10 Overlooked Masterpiece Songs By Legendary Rock Bands
4. The Journey - Small Faces
The Journey is a mad delight by a singular band from a unique album.
Said album, 1968s Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, was the Small Faces' third studio effort, and the last to feature their original line-up. The title is a parody of a then-popular brand of loose tobacco, the album packaging designed to reflect that brand's distinctive tin.
One of the most striking elements of the set comes in the form of comic monologues delivered by Stanley Unwin, in his distinctive, nonsense-words style. Famously, Unwin was the band's second choice as 'narrator,' behind the absurdist genius, Spike Milligan. Good as Unwin is, you can't help but wonder what a Milligan/Small Faces collaboration might have brought us!
The Journey starts with some piano noodling underneath a striking monologue by Unwin. Don't try to make sense of the words, better to simply let the surreal delights wash over you before the song proper begins - a fantastic, rolling, rumbling, swaying affair, full of panache, psychedelic lyrics, striding bass and swirling organs.
It is, by any standards, a wonderfully delirious slice of late-60s rock.