Redeeming Rod 
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Redeeming Rod: The Faces Reunion

by Matthew Bolin

As you may have heard by now, Rod Stewart confirmed last week that all the surviving members of his old band, the Faces (including current Rolling Stone Ron Wood and former Who drummer Kenny Jones), are planning to reunite for at least a tour next summer.

Could this be a case of Rod redeeming himself? Well, perhaps. I did mention in an earlier post that the best thing Rod could do at this point in his career was record a quick album with Wood and a tight rhythm and horn section. This is probably the next best thing to that. It sounds, too, from Rod ’s quotes that he’s quite into this reunion idea; maybe he was even the driving force behind it.

But before you or I get too vibed about this, I do think it is necessary to temper everyone’s excitement. After all, the man is now in his 60s, more than 30 years past the last Faces recordings and tours. What will be heard in 2009 is simply not going to be more than a good approximation of what occurred in the early 1970s. While Rod can still hit the notes with the same regularity as his did back then, the tone, the texture, the feel and the soul are not going to be the same. The voice is there, but it’s changed, no buts about it. Anyone interested in seeing the outcome of this possible reunion has to — like most band reunions — hope for the best but expect much less. Better to be pleasantly surprised by what happens than to feel that what you’ve just experienced was yet another sad coda to a historic band and a waste of money.

A second point that needs to be considered is that, while Rod seems to be genuinely excited about this reunion, he has been genuinely excited about lots of other things in his musical career that haven’t turned out to be what we, as fans, wished for. In the last couple of decades we’ve heard very good things about albums like A Spanner in the Works or When We Were the New Boys, and while they may have been the most solid works he’s laid down in the studio during that period, they were far from the “returns to form”
that many Rod fans may have built them up to be. (more…)

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Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Redeeming Rod: “Broken Arrow” (1991)

by Matthew Bolin

Rod Stewart’s 1991 cover of Robbie Robertson’s “Broken Arrow” (download) is perhaps the biggest hit that I’ll cover in my series. The third single off of Rod’s Vagabond Heart album, “Broken Arrow” peaked at #20 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart and #3 on the AC chart, and the video (featuring Rod’s latest blonde at the time, Rachel Hunter), was a staple for months on both MTV and VH1, (yes, yes, back when they actually played videos). It could be assumed that the reason Rod gives such a heartfelt performance here is because of his love for Ms. Hunter at the time of its recording. For, while it is true that Stewart has moved from woman to woman throughout his life at almost regular intervals, it does seem that for the period of time that he is with his latest paramour, he is genuinely in love. And judging by his performance on this track, Stewart must have been quite smitten with Hunter.

In “Broken Arrow,” like many of his performances discussed in this series, Rod once again gingerly walks the tightrope of his most obvious vocal impulses of this period — screaming and whispering — without tipping over the edge. In the original Rolling Stone review for Vagabond Heart, Don McCleese states that Rod “doesn’t quite connect” with the song, but I don’t agree. I think McCleese probably got sidetracked by two things about the recording — things that in my opinion actually show the strengths of Rod’s performance. (more…)

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Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

Redeeming Rod: “Leave Virginia Alone” (1995)

by Matthew Bolin

The first single from Rod Stewart’s album A Spanner in the Works, the Tom Petty composition “Leave Virgina Alone,” could be considered his first single in a very long time so greatly aligned with the remembered sound of Rod’s “classic” period of folk-tinged rock (1969-72). It’s almost totally acoustic, save a few notable guitar lines that sort of emulate Ron Wood’s slide work on early Rod albums.

I actually have this on cassingle (or at least I had it). I ran out and bought it after I saw Rod debut the single in the US on an episode of Saturday Night Live. As I recall, I was immediately struck by how joyous he seemed during the performance, and how well that lifted the song up. The recorded version is a bit more subtle than the SNL one: Rod gives a restrained, straight-ahead performance that, interestingly, leans towards his more ballad-related deliveries even with the bright, fast-paced tempo of the backing track. Stewart’s focus here is on softer tones, the enunciation of (and sometimes lingering on) each syllable, with no real vocal gymnastics or improvisation — which are hallmarks of his “rocker” vocals. He really only deals out louder expressions in the song’s final minute, during the final repetition of the chorus. All in all, it’s a solid song with a fitting vocal performance that Rod makes sound so easy. It was a definite “should have been” hit, but peaked at only #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

(more…)

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Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

Redeeming Rod: “If We Fall in Love Tonight” (1996)

by Matthew Bolin

In 1996, Rod Stewart released a collection of his ballads over the years, entitled If We Fall In Love Tonight. Or rather, Warner Brothers released this album, probably based partly on the fact that a similar collection by another one of the label’s stars (Madonna) had gone double platinum just a few months prior. Among the “goodies” to lure in the target audience of baby boom buyers: a re-recorded version of the ’80s hit/Dylan ripoff “Forever Young,” the Sting/Bryan Adams money grab collaboration “All For Love” (Rod’s biggest chart hit of all time[!!]), and three new songs, one of which was the title track, and the subject of today’s post. And more importantly, in my opinion, it might be the best “original” Rod song of the past 25 years.

Written and produced by Prince disciples Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis III, “If We Fall in Love Tonight” is a lovely modern R&B ballad featuring great backing vocals and a nice “storyline” involving the reconvening or re-strengthening of a old or longtime love affair. Both the subject matter and the arrangement plays off the strengths of Rod’s softer side. More importantly, Jam and Lewis are able to coax a subtle, striking performance out of Rod: he is able to go through the entirety of the song without falling into the “whisper” technique of substituting volume for emotion that (as I have previously mentioned) permeates too many of his ballad performances from the 1980s onward.

Here, Rod wears his heart on his sleeve: there are few vocal trills or moments where he plays with or strays from the tune’s basic construction. Instead, his voice sinks into phrases, almost speaking some words, while elongating some syllables just a bit to give them an extra emotional punch. Consider, for instance, the fact that Rod is able to turn the phrase “I’m so ready to love you down” and not have it seem at all cringe-worthy speaks volumes about the quality of both the song and the performance. Once again, Rod’s vocal stylings can genuinely be said to emulate his greatest of heroes, Sam Cooke. In other words, this song is the exact opposite of everything that is “Love Touch.” (And to those of you who are now thinking “Hey! I like ‘Love Touch’!”, let me just say: I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.)

That Jam and Lewis are able to achieve this with their vocal arrangement and production is not surprising: their greatest success over the years has been with Janet Jackson, a woman blessed with an incredible musical pedigree, but, in all honesty, limited vocal talents. Regardless, Jam and Lewis have been able to coax many a great performance out of her given these limitations, perhaps the best example being a ballad similar to Rod’s — “Come Back to Me,” from Rhythm Nation 1814.

But back to Rod: “If We Fall in Love Tonight,” both the single and the album, was something of a turning point for Rod’s career — it represents his jump into full-fledged Adult Contemporary status. While the song only peaked at #54 on the Billboard Singles (Hot 100) Chart (his second to last appearance to date there), it was his biggest hit in three years on the Adult Contemporary Chart (#4), and by peaking at #25, it is his highest charter all time on the Adult Top 40 chart (sort of a cross between Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary).

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Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

Redeeming Rod: “Twistin’ the Night Away” (1987)

by Matthew Bolin

Hollywood, 1986. Fade in. The scene is an executive’s office.

Exec: So what’s the pitch?
Producer: Okay, Martin Short is this bumbling dude, okay? And somehow, he gets stuck with this needle, only the needle has Dennis Quaid in a tiny spaceship in it, ’cause he’s been shrunk down as part of this government experiment. Now Dennis Quaid is inside of Martin Short, and now the bad guys who want to…
Exec: Hold on. Hold on!…You had me at “Martin Short gets stuck with a needle”! Now, all we need is a happening song. Something to push the soundtrack tie-in and get the kids into the theaters.
Producer: I was thinking of having Rod Stewart do a new version of a Sam Cooke song that he originally covered fourteen years ago.
Exec: Son…..you’re a money-making machine! (more…)

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Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

Reedeeming Rod: “People Get Ready” (1985)

by Matthew Bolin

One of the initial comments I received the on first “Redeeming Rod” guessed the subject matter of this post, so I guess I can take relief in the existence of actual humans who have not been so tainted by Rod’s crap-era albums that they can point out the occasions when he’s done quality work.

It seems that Rod has done most of that work (over the past quarter century, anyway) when working with a decent collaborator; one who not only knows his strengths, but refuses to let him get away with not using them. One such person is Jeff Beck, who employed Mr. Stewart as the lead singer of The Jeff Beck Group for a brief period of time in the late ’60s and early ’70s. In 1985, Jeff re-teamed with Rod for a cover of the Curtis Mayfield classic “People Get Ready.” The slick, generically mid-’80s production aside (the blame for which must be given to producer Nile Rodgers, from whom I would have expected better things), this is a very good performance, especially on Rod’s part. In fact, while the dominant part of Beck’s playing is merely a slight variation on the song’s main “riff,” Rod plays with his “instrument” in a lovely, understated way which is almost totally absent nowadays.

For example, check out Rod’s use of chordal singing on the second verse (”coast to coast,” and “there’s room for all“), and especially throughout the third verse and onward, where he abandons the normal note of the associated chord — what would be sung if the song were sung “straight” — and instead transposes. It’s pretty standard practice in the improv-heavy world of jazz vocalization (and, it should be noted, Jeff Beck has gone through his jazzy periods), but only pop vocalists with great pitch tend to do it with any regularity. Elton John’s one of them. Rod’s another, though as can be expected, he doesn’t tend to do it much anymore — and when he does, he does it because he can, not because he’s into the song (or his performance).

Well, here he’s into it. I talked about his lazy “whisper-scream” technique in my prologue to this series. Some people have criticized Rod’s singing here as mainly a continuation of this style: the lazy, sleazy, ’80s Rod. I don’t agree. His two back-to back yells between 3:26 and 3:30, as well as one more at 4:06, are not Rod being loud to express emotion — this is the sound of him actually emoting to express emotion. And this makes the song much better: the song’s coda is as good, if not better, than everything before it, as Rod’s voice literally pushes Beck into his best playing in the song (and arguably his best playing on the whole dreary Flash album).

Later in this series, we’ll see at least one example of Rod later taking his game up to a higher level by working with another legendary (though sometimes underrated) guitar legend, namely The Band’s Robbie Robertson. But for next time, I’m sticking with another reworking of a soul classic, as Rod gets ready to cover himself, covering Sam.

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Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

Redeeming Rod: Prologue

by Matthew Bolin

Welcome to the first in a series of posts designed to promote the music of Rod Stewart from the 1980s and onward. We begin by….Wait….where are you going? (more…)

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 Redeeming Rod