Saying that the Faces were better than the Rolling Stones has always been a favorite way to piss off classic rock purists, but the thing is, I believe it – at least if you just count the 1969 through '75 era during which both bands were active. True, if the contest were based solely on studio albums, the Stones would win: overrated as they may be, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street present competition too stiff for the erratic Faces. But consider that the first four Rod Stewart albums – up to and including Never a Dull Moment – were often just Faces records in disguise, then factor in the 30-some unreleased or otherwise hard-to-find tracks on this four-CD set, and the case for the Faces starts looking more and more legit.

Ultimately, though, these favorite-band contests aren't about facts; they're about intangibles, and that's where the Faces win. The tattered, unpretentious, down-to-earth quality they brought to their music is ultimately what set them apart. To some, they were the archetypal beer-drinking boogie-rock band, but Five Guys Walk into a Bar shows how diverse they really were. "Stay with Me" was their hit, but their music touched on everything from Motown to honky-tonk, and as this set shows, they were equally at home covering the Beach Boys or the Temptations as they were Robert Johnson (via the Stones) or Free.

The Beach Boys cover, "Gettin' Hungry" (from 1967's Smiley Smile) is one of a handful of songs from the Faces' final recording sessions in 1975, which also yielded the early Stewart-style R&B slow jam "Open to Ideas" and a rare original by keyboardist Ian McLagen, the excellent "Rock Me." There are also a bunch of puzzlingly good outtakes from the Ooh La La sessions – puzzling because that was such a frustratingly short and slight album – along with the elusive nonalbum singles "Pool Hall Richard" and "You Can Make Me Dance, Sing, or Anything"; half a dozen filler-quality yet still enjoyable instrumentals find the band imitating everyone from the Meters to Booker T. and the MG's to early Funkadelic.

That said, my favorite moment is Ron Wood's wounded, flailing solo on "I'd Rather Go Blind," taken from a 1975 performance in San Bernadino, of all places. The track highlights a couple of important points: One, that Wood's ability to shoehorn Chuck Berry licks into any song, no matter how unlikely, was limitless in those days. And two, that the Faces, unlike the Stones (whom Wood joined later that year) or Stewart the solo artist, got out when they were still at their peak. (Will York)