Old Rod, you have to hand it to him.
Presumably conceived to mark the end of his sixth decade as a solo recording artist, he has re-heated many of his best known songs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and released it just in time for Christmas – which let’s face it (no pun intended on my favourite rock band) is a pretty smart move.
Contrived? Well of course it is – but in a career stretching back fifty years, Rod has never been shy of a contrivance or two.
As a stand-alone collection ‘YOU’RE IN MY HEART – ROD STEWART with the ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA‘ adds little to what we already know – namely, many years ago Rod Stewart was an outstanding songwriter (for which he deserved far more acclaim than came his way), had an uncanny knack of finding songs perfect for him to interpret and then, as now, was blessed with the most distinctive voice in rock.
Essentially another ‘greatest hits’ package, only with strings attached, such is the familiarity with ‘Sailing,’ ‘Tonight’s The Night,’ ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It‘, and ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest,’ the new renditions offer little variation from the originals.
‘Maggie May,’ and ‘You’re In My Heart‘ are both pleasant enough without offering any fresh perspective, while on ‘I Was Only Joking,’ and ‘Young Turks‘ it appears what strings there are have merely been added to the original backing track.
The link between fifty years ago and now is the re-recording of ‘Handbags and Gladrags,’ a brilliant Mike D’Abo song included on Stewart’s 1969 debut album, ‘AN OLD RAINCOAT WON’T EVER LET YOU DOWN.’
There is little between the two versions, except half a century that is, the line, ‘Once I was a young man and all I that I had to do was smile,’ somewhat more affecting today with Rod approaching 75, but sung with worldly wisdom even when he was just twenty four.
While his latest release can be expected to fly from the shops, it was a far different story with ‘An Old Raincoat‘ all those years ago. According to his excellent 2012 autobiography, it managed sales of around 30,000, most of which were in the US – and came on the back of a recently ended, 18-month stint in the Jeff Beck Group.
When it came to cutting his first solo album, Stewart had followed another ex-Beck sideman Ron Wood into the Faces, (their respective debut albums recorded concurrently) with Wood (guitars) and Faces keyboard whizz Ian McLagan, appearing on both.
On a number of levels ‘An Old Raincoat‘ is an audacious record. Warm, intriguing and for a debut gloriously bold, it pulls together a myriad of styles from folk, blues, hard rock, prog (Rod the Prog, who’d have thought) – although its Wikipedia description of ‘blue eyed soul‘ is stretching things a bit far and begs the question did anyone there actually listen to it.
For the record, it sounds closer to what Jimmy Page was doing with Led Zeppelin than what Jimmy Ruffin was recording for Motown.
Split evenly between four self-penned tracks and four cover versions, in the sequence of superb albums he began here and continued until ‘Smiler‘ (1974), it is the only one where the covers eclipse his own material.
On the superlative second side of ‘Every Picture Tells A Story‘ (1971), Rod had to come up with the one-two masterpiece double of ‘Maggie May‘ and ‘Mandolin Wind‘ to just edge out (‘I Know) I’m Losing You‘ and ‘Reason To Believe‘ – the latter given a decent airing on his current record.
Of the songs covered on the debut, ‘Handbags and Gladrags,’ is the standout, the vocal and understated string score absolutely sublime. His folk tendencies (‘I’ve always been a folkie at heart,’ he once admitted), shine through on heartfelt readings of the traditional ‘Man of Constant Sorrow‘ and Ewan MacCall standard, ‘Dirty Old Town.’
To open proceedings, Rod has the temerity to run through ‘Street Fighting Man‘ – turning the Stones whiplash call-to-arms into an engaging country shuffle, before giving it a souped-up ending.
Had Rod Stewart never written a word of his own he would still have had that tremendous emotional range as a singer to guarantee stardom – his own material at this stage not quite boasting the wonderful turn of phrase that would become his trademark in the years ahead.
Musically ‘Cindy’s Lament‘ and ‘Blind Prayer‘ with their top heavy keyboard arrangements are interesting period pieces, falling roughly between his work with Beck and what the Faces were about to come up with.
The lyrics of both songs are a touch over-wrought and while the opening lines of ‘Blind Prayer‘ set out a ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash‘ styled tale, ‘I was born and raised the only son of a lawyer/’Til I was approximately the age of four or perhaps five/I lost both my mother and my father, killed in a fire way up on the fourteenth floor,’ the story, for all its drama certainly wasn’t his – Stewart born into an adoring North London family of Scottish descent.
More autobiographical in theme are the title track and ‘I Wouldn’t Ever Change A Thing‘ both of which feature the dual acoustic/electric guitar template that would later frame ‘Maggie May‘ and ‘You Wear It Well.’
As yet there are not the killer lines that arrived with ‘Lady Day,’ ‘Jo’s Lament,’ and ‘Gasoline Alley‘ the following year, but the potential is clearly there.
‘An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down‘ and ‘I Wouldn’t Ever Change A Thing‘ (on which prog maestro Keith Emerson performs some typically grandiose keyboard work), would have sounded right at home on an early Faces album, in the way ‘Lady Day‘ definitely would not.
In a year that produced, among others, ‘Abbey Road,’ ‘Let It Bleed,’ ‘Dusty In Memphis,’ ‘Tommy‘ and ‘The Band,’ it would be hard to make a case for it being the best album of 1969, but by pulling together the various stylings Rod made arguably the LP most representative of that year, with none more diverse.
Fifty years on, it is hard even for a sour old cynic like me to truly dislike his collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic (despite not being able to see the point of the ‘It Takes Two‘ duet with Robbie Williams). If nothing else it provided reason to revisit his fine debut album – but sometime over the next couple of weeks a glass or two of something festive will be poured and orchestra and all, a sing-a-long will ensue.
Once warmed up however, it will be straight back to ‘Gasoline Alley,’ ‘Every Picture Tells A Story‘ and the other magnificent works from his wonder years of 1969-74.
And for those we give thanks and say ‘Cheers Rod – Merry Christmas.’
This article was first published on 9/12/2019.
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available as an Amazon Kindle book.