Listen to and Download The Small Faces - Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake
Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake was a successful concept album by the English rock band Small Faces. Released on 24 May 1968 the LP became a number one hit in the UK Album Charts on 29 June where it remained for a total of six weeks. The album was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
The title and the design of the distinctive packaging was a parody of Ogdens' Nut-brown Flake, a brand of tobacco which was produced in Liverpool from 1899.
The A-side is a mix of early heavy rock with "Song of a Baker"; psychedelic cockney knees-up songs "Lazy Sunday" and "Rene", the opening instrumental title track (which resembles their second single "I've Got Mine", which was a total bomb in 1965), and the soul influenced ballad "Afterglow (Of Your Love)".
The B-side is based on an original fairy tale about a boy called Happiness Stan, narrated in his unique ‘Unwinese’ gobbledegook by Stanley Unwin, who picked up modern slang from the band and incorporated it into the surreal narrative.
When Stan looks up in the sky and sees only half the moon, he sets out on a quest to search for the missing half. Along the way he saves a fly from starvation, and in gratitude the insect tells him of someone who can answer his question and also tell him the philosophy of life itself. With his magic power Stan intones, "If all the flies were one fly, what a great enormous fly-follolloper that would bold," and the fly grows to gigantic proportions. Seated on the giant fly's back Stan takes a psychedelic journey to the cave of Mad John the hermit, who explains that the moon's disappearance is only temporary, and demonstrates by pointing out that Stan has spent so long on his quest that the moon is now full again. He then sings Stan a cheerful song about the meaning of life.
Due to the album's complexities, Ogdens' was never performed live, however it was performed as a whole once on the BBC's television programme Colour Me Pop on Friday 21 June 1968. Songs featured were "Song of a Baker", "Happiness Stan", "Rollin' Over", "The Hungry Intruder", "The Journey", "Mad John" and "Happydaystoytown". Although the band mimed to the studio recordings, their microphones were left on to capture little ad libs.
In 2000 Q magazine placed Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake at number 59 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
Highest UK album chart position: 1968, Number One (for six weeks), and a total of 19 weeks on chart.
Playbox Theatre Company, UK, have performed the whole album as a theatre piece in November 2008. It was directed by Stewart McGill and performed by a young cast with a Small Faces tribute band, and it was narrated by Stanley Unwin's son, John.
On October 10 2010, the world’s first major concert format production of Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake is to be staged at London's indigO2 venue, featuring an all-star line up of artists. The show will be promoted by Chas Cole of CMP and produced by John Hellier & Mark Cunningham.
Packaging
The album was originally released on vinyl in a circular novelty package of a metal replica of a giant tobacco tin inside which was a poster created with 5 connected paper circles with pictures of the band members. This proved too expensive and was quickly followed by a paper/card replica with a gatefold cover. Two limited-edition CD releases (including a three-disc deluxe edition in 2006 that included the original mono mix of the album on CD for the first time) went even further by packaging the disc(s) in a circular tin (as the original vinyl release had). However, most CD releases use conventional packaging, superimposing the circular artwork on a square booklet. The award-winning artwork for the album cover was done by Mick Swan who was a product of the sixties art school scene. Any other work by him is unknown but he is known to have worked as a fine arts tutor at Lowestoft F.E. College in 1974.
Click on Song Titles to download.
| Side one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake" | Marriott, Lane, McLagan, Jones | 2:26 | ||||||
| 2. | "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" | Marriott, Lane | 3:31 | ||||||
| 3. | "Long Agos and Worlds Apart" | McLagan | 2:35 | ||||||
| 4. | "Rene" | Marriott, Lane | 4:29 | ||||||
| 5. | "Song of a Baker" | Marriott, Lane | 3:15 | ||||||
| 6. | "Lazy Sunday" | Marriott, Lane | 3:05 | ||||||
| Side two (titled "Happiness Stan") | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Happiness Stan" | Marriott, Lane | 2:35 | ||||||
| 2. | "Rollin' Over" | Marriott, Lane | 2:50 | ||||||
| 3. | "The Hungry Intruder" | Marriott, Lane, McLagan | 2:15 | ||||||
| 4. | "The Journey" | Marriott, Lane, McLagan, Jones | 4:12 | ||||||
| 5. | "Mad John" | Marriott, Lane | 2:48 | ||||||
| 6. | "Happy Days Toy Town" | Marriott, Lane, McLagan | 4:17 | ||||||
Small Faces
Which were in the studios
Hallowed by thy name
Thy music come
Thy songs be sung
On this album as they came from your heads
We give you this day our daily bread
Give us thy album in a round cover as we give thee 37/9d.,
Lead us into the record stores.
And deliver us Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake
For nice is the music
The sleeve and the story
For ever and ever, Immediate
"We didn't know a thing about the ad. until we saw it in the music papers. And frankly we got the horrors at first. We realise that it could be taken as a serious knock against religion. But on thinking it over, we don't feel it is particularly good or bad. It's just another form of advertising. We're not all that concerned about it. We're more concerned in writing our music and producing our records" - Steve Marriott on the advert for Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake that parodied the Lord's Prayer (Wikipedia)
