Spitball Army

I am the family face; flesh perishes, I live on, projecting trait and trace through time to times anon, and leaping from place to place over oblivion.
-Thomas Hardy

It is the common wonder of all men, how among so many million faces, there should be none alike.
-Sir Thomas Browne

Our masks, always in peril of smearing or cracking, in need of continuous check in the mirror or silverware, keep us in thrall to ourselves, concerned with our surfaces.
-Carolyn Kizer

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
-Abraham Lincoln

What is a face, really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn’t everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist.
-Pablo Picasso

The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes.
-William Shakespeare

The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.
-Jack Handy

Approximate playing time: 78 minutes.

1. The Coral Sea  “Look at Her Face”  (2006)
2. David Byrne with Camille  “Pretty Face”  (2010)
3. Paul McCartney  “My Brave Face”  (1989)
4. Wilco  “You Are My Face”  (2007)
5. Blind Boys of Alabama  “Just Wanna See His Face”  (2001)
6. Merle Haggard with Carl Jackson  “Must You Throw Dirt In My Face?”  (2003)
7. Kathleen Edwards  “A Face in the Crowd”  (2004)
8. The Beatles  “I’ve Just Seen a Face”  (1965)
9. The Who (as The High Numbers)  “I’m the Face”  (1964)
10. Spike Jones  “Der Fuehrer’s Face”  (1942)
11. Fats Waller  “My Window Faces South”  (1937)
12. Ed Robinson  “Face It”  (1972)
13. Earth, Wind & Fire  “On Your Face”  (1976)
14. Wes Montgomery  “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”  (1962)
15. Valerie Carter  “Face of Appalachia”  (1977)
16. Neil Halstead  “Paint a Face”  (2008)
17. Joni Mitchell  “Love Puts on a New Face”  (1998)
18. She & Him  “I Thought I Saw Your Face Today”  (2008)
19. Bee Gees  “Sea of Smiling Faces”  (1972)
20. Gingersol  “Face Up Again”  (2003)
21. Los Lobos  “Angels with Dirty Faces”  (1992)
22. Peter Frampton  “Lines on My Face”  (1975)

[audio:Fred_FM_playlist_091210.mp3]
Fred FM playlist (12 September 2010)

Some notes on the songs:

• “Pretty Face” is drawn from the concept album, Here Lies Love, which chronicles the political and social career of the Phillipines’ Imelda Marcos, she of the sizable shoe collection.  The album is Evita-esque, but with a discofied edge – both of these aspects come through in this song.
• The Rolling Stones had a little mini-jam on their album Exile on Main Street with “I Just Want to See His Face,” and there it was little more than a trifle.  The Blind Boys of Alabama convert it into a rave-up.  Not bad for a bunch of old guys who are older even than Charlie Watts.
• I’ll be happy if I never hear Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever album once more in my lifetime, as it has been played to death in my presence.  But Kathleen Edwards does a fine job interpreting one of the better songs on that Petty record: “A Face in the Crowd.”  I’m inclined to like it anyway, if you know me well, because I’m a weak sucker for anything Ms. Edwards does.
• Regarding the name change of The Who to The High Numbers (from wikipedia):

The Detours changed their name to The Who in February 1964, and, with the arrival of [drummer Keith] Moon that year, the line-up was complete. However, for a short period in summer 1964, under the management of mod Peter Meaden, they changed their name to The High Numbers, releasing “Zoot Suit/I’m the Face”, a single aimed at appealing to mod fans. When the single failed to chart, the band reverted to The Who.

• It is a small commercial crime that Valerie Carter has escaped notice of the general public for practically her entire musical career.  In the 1970s, she released two stellar albums of sultry pop: the first with a folksy Americana Ronstadt-ian edge; the second, nipping at the heels of the disco era, with a style that presaged the coming of Sade.  But Ms. Carter’s claim to fame has probably been as a singing partner to James Taylor.  If you’ve seen James in concert, chances are that you’ve heard and seen Valerie right up there on stage with him.  Check out her discography as vocalist on other artists’ projects and be amazed.
• Spike Jones wrote “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” and had some success with it.  But when the ode to passing gas at Adolf Hitler was translated to the universal language of a Donald Duck cartoon, it won a 1943 Academy Award.  A pretty ballsy cartoon for that or any time.  Can you imagine Disney putting their name on something like this today?  Neither can I.