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

"Still Love You" (Stewart) – 5:08

https://youtu.be/3Z6tkCU140I

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/c1/51/68/c151688c3c715a3e1c624b7e0251dd71.jpg

My favorite song after "Stone Cold Sober." It has hints of "Wish You Were Here." Judicious use of drums and violin.

this is good! the violin/guitar in the coda works nicely. a good example of how losing the more shambling Faces for ace studio pros had its upside for him

"It's Not the Spotlight" is lovely - and def wouldn't feel out of place on Every Picture...man he's so good at this type of song...it's funny even the arrangement and production feels more natural and open than a lot of the stuff on the album

This Old Heart of Mine I really love the bass playing, man that's nice who's on it? Nearly Jamerson quality

Still Love You is great too...actually I'd take the back half of this from "I Don't Want to Talk About It" on as a nice little low-key EP...(without having cheated and listening to Sailing yet so that might be bad)

"Still Love You": Wow, this is another one that would have fit well on the Mercury LPs. The echo effect on the "Love You"s on the chorus is kinda awkward, an unnecessary production trick on a track otherwise barren of them. Still, my favorite so far on the album.

I'm curious also how Rod got a hold of "I DOn't want to Talk." In my head, Rod and Neil / Crazy Horse exist in two separate universes.

Has Rod done any Neil songs? Seems odd if he hasn't.

"Sailing (Gavin Christopher)"

https://youtu.be/FOt3oQ_k008

http://eil.com/images/main/Rod+Stewart+Sailing+-+BLUE+vinyl+181886.jpg

his "Mull of Kintyre": enormous UK #1, didn't do much at all on US radio. still don't hear it on classic rock stations that often

tom ewing's summary of it works for me: "Stewart seems to be trying to create something that’s expressing yearning in as straightforward and widescreen a way as possible, but all subtlety’s been boiled away and we’re left with a great voice being put to dreary use."

this is not the Chris Cross song, right?

Unfortunately no.

I had never heard of "Sailing" until reading about it a few years ago.

hmmmm "Sailin'" almost seems like it's the first trial balloon for Stewart's "Rod sings the American Songbook" type albums

in any case I hereby declare Atlantic Crossing by Rod Stewart to be.....PRETTY OKAY...I GUESS.

I think I could scrap together a decent Spotify EP version of it with most of the second half and a couple of the rockers from side 1.

though this is kinda a funny contrast to the Eagles thread in that I'm gonna be trying to bend over backwards to give Rod the benefit of the doubt whereas with the Eagles one bad lyrics or drum part and I'm like FUCK THESE ASSHOLES haha

well, Stewart was a better songwriter by himself than Frey-Henley and their bros.

the majority of his Jeff Beck Group/Faces/early solo era is as good as rock music gets for me

Sailing is of course is a cover originally performed by Sutherland Brothers & Quiver.

https://youtu.be/0dSU8XR0Gmc
http://scdb.abradio.cz/uploads/400x400/songs/oldies/s/sailing-3.jpg

The interesting story behind this one of course is that bass player Terry Comer from contemporaneos bar-band Ace was surrepticiously gigging with the Sutherland Bros. without his regular band being informed of this, with the inference he might jump ship if he liked the Sutherlands better. Singer Paul Carrack learned what he was planning, which he turned into a song regarding the situation which became the hit "How Long"

...which we'll be hearing a Rod version of eventually ITT! #WheelsWithinWheels

p sure "Sailing" is his signature song in Denmark

it's not v good tho imo

"Sailing": This has got the classic Power Ballad 'build build build' singalong structure. Pretty tune, although yes it feels a harbinger of rougher sailing (ha!) to come Rod-wise. Isn't this a big football anthem over in Blighty? And on that tip, will "Ole Ola" be part of our revue?

Also, what the hell was this TV show it was the theme of?

Whoo! Let's go to 1976's A Night on the Town!

"Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" (Rod Stewart)

https://youtu.be/IZr6AE-u2UM

http://justhungry.com/files/images/70s2.jpg

A classic about which I've nothing to say. Means nothing to me.

"Sailing (Gavin Christopher)"

Who is Gavin Christopher? Written by Gavin Sutherland of course! And, yes, this is probably his most famous/popular song in the UK.

I suppose there's a Scottish thing going on there - musically and lyrically? Possibly?

a typo

xpost

Gavin Christopher was an American singer-songwriter

A young Giles Coren in the photo Alfred posted.

... serving cocktails to Sue Perkins in a wig.

The Great British Fuck Off

Also, I reckon Do You Think I'm Sexy must give Sailing a run for its money as Rod's most popular/well known song in the UK

Grand, warm-hearted sleaze. the French lines in the coda give it a touch of Gainsbourg/Birkin.

Also, what the hell was this TV show it was the theme of?

If you mean "Ole Ola", I don't think it was a TV show theme tune but it was the theme song of the 1978 Scotland World Cup Squad. Not that it did them much good "over there".

... ova tha' surely?

The song itself is dire but the lyrics still raise a chuckle, "'Cause we invented football anyway", aye, you tell 'em, Rod. Getting ahead fo ourselves here though.

love this old warhorse of a tune

this video is something

the Guild/vest/bowtie combo is some peak Rod shit

subquestion: it's always weird when you see basically "music videos" from pre-MTV era, where did these things air and why were they made?

In the UK they would air on Top of the Pops, the weekly chart program, when the acts were too famous or busy to turn up in the studio.

Top of the Pops, certainly. For bands who couldn't or wouldn't appear in person.

xp hah

I remember seeing the video for "Sailing" multiple times on TOTP. Pretty sure he never "sang" it in the studio.

xpost - ah ok that makes sense

If you mean "Ole Ola",

Sorry for the confusion, I meant "Sailing", which has a plug for a BBC series called "Sailor" on the posted 45 sleeve.

Should note that this album again has a FAST SIDE and a SLOW SIDE. But in a reversal of previous practice, the SLOW SIDE is first.

Also, second verse has some of the most LOLworthy lyrics ever

"Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright)": ...and whatever old school Rod tendencies left over on Atlantic Crossing get killed dead right where they stood. Slick Slick and Slicker still, this one continues the chain of Rod ballads ignored by Classic Rock radio (which is kind of weird when you consider similarly styled tracks from Elton, the Eagles, and, er, Journey still achieve microwave rotation at the expense of rockier & just as popular at the time tracks from those same catalogs). A Muzak staple, this number has been sexing up grocery shopping for as long as I can remember. In the famous Greil Marcus essay screencapped way upthread, this was the one post-Mercury Rod record he praised, albeit qualified that it's success was purely down to craftsmanship and formula. A hit by design, capturing the softer side of 70s sexual permissiveness. Can you imagine how many handjobs this has soundtracked?

Also, for some reason I can see Lana Del Rey having fun with this as a cover.

well, Janet Jackson did:

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

^^Forgot both that and the subsequent 7th period art class discussions as to whether or not Janet was a lesbian because she didn't change the lyrics.

"this one continues the chain of Rod ballads ignored by Classic Rock radio "

yeah that's a good point--i don't hear it that much (my sampling is whenever I drive to Connecticut to see my parents--CT is one of the spiritual homes of classic rock). maybe because it was such an AM smash--i think it was one of the biggest US singles of '76-77, up there with "You Light Up My Life"--that a whole generation wearied of the thing

Rod's Classic Rock cannon is surprisingly small: 2/3rds of EPTAS, "You Wear It Well"; "Stay With Me"; "Hot Legs"; and "Young Turks", with a further handful of "Deep Cuts".

"Maggie May" is a staple on our classic station

"The First Cut Is the Deepest" (Cat Stevens)

https://youtu.be/c5NRH_DxWJE

http://freshindependence.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/a-rod.jpg