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

Co-written with former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor. I won't front: the aggressiveness we noted in 1986 finally gets an appropriate setting, and while it's not first-tier Rod the single works. I like the faint mandolin strum in the background, a reminder of what once was. It got to #12 in the U.S. but I haven't heard it on the radio since.

according to both Stewart and Taylor these songwriting sessions were booze/football sessions.

Remind me why 88 is the cutoff?

it seems to mark the end of "sellout" Rod and the start of "respectable elder" Rod, but it's a bit arbitrary

Remind me why 88 is the cutoff?

― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱),

do you really want us to keep going?

I planned to stop with the Storyteller singles, which should happen before Xmas -- it's apt.

don't think i've heard "Lost in You" in 20+ years but yeah, this was on the radio a bit and it's better than i remembered. video seems to be building up to Rod having to face down the strip club boss but hey, a happy ending!

Yeah, the video's standard sexist drivel, on part for the era.

I like the HEY HOW'S YOUR MOTHER HOW'S YOUR section.

"The Wild Horse" (Stewart, Taylor)

http://i.quoteaddicts.com/media/q2/59781.png

https://youtu.be/gvMjU09bYDE

he's trying here, but the chorus is a dud. not too long a jump to get to '90s country from here, though

and he reprises "...run free tonight."

"Lethal Dose of Love" (A. Taylor, R. Stewart, Tony Brock)

http://www.steviesalas.com/file/2015/10/Rod-Stewart-Band-1988.jpg

https://youtu.be/NnFVQIGc7Oo

again, really trying for mid-'80s Robert Palmer sound a bit here (at least he got Andy T. on board). maybe a little less booze & football & a bit more time in the vocal booth & these tracks would work but nah

you guys gonna do 80s Macca next?

no YOU are

"Forever Young" (Jim Cregan, Kevin Savigar, Stewart)

https://youtu.be/yGEe_zpddNI

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-mMMkescgG8/hqdefault.jpg

This song has never gone away. A few weeks ago it was among the top two or three Rod Stewart songs in iTunes. It will never go away.

The structure of the lyrics in this song is very similar to a Bob Dylan song of the same title.[1] When this was realized, the song was then sent to Dylan, out of respect, asking whether he had a problem with it. The two men agreed to participate in the ownership of the song and share Stewart's royalties.[2]

Stewart wrote the song with two of his band members: guitarist Jim Cregan and keyboardist Kevin Savigar. Stewart told Mojo magazine in 1995 that he considered "Forever Young" to be one of his favourite songs and the reason for writing it was, "I love 'Forever Young', because that was a real heartfelt song about my kids. I suddenly realized I'd missed a good five years of Sean and Kimberly's life because I was so busy touring all the time. With these kids now I don't make that mistake- I take them on tour with me, so I can watch them grow up. So that's another favorite. Unfortunately, it wasn't a big hit in England, but it's like a national anthem here (America)"

more great bits from Wiki

Video

The video for this song features Stewart singing to a child while scenes of rural America pass by.
In popular culture

The song was featured in a Pampers commercial that showcased baby animals with their mothers.[4]

this feels like the end: Rod's first "grown up" song, the first song he wrote about his kids and passing the torch on to them, and sort-of apologizing for missing their birthdays. It's hilarious that he wrote the thing and then someone had to tell him, "er, mate, didn't Dylan have a song about his kid with like the same name?"

I think what kept Rod apart from many of his peers was his sheer refusal to grow up for most of the '80s--he just kept on, not acknowledging time, singing the same stuff: school and girls, being rich and girls. Jagger seems to be in another world from him. And finally Rod concedes here---the road to Unplugged and his 10 various Songbooks albums is visible now. he's ready to be a legacy act

and have I mentioned that it's one of his two or three biggest recurrent hits? I heard it twice in the last 224 hours!

ha -- 24 hours rather.

Here's another hit, the album's biggest:

"My Heart Can't Tell You No" (Simon Climie, Dennis Morgan)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0svqylN9oLA/maxresdefault.jpg

https://youtu.be/5wKPYL0WLr8

i drew a blank on the name, and it took the refrain for this thing to dredge up the memories. but Christ on a crutch, what generic pap this is. just dullsville, sounding like a forgotten John Waite hit

I beg you for mercy!

i'd take 10 "Infatuations" over this one

"Dynamite" (A. Taylor, R. Stewart)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UZRmTeMLD-8/hqdefault.jpg

https://youtu.be/fWYcRRHFG2c

a personal anecdote about this one. in '99 i lived in Astoria, Queens, and had to get to JFK airport. if you know the city, you will know that going from westernmost Queens to east Brooklyn is often a nightmare by car, involving the BQE & so forth. I was running late & took a gypsy cab as I couldn't find any yellow cabs on the street.

the driver was possibly on coke or uppers and almost certainly crazy. he drove 60 mph in the breakdown lane, nearly got into an accident every three minutes & I felt like i was on the verge of throwing up throughout the ride. Driver also had some sinus thing, so he kept snuffling up great gobs of snot and then spitting in a paper bag that had once held his lunch.

on the tape deck was a Rod hits compilation (maybe Storyteller?) & when "Dynamite" came on, the guy flipped. cranked it up loud, began clapping (both hands off the wheel to do so), singing loudly. "DY-NA-MITE!! FRIDAY NIGHT! BIG CITY LIGHTS! ALL RIGHT ALL Right!" I wondered: is this the last thing I hear before I die? It obviously was not. but hearing it today brings back that nice memory.

It took three months for the right anecdote to get shared.

i'm glad it came as a near-finale moment

as example of dumb loud rock it's better than "Hot Legs."

Famous cover time!

"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Jimmy Cox)

http://davidmcgough.com/photos/thumbs/Rod%20Stewart,%20Kelly%20Emberg,%20daughter,%20Ruby%20%201989%20NYC.jpg

https://youtu.be/5VEIwRDkXpg

seems like the obligatory "I still love the blues" track but takes its cues from "Behind the Sun" Clapton. so garish and tasteless it's enjoyable in its way---Rod's singing some of it like Tina Turner

is the plan still to stop when we get to the end of Out of Order (so four more tracks?) I was going to start a track-a-day Eurovision song contest thread, but thought it might be best to wait until this one is finished.

We'll finish OOO and review a couple of the new Storyteller tracks. A week?

"Crazy About Her" (Duane Hitchings, J. Cregan, R. Stewart)

https://youtu.be/rCbxcaUg4VQ

http://streamd.hitparade.ch/cdimages/rod_stewart-crazy_about_her_s.jpg

The fourth single, another top 15 hit, and fabulous -- my favorite Rod performance since "People Get Ready." Ten years after "Miss You," Stewart writes his own.

also: ridiculous

the last ridiculous trashy pop Rod moment. yeah, "Miss You" is the obvious influence on the "spoken" section but he's been using this sort of phrasing throughout Out of Order, and you wonder if it was his spin on rap, encouraged by a drunk Andy Taylor.

Rod with straightened combed hair in video is a fright---like GE Smith with thicker locks

@nthony miccio is a big fan of this one

Forgetable, but vastly better than the worst version ever of "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" from yesterday

I never forgot it.

Another cover!

"Try a Little Tenderness" (Jimmy Campbell, Reginald Connelly, Harry M. Woods)

https://youtu.be/g1d3Kxtl8us

https://cbs1059sunnyfm.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/51129323_8.jpg?w=594

was bracing for the "Nobody Knows You When Yr Down & Out" treatment but no, erring on the side of taste

"When I Was Your Man" (K. Savigar, Stewart)

https://youtu.be/e1yoASj2TjE

http://davidmcgough.com/photos/thumbs/Rod%20Stewart%201988,%20NY%207.jpg

Faceless ballad, sung with feeling.

Savigar really stuck around, eh? their collaboration lasted longer than Lennon/McCartney's.

"When I Was Your Man": nicely maintains the wine bar backing music mood of previous track

I shuddered at this title...

"Almost Illegal" (R. Stewart, A. Taylor)

https://youtu.be/szEjiCyxLmU

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dXvGSWAPHOE/TQmnSFqb9HI/AAAAAAAACPc/L4rc8fZ7G1U/s1600/RodStewart-RachelHunter.jpg

yeah was ready for the worst but this is...sort of heartfelt? in a very gross way? so I suppose it's a fitting end to the cycle. "She's not a radical, but she's mine" hail & farewell Rod

"She's a radical but she's mine" -- my response to Rod.

Gonna wrap this up with some odds and ends: two of his biggest '80s tracks.

"Downtown Train" (Tom Waits)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/q6yk9wWNB08/hqdefault.jpg

https://youtu.be/q6yk9wWNB08

Once a year I pick a fight with a Waitsphile who despises what Stewart did to make his idol a richer man. I love this cover, produced by Trevor Horn. Rod's in good form, and he sings the verses as if he still remembered that he can empathize with the scenario.