Music Review : Rod Stewart - The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998

Despite some of their sins over the years, most of the major artists of the 1960's and 1970's have tended to have their reputations rekindled in their later years. Elton John is in a fine vein of rich form (although I usually think the quality of his albums are in direct relation to how hard Bernie Taupin works on his lyrics) and Eric Clapton seems to turn up at many gigs like everyones favourite uncle. An exception to this appears to be Rod Stewart who, despite remaining very popular, has never been on anyones list of credible rockstars probably since he left The Faces.

It's always been way to easy to suggest that Rod lost his way after the break-up of The Faces. Certainly, Atlantic Crossing was a weak album with watered down rockers on the one hand with some asinine ballads on the other. On the other hand, it did contain a superb reading of Danny Whitten's I Don't Want To Talk About It which (just) managed to keep on the right side of the saccharine line. However, once he got his touring band together and used them for his albums the quality level increased markedly. Unfortunately, this coincided with his squiring of Britt Ekland and his seeming efforts to look as ridiculous as possible.

Topping and tailing that period with Do You Think I'm Sexy which suffered from the twin sin of utilising a disco rhythm as well as being the polar opposite of his earlier guise as just one of the lads.

Like many artists of his vintage, much of the 1980's were a time of poor choices and poorer production values (although it's hard to beat Dylan in this regard for plumbing the depths in this decade) but since then he's reverted to sound choices of covers and his albums recovered an aura of consistent if not outstanding quality.

It does seem that the days of Stewart the songwriter are gone but he does remain a superb interpreter of the right material. Although much maligned by many, I thoroughly enjoyed the American Songbook series (although he was stretching it at four volumes) but I was already a convert to the quality of the songs from that era.

To counter that, his album of classic rock covers Still The Same really was scraping the bottom of a very mucky barrel with most of the songs barely qualifying as rock and almost none of them worthy of the use of the word "classic"

Whilst there has been much talk of a reunion of the surviving Faces (and this proceeding or not seems to be entirely down to Rod) he is continuing his endeavours with a new album Soulbook featuring his interpretations of a number of soul classics. Many of the songs selected for this look like they might be good choices for him but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

All of this is a long introduction to the four disc set that's just been issued covering sessions from 1971 through to 1998 of outtakes, demos and alternative versions as well as some songs that never saw the light of day. This appears to be a precursor to a wider release programme for his post Faces material - Atlantic Crossing and A Night On The Town have already appeared in special editions.

Like many of these kinds of collections, there is a range of material on this set. Some that you really enjoy hearing, and others that you wonder why they were allowed to see the light of day. In the latter category is included an early version of Maggie May which opens the set. That's early as in before he'd really settled on a melody or written any words for it! It's no more than Stewart extemporising over the backing track clearly seeking to come to terms with what the song might later become. It really doesn't add anything to your appreciation of the finished article, or have anything much to offer in its' own right.

However, there is much to enjoy on this album. By its very nature, the versions here are less produced than they might otherwise have been and that's usually to the benefit of the performance. As we progress through the years, there's a greater preponderance of songs that didn't appear on albums and in many cases these seem to be truer to his spirit. You can't help but feel that this is better material than was issued, and that he was on the end of some poor advice about where he should be heading. Perhaps too keen to put out something modern sounding rather than good listening!

The set ends with a delicious version of the late John Martyn's May You Never. You only need a cursory knowledge of the song to know that this is the type of song that Rod could readily make his own.

If you're a casual fan, this is certainly not going to be of interest to you. However, for those who have loved Rod and perhaps those who wondered where it all went wrong, this provides an interesting alternative history that suggests the last thirty years have been perhaps unfairly maligned.

Now, Rod - do the decent thing. Stop fannying around and get back with Ronnie, Mac and Kenny!