Faces / Ooh La La / 1973
Fly In the Ointment
loose, good-humored, slightly ramshackle
An instrumental blues-rock shuffle built around a loose, barroom-piano groove, "Fly in the Ointment" plays like a studio jam that the band decided was good enough to keep. It has no vocal and no lyric content, so its meaning lives entirely in the title, the playing, and its placement on a famously ragged, affectionate album.
looseness and spontaneity self-deprecating humor band camaraderie minor blemish vs. charm studio-as-performance
Who's speaking
There is no narrator or addressee in the conventional sense; the "voice" here is collective, carried by the interplay of piano, guitar, and rhythm section rather than a singer.
What happens
Without lyrics, the track's arc is purely musical: it establishes a rolling groove, lets instruments trade prominence (piano, then slide or lead guitar), and rides that groove to a close rather than building toward a lyrical resolution. The 'story' is the process of a band playing together and enjoying the result enough to release it.
How it's built
Likely organized as a repeating twelve-bar or vamp-style blues structure rather than verse-chorus form, with sections defined by which instrument takes the lead rather than by sung stanzas. Repetition and variation substitute for lyrical development.
Section by section
Opening groove
The track likely opens by establishing its central vamp, setting a relaxed, slightly sloppy tempo that signals this is a jam rather than a composed set piece.
Instrumental trade-off
The middle stretch probably shifts focus between keyboard and guitar, each taking a turn pushing the groove forward, which stands in for the call-and-response a vocalist and band might otherwise provide.
Close
Rather than resolving toward a hook or lyrical punchline, the piece likely winds down or fades, consistent with its identity as a studio aside rather than a fully arranged song.
Craft
- title as framing device
- Since there are no words sung, the title itself becomes the song's only verbal content, and it does the work a lyric normally would -- inviting the listener to read the track's rough edges as the titular flaw.
- irony
- Calling a stray, filler-sounding jam a 'fly in the ointment' is self-aware: the band seems to acknowledge the track's minor, imperfect status while including it anyway, turning a flaw into part of the record's loose charm.
Reading it
The most persuasive reading treats this as exactly what it sounds like: a semi-improvised instrumental the band enjoyed enough to include, with a title that winks at its own minor, imperfect status on an album otherwise built around Rod Stewart's and Ronnie Lane's songwriting. A secondary reading would hear the title as a dry comment on the band's internal tensions during this period, but without lyrics or documented commentary that connection is speculative rather than demonstrable from the track itself.
Context
Ooh La La (1973) is widely remembered as a transitional, somewhat chaotic record for Faces, made as the band's internal cohesion was fraying and Rod Stewart's solo career was pulling focus. Instrumental, jam-like interludes fit that loose, unpolished ethos, though I don't have reliable session details -- who plays lead, how it was recorded, or any firsthand account of its origin.
Listen for
- the interplay between piano and guitar driving the groove
- how loose or tight the rhythm section feels compared to the album's sung tracks
- whether the arrangement resolves or simply fades, reinforcing its 'jam' identity
- the overall bluesy, pub-rock character typical of Faces outside their hit singles
About Faces
Faces are an English rock band formed in London in 1969. They formed after Small Faces lead singer and guitarist Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie, and the remaining Small Faces—bassist Ronnie Lane, drummer Kenney Jones, and keyboardist Ian McLagan—recruited lead singer Rod Stewart and guitarist Ronnie Wood, both formerly of the Jeff Beck Group, and shortened the band's name to Faces.
1969 - 1975 / United Kingdom
Full biography and catalogue