Ground Rules and Methodology for Rock Town Hall’s Upcoming Battle Royale: Rod Stewart vs The Stones, 1969-1976

In a few hours I will roll out the first part in my possibly mind-blowing examination of whether Rod Stewart‘s output, including his work with The Faces, from 1969 through 1976, is as good as or better than that of The Rolling Stones. A lot of Rock Nerd Points are going to be riding on this study, so I want to make sure we’re clear on the ground rules and methodology.

All musical opinions that I will express have been developed from listening to vinyl versions of each artist’s output in this span. As I’ve long expressed regarding the Stones, the music of Rod Stewart and his work with bands is best experienced on vinyl. I know that because of this I risk all hopes of gaining BigSteve‘s support, but listening to the artists’ works on consistent, time-appropriate media is scientifically valid.

Rod Stewart’s works will include his solo albums spanning his solo debut, The Rod Stewart Album, through 1976’s A Night On the Town; his albums with Faces, and the 1969 Jeff Beck Group album, Beck-Ola. Any sketchy reissues of Stewart’s work with Long John Baldry, Steampacket, et al during this span will not be eligible for consideration. However, Stewart’s 1970 guest vocal spot on Australian Python Lee Jackson‘s “In a Broken Dream” is eligible.

The Stones’ works during this same period will commence with the single, “Honky Tonk Women” and the Let It Bleed album through Black and Blue. Any Stones solo or offshoot recordings during this period will not be eligible for consideration. It’s important to note that this period precedes the formation of The New Barbarians.

With each entry in this series, I will post songs by Rod Stewart and his associated bands. I will not post songs by the Stones or Stewart’s own “Maggie May”. If you can’t turn on a radio and hear almost any worthwhile Stones song from this period or Stewart’s most-popular hit, then you probably don’t have access to the Internet and are not reading this blog.

Faces, “Richmond”*

Faces, “Ooh La La”*

For fairness, I will not use Faces songs sung by any of Stewart’s cohorts, such as “Richmond” and “Ooh La La”, in testing my hypothesis. Although it may be argued that Stewart played a huge part in getting the ’70s songs sung by Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood heard by all but a handful of rock archivists, some might argue that these do not count toward Stewart’s output. Fair enough!

Toward the end of the study period for each artist, rock squeezes may have to be factored into the equation. Until that late, fallow period, however, we will not consider the artists’ squeezes or any issues relating to Look. This examination will be mostly about the music.

Let me know if you have any questions. I’m confident this will be worth our time and consideration. Thank you.

*Stewart-associated songs not for consideration.