God damn it. Another day, another obit, and this one cuts extra deep for me. Small Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan died yesterday. The cause of death was a stroke; McLagan was just 69. This fucking sucks. McLagan, or Mac, was one of those rock guys whom you'd hope would be fucking awesome, like, just the coolest, laid back, a feller you could drink with—and he WAS. Everyone loved him.

McLagan first began playing beat music in London with a group called the Muleskinners, but was playing in another group, Boz & the Boz People, when he was tapped to join the Small Faces. The Small Faces were a club band, they played R&B, but they got famous for their solid run of pop hits in the UK and Europe. They never broke in the US due to dodgy business issues, which kept the band from touring over here. Their cultural weight, however, should NOT be underestimated—without them, Led Zeppelin's template for success would be missing A LOT. Singer Robert Plant took his phrasing and flourishes directly from SF front man Steve Marriott; I've always rated the first four Zep albums as a continuance of the two Small Faces' Immediate label albums.

Anyway, after the Small Faces split, when Marriott left to form Humble Pie, McLagan, along with Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Birds/Jeff Beck Group members Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart, coalesced as the Faces. Together, these fellers turned their collective love of drinking brandy into an exceptionally successful rock band. The Faces spilt in 1975 after the Rolling Stones poached Ronnie Wood and Rod the Sod finally decided he was a star (the Faces were relegated to being his backing group). McLagan then set out on his own—he toured with the Stones, was part of a failed Small Faces reactivation, was sideman to everybody (Joe Cocker, Jackson Browne, Dylan, Melissa Etheridge, Bonnie Raitt, etc.), made some solo albums, formed the Bump Band (which had been ongoing since the late '70s), and in 2000, wrote the entertaining, informative, and mandatory autobiography All the Rage. Mac, since he began playing music, had never stopped being a working musician—in fact, he was supposed to start a tour with Nick Lowe TODAY! Oh, also, this kills the hopes of a Faces reunion next year.

I gotta say, y'all, I'm crushed. The Small Faces are one of my top 10 groups, and, for Christ's sake, I've had a MOD-i-fied McLagan haircut for almost the last 20 YEARS. You know, had the universe asked me, I would'a suggested instead of Ian, you might oughta take Rod!!!