INFLUENCES
STEVE MARRIOTT: Buddy Holly has gotta be the biggest influence
of my youth.I used run about the room wearing a pair of thick
glasses -- no glass in 'em, just the rims -- and I had a tennis
racket I used to mime with. And I made a record once called "Give
Her My Regards" copying him -- it was dire! It was a rotten
record! (as guest DJ on BBC, 5-23-87)
IAN MCLAGAN: Stax, Motown, and Muddy Waters. We used to do songs
on stage live that would just be jams, really. "E Too D"
or "Come On Children" evolved from just jams basically.
Steve would sing -- James Brown was another big influence too
-- he would sing some James Brown lines and throw in a few Muddy
Waters licks -- that's where Zeppelin got "Whole Lotta Love"
was from us.
STEVE MARRIOTT: My main influences (during the mod years) were
Booker T and the MG's, then people like Otis Redding. I mean,
if it wasn't black, then I didn't listen to it!
IAN MCLAGAN: I was on this airplane a few years ago, and I was
walking down the aisle, and I heard this voice singing "...in
places/Small Faces abound...." and I looked and it was David
Crosby. He said "hey man, we wrote that line about you, you
know....." And we never did know it then!
KEN SHARP: Did you get to see any of your idols back then, Otis,
Booker T?
IAN MCLAGAN: I saw Otis, Booker T, Arthur Conley, Sam & Dave,
and Eddie Floyd all in one night. The four of us went to see our
favorite band at the Hammersmith Odeon. The curtains opened, "Green
Onions." It could've ended right then, and I coulda gone
home happy. It was fantastic! Otis did "Try A Little Tenderness."
But Sam'n'Dave stole the show.
KEN SHARP: Have you ever met any of them?
IAN MCLAGAN: Not then, later yeah. I meet Booker T every time
and it's the first time he's met me every time.
KEN SHARP: Like with Chuck Berry meeting Keith?
IAN MCLAGAN: Yeah. The last time he played in Austin I went him
and his organ was fucking up. I went to seem him afterwards --
'cause Steve Cropper remembers me, Duck Dunn remembers me -- they're
all very much gentlemen, but every time with Booker T it's like
(nice as can be) "...nice to meet you," and I said anytime
you come to Austin please call me, and I'll bring my own Hammond
and Leslie, it's beautiful and sweet B3 and you'll like it ...
so maybe he will.
Q [interviewer lost to time and memory]: Have you ever
seen or heard any of the current mod bands, and what do you think
of them?
STEVE MARRIOTT: Yeah. It's very difficult, how shall I say it,
'cos they are doing something that I've done. Even the tones on
the guitars they use. To me it's a compliment. But to be honest
with you, I think they've got their influences a bit mixed up.
They are more influenced by the Small Faces or whoever, whereas
we were influenced by the black r'n'b/soul artists. They're really
not taking it to the roots. What worries me is that the sort of
music that we had when we was nippers is no longer available.
Alright, you can get compilation albums, but they're not the same
thing. We had the more obscure stuff like The Contours and groups
like that. It's hard to get ahold of that stuff, and it's a shame....
KENNEY JONES: I can see a lot of bands, a lot of drummers, playing
like me, which is really strange. I'm incredibly flattered, and
I can see similarities in Ronnie, Steve, and Mac in the look of
the bands now. Even in Oasis, the lot. They're the first ones
to say so, as well, but it's quite weird. Of all the bands in
the Sixties, the biggest hyped bands were the Stones and the Beatles,
basically, but we were right there, and we were quite big at the
time. But because we had "poppy" records -- the record
company kept releasing these poppy records -- but it was our fault,
we wrote them. So nobody would listen to the album tracks, and
the album tracks were bloody great. We were a lot heavier band
than people sort of gave us credit for, but we could never lose
that pop image, if you like. Which funnily enough I'm actually
quite proud of now, because there is strength in the pop side
of music. I think it's actually been abundantly clear now, people
have actually realized it's not just pop, it's just a commercial
record. "Pop" is just a term and you can actually still
be heavy under that label.
IAN MCLAGAN: I've worked with alot of younger bands, when I lived
in L.A. I got more work with younger bands who were familiar with
those records ... you know it's like a wave, or a cycle. Now people
are familiar with the band again, but in five years I'll have
to be telling people who they are again. When I moved to Malibu
in 1978 after the Faces split up in 1975, and in 1975, we couldn't
walk anywhere in the States. My hair is pretty much the same,
a bit grayer, and I went to the market in Malibu, and this kid
started laughing at my hair -- he didn't think I could hear 'im,
talking to his mum "...look at 'is hair," and I'm thinking
"..wait a minute!" And then about two years later, kids
have got hair like mine again, and I'm thinking, wait a second,
you're probably the same kid who was laughing. It all starts again
now. I had someone come up to me yesterday and say: "...are
you Rod Stewart?" Give me a break....
