Every Picture Tells a Story

Stewart, Rod

album cover

Every Song Paints a Different Picture and . . .

Yes, he's foisted plenty of stinky music on the world—the disco-era lowlight "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" or the four (!) tortured volumes of standards that make up much of his output in the '90s and beyond. But in 1971, Rod Stewart could do no wrong. He was an exotic kind of belter, with a bourbon-blessed voice that sounded totally torn up at the beginning of the night, and got better from there. His band the Faces had honed a swaggering, almost bawdy brand of blues-rock that was drawing well on both sides of the Atlantic, and would reach its recorded peak with A Nod Is as Good as a Wink . . . to a Blind Horse later in the year.

Overshadowing the solid Faces stuff is Stewart's third solo album—a jaw-dropper that is unlike anything rowdy Rod the Mod had done before. Though backed by the Faces, he isn't leaving everything on the stage as he did with the band—these performances are closer to confessional soul, wistful and uncharacteristically reflective. The material ranges from an early-rock classic ("That's All Right," which Stewart interpolates with "Amazing Grace") to a totally reinvented Temptations hit ("I'm Losing You") to a Dylan song ("Tomorrow Is a Long Time") to the great seduction tale "Maggie May," which was the B side of the first single and became a radio hit after DJs, unprompted, started playing it.

That first single, Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe," ranks among rock's all-time great covers. It closes the album, a pensive wee-hours nightcap. Though he's strutted around elsewhere, here Stewart plays the sad rogue, puzzling over clues left by a lover who's suddenly vacated the premises. Sounding alternately resigned and defiant, Stewart broods and bawls through Hardin's melody like he really wants to understand what went wrong. His sincerity is audible, and touching; it makes the song, and really the entire album. Stewart had plenty of hits after this, but he never sounded as genuine again.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1971, Mercury
Key Tracks: All of them.
Catalog Choice: Faces: A Nod Is as Good as a Wink.
Next Stop: Jeff Beck: Truth
After That: The Black Crowes: Shake Your Money Maker
Book Pages: 743–744