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

also, I never thought much about the Atlantic crossing thing but you all seem knowledgeable - so AC was Rod's breakthrough album in the US?

Nah, Every Picture Tells A Story!

AC marked a # of important things: He left England for the States; he signed a very lucrative deal w/Warner Bros.; he ceased working with the core of the Faces in the studio in favor of LA session dudes (and the initial sessions were with a reformed Booker T & The MGs, and were among Al Jackson's final recordings before his murder); and--after Smiler and Ooh LA LA--were the first times critics had knives out.

I see, thanks!

i was obsessed with Atlantic Crossing as a kid but never ever heard it again since the late 70s. this is going to be a fascinating thread i can tell. he really dropped off the fastest *and* the most didn't he, of all the rockers that got mega in the 70s?

idk "rockers that got mega in the 70s" is a p long list

i think i meant him, Elton, Queen type mega.

I don't think he did. Unlike Queen, he kept having American hits, and unlike Elton (who coughed up a handful between 1977 and 1982), his top ten run didn't stop, like, at all from 1975 through 1993. He was a constant MTV and radio presence. He never seemed like a fogey even when he was releasing "Lady Jane" and "Love Touch."

yeah that's why this era is so interesting, tho i don't know much of the albums. As a kid in the early 80s, Rod didn't seem like some old hippie but rather some lecherous dude who was always on the radio.

i'm with Alfred: the orig. "Drift Away" is a pretty dire song, part of the early 70s "remember real rock 'n' roll, man?" nostalgia binge, without any of the wit. Rod's cover does as much with it as you can---he commits to the thing, a bit too much (but hell so did Dobie Gray). Genteel studio "reggae" was a default setting by '75, it seems

thank you, Eric Clapton!

I mean, look at this top ten list through '93:

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
Passion
Young Turks
Some Guys Have All the Luck
Infatuation
Love Touch
My Heart Can't Tell You No
Downtown Train
This Old Heart of Mine
The Motown Song
Have I Told You Lately
All For Love

That's not counting top fifteen hits that got as much or more airplay (and still do!) like "Forever Young" and a Sirius radio perennial like "People Get Ready" whose massive MTV airplay convinces listeners that it was a huge pop hit.

yeah Baby Jane, Tonight I'm Yours, the crappy "Twistin' the Night Away" for 'Inner Space' def. seemed to get nearly as much airplay as this set too. I have an awful memory of "Dynamite" too which I'll share when we get to it

"Forever Young" might be his biggest perennial hit; I hear it ALL the time.

forgot "Rhythm of My Heart" on that list.

I checked iTunes: "Forever Young" is his most popular song.

Rod Schlocky Stewart

"Drift Away": The Dobie Williams original is ime one of those inescapable songs--it was huge on Oldies Radio when I had access to such a thing, and it was one of the few R&B-type oldies that was pretty big on Classic Rock Radio, probably because--message aside--it really isn't that far removed from a Seger or Mellencamp hit. To me it's always been sonic wallpaper. Rod doesn't really add much to this other than some light Reggae touches. Why is this on "The Fast Side"?

Of course, I'm forgetting that Uncle Kracker (with Dobie in tow, no less) added a couple years of cultural relevancy and higher performance fees to his career by Karaoke-ing this into the charts in the early 00s.

i like the original of "Drift Away" the vocal are so much better. have no idea why Rod redid this song.

He needed to fill the album...and he's not above Karaoke (see: all those "Songbook" albums).

For comparison, here's the Stones' unreleased version: https://youtu.be/tey6tjsq9Vo

More lived-in, some nice Country touches.

that is so much better, isn't it?

whaaaat I had never heard Rod's forever young and consider myself both a p big Rod & Bob fan

decent cover!

"Stone Cold Sober" (Stewart, Steve Cropper)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR3DWqJqiLI

By far the best song we've heard to date. Maybe the Cropper co-write helped. This is a convincing rocker.

btw starting tomorrow I won't post the full YouTube links.

"stone cold sober" is great. that's how you rock. verse owes something to the rolling stones' "happy." which, if you're gonna owe something, is a good place to owe that something to.

not sure i need the minute and 20 seconds of instrumental at the end (with occasional vocal interjections so buried in the mix they might as well not be there).

For comparison, here's the Stones' unreleased version: https://youtu.be/tey6tjsq9Vo

loving those harmonies

"Stone Cold Sober": This is nice, faux-Faces. Kind of begs the question, 'if you're gonna cut tracks like this, why have the session guys play like the Faces when you have access to the real thing?' Woody's first couple solo (I've Got My Own) albums (To) do what Rod's trying to do here on "The Fast Half" but with much more success on all fronts.

Of course, our answer comes once we get into 'The Slow Half' and it's slick, mainstream balladry, which are what really sold this album.

Y'all know this one.

"I Don't Want to Talk About It" (Danny Whitten)

https://youtu.be/Azcy9_F0DCE

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RG9ql-91U90/hqdefault.jpg

I'm having trouble finding the original 1975 recording; y'all might need to hit Spotify.

the "Slow Side" defines this album, at least in my vague memory of it. the Fast was, barring "Stone Cold Sober," middling, competent rock that was nowhere as good as the middling mid-70s Stones

Rod pretty much took over this song, no? I always forget it was a Crazy Horse tune. Arif Mardin for the string arr

Everything But the Girl scored their biggest UK hit with a lovely cover that I prefer:

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

"I Don't Want To Talk About It": Seems like this is one of the great song rescues. The Crazy Horse version is brilliant, an all-time tear jerker (when David Briggs talked about being more impressed with some Whitten's songs of the time than what Neil Young was doing, this one is almost certainly what he was on about). But it wasn't heard much in it's time. Ol' Rod, still in master song-finder mode, lands on it (has it ever been discussed how he actually got ahold of it?). I can still kind of see the Faces tackling it (pathos looms large in their ballads), but it wouldn't quite be so polished and certainly wouldn't have been the hit it was.

much prefer iain matthews' version which was done a year before
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9hQm9MiGGc

also jackie de shannon's drift away which went unreleased for decades
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0rHAu1SNRc

"It's Not The Spotlight" (Barry Goldberg, Gerry Goffin)

https://youtu.be/VdDyf0DmJ3M

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2053718.1419279605!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/gallery_1200/rod-stewart-joe-cocker-circa-1975.jpg

huh i really expected to like Rod's version of "Don't Want to Talk About It" as I love that song and generally love Rod's singing but it doesn't really have that extra haunted quality that Whitton has

can we discuss how awful that room must smell

who is that joe cocker?

and 10,000 cigarettes

I was feeling a little bad for not keeping up with this thread but now that I read people knocking "Drift Away" I'm just gonna drift away, it won't be good for my soul here.

I like Drift Away

"This Old Heart of Mine" (Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Eddie Holland, Sylvia Moy)

https://youtu.be/819RoBdTzsg

http://www.45vinylvidivici.net/SEVENTIESplus/2012oct/stewart%20rod16659.jpg

I won't lie: I find the 1989 remake with Ronald Isley a much more exciting and poignant performance.

catching up:

It's Not the Spotlight: a vocal better than the lyric, which is one of Goffin's more anonymous efforts. Wish Rod had done a full-on country album at some point in the 70s.

Old Heart of Mine: I like the immaculate studio vibe of the '75---how it's basically a trio of lead guitar, keyboard and hi-hat---but agree the '89 has a more engaged Rod (plus Ronald Isley elevates most things he's involved in). Feels like it was meant to be an uptempo song--take it too slow and something's missing

"It's Not The Spotlight": Like the guitars and mandolins. Would not have sounded out of place on one of the Mercury albums.

"This Old Heart of Mine": Not that familiar w/the later Rod version. The original Isleys version is pretty much perfect (a certified 'keep the floor filled' number at the monthly Soul Night I go to), and this 70s AM Gold arrangement is interesting if not the most winning reinvention.

Wish Rod had done a full-on country album at some point in the 70s.

Much too late, but back when he did that "Rock Songbook" album, he mentioned to Rolling Stone that he also wanted to do R & B and Country editions as well, but "...the label isn't so keen on the Country one..." Of course, this was right before Raising Sand...Of course, given the track record, Rod's album would have most likely been another Karaoke effort.

The '89 remake since we're not getting to it: https://youtu.be/N9eQShsxkj4

The video distracts from the fact that the song is a valentine from Rod to Ron and vice versa

"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