Day 309: Rod Stewart – Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod Stewart seems to crop up a whole lot these days, and I’m always happy to see him because it reminds me of one of my favourite videos on the internet: when Rod Stewart conducted the Scottish Cup draw. He’d been asked by Sky Sports to conduct the fifth-round draw when he was at a game and he says he told them "Hold on, I've been drinking since 11 o'clock," but they said it wasn’t going to be an issue. I reference this video at least monthly.
I’ve heard the hits but never listened to a full album, so there’s no time like the present – if his musical performances are any bit as good as his performance in that draw, I’m in for a treat.
Album cover courtesy of Mercury Records
Rod Stewart was born in North London in 1945 to an English mother and a Scottish father, and he worked to become a footballer before discovering the joys of a beatnik lifestyle – he took up the harmonica, started busking and lived around Europe, slept under bridges and got deported from Spain for vagrancy. When he returned to London, he joined an R&B group called the Dimensions as their harmonica player. The group was later joined by singer Jimmy Powell, and they became Jimmy Powell & the Five Dimensions.
After that, he was in various groups in the ‘60s, but he didn’t really find fame until he joined the Jeff Beck Group and had two hit albums with them. He left the group when his friend Ronnie Wood did, saying that the group had become hostile – Wood of course later became better known as a member of the Rolling Stones, but they also started a new band called Faces. Rod Stewart got his solo record contract in 1969, around the same time as Faces released their first album, but he was finding more success as a solo act.
He became a household name when he released his third album, Every Picture Tells A Story, in 1971, and it earned him his first number one hit with "Maggie May." It featured every member of Faces, and Ronnie Wood even co-wrote the titular track. The album mixes hard rock, blues, folk and R&B, with both original songs and covers, with the most left-field song being his cover of “Amazing Grace”.
Rod Stewart’s beautifully raspy voice mixed with his lyrics about his time as a swashbuckling adventurer on “Every Picture Tells a Story” and his storytelling on a young man loving an older woman on “Maggie May” are clearly the peak of the album, but there’s not really any stinkers on it – it’s like a joyous romp that keeps you interested from beginning to end. He puts his own twist on the covers, too, and they’re not as good as the songs he’s written, but they’re not too far off.
I thought of Rod Stewart as the sort of artist who ladies throw their panties at, which is probably true, but there’s a bit more depth to him than being just some sort of crooner for the older audiences. I probably didn’t give him enough credit as a writer, since some of the best elements of it are from his storytelling, especially on songs like "Mandolin Wind." It’s so good that it makes me think that I should probably listening to stuff he did with his bands.
Is Every Picture Tells A Story as good as Rod Stewart’s draw performance? No, but that’s a 10/10. It’s still a 9/10 though, I had a great time listening to it. I wouldn’t personally throw any panties over it, but I also wouldn’t judge you if you do.