Perhaps nobody was as surprised by Rod Stewart's return to songwriting as Rod Stewart. Rod hadn't bothered composing a tune in nearly two decades when he decided to write a brand new bunch of songs for 2013's Time, an album inspired in part by his 2012 memoir Rod: The Autobiography. Arriving after ten years of Great American Songbook albums, the change in style and song was refreshing, something fans (and some critics) noted and, people pleaser that he is, Rod decided to give them what they wanted for Another Country: another set of originals, augmented by a slyly chosen cover in Steve Harley's "A Friend For Life" (on the Deluxe Edition, he shows a bit of cheek by once again singing Python Lee Jackson's "In A Broken Dream," which he sang back in 1978)…
Originally released in the '70s, Mercury's The Best of Rod Stewart includes several songs that were not proper hits – they were album track favorites that may not have been big on the charts, but were of the consistently high quality that Rod was turning out in the early '70s…
Once he became a superstar, Rod Stewart essentially gave up on songwriting because, let's face it, it's easier to play endless football and cavort with models. Every once in a while his muse returned, so he tried a little bit harder, such as in 1988 when he spun Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" into a song of his own, which wound up as the last hit single of his that he ever wrote…
Sir Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. Stewart is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. He has had six consecutive number one albums in the UK and his tally of 62 UK hit singles includes 31 that reached the top ten, six of which gained the #1 position…
How good was Rod Stewart really? The truth is….very good indeed. In his earlier days, he had a grittier and less polished style that suited so many different types of musical genres. He was equally comfortable singing country rock, ballads or out and out rockers…
During this time, Stewart became an excellent songwriter in his own right, penning (or co-penning) a number of tunes here, including the transcendent "Maggie May" and the surging "Every Picture Tells a Story." More extensive than 1976's THE BEST OF ROD STEWART and slightly outshining '92's THE MERCURY ANTHOLOGY, GOLD is ideal for anyone seeking a thorough sampler of Stewart's early solo work…
Early on in his career Rod Stewart established himself as one of rock's great interpretive vocalists, which made the flatness of his Great American Songbook series a bit puzzling. If any classic rock veteran of the '60s should have been able to offer new spins on old standards, it should have been Rod the Mod, who was turning Elvis' "All Shook Up" inside out on Jeff Beck's Truth and turned the Rolling Stones' defiant "Street Fighting Man" into a folk-rock lament, all before "Maggie May" turned Rod into a star…
On his debut album (titled An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down in Britain, and The Rod Stewart Album in America, presumably because its original title was "too English" or cryptic for U.S. audiences), Rod Stewart essays a startlingly original blend of folk, blues, and rock & roll. The opening cover of the Stones' "Street Fighting Man" encapsulates his approach. Turning the driving acoustic guitars of the original inside out, the song works a laid-back, acoustic groove, bringing a whole new meaning to the song before escalating into a full-on rock & roll attack – without any distorted guitars, just bashing acoustics and thundering drums…
Once he became a superstar, Rod Stewart essentially gave up on songwriting because, let's face it, it's easier to play endless football and cavort with models. Every once in a while his muse returned, so he tried a little bit harder, such as in 1988 when he spun Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" into a song of his own, which wound up as the last hit single of his that he ever wrote…
By the time MTV got around to taping an Unplugged special with Rod Stewart, the singing soccer fanatic had spent most of the '80s and early '90s churning out albums full of glossy pop songs. UNPLUGGED…AND SEATED found Stewart going back to his earlier material where soul, folk and rock blended together into something special. Stewart made these chestnuts more authentic by reuniting with old mate Ronnie Wood. Backed by a string section, vocalists, and a couple of pianos, Stewart dug deep into his catalog for folk-flavored favorites such as "Handbags And Gladrags," "Mandolin Wind" and "Cut Across Shorty."…