An Old Raincoat
Originally released in the USA in 1969 as The Rod Stewart Album, Rod’s first solo album appeared in the UK in February 1970 as An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down.
The album was well-received on both sides of the Atlantic and is an interesting display of Stewart’s versatility as a writer, arranger and singer, albeit a short one: four tracks per side at a total of 32 minutes. I don’t think it all works, but mostly it does, and to the extent that it doesn’t, it fails for the right reasons.
MM Review
The opener of Street Fighting Man, for example, is neatly adapted for Stewart’s voice and would work well were it not for the dodgy slide guitar; I can’t fault the intent, just the execution. The third track, Blind Prayer, sounds like something Led Zeppelin would do, but Rod does it much better, and it has a fine bass underpinning from Ronnie Wood (Ronnie is great throughout the album).
There’s a fine stab at Handbags and Gladrags (with Mike D’Abo on piano) and a jazzy/bluesy version of Ewan MacColl’s Dirty Old Town that would have MacColl in a snit but works really well. On the title track you can hear Rod and the Faces coming into existence.
I Wouldn’t Ever Change a Thing features Keith Emerson on organ being very Emerson-ish in a good way, so good that I pondered for a moment how Emerson Lake and Palmer would have sounded with Rod on vocals. This track alone blows away the likes of Atomic Rooster and Argent who were going for the heavy organ-driven sound at the time.
As Richard Williams said in his Melody Maker review, this is a fine album, notwithstanding things that niggle me (the slide guitar, Rod’s tendency to slip into a transatlantic accent and some fussy production).
Here’s Rod’s take on Dirty Old Town.
Recent Comments