“Ooh La La” – Faces
(Words/music: Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood, available on Ooh La La, Warner Brothers 1973)

I’ve spent most of the past two days travelling to and from two separate graduation ceremonies for two of my brothers – one graduated from law school, the other undergrad.  Aside from spending a lot of time in the car with my family members discussing whatever random things we thought of to pass the time (the word “epic,” Adam Carolla’s podcast, etc), I’ve been thinking about my own graduation from college four years ago.  I remember being drained mentally by the time I finished busily writing papers up until two days before the ceremony.  I didn’t have much time to process everything going on and I don’t think I did until much later on.  I look back now and think of how naïve I was at 22 and how I had to learn the hard way that jobs don’t fall in your lap just because you show up for the interview.  It took almost three years (and another degree) to make up for the lost time, and ultimately it worked out for me, but part of me still wonders where I would be if, as Ron Wood sings, I knew what I know now when I was younger.

I also came to the conclusion that this is a foolish question because I needed to learn these lessons for myself.  “Ooh La La” shares this sentiment, as the grandfather warns his grandson about heartbreak and the vicious, unavoidable cycle of falling in love only to get hurt.  He gives his grandson three main point – love will inevitably break your heart, simply being told is not enough because you have to learn for yourself, and finally even after gaining this wisdom, it’s easy to be “just a boy again” and fall right back into love.  No matter how many times you’re told, you have to experience both the highs and lows for yourself.  It’s kind of like the message in a commencement speech – you can listen all you want, but until you’ve lived the scenario yourself, you don’t really “own” it. 

Even the song’s mythology displays this message.  Rod Stewart, earning success as a solo artist, feuded with the band over material during the recording session, leaving future Rolling Stone Ron Wood to sing the song.  Ironically, “Ooh La La” benefits from having Wood sing it, as Stewart’s ego might have overpowered the jangly campfire vibe in the song.  It works as this sloppily fun folk song rather than as a Rod Stewart single.  Stewart drives this home when he sang the song on his 1998 album When We Were the New Boys, turning the song into a schmaltzy, pseudo-Celtic mess.  It’s a song about learning from your mistakes, and it never takes off without Stewart’s mistake to turn down the song.

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