In 1973, the Stones follow up their most ambitious album, Exile On Main Street, with Goats Head Soup. Exhausted from weeks of all-night sessions and covering for Wyman’s bass responsibilities, Keef takes a virtual leave of absence from the Stones and lets the Micks work out the next album. The big hit single from Goats Head Soup is “Angie”, in which Mick Jagger and the boys take on Rod Stewart in the most mawkish part of Stewart’s game. Big whoop! Are you proud of this effort, Stones loyalists? Stones fans are generally unimpressed. The Stones have entered the period in their history when they’re expected to make the playoffs, when they can’t sell out playoff games on their own turf.

Before moving on, to ensure clarity in the guidelines under which this examination is being conducted, it should be noted that the best song the Stones would record in 1973, the initial tracks for “Waiting on a Friend”, does not qualify for inclusion.

Some time back we discussed Goats Head Soup and how it compared unfavorably to an album beyond the scope of our current investigation, the vibrant, Ron Wood-inspired boys’ club racket of Some Girls. Click here to revisit that post and sample some of the songs from that album, if you’d like. They’re not that good, and they’re pretty lousy by previously established Rolling Stones’ standards.

Faces, “Cindy Incidentally”

Faces, “My Fault”

Rod Stewart, wisely, took a year off from releasing a solo album. With Faces, however, he took part in what I believe is the band’s most consistent, emotionally charged album, Ooh La La. Taken as a whole, I liken this album, in the band’s brief existence, to their version of the Klassic Kinks‘ late-60s run. It represents all sides of what made the band, occasionally, great and very little of what made them easy to write off when compared to titans like the Stones. It’s the “smallest” of Faces albums, thanks in large part to Stewart’s limited involvement on lead vocals. However, according to the methods we have set for this examination, we will not consider the great tracks sung by Ronnie Lane (“Glad and Sorry”, “If I’m On the Late Side”, “Flags and Banners”) or Ron Wood (the title track) other than to say that they may not have been heard by all but a few record nerds like ourselves if not for the involvement of the more commercially viable Rod Stewart. I know this will pain some of you, but let’s give it up for the trickle-down effect of Stewart’s marketing clout!
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Here’s where I expect sparks to fly. The Stones opened Round 1 with a furious set of haymakers. Rod Stewart had his best work stripped from him and added to its proper place in 1970, leaving him nearly defenseless against my favorite post-Brian Jones-era Stones album. However, despite chronological inaccuracies, my writing on Stewart’s early strengths was so strong that I managed to keep him standing and alert when the first round ended. In Round 2, Rod Stewart established his footing and skillfully accumulated points from the judges compared with the Stones’ party-hearty, contractually obligated “live” album. Now, as we enter Round 3, covering the artists’ 1971 releases, both contestants answer the bell looking to score an early knockout!

The Stones release of Sticky Fingers is loaded with radio-ready rockers and the richest ballads they’d displayed to date. There’s “Brown Sugar”, “Wild Horses”, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”, and “Bitch” for starters. There’s also the overrated “Moonlight Mile” among other highly regarded deep cuts. That’s cool: we’re all entitled to overrate a deep cut or two per great album.

Despite my never loving the album or feeling the need to own it, Sticky Fingers is a powerfully crafted album – and we’ll want to consider issues of craft in 1971’s tightly fought Round 3 – and the first Stones studio album to prominently feature the fretwork of Mick Taylor – and not an album too soon! As the times demanded extended jams and more stringent blues credibility, Taylor brought chops to the band that were already in place in upstart hard rock bands like Humble Pie and Faces. As great as his work in this period was, Keef wasn’t going to cut it as a lead guitar hero in the post-Altamont landscape.

In setting up this Battle Royale, I pledged to center the examination around the music, at least in the early rounds, but before we move on I’ve gotta give Mad Props to the album cover. Here’s a definite, early advantage for the Stones in comparison with the typically blah album covers associated with most of Stewart’s work during this period.

Now…

CRANK IT UP!

Rod Stewart, “Every Picture Tells a Story”

Faces, “Bad ‘n Ruin”

Rod Stewart, “(I Know) I’m Losing You”

Then…

In 1970, the Stones released Get Your Ya-Yas Out! Whether it’s still, as Lester Bangs declared upon its release, the greatest live album ever is open to debate, but most of us would agree it’s by far the best Stones live album – definitely better than the band’s 1970 appearance in Milan, Italy. Check out the live clip that kicks off this round: did they leave Bernard Purdie home for this show?

In terms of this Battle Royale, however, perhaps the most significant development was the actual release date of Rod Stewart’s first album with Faces, First Step, which was mistakenly identified and entered as a 1969 release in Round 1 of our Rod vs Stones, 1969-1976 showdown! This changes the landscape of this contest, relieving the Stones of some body blows in Round 1 while beginning to stack the deck in Rod’s favor in Round 2. Go back and listen to the Faces tracks posted in Round 1 if you don’t think the Stones’ best live album is already suffering in comparison.

Rod Stewart, “You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want to Discuss It)”

Building momentum for Rod’s 1971 campaign, 1970 also saw the release of Gasoline Alley, the first Stewart-associated release in which the man’s musical personality coalesced, without the residual effects of having recently sung for Jeff Beck’s proto-blooz rock outfit as well as the responsibility of helping Faces fit into the post-Marriott ’70s landscape. The title track, in particular, with its earnest, simple boy’s look back and folky arrangement, marks the beginning of Stewart’s most effective musical personality. Seemingly cognizant of this future analysis, Rod continues to build other pieces in his persona, with covers both the Small Faces‘ “My Way of Giving” (backed by his mates in Faces rather his slightly different backing musicians on the bulk of his early solo albums) and the Stones’ well-known cover of “It’s All Over Now”.
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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.
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