"Act Together" - Ron Wood (1974)

The Rolling Stones needed a new guitarist when Mick Taylor left the band in 1974. And what a fit they found when they took in Ron Wood. Although he would not become an “official” member of the band for a few years, his style influenced the Rolling Stones to such an extent that the Rolling Stones of today is almost indistinguishable from some of Mr. Wood’s earlier work on his 1^st solo album “I’ve Got My Own Album to Work On.”

In this live video; colorized at a later date; Ron is joined by Keith Richards for this great performance of “Act Together” from Mr. Wood’s solo album. Notice that Keith Richards is playing the piano for this one.  Mr. Wood and Mr. Richards later combined their talents in a group called The Barbarians; or, as they have become known; the First Barbarians; as the group had a couple of different incarnations.

Keith Richards vocals are almost identical to Ron Wood’s. They harmonize vocally as well as they weave their guitars while playing for the Stones. It’s no wonder these two got along so famously.

If you really want to read about how the two met and blended their musical abilities read Keith Richards incredible autobiography “Life.” The sections dealing with the making of Mr. Wood’s solo album; with a little help from his friends; is a great insight into how the Stones sound evolved from the more “poppish” musical genre into the cutting edge band which it still is today. This video is a great place to start.

"All or Nothing" by Small Faces (1966)

This song was used in the film “Made in Dagenham” which deals with the Equal Pay Act in Britain, and was passed in 1970 as a result of the Ford strike by sewing machinists in 1968. The law went into effect in 1975; we’re still waiting for ours here in America; the champion of Human Rights.

The song is a real old favorite of mine, coming from the first album by Small Faces, the group which later became known as Faces, with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Lane; of future Rolling Stones  fame; on guitar. Their hits eventually eclipsed the brilliant work done by the band when it was under the leadership of Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane; shown here; before they left the band in 1969.

Although Faces was tremendously successful; commercially; for me they never came up to the artistic achievements of Small Faces earlier works; such as “Itchycoo Park”, “Lazy Sunday” or even the concept album “Nut Gone Flake”, which was a heavy influence on other pop artists such as Pete Townsend and the Kinks’ Ray Davies.

According to Steve Marriott’s mother, this song was apparently written by Steve Marriott about breaking up with his girlfriend. However, Steve Marriott disputes this, claiming the song is about Rod Stewart’s first wife breaking up with Rod Stewart. Personally, I believe Steve's mother.

This song is from the album “From the Beginning" which is on Decca records and was released at the beginning of 1966. The original lineup of musicians was changed once during their short tenure; Jimmy Winston, the keyboard player, was replaced by Ian McLagan around the time of this film from BBC television.