every picture tells a story

Thirty five years on, Sean Egan tells the story behind Rod Stewart’s greatest album Here we have a few tunes, a couple of songs, and one or two sad laments for your musical ear. In the nonchalant construction of this album I’d like to express my gratitudes to all and sundry, for tuning up on a Monday, being on time and in a ‘merry frame of mind’. Also… I’d like to drink a toast to my old associates and colleagues the Faces (Jones, McLagan, Lane and Wood) (and their persons) for being patient in giving me the time to make this recording and for the musical development on ‘Losing You’. Not forgetting Mike Bobak and Phil – for their engineering abilities. Bless their cotton socks. – Rod Stewart’s sleeve note

“Rod wasn’t terribly interested in his solo  career,” says Billy Gaff, who managed  Rod Stewart throughout  the 1970s.  It is an opinion confirmed by Stewart’s Faces colleague, keyboardist Ian McLagan. He notes that Stewart’s solo deal (signed with Mercury Records in 1969, following stints as frontman with the likes of Steampacket and The Jeff Beck Group), gave him precisely the amount of money needed to buy a Marcos kit car. “It was the fastest thing you could get for under £1000,” Mclagan says. “And a Fibreglass piece of old rubbish!”

That Stewart seemed to consider his solo career as disposable as a Marcos might be due to the fact that he saw his fortunes elsewhere. “He thought the Faces were going to be big,” says Gaff. “And I think everybody else thought the same.”

So, when Stewart and his old mate from The Jeff Beck Group, Ron Wood, hooked up with what remained of The Small Faces, following the departure of guitarist and vocalist Steve Marriott in 1969, an easy route to stardom must have seemed on the cards.

How could Stewart’s rasped delivery and mesmeric stage presence fail to reap chart dividends when combined with the proven talents and commercial success of the (‘Small’ no longer) Faces?

To some …

by Sean Egan
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