VA - The Many Faces Of Rod Stewart (2017)

In the early 60s, blues and R&B was 'the' sound among the cool youngsters of Great Britain. That obsession with black music (which extended to soul music too), along an unbridled passion for elegance pave the way to mod culture, which was the stepping stone for some of the greatest British pop artists of all time. Both The Who and The Small Faces are obviously regarded as mod ambassadors, but personalities such as Marc Bolan, David Bowie, and Rod Stewart took their first steps within the mod world. In the case of Stewart, he was so affiliated with the movement that he was known as "Rod The Mod". In The Many Faces Of Rod Stewart we will cover the lesser known works of his career, his hard to find collaborations and some of his first demos. In addition we will pay homage to his wonderful repertoire and we will enjoy the originals of the songs he has covered during his career, both in his early years and also in his recent and successful series The Great American Songbook. Our trip starts in 1964, when Rod is a member of the Hoochie Coochie Men, leaded by Long John Baldry, with whom he played in the London circuit in clubs like the Marquee in Wardour Street. In The Many Faces we can hear them with their version of the classic gospel track (from Sister Rosetta Tharpe) Up Above My Head I Hear Music In The Air where Rod and Long John intersperse their vocals. Not too long after that, Rod got his own managers, who had him recording a demo with members of the Hoochie Coochie Men. In The Many Faces we feature 6 of the 7 songs recorded in those sessions that lasted barely 4 hours. They're all versions of classic blues songs that were among Rod's favorites (Willie Dixon, Big Bill Broonzy, Howlin'Wolf and Jimmy Reed). Although the A&R people of the labels were not entirely convinced by Rod's raspy voice (a rarity at the time for a white singer), Stewart was anyway able to start his solo career, and here we include some of his first recordings such as The Day Will Come and Why Does It Go On (both from 1965), that were written by British songwriter Barry Mason who also wrote songs for Tom Jones, Barbra Streisand and The Dave Clark Five, among many others. The following year, Rod released two more songs (Shake from Sam Cooke and I Just Got Some from Barry Mason with arrangements by (and featuring) Brian Auger, one of the best (and sadly underrated) British Hammond organ players ever. Eventually, Rod meets Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones' manager and with him, he records songs such as Little Miss Understood (originally by Mike D'Abo, Manfred Mann's singer), So Much To Say (written by Rod himself) and Come Home Baby, a duet with Los Angeles-born, London-based singer PP Arnold. They were accompanied by an stellar band that included Keith Emerson on organ, Keith Richards on guitar and the production of Mick Jagger. In January of 1967, Rod joins the Jeff Beck Group as lead singer where he would be along Ron Wood on bass, Micky Waller on drums and Beck himself on guitar. A new and stellar chapter in the life of Rod Stewart starts then. As we all know, Rod has co-written many of his own hits (Maggie May, Stay With Me, Hot Legs and You Wear It Well among many others), but he has always been known more as a great performer. Going against that unwritten rock law by which a real artist is supposed to write his own material, he has always included a large number of songs written by other people in his discography, songs that, with new arrangements and his particular interpretation have become his own. In the first part of CD 2 of The Many Faces we include the originals recordings of several songs that Rod Stewart has recorded for classic albums like Every Picture Tells A Story (1971), Smiler (1974) and A Night On The Town (1976). The second half of the CD belongs to standards that Stewart masterfully performed in his successful collection The American Songbook that began in 2002 and that has taken him to a new peak of popularity. CD 3 of The Many Faces opens with a hard-to-find gem: this is the single (both A and B sides) that, under the name of Quiet Melon, Art Wood (Ron Wood's brother) recorded alongside the complete line-up of The Faces that included Ronnie Lane, Kenny Jones, Ron Wood, Ian McLagan and Rod Stewart as backing band. The rest of the album is a celebration of Rod's fantastic catalog in the voices of true fans such as Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann's Earthband), the legendary Paul Di'Anno (Iron Maiden) and the great Chris Farlowe, among many others. Now, let's sit in our favorite chair, fill our glass with (Scottish) whisky and enjoy the wonderful journey that The Many Faces Of Rod Stewart is inviting us to take.