Unplugged and Brilliant
Unplugged by Rod Stewart
Listen; do you want to know a secret? The prettiest girl in high school adored Rod Stewart. This was a major crush, the kind rendering tame the cooing sound emanating from the Backstreet Boys camp. That was more than enough reason for me to wish an errant soccer ball would speed towards Rod's face and render him a gooey mess. After all, how was another fourteen year old going to compete with the epitome of a rock star?
She recently emailed me about the possibility of a class reunion, and we swapped several notes back and forth. "It's funny", she wrote, "but I was looking through one of my old yearbooks when I was gathering names and you wrote something about Rod Stewart." I answered that I remembered she had been completely infatuated with him for no less than a year. "Oh," came the response. "I really didn't remember. I guess so."
Thanks, Rod. Beautiful models and worldwide fame were not enough.
The unfortunate part of the story is that I ignored Rod Stewart's music throughout high school. Call it teen pride. Afterwards, when he shoved his way into the driver's seat of the disco bandwagon, I found it even easier to ignore his music. After all, Passion and Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? do not require much aptitude or taste to dislike.
As most youngsters later discover, however, my thinking had a critical flaw. In dismissing Stewart as a former Mod revitalized as Disco King, I neglected his earlier work. That neglect carried on for years, which shames me now, because Rod Stewart may be the most expressive vocalist of the rock era.
Combining in 1993 with MTV's new Unplugged format, Stewart followed another aging rocker, Eric Clapton, out of the chute with an album cut from his performance. They in turn had been encouraged by the success two newer acts, Mariah Carey and Arrested Development (remember those long forgotten Grammy darlings?). Interestingly enough, three of those four first Unplugged releases had monstrous hits to ignite their sales and keep the release on the charts.
What's So Special?
One needs to look at a little Rod Stewart history first. Stewart has never been one to break new ground. He does not seem to want to create new sounds - he wants to polish, hone and love the ones you know already. He also did not come to prominence in the 1980s or even the 1970s, but the 1960s. Stewart was touring Europe with bar bands in 1963 - when JFK was still President and The Beatles had yet to make their first transatlantic trip. By the age of 21, his band was opening for The Rolling Stones, and Stewart was actually regarded as an outstanding vocal stylist, albeit one who suffered from extreme stage fright.
Shortly after this tour is when Stewart joined the short-lived, but extremely influential Jeff Beck Group. That is also when he first linked up with Ronnie Wood, who swapped off on bass and guitar with Beck himself. Two smash albums later, the group folded, but the pair had began their tutelage in how to be stars themselves. After a stint in The Faces (originally The Small Faces), Wood took over primary responsibility for guitar and Stewart took center stage. For years, Stewart recorded solo albums and kept up his role as frontman for The Faces. Eventually, in 1973, however, he went his own way for good. Wood, by now a musical soulmate, was no longer at his side, yet the hits kept coming for both. You see, Wood joined The Rolling Stones. But you knew that. But did you know that The Stones was actually Wood's third major band and that regardless of how good you think Mick Taylor might be, Wood is an unheralded world-class rock guitarist?
And, on one very special night, the old mates, Rod and Ron, reunited to play not only famous songs, but also a few well-loved album cuts. The magic of a vocalist singing with a favorite sideman is one of music's joys. The artists need not be world-class, but simply enjoyable to the ear. Their joy at playing with each other again is one of life's great pleasures. That is why this album sold 3 million copies in less than three years - people heard the delight in each note.
Dropping The Needle, Cut by Cut
A honky-tonk version of the rocker Hot Legs opens the CD after a deadpan Stewart introduces the song as "a slow one". Listen for journeyman keyboard player Chuck Kentiss conjure with gleeful abandon days of roadhouses long gone. The listener will also first hear Wood's presence in the vibrato and pitch bending style he adores playing live. The band stays far away from the distortion and wall of noise marring the 1977 studio version.
As the audience responds with predictable glee, Stewart mutters, "You like that one?" as Kentiss dips into the 1970s for what sounds like all the world like an old Faces cut. Stewart is suddenly on mic purring (yes, I used the word purring in a music review) a wonderfully restrained version of Tonight's The Night. The song, originally banned from radio worldwide for racy content, is a sensual and sensitive ballad by today's mores. Wood gets another extended lead here, which beautifully segues into a series of acapella lines and hooks. An artist rarely completely remakes a trademark song, and Tonight's The Night was a number one hit for eight weeks. In Billboard's power rankings, compiled by Joel Whitburn, the song enjoyed the third highest chart success of any single in the entire 1970s, yet Stewart has lovingly crafted a new replacement that captures the parts worth retaining and introducing new musicianship and a fresh take.
Handbags and Gladrags, which Stewart first recorded in 1969, gets a faithful rendition rather than a remake, which is only fitting since Stewart's version thirty years ago was actually a redefined cover. There are certainly differences in this live version and the original studio version, but there is no diminishment of Stewart's voice. If anything, the vocalese and knowledge gathered over the decades makes this song even more intimate and vulnerable.
Remaining in the past, Stewart and Wood then revive Cut Across Shorty from 1970's Gasoline Alley. Remember the joy I mentioned earlier? I defy anyone to listen to a few bars of Ron Wood leading Stewart back into their past and tell me that their happiness doesn't drench every riff. You knew that either musician could rock, but after the slower than expected Hot Legs and two ballads, the listener quickly finds its time to move some part of their body in time to the music.
There is a quick segue into Every Picture Tells A Story, sustaining the illusion that these fifty year old men are once again looking out at a London thirty years younger with entire careers ahead of them. How many times must Stewart have performed any of these songs live - perhaps a thousand or more? One would excuse him for phoning in the performance at a time, but as is the case throughout the album, the song gains new energy from the audience, who by now realizes that they're in for a treat, and the groove that the band has hit. There's a delightful new ending complete with audience clap alongs and an ever increasing tempo that threatens to hurt someone's fingers until Wood takes ends it with a flourish capped by the anonymous drummer who is not credited on the CD or three different web sites I checked.
Stewart immediately croons the beginning of Maggie May before the band picks up the tempo and returns to the sound that was Stewart's first #1 solo hit. Stewart's voice handles the song with the elastic ease we've come to expect from him after thirty years, but without losing any of its power. In fact, he fairly flies into a Little Richard-like falsetto at the end as if to remind the audience that he still can sing. Wood plays his lead more muted than he originally did in the studio, but the famous bridge remains intact and is faithfully performed.
Tim Hardin's Reason To Believe, a favorite cover from the early days, is admirably covered after Stewart tells the audience that he and Wood haven't played the song together since they recorded it "22 years ago. Half the band weren't (sic) born yet. Me wife was only one."
Not only does their version breathe new life into the folkie standard, but audiences the world over ate up the cover, propelling it to #5 on the singles chart. Perhaps the most beautiful part of the song is when Stewart ends on a honeyed note that leaves the audience begging for more.
A large string section opens People Get Ready, rearranged as an unplugged version. Wood plays delicately against the strings, and the backup singers provide a neat vocal pillow for Stewart to rest his gentle vocal. Like Clapton and King before him, Wood has learned the beauty of a lead that is melodic, but not overpowering - part of the mix rather than the focus.
Stewart dedicates Have I Told You Lately, one of Van Morrison's most beautiful ballads, to his wife before launching into what has become the definitive version of the song. Since Morrison released the song in 1989, everyone from Barbara Mandrell to Engelbert Humperdinck has done their own version, but Stewart and Wood's version is beautiful without devolving into saccharine, moony-eyed love lyrics. As one might expect from Morrison, his version was gorgeous as well, but he can't match Stewart's vocals, while Wood's leads are more than a match for the strings and piano on Morrison's studio version.
Tom Waits is the next brilliant songwriter covered when Stewart launches into Tom Traubert's Blues (Waltzing Matilda). Like McCartney's Mull of Kintyre, the ambience here is one of a return to home, hearth and comfort. You are forgiven if you sway in time to Waits' and Stewart's take on this old classic.
Ron Wood deserves your attention on The First Cut Is The Deepest, the Cat Stevens song Stewart took to #21 in 1977. From the opening phrase to the playful yet soulful bridge, Wood sparkles throughout this cut. As he has throughout the album, Stewart sings through the song with new inflections and phrasing, making what was old new again.
Fan favorite, Mandolin Wind, which Stewart penned and loves to play is perhaps the only cut on the album that seems a bit out of place. That may be a function of following the familiar yet new version of The First Cut Is The Deepest, to say nothing of the fact that this has never been one of Stewart's better songs. Jim Cregan does an admirable job on the mandolin portions, and his byplay with Wood in the song's bridge is pleasant to listen to, but this particular track lacks fire for some reason.
Thankfully, the respite from passion is momentary as Wood kicks off Highgate Shuffle, a piece of British blues in the public domain, over Stewart's exhortation of "Let's let the band play". Returning to their roots, one can envision the mop-top Mods jamming this way before a London pub crowd. Unfortunately, what sounds like an impromptu jam ends in just under four minutes, when triple that time would have been just dandy.
Wood and Stewart apologetically state that Stay With Me is "hard to do unplugged" before the band turns in a note-perfect version of the entire piece, complete with Wood jumping in and out of guitars and pedals as though he were Cher hosting an awards show. His work on the bridge is brilliant and one knows that it was this sound that made Keith Richards want Wood at his side when the Stones went shopping for guitarists. Legend has it that they choose Wood over Beck himself, which is not a surprise given the versatility and panache Wood displays. Frankly, I don't think Richards could have handled this song as well as Wood does on this cut.
Stewart's ultimate get happy song, Having A Party, closes the night. The band is superb, but a special nod should go out to Kentiss' piano solo again. After staying out of the limelight through much of the album, he jumps back into the fray to lead the feel good sounds that end the album. The song is used often enough in nightclubs and bars to have gathered a life of its own, becoming a staple of parties everywhere, much like Shout has become. That effect is intensified when played live.
The Bottom Line, Skips and All
Producer Pat Leonard, best known for his work with Madonna and Jewel, may have had an easier job with this album than in working with the two divas he has polished in the past.
Rod Stewart is simply the best vocalist in pop music. He does not have the purest voice, the widest range, or the most powerful set of lungs. That said, the man can sing anything. Fans of his early work, particularly the album Every Picture Tells A Story, will want to hear the updated versions, while any guitar aficionados will delight in listening to Ron Wood live when he's not overshadowed or sharing the spotlight with another guitar god.
Elton John appeared to be the Top 40 mainstay who could easily shift between blues, pop and rock with ease. In the past decade, however, Rod Stewart seems to have taken his place - certainly in terms of longevity in hit making. Yes, Stewart jumped on the disco floor as most artists did in the late 1970s, but you will find none of that on this CD.
Critics, who typically remain unhappy when unable to find fault, initially called this album derivative. After all, Clapton had released his own Unplugged album the year before. That album featured a reworked Layla, which became a second time hit, as well as a new ballad that captivated the country for weeks. But the albums don't have to be mutually exclusive. Clapton's release was groundbreaking for an established artist. Like all good craftsmen before and since, Stewart simply followed the lead of the person who blazed the trail, and offered a beautifully done album in the process.
