# Deep Tracks - Rod Stewart - "Every Picture Tells A Story" - Choose your favourites...



## Guest (Jul 13, 2018)

*Deep Tracks - Rod Stewart - "Every Picture Tells A Story" - Choose your favourites...*

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This is one of a series of polls in which you will be asked nothing more than to choose your favourite tunes from the album in question.

The number of selections that you will be allowed to choose will vary from album to album but a higher number than that found in usual polls of this nature will be allowed so that album tracks (which form the foundation of "classic albums") will not be overshadowed by hit singles.

Please choose up to* five* selections for this particular poll.

The tunes themselves (when available) will be found below the poll itself as links rather than as embedded videos due to bandwidth issues for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with a tune that may have receded a bit too far into the past to be remembered with the clarity that came when they were first released...

Next up is - Rod Stewart - "Every Picture Tells A Story" -

""Every Picture Tells a Story" is the third studio album by the British singer-songwriter Rod Stewart, released in May 1971. It incorporates hard rock, folk, and blues styles It went to number one on both the UK and US charts and finished third in the Jazz & Pop critics' poll for best album of 1971."

"It has been an enduring critical success, including a number 172 ranking on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time."

Your commentary on any and every aspect of the album and especially any memories reawakened as a result of the poll is welcomed.


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## Guest (Jul 13, 2018)

"Every Picture Tells A Story" -






"Seems Like a Long Time" -






"That's All Right" -






"Amazing Grace" -






"Tomorrow Is a Long Time" -






"Henry" -






"Maggie May" -






"Mandolin Wind" -






"I Know (I'm Losing You)" -






"Reason to Believe" -


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I really don't know what to leave out here. A fine album slap-bang in the middle of his 69-74 creative peak, and I include _Smiler_ in that even though many thought that was the album where, integrity-wise, the rot started to set in. Rod's always recorded a fair amount of covers (including when he was with the Faces) but during that period they were without exception tastefully and lovingly done.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

_Every Picture Tells a Story_ is one of the signal albums of the early 1970s and is a great personal favorite of mine and many others. It also offered an opportunity for one of the great moments in rock journalism, in Greil Marcus' entry on Stewart in the 1980 edition of The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll. There, after a loving and tender (and accurate) review of Every Picture and of Stewart's career up to that wonderful album, Marcus turns on his idol with unmatched ferocity: "Rarely has a singer had as unique a talent as Rod Stewart: rarely has anyone betrayed his talent so completely.". That is only part of Marcus' deconstruction of the post-Picture Stewart's career (as of 1980); clearly Rod Stewart had captured Greil Marcus' heart and then broke it to pieces. I agree that Stewart's trajectory certainly did not match that of a Stewart contemporary of equal and more consistent talent, Van Morrison (another favorite and subject of Marcus' enthusiasm), who went on producing album after album of fine material after an equally auspicious beginning.

Let it be noted: Like most people, I agree that a review and reviewer are excellent, perceptive, balanced, and wise, when their analysis agrees with mine .


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Every Picture Tells a Story is a terrific album. I chose the title track, and Maggie May, mandolin wind and I know I'm losing you.

Sydney Nova Scotia, are you familiar with this book?
Never a Dull Moment, 1971 The Year that Rock Exploded 









For many years I believed that 1971 was the best year for rock music, and then someone wrote a book independent of my idea. Not necessarily the best music ever, but the sheer number of high quality albums that were released that year makes 1971 an outstanding year. I found the book in the library by chance last August. Last September, 2017, I had a 1971 listening project that I posted in the non classical current listening thread. 25 albums listened to in just over two weeks.

Every Picture Tells a Story is just one of a string of fantastic albums from that terrific year, 1971. I turned six years old that year, I was learning to read and write.

P.S. One of these years, I'll get to Nova Scotia. I've been to seven provinces, but sadly not yours.


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## Guest (Jul 13, 2018)

senza sordino said:


> Every Picture Tells a Story is a terrific album. I chose the title track, and Maggie May, mandolin wind and I know I'm losing you.
> 
> Sydney Nova Scotia, are you familiar with this book?
> Never a Dull Moment, 1971 The Year that Rock Exploded
> ...


Thank you for the book selection - I was not aware of its existence until you brought it to my attention and I have just placed my order. Once I finish perhaps we can discuss it in the "What book are you reading" thread.

I was sixteen years old in 1971 and a part of me will always be locked in 1971 - it really was a great year!

You're always welcome in Nova Scotia - hope to see you soon!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I remember Hepworth firstly when he was co-presenter on _The Old Grey Whistle Test_ during its later years and then when he was a writer with _MOJO_. Liked his style but never quite forgave him for his Springsteen fan-boy worship.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> I remember Hepworth firstly when he was co-presenter on _The Old Grey Whistle Test_ during its later years and then when he was a writer with _MOJO_. Liked his style but never quite forgave him for his Springsteen fan-boy worship.


Hepworth tells me he's forgiven you for not properly appreciating The Boss (another great product of Nova Caesarea, Motherland of Talent) :lol:


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2018)

elgars ghost said:


> I remember Hepworth firstly when he was co-presenter on _The Old Grey Whistle Test_ during its later years and then when he was a writer with _MOJO_. Liked his style but never quite forgave him for his Springsteen fan-boy worship.


As long as we agree though that the Springsteen worship is justifiably merited of course...


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> I remember Hepworth firstly when he was co-presenter on _The Old Grey Whistle Test_ during its later years and then when he was a writer with _MOJO_. Liked his style but never quite forgave him for his Springsteen fan-boy worship.


Agree re "The Boss" if he was the Boss it was only because standards had fallen so low. 

Fine book and he has interesting asides about 1971. Recommended.

For those of a certain age, these were released as LP's with two distinct sides. Stewart used to call then Fast Slide and err.....Slow side. I still listen to this on CD regularly but I doubt there was ever a more perfect LP side than O Henry/Maggie May/Mandolin Wind/Loosin' You/Reason to Believe.

I hadd bought LP's as a schoolkid but in 1974 I had a summer job and this and Joni Mitchell's Blue were the first I ever bought with money I earned myself. Such good taste:lol:.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Belowpar said:


> Agree re "The Boss" if he was the Boss it was only because standards had fallen so low. .


Driven down perhaps by Stewart's Icarus-like fall. To not fully appreciate Springsteen over the decades is often a symptom of interest to clinicians; a warning of _The Darkness on the Edge of Town_. 

BTW, _Rosalita_ is as good a song as _Maggie May_, and the latter is a fine song indeed.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2018)

Rod Stewart and the Faces - Montreal Forum - October 1975...

No one enjoyed being a rock star more than Rod Stewart and no one did so with such high-spirited exuberance - he had a smile on his face from start to finish and he laughed throughout the show - there were times when he would lean over and say something to Ronnie Wood and Wood would be almost doubled over with laughter.

I paid 25.00 CDN for a ticket which was a fair amount of money for a concert ticket at that time - sat (or more accurately stood) 18th row.

Was the very first time that I experienced the "audience sing-along" at a concert. During "Maggie May" Rod gave the band the "cut sign" at "You led me away from home..." and the band stopped playing and everyone suddenly realized that all 20,000 of us had been singing along to the song. He laughed and extended the mike towards the audience and everyone continued singing right through the next verse which started "All I needed was a friend to lend a guiding hand" and ended with "You stole my heart, I couldn't leave you if I tried..." whereupon the band once again kicked in and started playing.

I had chills running down my spine (and still do at the memory) when I experienced that sensation of an entire audience joining together in unity and singing with a single voice.

I remember that he wore a canary yellow jacket, parrot green silk trousers, and a purple shirt which should have looked hideous and would have been ludicrous had any one of us dared to dress that way but which gave him that classic 1970's archetypal "rock star look".

He twirled that microphone stand around with a careless abandon that made the rest of the Faces visibly nervous and leery of getting too close so as not to accidentally be hit over the head and they would quickly back away anytime he came too close for comfort. I can still see him in that now iconic pose in which he stands with the mic stand raised upside down above his head.

Half the audience sported rather bad impressions of his "rooster cut" and the rest of us wore the standard issue Canadian national mullet - I had a particularly fine one that I was justifiably proud of and continued to wear one for the next several years even though it was only fashionable for about 15 minutes sometime in the early April of 1972 and that's probably about 10 minutes longer than it should have been in retrospect.

Ronnie Wood chain-smoked from the moment that he walked out until the very last tune. He would light one cigarette from another while somehow continuing to play.

There wasn't an encore... and I don't remember soccer balls being kicked out into the audience - that must have started sometime later in the 70's where I did see that at solo shows in both Ottawa and again in Montreal...

There were moments when I was firmly convinced that no member of the band was actually playing the same tune at the same time. They were probably the least "tight" group that I've ever heard - I'm almost certain that they never rehearsed and I'm not sure that they even bothered with sound checks but somehow it just didn't matter because it was so much fun just being there that no one really cared.

The acoustics in the Montreal Forum were as dreadful as they were in every hockey rink turned concert venue (Maple Leaf Gardens in the "centre of the universe" was even worse) - the sound just bounced off the walls and it often sounded as if the one tune was being played twice with the second tune being played about three seconds after the first...

I was so wired with adrenalin that I wasn't able to fall asleep until about 3 o'clock in the morning and thus was not my usual sparkling self in "French Literature" at 8 a.m. and I was probably not all that brilliant in my "Canadian Studies" class at 1 p.m. either... It was difficult to concentrate because "Maggie May" kept playing in my head non-stop and continued doing so for several days afterwards...

"_Oh, Maggie, I wish I'd never seen your face
You made a first-class fool out of me
But I'm as blind as a fool can be
You stole my heart, but I love you anyway_"


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

I discovered Rod Stewart around 1971 buying singles and then LP's. I had either "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down" and/or "Gasoline Alley" (in some form, double album deal?) the two lps that came out before "Every Picture." I loved the mournful quality of some of the songs, up there with similar era "I Used to Be a King" and "If You Could Read My Mind." I liked Faces back then too. I soon got into Yes, ELP and synth records, then didn't even care when Rod when got really big.


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