THIS is the 'real' Rod Stewart
Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 07/28/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Forget all about disco trash like "Blondes Have More Fun" and "Body Wishes", THIS is what Roderick David Stewart is actually capable of. Stewart may have chosen to cater to the pop- and disco crowd of the 80s, but back in the early seventies he was perhaps the very best interpreter of folk, blues and country that the United Kingdom had to offer, and the team of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood turned out some of the best folk/rock albums of all time.This is definitely NOT where you go to get "Baby Jane", "Some Guys Have All The Luck" or "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy", no, this is the very best of Rod Stewart's first six studio albums under his own name, back when he was a young singer/songwriter with a musical vision that didn't include pink outfits, spiky hair and lots and lots of synth.
Just listen to his interpretations of "Country Comforts" and "Mama You've Been On My Mind", or the Stewart/Wood originals "Gasoline Alley" and "Every Picture Tells A Story". Or his own compositions (why doesn't he write and compose his own songs anymore?), like "Man Of Constant Sorrow" and the beautiful "Mandolin Wind".This is how Rod Stewart should be remembered, as a first-rate interpreter and a great songwriter who knew and understood the origins of the music he played without being weighed down by it."