A voice like sandpaper, with a rasp that sounds of too many cigarettes and cheap whiskey. Storyteller par excellence writing three-minute sketches of (mostly) raunchy love tales that are a perfect combination of love and lust. Poet. Singer. Songwriter. Musician. Football mad. Married to some of the most beautiful women in the world.….Oh…and, one of the biggest selling artists of all time with over 190 Million in record sales. L&Gs, I give you Sir Roderick David Stewart, CBE!

Rod used to be on the radio in Delhi, literally all the time. I can’t think of any year during the 70s and 80s when he didn’t have one hit or the other dancing on the airwaves or on my various mix tapes. The first Rod Stewart song I ever heard was “Maggie May”. Didn’t quite understand the words but kind of grasped that this was about a young guy, uh…..roughly my age…who was having sex with an older woman!! That was kinda….um…wait…WHAT!!! Years later I realised that the song wasn’t just some fantasy of Rod’s, it was based on actual experience. In 1961, as a sixteen-year old, he and some friends sneaked into the 1961 Beaulieu Jazz Festival in the south of England. At the beer tent Rod met an older woman who was into younger men. And in short order, on a remote patch of grass, young Roderick ended up losing his virginity to her. Her name wasn’t Maggie May, but she was the inspiration for what became Rod’s breakthrough hit as a solo artist and his first #1 hit from his album “Every Picture Tells A Story”.

All I needed was a friend to lend a guiding hand
But you turned into a lover, and mother, what a lover, you wore me out
All you did was wreck my bed, and in the morning, kick me in the head
Oh, Maggie, I couldn’t have tried any more

Rod grew up in Highgate, a few miles from where I live in London (so many of my favourite musicians are British!!). He left school at 15 and did all kinds of odd jobs – but, despite the urban legend he never actually was a grave digger. Football was his first passion and he tried out for a 3^rd Division club but just wasn’t good enough. Thankfully for us, he decided to focus on his second passion, singing. Through the 60s he was all over the shop, from busking at Trafalgar Square to singing / being in various short-lived bands with all kinds of future superstars Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), as a singer-songwriter in the Jeff Beck Group (yep, that Jeff Beck). The Jeff Beck Group is where he met his best friend Ron Wood, the future Rolling Stones member. When the Jeff Beck Group came to its natural end, Wood and Stewart joined the Faces in ‘69 (replacing Peter Gabriel), the group becoming quite successful in England. But Rod’s dream really was a solo career, and, in ’71 he released his third solo album, “Every Picture Tells A Story”, which hit supernova status within weeks, with Maggie May being the #1.

“You Wear It Well” was the smash hit from the follow-up album to “Never A Dull Moment”. It’s all about regret – about realising that the singer let someone really special get away. The song (and album) were Rod repeating the formula of Maggie May from “Every Picture Tells A Story”. And when you listen to the lyrics – a love letter to an old flame, someone he’s really missing a few years later and wishing he had never let her go. But he just wanted to let her know, that he now knows, he made a huge mistake – it really feels like a follow-up song to “Maggie May”.  

But I ain’t forgetting that you were once mine
But I blew it without even tryin’
Now I’m eatin’ my heart out
Tryin’ to get a letter through  

“Sailing” was the other early Rod Stewart songs that I remember hearing on the from the radio. This is a fantastic example of what a fabulous job Rod can do with a cover. The original song is a gospel, all about a restless search for God, Rod’s version made it a really romantic song of yearning, putting it in the same bracket as Tina Turner’s “Mountain high/River deep”. I’ve always loved the water (retiring to be a beach bum is my ultimate ambition) and this song has always been one of my favourite Rod Stewart songs!   

“Tonight’s The Night” was Rod being Rod – raunchy-romantic! Totally unsubtle and absolutely scandalous at the age of 18 when I first heard it on the Rod Stewart’s Greatest Hits album (remember that?). This was pure and simple seduction, set to music – and of course, we never heard it on the radio. I think poor old uncle Philip Neelam would have blushed down to his toes if he had ever played it on AIR! 😱. I’ve always held this song in very august company, up there with Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and BB King’s “Dangerous Mood” ! The crowning glory of the song ,of course, is the gorgeous Ms. Britt Eklund (the Swedish beauty from ”The Man with the Golden Gun” – yup, Rod Stewart was dating a Bond Girl at the time, lucky sod!). We never see her face throughout the video, but it ends with both of them getting into bed, while she breathlessly sings some inane French words, just as they commence making whoopy!  

“The First Cut Is The Deepest” is probably my (and I think Nidhi’s) favourite Rod Stewart song. To be fair, it’s actually a Cat Stevens song, which has been covered by loads of artists. Rod’s version though is the most famous one. It has Rod at his most vulnerable, pathos dripping from his raspy voice, singing about the first girl who broke his heart, and hurt him so much that he’s now scared to commit to anyone else. You actually feel like giving hima socially distant hug and to buy him a pint to cry into. You also want to sit back, soak it in and think about your own first cut…..

I would have given you all of my heart
But there’s someone who’s torn it apart
And she’s taken just all that I had
But if you want, I’ll try to love again, oh baby

“You’re In My Heart” was also about Britt Eklund. Rod wrote this while he was dating her but has since demurred from confirming it’s about her…something to do with a multi-million dollar suit she filed against him for being his muse. Somehow the line about “Beardsley prints” seems to point to her though, as Britt, a serious art aficionado, introduced Rod to the works of numerous artists, possibly including Aubray Beardsley. This song was on the radio a lot – after all it was perfect fodder for U-Special romances! And it is one of the perfect karaoke songs too! This really is Rod Stewart at this romantic best – listen to him comparing his lover to his two favourite football teams Celtic F.C. and Dundee United. Given football was/is his lifelong passion, that’s really romantic!

You’re in my heart, you’re in my soul
You’ll be my breath should I grow old
You are my lover, you’re my best friend
You’re in my soul

You’re an essay in glamour
Please, pardon the grammar
But you’re every schoolboy’s dream
You’re Celtic, United, but baby, I’ve decided
You’re the best team I’ve ever seen (whoo, hoo, hoo)