Rod The Mod
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| Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock singer-songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of English and Scottish ancestry. Stewart is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. Rod has had six consecutive number one albums in the UK, and his tally of 62 UK hit singles includes 31 that reached the top 10, six of which gained the number one position. He has had 16 top ten singles in the US, with four reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2007, he received a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Rod Stewart came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The Jeff Beck Group and then with Faces, though his music career had begun in 1962 when he took up busking with a harmonica. In October 1963 he joined the Dimensions as a harmonica player and part-time vocalist, then in 1964 he joined Long John Baldry and the All Stars. He maintained a solo career alongside a group career, releasing his debut solo album An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (US: The Rod Stewart Album), in 1969. Rod's early albums were a fusion of rock, folk music, soul music and R&B. |
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| In January 1964, while Stewart was waiting at Twickenham railway station after having seen Long John Baldry and the All Stars at Eel Pie Island, Baldry heard him playing "Smokestack Lightnin'" on his harmonica, and invited him to sit in with the group; when Baldry discovered Stewart was a singer as well, he offered him a job for £35 a week, after securing the approval of Stewart's mother. Quitting his day job at age nineteen, Stewart gradually overcame his shyness and nerves and became a visible enough part of the act that he was sometimes added to the billing as "Rod the Mod" Stewart, the nickname coming from his dandyish style of grooming and dress. While still with Baldry (The Hoochie Coochie Men), Stewart embarked on a simultaneous solo career and signed with Decca in August 1964. Turning down Decca's recommended material as too commercial, Stewart insisted that the experienced session musicians he was given, including John Paul Jones, learn a couple of Sonny Boy Williamson songs. The resulting single, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, despite Stewart performing it on the popular television show Ready Steady Go!, it failed to enter the charts. Also in October Rod left the Hoochie Coochie Men after having a row with Baldry. In 1965, legendary impresario Giorgio Gomelsky put together Steampacket, which featured a reconciled Baldry and Stewart, Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll, Micky Waller, Vic Briggs and Ricky Fenson; their first appearance was in support of The Rolling Stones in July 1965. Conceived as a white soul revue, analogous to The Ike & Tina Turner Revue, with multiple vocalists and styles ranging from jazz to R & B to blues. Steampacket toured with the Stones and The Walker Brothers that summer, ending in the London Palladium; seeing the audience react to the Stones gave Stewart his first exposure to crowd hysteria. Stewart, who had been included in the group upon Baldry's insistence, ended up with most of the male vocal parts. |
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| Guitarist Jeff Beck recruited Stewart for his new post-Yardbirds venture, and in February 1967, Rod joined the Jeff Beck Group as vocalist and sometime songwriter. There he first played with Ronnie Wood and the two soon became fast friends. The Jeff Beck Group embarked on a six-week tour of the United States in June 1968 at the Fillmore East in New York. Suffering terrible stage fright Rod hid behind the amplifier banks while singing; only a quick shot of brandy brought him out front. Nevertheless, the show and the tour were a big success, with the New Musical Express reporting that the group was receiving standing ovations and pulling receipts equal to those of Jimi Hendrix and The Doors. Mercury Records A&R man Lou Reizner had seen Stewart perform with Beck, and on 8 October 1968 signed him to a solo contract; but contractual complexities delayed Stewart's recording for him until July 1969. Meanwhile, in May 1969, guitarist and singer Steve Marriott left English band The Small Faces. Ron Wood was announced as the replacement guitarist in June and on 18 October 1969, Stewart followed his friend and was announced as their new singer. The two joined existing members Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones, who soon decided to call the new line-up Faces. An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down released in 1969, was Rod's first solo album (The Rod Stewart Album in the US). It established the template for his solo sound: a heartfelt mixture of folk, rock, and country blues, inclusive of a British working-class sensibility, with both original Cindy's Lament and covers Handbags and Gladrags. The backing band on the album included Wood, Waller and McLagan, plus Keith Emerson along with Steamhammer guitarists Martin Pugh and Martin Quittenton. Rod released his second album, Gasoline Alley in autumn, 1970. Rod's approach was similar to his first album, as exemplified by the title track; and the mandolin was introduced into the sound. |
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| Every Picture Tells a Story Rod's third solo album, released in 1971, made him a household name when Maggie May the B-side of his minor hit Reason to Believe started receiving radio play. A loss of innocence tale set off by a striking mandolin part played by Ray Jackson of Lindisfarne. However, the ultimate manifestation of the early Stewart solo style was the Stewart-Wood-penned title track Every Picture Tells a Story : powered by Mick Waller's drumming, Pete Sears's piano, and Wood's guitar work in a largely acoustic arrangement; it is a fast, rocking, headlong romp relating the picaresque adventures of the singer. Rod Stewart released Never a Dull Moment in 1972. Repeating the Every Picture formula for the most part, it reached number two on the US album charts and number one in the UK, and enjoyed further good notices from reviewers. The single You Wear It Well reached number 13 in the US and went to number one in the UK, while Twisting the Night Away made explicit Stewart's debt to Sam Cooke. For the body of his early solo work Rod earned tremendous critical praise. Rolling Stone's 1980 Illustrated History of Rock & Roll includes this in its Rod Stewart entry: As a song writer Rod Stewart offered profound lyricism and fabulous self-deprecating humour, teller of tall tales and honest heartbreaker, he had an unmatched eye for the tiny details around which lives turn, shatter, and reform and a voice to make those details indelible. His solo albums were defined by two special qualities: warmth, which was redemptive, and modesty, which was liberating. If ever any rocker chose the role of everyman and lived up to it, it was Rod Stewart. |
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Wanderin' Spirit
October, 2015
"Rod The Mod"
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