Rod Stewart “Every Picture Tells a Story”

If YouTube keeps my personal stats on their big ’puter, and I’m sure they do, they could tell you the only video I’ve watched more than ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” is a live version of The Faces doing “Stay with Me” (the one in which some moron applies some unforgivable video effects to some of it). And that is (my opinion) that band at its best, and Rod Stewart at his best. Well, not quite—because Rod Stewart is at his best here, this record (well, if he’s made a better record, tell me about it). I consider myself a big Rod Stewart fan, even though I probably haven’t heard 90% of what he’s recorded—but just based on some Faces stuff and this record (and that “Hot Legs” video, come on). And this is one of my favorite rock records—of the many, many rock records I’ve heard. It’s also a record you can readily find, cheap, at used record stores and thrift stores—I guess they printed a lot, and for some reason the same people who buy up every, last, old “Dark Side of the Moon” LP don’t buy up this one, even though it’s equally as classic and twice as listenable.

The album cover is terrible, and if you, say, just ran across it for the first time, you might think it’s one of those cheapo retrospectives they sell at gas stations. I first heard it sometime in the Seventies—though not that close to 1971, when it came out. I suppose I’d heard the hit song “Maggie May” previously, but I didn’t know what to expect by the album—and this was a case of the first song just changing my molecules forever. I still get the same goosebumps anytime I listen to it now. And it’s not like the record, as a whole, even comes close to my favorite few songs, but it’s all at least pretty good. The Temptations hit, “(You Know) I’m Losing You” sounds a bit out of place, actually—I believe it’s essentially The Faces on that song—it’s a more rocked out version than the original—not as good. You can find The Faces playing it from the same session as “Stay with Me” (might have been a TV show). I mean, it’s okay, but it doesn’t fit that well. The Bob Dylan song, “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” is another weak link. The rest of the record is all pretty much awesome.

One of my favorite songs, Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe” is last, and it’s my favorite version of that song—which pretty much everyone (including me) has played—I found a list on the internet that sites nearly a hundred cover versions. “Maggie May” might be one you’re sick of, but in the context of this record, and on vinyl, and loud, you can really revisit that song. The Arthur Crudup song “That’s Alright Mama” is as high energy as anything on the record, and “Seems Like a Long Time,” by Theodore Anderson, is the most poignant song here—I’ve never heard any other version of it, but I can’t imagine it being better than this. I said poignant, goddamnit. And then that first song, the title song, “Every Picture Tells a Story”—it’s the best.

One thing that makes all these songs special is a kind of spare production—it’s clean and sparse, and relies on some individual instruments, and the singing. I’ve always liked Rod Stewart’s singing, but nowhere as much as here. A lot of the record, and certainly these first three songs, sound mostly acoustic—acoustic guitar, piano, and some really fine drums and bass. I don’t know who’s playing on what—lots of musicians are listed—but they’re all great. It’s just one of the more high-energy, subtle, underplayed but over-the-top records you’re ever gonna hear. Also, given the nature of the recording, this is one of those records that if you hear it on vinyl, and on a really fine system—well, I just can’t imagine. It’s one of those cases of, if I haven’t heard it in a while, and then someone pulls it out, on a superior sound system—that’s something that could put me right on the floor, reduced to a puddle of expletives and insufficient metaphor.