In 1976, the Stones release Black and Blue, a solid rock album with a little bit of play in it, a foreshadowing of the band’s 1978 kick in the pants, Some Girls. The album showed traces of the energy that Ron Wood was bringing to the band as well as the band’s growing interest in reggae and funk. “Hand of Fate”, “Hot Stuff”, “Fool to Cry”, and “Memory Motel” are some of the most refreshing, if mediocre, tracks on this album.
Rod Stewart releases A Night on the Town, featuring the smash hit “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)”. By this point, even the most diehard Stewart sympathizer was tiring of his randy sap routine…but the little girls understood. The album also featured his cover of Cat Stevens‘ “The First Cut Is the Deepest”, a song I think most young guys could tolerate only if there was the promise of copping a feel later that night.
No longer able to depend on his last remaining collaborator, new Stones’ hire Woody, Rod turned to a new collaborator. Working mostly behind the scenes, she did agree to appear at the end of the above video. She would make an occasional “live’ appearance as well. Watch the following video closely at the 3:11 mark. I’ll have to warn Rod backers that there are some moments throughout this performance that will break your heart, but Rod does show off another nice scoop neck top with a teardrop cutout.
I always knew that those Stones would win this thing. I wouldn’t have even betted. But, God, I sure do love those Faces.
TB
How did you find that clip of David Johansen fronting the Stones on Hot Stuff?
It was the moment at 1:46 that got me as a pimply-faced adolescent, and which now makes me bust out laughing.
I mean in the “Tonight’s the Night” vuh-deo.
I’ve enjoyed this whole series a lot. It hasn’t made me sick of Rod’s music; in fact it has allowed me to think about it more consistently than I’ve had a chance to before. I feel convinced that he actually made great music for a few years, and I feel unashamed to say so. It’s not easy to be unashamed about liking Rod Stewart’s music, especially given those horrendous mid-70s outfits and what they led to. So here I am, admitting it: I am a fan of Rod Stewart’s music. A few years of it anyway.
From the current poll though, I see that some of us are sick of Stewart’s music and all this talk about rock and roll that actually rocks. I suppose now it’s back to trivia questions and deep critical problems such as how the haircuts of synth pop fanboys are influencing the latest crops of wannabes on International American Idol. I wish all of you well while pointing out that the legend of Stewart casts a shadow over even that discussion.
Thanks, Mod, for a great series of pieces. My final count has Stones 7, Stewart 1, but with a few twists, it might have been 5-3 or even 4-4. Who knew.
Tonight’s the Night is a good song (icky video though). Too bad Rod and/or Ronnie Lane couldn’t come up with very many of them during this period.
One factor may have been that the Faces toured relentlessly, and I think they got caught up in living the life of rock stars and didn’t have anything left to put into songwriting and making decent albums. The Stones were not exactly choirboys during this period, but somehow they managed to come up with songs to fill those albums, and a lot of them were memorable.
Somewhere along the line Rod seems to have decided that being a star and fucking ever younger models was what he really wanted, and that music was only a means to that end. Many musicians would make that deal, given the chance. Cranking out the songs is hard work when you’re not young anymore.
Looking at the videos, it’s so strange to see the glam influence start to filter in. Seeing Rod ponce about in that clip where he mimes Tonight’s the Night on German TV is so sad. His eyes are completely dead. He’s over 30 at this point and really too old to carry this off.
Jagger was possibly more successful at it because he never really seemed human in the first place. It was Rod’s ‘one of the boys’ persona that was part of his original appeal, so his evolution into a one-dimensional cad was more painfully disappointing. He had so much promise, and he blew it so badly.
Well said, BigSteve. I love the part about Jagger never seeming human. We’ve learned a lot during the course of this examination. Some might say too much.
I’m late on this one, but the knockout here is that, while the Stones could still turn out a perfectly good Rolling Stones song like “Hand of Fate”, they also show up with “Fool To Cry”, which makes the career of post-Faces Rod Stewart irrelevant. A song like “Tonight’s The Night” and everything else he’d do in that style could never be as effectively funny as Fool To Cry. They’re hitting Rod with his own finisher. Jagger does Stewart better than Stewart, which probably explains Rod’s total drop-off from here on out: the world no longer has need for him, and so he continues to walk the earth a beaten man.
I was kind of curious to read more RTH takes on Fool To Cry. I can’t think of much else in music that cracks me up in an enjoyable way like Jagger’s spoken-word “I gotta wau-mon!” and “She said, Daddy!” stuff, that little “oooh-hoo” with the hitch in it at the end and “I’m a certified foo’!”