Let’s Go Upstairs & Read My Tarot Cards
Currently listening: Rod Stewart
I was naughty today. I purchased six CDs: Joy Division, B-52s, Donovan, U2, and two Depeche Mode CDs I didn’t own (until now). But at least five out of six of my CDs were on sale for an impressive $7.99 at Tower Records. That’s right. But walk, don’t run: The $7.99 sale extends until early January, so you have plenty of time to figure out what CDs you want to spend your rent/bills money on. Besides, it’s icy out there. If you run you might slip and break your neck.
That out of the way, I would like to devote the rest of this post to the awe-inspiring ROD STEWART. NOT American Songbook Rod of the ’00s; rather, sexy young Rod of the ’70s and ’80s. While I would like to claim I’ve been a fan since birth, it’s simply not true. As a kid, I thought, like anyone, that the overplayed hits “Hot Legs” and “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” were just goofy novelties, and it probably wasn’t until I was a teenager that I started really understanding these songs as the thoughtful meditations on all-night cocaine binges and promiscuous sex of the disco era that they are.
When Rod performed with The Faces, they enjoyed a hit song with the casual sex anthem “Stay With Me” (I uploaded the MP3 HERE just for you because I think this tune is so great, really terrific). Tell me you can listen to this song, which was co-written with Ron Wood (it’s even trashier than the Stones’ sleaziest songs), and refrain from pouring yourself into your skintight white leather pants and hitting the discotheques in search of an over-sexed redhead named Rita; Rod will even let you use his best cologne. I mean, Rod’s sexily hoarse vocals and his yelps of “Guitar!!!” and “Get yourself home!” and “Sit down, get up, get out!” and “Whooo!” accompanied by alternating screechy/bluesy guitars is enough to make me want to drink a shot of tequila and yell “ROCK AND ROLL!” before falling to the floor in a messy heap. If you’re not sassy enough to listen to the tune, at least read the lyrics HERE.
Moving on. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, Rod was all over the radio/VH1 and MTV. In a few hours of listening/watching, you could probably catch old and new hits like “Reason to Believe,” “Havin’ a Party,” “Forever Young,” “Have I Told You Lately,” “Some Guys Have All the Luck,” “Infatuation,” “Rhythm of My Heart,” “The Motown Song,” “This Old Heart of Mine,” and Rod’s cover of Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train.” (SEE ALL OF THE VIDEOS HERE and HERE).
This was probably about the time my inexplicable, short-term freakish obsession with Rod began.
I had all but forgotten about aforementioned freakish obsession until a few weeks ago when I saw Rod’s video for “Young Turks” on VH1 Classics — a song I have loved for a long time but hadn’t seen the video since probably the late 1980s — and then I realized that the reason for my adolescent obsession with Rod was likely because, in the early ’80s, ROD STARTED MORPHING INTO SIMON LeBON’S DOPPELGANGER. Just watch the video for “Young Turks,” and Rod’s bleached, tousled hair and hand-snapping shuffle lend an awful lot of evidence to my Rod-Simon theory. While Rod, like the boys of Duran Duran, publicly expressed his love of gallivanting with models throughout his career, I imagine Rod, by the early 1980s, felt he was aging and needed to channel younger, hipper British musicians to retain his image. Just look at THIS PHOTO OF ROD, 1981; now check out THIS PHOTO OF SIMON from the same year. Or THIS PHOTO OF SIMON, from a year EARLIER than Rod’s video. Coincidence??? DOUBTFUL. In any event, you can watch the music video HERE, and I also uploaded the song for your listening pleasure HERE.
I recently rediscovered another great Rod tune from the early ’90s entitled “Lost in You,” whose video features a sexed-up Rod who falls in love with one of the strippers who dances at the club where he bartends. The video, while sleazy, is given at least a smidgeon of class because it’s shot in black and white (albeit probably to disguise Rod’s graying hair and un-spring chicken looks).
I recommend: Rod Stewart, The Story So Far double-CD collection. Yeah, I own it, jealous?
December 6th, 2005 at 10:01 am
I feel so depressed when I hear “Reason to Believe.” It’s so sad! For some reason makes me think of situations where I’d wish I’d stood up for myself but didn’t.
But I didn’t see you mention “Wear it Well.” That’s a good one! The older I get the more I like Rod Stewart but I still hang onto the belief that he’s a corny old bastard.
December 6th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
Good call Sandie! I did omit You Wear It Well, but I just listened to it a couple of times to compensate for my oversight! I totally know what you mean - even though Rod comes across as cheesy (especially in the 80s leg of his career) his songs often do tell interesting stories, and listening to his songs reminds me of my childhood (he was so heavily played on the radio). Reason to Believe also makes me sad; I’ll always look back fondly on his performance of the tune on MTV Unplugged - a great presentation of a great song!
December 6th, 2005 at 10:44 pm
Regrettably, I’ve never seen it!
December 6th, 2005 at 10:57 pm
Thankfully, you can watch the clip HERE! The reason I love his MTV Unplugged performance of this song is because he sings the song so delicately, atypical of the way he tends to sing his other tunes, and it’s so sweet the way he sings half of the song with his eyes closed, and the way he moves his hands so poetically is almost evocative of a Broadway showtune, only with less theatrics and more thoughtfulness, plus it’s so cute how he stands up and checks out what everyone else is doing on stage during the vocal break.
That was a run-on sentence.