usually, my response is dumbfounded silence, as if I were just asked to explain the intricacies of Keynesian Economics.

The truth is that I usually don’t know how to gage what might make one song or one album somehow better than all others. It’s a personal thing, and it changes depending on my mood – I love a good steak but I wouldn’t want to eat one every day of my life, either. And yet, each time I’m asked, I usually find myself mulling over the same few specific records, so I’ve come to realize that I probably really do have a favorite album.

I got my copy of The Faces “A Nod Is as Good as a Wink…to a Blind Horse” when I was about twelve years old, and since then, it has taught me all that I need to know about rock and roll. It has attitude, humor, sensitivity, great playing and singing, it provides a personal and insightful perspective, and the music rocks like crazy. One minute, the record sounds fall down sloppy, and then it tightens into an amazingly rocking groove, providing a perfect tension between raw energy and refinement. Best of all, it sounds like music made by a real band, with no need for session pros or extraneous overdubs. It’s simple enough to enjoy on first listen, but complex and energetic enough to hold my interest forty years on.

So, yep, I suppose this is it, my favorite album. It’s forty years old this month. I never grew tired of hearing it, and it has never felt out of style. To my ears, it still sounds as fresh as the day I first heard it. so I’m gonna play the whole thing. I hope you can agree with me, or at least understand why I hold this record in such high regard. Happy New Year, everyone.

Tracks include:

Miss Judy's Farm

You're So Rude

Love Lives Here

Last Orders Please

Stay with Me

Debris

Memphis, Tennessee (incorrectly titled on original U.S. pressings of the album as simply "Memphis"

Too Bad

That's All You Need