Review:

on 2011-05-22 CharlesMartel Said:

It took me a long time but in the end it was almost inevitable. I had bought a couple of Rod Stewart's singles during the seventies, but had never plumped for an album. He was not, I guess, an artist who produced albums of such consistent quality during the seventies to make me want to go out and buy one. But it was inevitable that I should. And when I did it was bound to be either a compilation or a live album. In the end, I think I made the right choice in plumping for this double live album.

And truth be told this is a good live album from the old dog himself. Rod Stewart never rocked me in the way some of his contemporaries did, but he occasionally came up with a brilliant song, though rarely a brilliant album. This one contains all the classic hits which made Rod Stewart such a staple of the charts in the seventies and provided those charts with a much needed break from some of the awful pap which otherwise populated them. However, it is inconsistent and there is too much time spent on the banter of Rod's faux-courtesy in between tracks. There should have been a lot more of the balls-rocking music which he was sometimes capable of.

Unusual among many live albums of the era, this one is presented to you, flaws and all. Indeed, the band makes something of a virtue of a horrendous f**k up on a sax solo. The result is that it truly captures the essence of a Rod Stewart gig and contains none of the perfectionist overdubs which bedevil many other albums of its ilk. I am not sure though if it needs two references on the sleeve and another reference during the banter. We get the point  it is a genuine live album with no overdubs.

There are some genuinely good tracks on here, and some real energy. But yes, there are also some clunkers. "D'ya Think I'm Sexy" may have been his most commercially successful single but it was a steaming, embarrassing pile of shit. And, as it later transpired, it was a rip-off of a Brazilian song released around the same time. Personally, I think he could have done with dropping this one off the album.

Rod Stewart is one of those artists I would only want a compilation of - a live compilation is even better. It is only when you see an album like this that you realise just how much good stuff Rod Stewart did. Pity he spent a lot of the seventies trying to hide it all amid a sea of utter shite. There is no one with a voice quite like him (OK, maybe Kim Carnes has) and he does bring some character to his songs, even if his faux-Scottishness does get a bit wearing after a while.

However, the further he drifted away from his blues and R&B roots, and headed towards the vacuous morass of the world of transient pop, the more Stewart betrayed his music and his ideas. By the time he got to the stage of the "Great American Song Book Parts One, Two, Three and Five Hundred and Seventy Six" he was beyond a joke. Thankfully, on this album, he has just enough good sense to stick with his original style of music  but only just.
Rating: 6/10