No. 253: Every Picture Tells A Story

"Wood/Stewart" by Tom Wills, June 2014.

This is a story about pieces fitting together, though imprecisely. It's about stripes, sequins and scarves too.

Ronnie Wood, left, and Rod Stewart made wonderfully imprecise music together between 1970 and 1975, when The Faces quit and Wood became a Rolling Stone. The Wood/Stewart music was jangly, a nice mix of acoustic and electric, sweet and salty, deft and heavy. It was also funny and occasionally filthy, for the early 1970s. ("Silicone Grown.")

A splendid time is being had.

Think of Rod Stewart's greatest albums, "Every Picture Tells A Story" and "Never A Dull Moment." That guitar on "Maggie Mae" is Ronnie. These were cut alongside Faces slabs such as "A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse," "Long Player" and "Ooh La La."
And we've all memorized "Stay With Me" and its opening riff.

The Faces. Note two cover versions of "Small Faces"

"In the morning
Don't say you love me
'Cause I'll only kick you out of the door
I know your name is Rita
'Cause your perfume smelling sweeter
Since when I saw you down on the floor."

Same band, basically. Two covers of "Rod Stewart Album"

A very happy, sloppy band -- with extra credit to Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones and the late Ronnie Lane. Great stuff, and hard to find on vinyl nowadays.
In the picture, Ronnie and Rod are probably leaning on each other so that they don't both fall to the stage. The band is shown imbibing, in many of the old group photos.

Ooh La La

The drawing itself took more than three weeks and was very difficult, with that rooster hair, all of those stripes, scarves and sequins. The original photo had a black background and Rod's face and hair were deep in the shadows; I had to guess where he ended and Ronnie started. Ronnie's hands were difficult because one is running a slide across the guitar neck, while the other is holding a cigarette as he plays.  How do they do that?

Rooster hair

Ronnie and Rod hung in my music room for more than two years in an old wooden frame that I tried to save, as it was a huge antique piece and I just couldn't bear to throw it out.  But really I should have, because the old girl could not hold the action of these two.  Although it took up a lot of space, they could not breathe.

So, many months later, I snagged a modern frame with a lot of flash that is really a better fit, in all ways. It's a solid wood frame painted gold, just like that first Rod Stewart album.

"Gimme Some Neck"

Now these boys are wired (heh), hung (heh heh) and ready to rock. If you'd like these faces in your rock and roll rec room, contact me at willstom01@gmail.com or find me on Facebook.

The faces ...