Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake

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Speculation and lore have always surrounded the Small Faces’ most celebrated LP. Some argue that <i>Odgen’s Nut Gone Flake</i> is the first rock ‘n’ roll concept album (side two tells a tale of a boy who befriends a housefly before searching for the moon’s missing half). Others recall the band’s infamous manager Andrew Loog Oldham locking the lads away in a country home with their instruments, a block of hash and the instructions to write something heady. From the get-go this 1968 mod opus had all the good makings of a cult album with its cryptic packaging, immediately likable songs, kooky concept and controversy — Oldham’s ad copy for <i>Odgen’s</i> spoofed <i>The Lord’s Prayer</i>. More importantly, it was with this album that the band injected some muscle into Britain’s psychedelic sound. The soulful “Afterglow (Of Your Love)” proved that love songs could rock hard and heavy, as Steve Marriott delivers one of his top vocal performances, while bass man Ronnie Lane really came into his own with the impassioned epic “Song Of A Baker.” The quirky cockney “Lazy Sunday” birthed the blueprints for ‘90’s Brit-pop having directly influenced Blur’s “Park Life.”

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