Rod Stewart: Every Picture Tells a Story poll

"O. Henry" was only printed on the center label of the original vinyl LP release, not on the sleeve. It is also omitted in the track listing of CD versions, as in some pressings of the album and most Stewart compilations, the "O. Henry" intro is incorporated into the full "Maggie May" track.

1. "Mandolin Wind," 2. "Every Picture Tells a Story," 3. "Maggie May." For me, no other album ever has a better three best.

Great clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEoc13bwCw0

one of THE albums ever. voted Tomorrow Is a Long Time since I was afraid no one else will. every song here deserves a vote or seven

So difficult.
The old vinyl side 2 is perfect. Feel it should go to a Rod composition, but Reason to Believe is my single favourite song here.
And the UK cassette in the early 90s had "Henry" (no "O") listed as a separate track.

title track is da bomb.

2nd side is end-to-end great, but, yeah, title track for me too. Love the builds and drops, it's funny, & somehow overcomes Rod repeatedly calling the woman he purportedly loves a 'slit-eyed lady'.

I don't know that anyone will agree, but the one song on here I could absolutely do without is the Temptations cover; I'm not a fan of the original, either. It's been a while since I listened to the Elvis cover, but I suspect I'd feel the same about that. When you're at the zenith of creativity, and coming up with songs of your own like "Mandolin Wind" and "Maggie May" (or "Gasoline Alley" and "You Wear It Well"), worshipful covers of your mentors just don't seem necessary.

Going with The Temptations cover.

"Mandolin Wind."

"(I Know) I'm Losing You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKOPRFDVHaw

The album needs the Temps cover because that's the only moment of real electric tension. Without that the instrumental moods are too unvarying. It's the grit in Rod's oyster.

Hard to choose among all the gems on this album. I hate to be that guy but I really think it's Maggie May.

I also voted "Maggie May" but what can you say about that; always a startled "oh" @ its mandolin solo at the end, takes the wind right out of me, so clear-eyed. I wouldn't change a thing.

The album needs the Temps cover because that's the only moment of real electric tension.

I can see an argument for it along those lines; 12 "Mandolin Wind"s would not be a good thing. One the merits, though, I've never gotten anything out of it, although clearly there are people who do.

Mawkish, icky story that I'm not ashamed to admit: tearing up to "Mandolin Wind" a few years ago as I drove through the countryside on a beautiful fall day.

how would 12 mandolin wind's be a bad thing???

yeah I've never really liked Rod's "(I Know) I'm Losing You"; just a bleating grind.

"Mandolin Wind" is unearthly: it sounds ancient, like a Celtic rune or something.

how would 12 mandolin wind's be a bad thing???

Let me rephrase: too much of a good thing. Or too samey, which I think was ithappens' point. (Obviously, I love "Mandolin Wind.")

the hooting after the "coldest winter in fourteen years" part at the end is a highlight of the album for sure: I know that feeling.

I'm listening to it right now. I think my favorite line is "so the next few lines could really hurt". Meta-tastic!

I think the Eagles may have sung a similar line circa 1979.

The Eagles were talking about penetrating young pussy though.

You're muscling in on my joke with a better one.

yeesh when the drums come in on "Mandolin Wind", so great

have no idea which is the Elvis cover or the Temps cover, this was all new material to me when I first heard it

the drumming on (I Know) I'm Losing You = monstrous. The band is just unbelievable on this record, so loose and powerful

Reason To Believe

This is just another example why 1971 could have been the greatest year for albums, ever.

so effortlessly great

I know this album is still held in high regard but it's not enough. It should be there with There's A Riot Going On and Exile On Main Street as a no brainer when discussing 70's greatness

yeah...and the rod stewart album (or old raincoat or whatever the UK vers is called) is nearly as good too!

and the faces! oh the faces! the other rolling stones that haven't been beat to death by classic rock radio but with a better singer!

I like Gasoline Alley best out of the first three Stewarts. The Faces boxset is epic.

http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/347/347093_1_f.jpg

never heard gasoline alley i really need to get that.

what a fucking great singer he was.

Gonna put Gasoline Alley on right now.

I really think I prefer GA as an lp experience over EPTAS.
But it's a trifling difference, all this music is great.

Rod repeatedly calling the woman he purportedly loves a 'slit-eyed lady'.

Generally not too big on his early output, but he did release a couple of fine singles then, one out of which being "Maggie May".

Yep. Any rightminded person would prefer the post Atlantic Crossing stuff to the Mercury albums.
Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm Facepalm

I think my favorite line is "so the next few lines could really hurt".

I've always heard this as "I never was good with romantic words, so the next few lines come really hard."

just bought a mint vinyl copy of this for 2 euros.. really liking what i'm hearing so far..

I've always heard this as "I never was good with romantic words, so the next few lines come really hard."

I didn't quote the preceding line, which sets it up, but that's exactly what's going on.

so is this the consensus pick for best rod album? i think i like never a dull moment more.

I'm definitely on board with anyone who wants to argue that "You Wear It Well" is his greatest song; I did a top 100 countdown on the radio once, and indeed had that as my favorite song ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4PXMCCTMwM

so happy to see so much love for this album. the 15-second intro to "maggie may," and then the way the first chord strikes up, may be my favorite moment in pop music ever -- right up there with the opening of "be my baby," the fadeout of "madame george," anything.

Title track, but I love the Georgia Satellites' version as much.

"You Wear It Well" is a great song, yet a bit too much of a rewrite of "Maggie May" to really score with me. See also "The Same Old Song" and "Standing In The Shadows Of Love" for referance.

Really, the only studio album in that 1968-1974 run that I don't like as much as the others is Smiler ... ("You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Man"... ugh) ... He coulda knocked it on the head there and his discography would be near perfect, IMO.

WTF?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTqrVZtGGRk

Out in the car today with one of his numerous compilations that only cover the first few albums. As always, as good it gets, thought I do fast-forward through certain tracks. I haven't changed much from stuff I posted above: a few songs (including covers) that are neither here nor there for me, with five mixed in--"Maggie May," "Gasoline Alley," "Mandolin Wind," "You Wear It Well," and "Every Picture"--that are among the greatest works of art of the 20th century. Stop laughing. ("Handbags and Gladrags" just shy of that.)

Question: when he sings "steal my daddy's cue and make a living out of playing fool" in "Maggie May," is that meant literally--the father in question was a guy who hung around pool halls--or more generally, as in follow his example?

If I had to point to one line (there are other candidates) to sum up the genius of those five songs, I might go with "through the coldest winter in almost 14 years" from "Mandolin Wind." Not 15 years, 14--and not 14, but almost 14. That's exactly right; it has to be almost 14, nothing else would work. How does anyone come up with that?

It's "playing pool", surely - although you can still have the pun on "cue" that I never noticed before.

I love "Mandolin Wind" and really like the others you list besides "Every Picture".
I always thought his version of "Reason to Believe" was hurt by what you could call "overstated understatement" - it's so studied in its attempted casualness, so rehearsedly spontaneous. This album (maybe Exile on Main Street too) is sort of Ground Zero for that mode in rock music.

Yeah, I've always been a little iffy about "Reason to Believe." I liked it when he did it in the early '90s for his Unplugged thing, but I think that was just a twinge of nostalgia.

I worship "Every Picture" (or at least right to the point, near the end, where the chorus is repeated over and over--I worship 93% of it). There are so many lines that would be viewed as indefensible today, and one that, purely as bad writing, makes we wince every time: "My body stunk, but I kept my funk." But I'm swept away by it anyway. And when he gets to the advice he can't give, because why bother, it's all been said before, I'm jelly.

xpost - I feel like the casualness (doesn't bother me but I know what you're talking about) was a big part of the Faces, I don't distinguish between his early stuff and the Faces that much, it's all of the same vibe and frequently personnel

I love this whole record, but "Mandolin Wind" is the standout here. It would be great on any album, but it's especially great here because it manages to be a high point even after a monster song like "Maggie May". That's a rare feat, as dropping a whopper of a song like 'Maggie' on a long-player all too often makes the next track seem like a downer. The Beatles knew enough not to put "Hey Jude" on an album, knowing it's difficult to do so without towering over whatever comes next (whether or not you like "Hey Jude"). But not impossible - the Beach Boys followed "California Girls" with "Let Him Run Wild", which ranks with "Mandolin Wind" for All Time Best Follow-Ups to Awesome Signature Songs on an Album.

(We need a thread about the best examples of this, as well as the worst - songs that are utter letdowns after the album's great centerpiece song)

i feel like entire years may go by that i almost forget about this album's existence completely, but coming back to it feels like running into an old friend. the bad throwaway rhymes in the title song make me smile, but "combed my hair in a thousand ways/but i came out looking just the same," god, that's one of the all-time great moments.

That was one of the other candidates I was thinking of; also "I sincerely believed I was so complete/Look how wrong you can be." As someone on his own, that one hurts.

So many song lyrics I wish I'd taken to heart when I was younger... that's one of them

Xpost Let Him Run Wild is so good.

xpost yeah that's a devastating line

he really was as good as it gets for a time

I was reading his autobiography and he mentions that writing lyrics was torturous and embarrassing for him and he’d feel terribly nervous about showing them to anyone. (He also devotes a chapter to his hair.)

probably deserves two chapters tbh

ha, we should poll some other classic era Rod Stewart albums.

Yeah and a big Rod poll would be ace!

If it hasn’t been done already.... *runs to check*

hey, col and I did the difficult and un-sober (*hic*) of a listening thread:

DON'T LET THEM PUT YOU DOWN: The Official ILM Track-By-Track ROD STEWART 1975-1988 Listening Thread

75-88! That’s some heavy deeds

Wussy poll before Rod Stewart poll is some fucked up priorities, ilx.

Also no Seger poll, what the hell

lol

xpost

i would totally vote in a Rod Stewart poll, it would be some hard listening in a short period of time.

i would totally listen to every rod stewart record

lol

Every Picture: I’m gonna get all Steve Hoffman Forum on yer ass here

I picked up a minty UK early (1st?) press a few years back, with contemporaneous clippings from the NME & Melody Maker laid in. Wasn’t super impressed with the sound.

Then I picked up an early US pressing & thought it absolutely rocked. Sold my UK version.

(Was running a Thorens TD-318 at the time)

Then the customer who bought it fell on hard times and sold me his record collection (most of which he’d bought from me) *and* his turntable, a TD-160. Played the 2 versions back to back & holy shit! I was SO WRONG — the UK absolutely slays & the US sounds harsh & over-EQ’d (likely to compensate for a later-gen source tape).

Moral: keep your shitty turntable or you’ll never be satisfied

"Love Touch" Top Ten if not #1.

I'm the Wussy guy...Of course Rod Stewart's more important--the order reflects when you volunteered, not importance. As one of the most enthusiastic Rod Stewart posters on here, though, I will say that Wussy at their best are in the same neighborhood.

As Dirk Diggler would say, they're that good!

Yeah, don't see the controversy here.

Really, the only way they part company is that Wussy hasn't yet had there ugly 1974-till-forever phase.

Attica was their Gasoline Alley

Lol

Ten minutes till midnight...released May 28, 1971.

I don't know that anyone will agree, but the one song on here I could absolutely do without is the Temptations cover;

In fact someone did agree but, personally, I could hardly disagree more!

Yeah, it's a pretty amazing cover, a rare instance of a rock band recording a cover of a great Motown hit that's on par with the original.

The title song is playing right now in the coffee shop I patronize. Frustrating, because not nearly as loud as I want to be.

In light of your location, are you sure he isn't saying "every picture tells a story, donut"?

I used to hear that almost final line as 'you didn't ask to come here anyway', like this is all about how you're thrown into life, so fuck it, live, make the best out of bad. Once I heard it correctly, 'didn't have to come here anyway' I was a bit disappointed but I still love this song beyond reason.

I always heard it your old way too.

hmmm maybe that is it, despite lyric sites. Excuse to relisten, fine.

& I even love that last run of 'every picture tells a story, don't it?'s, like there's nothing really to say, just offering a stupid-maybe-true cliché that I think barely has anything to do with the bunch-of-stuff-that-happened song we've just heard, so here we are and isn't it fun - no advice, no quotes, just laugh it up.

I liked this piece: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/rod-stewart-every-picture-tells-a-story/

"Mandolin Wind" is such a vocal performance and really highlights what he brings to the table. Such an interesting career.

The thing with Rod Stewart is, he's never figured out that he's Rod Stewart.

80 today--Jesus.

Looking through all the threads, I don't think there's ever been an overall song poll? Lots of mini-polls, but I couldn't see one all-encompassing one.

(And by all-encompassing, I of course mean 1969-72. That's all you need to encompass.)

Tonight I’m Yours Yo

This was so much fun: DON'T LET THEM PUT YOU DOWN: The Official ILM Track-By-Track ROD STEWART 1975-1988 Listening Thread

(xpost) Was that his early-'80s hip-hop phase?

That was his early-80's jacket-sleeves-rolled-up-to-the-elbow phase.

I loved hearing how many times Rod turned up in Andrew Hickey's podcast, during those years when he was auditioning to be the singer for every band in england.

Also, when I just searched for him, I got a kick out of Google's "People Also Searched For" suggestions. Think Rod had a type?

https://i.imgur.com/uxyHseN.png

I should extend my timeline back a year or two to include the two Jeff Beck albums. I don't think I've ever heard the bands he was in before that.