Rod Stewart: Classic Or Dud

What I don't understand is why this thread isn't in the 'Classics or Duds' section.

re Rod: like most people, I think he deserves respect for the greatness of his early work - Every Picture above all - but he has often been awful frustrating since.

Go here.

It's kind of a one-man re-enactment of John Searle's Chinese Room thought-experiment...

My question was not really unrelated to the thread: I was wondering, once again, why a thread called 'Classic or Dud' was not in the 'Classic or Dud' section.

ALso, I consider the one-time pairing between Mr. Stewart and Jeff Beck duo to be one of the greatest wastes of talent in rock history, a combo that shoulda worked and produced greatness yet didn't (comparable to the debacles of Blind Faith, John Lennon and Frank Zappa, the Ramones and Phil Spector, and Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach).

My wife hates him so much that when she wanted to hear "Handbags & Gladrags" that she downloaded the Chris Farlowe version. (We're both slightly nauseated with the new Stereophonics cover, just because.)

Hate Rod especially for his lousy cover of "Downtown Train"

My my my sweet Angel, he could outsing them all, he was better than Paul Rogers but he is still highly regarded for his boring stuff after his classic Free period.

I've gone off the point. 1.Mandolins 2. John Peel and a football on TOTP 3. His Women 4. He IS funny, but he knows it.

Lastly, all you suckers are arguing over him while he's bareback with another blonde not surfing the net for one.

Trevor sincere Dull

"Gasoline Alley" and "Every Picture Tells a Story" and "Maggie May" are three of the very greatest pop vocal performances.

the mekons version is grrrrrrrreat.

I'm more impressed by his energetic later videos (he humps a chair in "Crazy About Her") but I miss how he used to look like he wasn't sure which camera he's supposed to look at ("there's only one, Rod!" "whuh?"). If they collected them all onto a DVD I'd buy it in a second.

i've been listening to every picture tells a story nonstop for the last week. it's the sort of album that was critically beloved once upon a time (greil marcus put it at like #2 on his top 10 albums ever list in 1976) but has pretty much slipped off everyone's radar. my original impression, from 5 or 6 years back, was that it had 2 or 3 good songs and some less interesting stuff.

now i just keep getting more and more impressed with it. the title song is fantastic, with all those daft throwaway lines that sound like he's making them up on the spot ("oh my dear i better get outta here!") and that astonishingly fluid rhythm guitar. "i'm losing you" is about a thousand times better than the late-period lennon song that's all but eclipsed it, and "reason to believe" is a magnificent ballad. the album is riddled with small moments, like the cover of "amazing grace," that seem so unforced and elegant.

and "maggie may," despite the overplay, remains something special. the tender instrumental intro, the way the mandolin bursts up toward the end, rod's just-this-side-of-anguished vocals - perfect.

if rod had only made this album and nothing else, i might well consider him the perfect rock star. as is, i'd probably take picture over 90 percent of the rest of the "classic rock" canon.

i think what i like about RS's voice and persona is how warm and unpretentious he sounds. he's completely lacking in the kind of arrogance that drips off most frontmen. i don't think any other rocker of the 70s could have made "maggie may" sound so convincingly hurt without just collapsing into self-pity - jagger would've just gone into bitchy "heart of stone" mode, lennon would've made the song all about himself. paul westerberg must've studied this album like crazy.

i think what i like about RS's voice and persona is how warm and unpretentious he sounds. he's completely lacking in the kind of arrogance that drips off most frontmen

Which is why his "sell out" period is so much better than the Old ILM'ers upthread thought.

"Mandolin Wind" is my favorite underrated track.

I'm getting really fucking sick and tired of the BBcode going wrong here. I'm not that bad at computer programming but this is fucking crap okay? Accept substandard links or be damned. I've only tried 7 billion times to post this:

It is all about Rod Stewart and my three fave songs of his...Maggie May can suck my dick, frankly, what supermarket, tame, boring crap that song is.

1)Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? Check the funky bass

2)Passion

Kim Carnes - "Draw Of The Cards" from the same era should be played right after this - these were the seeds of goth...or the unconscious influenced things from goth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4dWVE1F9go

3)Young Turks Jesus I was insane over this song when I was...13???

Best thing he ever did: The Motown Song

This, for "Tonight's The Night", is a goldmine. E.g.:

"This song always gets me "in the mood" no matter where I am when I hear it !
- Dorie, Mission Viejo, CA"

My guess is that Dorie is an interesting date.

For Young Turks alone he is v v classic. I love that song.

Classic up to a point.I really like his version of Handbags And Gladrags.

Rod Stewart is incredible...at least 15 absolute fucking classics.

I just saw that Rhino is releasing a Rod Stewart Sessions box set of outtakes etc. from 1971-1998. The track listing looks intriguing, but I don't know much of his work from the late 70s through the 90s except the big singles (which I typically like and in some cases, e.g. "Young Turks", absolutely adore). Any recommendations on which 80s or 90s albums to start with? There are lots of them, and Spotify has a bunch of recently remastered ones with lots of extra tracks, making it even more bewildering. I may just dive in chronologically but I'd be happy to hear advice on how else to traverse these.

Tonight I'm Yours, "Young Turks"' home, is rather good.

Ok, I'll start there. After reading so many bad things over the years about every Stewart album after the first four, I've never ventured further. My loss, or at least that's what I'd like to determine for myself.

The continuing lie told about Rod Stewart is that he "sold out," but even on those first four albums you can hear how fine the line is between a shambles and greatness. The guy always liked to party; he'll write a song or play with anyone. That approach guarantees erratic albums.

That's a good point. I hear the thin line you're talking about more when I listen to the Faces; I love those songs but they're falling apart. On his solo records Stewart seems to have picked less ramshackle performances, and strong cover material. In the 1992 Rolling Stone Record Guide, I remember the reviewer lamenting how Stewart had gone from having such sympathy for the characters he sang about, and thus having sympathy for his audience, to patronizing them both. This artistic criticism is then linked with the usual "he's a cynical sell out looking to cash out" line. But the artistic critique was the one that stuck with me.

So far Tonight I'm Yours sounds great, esp. the title song which has the same new-wave-jumpiness of "Young Turks".

yeah the "sold out" meme needs some challenging. more a case of bandwagon-hopping. he's still doing it now, with those execrable "great american songbook vol. 7" albums.

pretty excited for the first two discs of this box set.

Whatever happened to mandolins? More people should use mandolins.

Most OTM comment on ILM ever.

Move to Asheville, NC. You can't walk two blocks without hearing a mandolin!

bbc version of "maggie mae" on repeat right now.. so wonderful. vocals just shred

I'm in a hotel room watching the view because I got fuck-all else to do and Rod Stewart is flogging his American Songbook Vol. 5 yes volume FIVE

how stoked is Satan going to be when he gets to cash the check on this guy? he's more tenacious than a damn cockroach

9-piece band bravely forging through "I Get A Kick Out You" as Rod slowly leeches the will to live from the viewing audience

Don't worry: Bryan Ferry releases an album next week.

Robert Palmer>>>>Rod Stewart>Bryan Ferry

been listening to the rod stewart album a lot lately

so amazing, early rod stewart is my anti-drug

just saw a long-form TV interview with the dude (Piers Morgan Presents? i think) and he came off as really mature, funny, humble, and self-deprecating. would definitely kick it with him, and now I need to get those early records cause I bet there are some great deep cuts that I've never heard.

I certainly don't want to actually hear anything after Young Turks though.

rod's ex-wife lived across the street from my elementary school. true story.
haven't listened to this yet, but in terms of early rod ... does it get any earlier than this?
http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=745
thought for a second i'd finally get a chance to hear him sing "natural woman" but i guess it's just instrumental.

xp Ha! I started a poll last weekend because of the Piers Morgan interview...and went completely the opposite direction: Rod Stewart in the 1980s poll: Singles (that reached the Top 40)

Me on <i>Atlantic Crossing</i>: http://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2012/02/rod-stewart-atlantic-crossing.html

D'ya Think I'm Sexy steals a Bobby Womack string riff. That said, The Killing of Sister George is pretty nice.

I realised the other day "(I Know) I'm Losing You" might just be the best song on Every Picture Tells A Story. And this is an album with the title track and Mandolin Wind on it, not to kention Maggie May.

Live version kills:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOPJXrUWII

I remember being disappointed when I first heard the Tempts original and it didn't have the chanting breakdown.

That's a tight band coming in after the drum solo, right there.

Good day at the office - started out with "First Cut is the Deepest" and now onto 140 minutes of greatest Rod Stewart hits. How good are his covers?!

So, it would seem that Rod Stewart is now Sir Rod. I can't knock Faces, but at the same time, I can't help but wonder what the knighthood is for? "Services to supermodels"!?

Not being dead.

Great hair throughout

Great Scottish football songs

That inspired Scotland teams to fail to progress beyond the initial group stages at two successive World Cups! Huzzah!

There's a great anthology called Reason To Believe that has all the early solo lps on 3 or 4cds. Think it has some bonus stuff too. Used to be pretty cheap a few years back.

The man who brought Loaded culture to music and influenced Tesla, the Quireboys and Bryan Adams. Not a glimmer of intelligence, taste, or any artistic point whatever.

Vs

all you suckers are arguing over him while he's bareback with another blonde not surfing the net for one.

As always the truth is somewhere in between

Well, he did help out Her Maj with that No. 1 single back in '77.

STILL DUD

Rod just shot up in my estimation.

same

The LED sun when it’s on your face really shows your second chin

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/1521A/production/_109645568_photo-by-steve-crise-_2007-.jpg

he's good now

in related news: he was never bad

Outtake from 1975's ATLANTIC CROSSING, with Booker T & The MGs (and without the overdubbed strings that appear elsewhere). Wish he had done more like this - he reportedly left behind Faces and the UK to record a soul album, but what they actually put out wasn't quite that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mJUFv3ysVU

The voice is amazing. The ballads are really dodgy.

The dodgier, the better if you ask me.

There's a recent-ish David Lee Roth interview on YouTube where he tries explaining the basic concept of Van Halen, but keeps getting sidetracked by the radio host who clearly doesn't see where he's is going with all this and he never quite makes the point he's building up to. First, he compares Toto and their catalog to 'West Side Story' - undeniable classic songs, but the performers are interchangeable. It doesn't matter who the players are, the material is the real substance of the thing. As an example of the inverse -the KING, in fact- he names Rod Stewart.
From there, he loses focus but the suggestion is presumably that for Van Halen, as Rod Stewart, the material was merely a vehicle for the personalities of the performers. They could do whatever kind of song, it didn't even have to be 'good'. As Van Halen were obviously the best and most important rock band ever, I'm inclined to concede to DLR's view.

Look at that storyteller thumbnail, I mean, you don't even have to listen to the record, you don't even need his face on the cover. The hair says it all. Rod Stewart is David Lee Roth without the winks, and you can't teach that. ObvIously DESTROY ALL MANDOLINS tho, ffs.

Have you checked this out?

DON'T LET THEM PUT YOU DOWN: The Official ILM Track-By-Track ROD STEWART 1975-1988 Listening Thread

Thanks for the link. That era's close to a wasteland for me, but I posted a track list of what I'd listen to from that time. (Things went downhill fast - nothing past 1980.) The best stuff from Faces, the first four Mercury albums and his 1973 single "Oh No Not My Baby"/"Jodie" are unimpeachable, and even though his prior sessions with Jeff Beck never sustained their full potential, they cut some good stuff. After that, I think the "Unplugged" special, a reunion with Ronnie Wood, is surprisingly charming, and the one rock album he recorded in the '90s is supposedly not bad, but I've yet to listen to it.

"Sex is cool and sex is nice/Sex will leave you in paradise/Sex is good for everyone/C'mon people let's have some fun"--Rod Stewart, "Kookooaramabama" (2021)

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine (@sterlewine) November 8, 2021

he got the lyrics wrong to "I Want Your Sex" I guess

There's a great anthology called Reason To Believe that has all the early solo lps on 3 or 4cds. Think it has some bonus stuff too. Used to be pretty cheap a few years back.

― Stevolende, Saturday, June 11, 2016
Yeah that would still be the one to get, if it gets as far as the non-genius but in my case much played Never a Dull Moment, but also cherrypick his Faces stuff--keeping prob all of Nod Is Good As A Wink, also cherrypick some rarities on his first Best of and Atlantic Problem and a bunch of later singles and shit (I liked "If You Think I'm Sexy" to the extent that the chorus of course suited his rooster crow, and scanned better than "Taj Mahal"'s title sufficed as its chorus, despite Jorge Ben's excellent voice)

Also the Rod-inclusive Faces box, Five Guys Walk Into a Bar . . ., would have to be worth cherrypicking, if I could only find it cheap enough.

Atlantic Problem would be a good title for overview of later arc, but Atlantic Crossing is the one I meant, the Rubicon move, spirit of '76---as wiki sez:
The album contained two of Stewart's most popular songs, "Sailing" and "I Don't Want to Talk About It”, and classic rock favorites "Three Time Loser" and "Stone Cold Sober".

With Atlantic Crossing, Stewart ended his association with Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and the stable of musicians who had been his core collaborators on his classic run of albums for Mercury Records, fusing soul and folk. Instead, he used a group of session musicians, including The Memphis Horns and three-quarters of Booker T. and the MG's. The album was produced by Tom Dowd, the famous engineer and producer on records by so many of Stewart's heroes during Dowd's time on staff at Atlantic Records. The only song performed from this album on The Faces' final US tour in autumn 1975 was "Three Time Loser", and the rest of the group heavily disliked Stewart's change in musical direction on this album. Following the success of the album, and his move to the U.S., Stewart announced his exit from the Faces by the end of the year.

ROD STEWART has a model train set based on an industrial US city which took him & two friends 26yrs to build.

Sex Drugs & Rock ‘N Roll(ing Stock) pic.twitter.com/8fjiNi9Qj2

— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) October 5, 2022

I am reading his autobio…almost every page has a howlingly funny line… he really seems like a funny, pleasant guy, and this job of ghostwriting this book had to have been the easiest lift of the ghostwriter's career, being that his authentic voice exudes forth… he describes his model trains and his football fandom in ways that very much interest a non-adherent like me… the only thing where he does not come off well is his womanizing, like when he wants to mend his relationship with Kelly Emberg or whoever after banging some other model, then meets Rachel Hunter or whoever, completely abandons his intentions, shrugs his shoulders and rolls his eyes in the telling, "oh well, what are you gonna do? I"m the lad of all lads!" Yeah well, it's just gross as fuck when you can't curtail this behavior when you have like 10 children and you're pushing 60.

That train set is awesome. I'm going to put this here for some that might not have come across it before. It's pretty funny and definitely classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baCeALX2vlM

Autobiography is an excellent read so far - up to the Tom Dowd chapter but Stewart's wonderfully charming and self-effacing. I love how he describes his first attempt at songwriting with Ronnie Wood.

I hear "Forever Young" in the wild ar least twice a week.

Speaking of '80s favorites, I never saw the video for "People Get Ready" until I was doing a deep dive of Jeff Beck over the weekend. Starts off with Stewart hand writing a letter to Beck on a standard post office mailbox in the middle of nowhere saying "Jeff, why not come to L.A. and take up the guitar professionally? Rod" I love how much fun they're having at the end, like they clearly think this is corny (rightfully so) but go with it and do all the hand gestures and everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC_j_dzkaVE

Can you get an abridged version that stops in 1972?

rude

Lol