If I was on Desert Island Discs and I was limited to only one Rod Stewart album I would never be able to decide. I would probably need to take at least three. I spoke about his 1970 release 'Gasoline Alley' previously (VV 6 June 2020) and one day soon I'll probably take a look at 1971's 'Every Picture Tells a Story', but for now I've been re-playing this piece of vinyl and I can't get past it.
Between the Rod Stewart/Ronnie Wood originals and the hand-picked excellent selection of covers, this is an album of quality. Hot on the heels of 'Maggie May' Rod was still incorporating violins, organ and mandolin into his songs and for some reason the mix of those instruments with not only the ballads but the driving rock tracks just gives a distinctive feel and sound to this early 70's album that no-one else had.
Rod needs no introduction or essays written by me - he's been around long enough that we all know where he came from and how he travelled. From Steampacket blues, Rod the Mod, Faces rock 'n' roller, balladeer, soul-singer and 5 albums of The Great American Songbook, Rod has done it all. It's good to look back at some of these earlier works.
The album kicks off with 2 great tracks, both Stewart/Wood compositions. 'True Blue' starts off with Rod basically denying everything he's got or that he is on the verge of getting ..
"Never been a millionaire
And I tell you mama I don't care
Never gonna own a race-horse
Or a fast back mid-engine Porsche"
.. ah Rod, brace yourself. He ends the song by lamenting that ..
"I gotta get on home
I gotta get home as soon as I can"
Next up is one of my favourites, a great blend of electric, acoustic, tambourine, Mexican flair and good old rock all built on a folksy intro. It's a story of love and escape.
'Lost Paraguayos'.
He likes her laugh, her romance and her sense of humour but wants to get away without her ..
"Honey don't even ask me if you can come along
Down at the border you need to be older
And you sure don't look like my daughter
Your ridiculous age, start a state outrage
And I'll end up in a Mexican jail
Darling please don't cry you know I wouldn't tell you no lie"
and then he laughs .. dispelling the myth that he wouldn't tell her a lie.
As with his previous two albums, Rod picks a Dylan song as one of the covers. This time he chooses 'Mama You Been On My Mind'. This was a bold move because it had not been released by Dylan at that point. All anyone had heard were other covers done by a variety of artists. Dylan recorded it for his 1964 album 'Another Side of Bob Dylan' but didn't include it on the release and it wasn't available by him until 1991 when he started his official 'Bootleg Series'.
Some have described 'Italian Girls' - another Stewart/Wood collaboration - as a Stonesy rocker, but 3 minutes in the whole thing slows down to mandolins and violins and heartfelt refrains of 'she broke my heart, she broke my heart ..'.
Jimi Hendrix wrote 'Angel' about seeing his mother in a dream. The song went through various incarnations and he recorded his final version in 1970 just months before he died. It was released on his posthumous album 'The Cry of Love'. I'd never heard Jimi's version and so after knowing Rod's rendition so well it was a surprise and a joy to hear the original. Rod sings it with sympathy and does an admirable job.
After the plaintive 'Angel' comes a short instrumental followed by Rod and Martin Quittenton's #1 hit 'You Wear It Well'. The approach to the song on the album mirrored the approach to 'Maggie May' on 'Every Picture Tells A Story'. Much as 'O Henry' was basically Martin Quittenton's 30 odd second instrumental lead-in to 'Maggie May', so the Art Wood 40 second 'Interludings' leads the way for 'You Wear It Well'. In what could have devolved into a 'Maggie May part two' the song has enough identity to stand on it's own two feet and was worthy of it's popularity.
Rod's version of the Etta James classic 'I'd Rather Go Blind' is a great interpretation, but I have to say it's not my favourite rendition. The first time I ever heard this song was in 1969 by the British blues group Chicken Shack and that has always stayed with me. Taking lead on the vocals for Chicken Shack was the beautiful voice of the aptly named Christine Perfect, later to become Christine McVie and claim fame as a member of Fleetwood Mac.
What better way to end the album than with a reworking of a classic. Sam Cooke released 'Twistin' the Night Away' in 1962. We had the 45rpm, we played it to death. It was and is a brilliant song - AND - it has a great mondegreen in it. The song tells us about a man in evening clothes ..
"He's dancin' with the chick in slacks
She's a movin' up and back
Oh man, there ain't nothin' like
Twistin' the night away"
But not everyone heard that version. For many people it sounded like ..
"He's dancing with the chicken slacks" !! A whole urban dictionary was created around that mis-heard lyric. None of that detracts from Rod's driving happy singalong to end a really really great album.
Sir Rod is still going as strong as ever, in fact he has almost as many albums as he does wives and kids !! He was once quoted as saying "Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house."
Just a word on the album cover - it's a 70's release, so of course the cover is a little over-the-top. It opens out to not one, not two but 3 full size illustrations. One of the photos falls back on Rod's love of football (soccer for my US friends) with him and others framed by the goalposts.
Keep on keeping on Rod, you're just getting better with age.
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