This is often called the definite book about the ABA, but as far as I can tell, it may be the only book written about the ABA. Still, it's an entertaining tome. Pluto contrasts a year-by-year run down of the league with various stories relayed via an as-it-happened narrative, which, if you think about it, was really the best way to tell the league's story. This was a league that had no television exposure at all, and by its' last year of existence, was down to playing 7 teams in an 84-game season. The genesis of today's NBA started with the ABA, and the sheer number of characters contained within these pages is enough for me to recommend to any reader.

This was the first, if not one of the first, sports books I ever read. Jerry Kramer played on the offensive line for the Packers of the 1960's, a team that won five title games, including the famous "Ice Bowl" classic where Kramer was credited with the block that sprung Bart Starr with the winning run which clinched that victory. This book was his first-person account of his second-to-last season playing football, from the start of training camp to season's end. Kramer's account is clear-minded and thoughtful on a number of fronts, and of course, he had Schaap, an experienced writer, to help him in this regard. To this day, it may very well be the ultimate insider's look into what makes a football player and team tick. Not only that, it gave everyone great insight into the Packers who were coached by Vince Lombardi - who wasn't exactly known as a nice guy - and put more of a human face on his stoic character. One of the all-time great books in this category.

This oft-celebrated album comes off as more of a vanity project to these ears. At this point, the group was essentially a studio project, anyway. Mixing the group's material with comedian Stanley Unwin's monologues (the "Happiness Stan" story on the second side) seemed excessive enough on its' own, but even the music itself felt jittery, unfocused, and insulated from the sounds cut on the first two albums. Odgens', in this respect, stands apart from the rest of the Small Faces catalog.

You might find this under the title Small Faces which can cause some confusion, and to add to it, a competing album called From The Beginning (with overlapping tracks) was released almost simultaneously as the group had switched management thanks to earlier bad business dealings. Whatever the case, the unbridled Mod/garage enthusiasm that was the debut gives way to a stunning hybrid of clear-vision R&B-meets-psychedelic pop on this record, which plays out over the course of 14 short, vignette-style tracks. Nothing ever overstays its welcome, and I'm fairly sure nothing - other than a chorus or two - gets repeated twice. But the group peaks right in the middle of the hippie era, with one of the surest statements ever made - that great pop/soul hooks and grooves married to beautiful harmonies will always prevail. Even on experimental tracks like "Green Circles" and "Eddie's Dreaming" they never lose their sense of humor or their overall vision. Re-issues often include varying bonus tracks featuring famous singles around the same time like "Here Come the Nice" and "Itchycoo Park". Ironically, it was when the group went full-bore psychedelic, on their next album Odgen's Nut Gone Flake, when they truly began to lose direction.

Doomed to second-league status thanks to events out of their control, in reality, the Small Faces were an immensely important group in their short lifetime, with everyone (except for orginal Face Jimmy Winston) moving onto bigger and better gigs. An innumerable amount of lead singers owe a huge debt to Steve Marriott, while the band's upbeat garage rock crossed-with R&B style has had countless imitators, and very few that matched up with the original item. Their debut album is often pooh-poohed by snooty critics as a second-rate Mod copy-cat document, but that misses the point. The key selling point is unadulterated energy, as typified by their rowdy interpretation of Muddy Waters' "You Need Loving". If this sounds familiar to you, it's because Led Zeppelin directly nicked it for their huge hit "Whole Lotta Love". There's nothing second-rate about this album, or subsequent releases.