OB1
Well-Known Member
Sadd’s pick is well timed from my point of view. I have listened to this album a couple of times recently because, although I’ve owned it on cd for a good many years, I didn’t own its predecessors or immediate successor, despite owning a lot of Rod Stewart albums; not the American Songbook stuff but most others.
A couple of months or so back, I purchased the newly released Faces at the BBC box set. That is a fantastic collection and quite a few of the tracks are from Rod’s early solo albums. This prompted me to buy a 3-cd collection of all Rod’s Mercury Records recordings and that includes “Every Picture Tells A Story”. I also bought two of the Faces studio albums because I’d never bought any of them (I do have the live one and a box set…).
Quite why I didn’t have more by the Faces or more of Rod’s early albums (although again I did have the very best stuff on a box set) or have Every Picture on vinyl is a bit of a mystery even to me. Also, to my great regret, I never saw the Faces live. My best man saw them four times and is a huge fan. What a band they were, simply one of the greatest rock n roll bands ever. The live tracks on the BBC collection constantly sound like they are about to fall apart but they never do, which is a complement to their wonderful musicianship and restless spontaneity - a feature of Every Picture, which also benefits from drummer Micky Waller’s contributions.
Whilst I almost agree with Sadd’s that the beautiful “Mandolin Wind” could be Rod’s best song, my favourite – very unoriginally – is “Maggie Mae”, a song that is so special to me, I can’t even properly put it into words. Maggie was my first true musical love. It was the single that kicked off my love of rock music even though it wasn’t the first single I owned; in fact I think it took me a couple of years to get round to buying the single and decades to buy the album. Funny old game. I have other reasons why Maggie is so special to me, but I’ll keep those to myself. Although I never saw the Faces, I did get to see Rod perform Maggie live with Ronnie Wood, whose solo on the track is sheer perfection.
Maggie topped both the UK and US charts at the same time the album also sat at #1 in both charts, which was a big deal in those days.
The Faces were DJ John Peel’s favourite band in those days, he invited all the band and their road crew to his wedding, and they invited him to mime the mandolin playing on ToTP when performing Maggie.
Rod only wrote three of the songs on the album but demonstrated with them what a fine lyricist and songwriter he could be, and, of course, he is one of the great rock singers, whether performing his own songs or interpreting those of others, always (as another friend sagely mentioned to me a couple of weeks back) with perfect diction.
This album isn’t perfect but it’s bloomin’ marvellous.
10/10
A couple of months or so back, I purchased the newly released Faces at the BBC box set. That is a fantastic collection and quite a few of the tracks are from Rod’s early solo albums. This prompted me to buy a 3-cd collection of all Rod’s Mercury Records recordings and that includes “Every Picture Tells A Story”. I also bought two of the Faces studio albums because I’d never bought any of them (I do have the live one and a box set…).
Quite why I didn’t have more by the Faces or more of Rod’s early albums (although again I did have the very best stuff on a box set) or have Every Picture on vinyl is a bit of a mystery even to me. Also, to my great regret, I never saw the Faces live. My best man saw them four times and is a huge fan. What a band they were, simply one of the greatest rock n roll bands ever. The live tracks on the BBC collection constantly sound like they are about to fall apart but they never do, which is a complement to their wonderful musicianship and restless spontaneity - a feature of Every Picture, which also benefits from drummer Micky Waller’s contributions.
Whilst I almost agree with Sadd’s that the beautiful “Mandolin Wind” could be Rod’s best song, my favourite – very unoriginally – is “Maggie Mae”, a song that is so special to me, I can’t even properly put it into words. Maggie was my first true musical love. It was the single that kicked off my love of rock music even though it wasn’t the first single I owned; in fact I think it took me a couple of years to get round to buying the single and decades to buy the album. Funny old game. I have other reasons why Maggie is so special to me, but I’ll keep those to myself. Although I never saw the Faces, I did get to see Rod perform Maggie live with Ronnie Wood, whose solo on the track is sheer perfection.
Maggie topped both the UK and US charts at the same time the album also sat at #1 in both charts, which was a big deal in those days.
The Faces were DJ John Peel’s favourite band in those days, he invited all the band and their road crew to his wedding, and they invited him to mime the mandolin playing on ToTP when performing Maggie.
Rod only wrote three of the songs on the album but demonstrated with them what a fine lyricist and songwriter he could be, and, of course, he is one of the great rock singers, whether performing his own songs or interpreting those of others, always (as another friend sagely mentioned to me a couple of weeks back) with perfect diction.
This album isn’t perfect but it’s bloomin’ marvellous.
10/10