Battle Royale, Round 2: Rod Stewart vs The Stones, 1970
By Mr. Moderator on Jun 22, 2008
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".
Follow up:
Watching the above clip of Rod and the Faces performing songs from one of each of these albums shows positive effect that the newly empowered Rod would bring to the rebuilding group. Check out the unabashed admiration Ronnie Lane expresses for Rod beginning 52 seconds into the seemingly impromptu performance of "Gasoline Alley". Then the band cooks, with no regrets about leaving Pretty Purdie back home. Under the confident leadership of Stewart, future Faces albums would have their own, distinctive, down-to-earth sound, breaking with the band members' collective Pete Frame Family Tree of influences. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.
It's the cover of an obscure '60s song by Rhinoceros that I posted above, "You're My Girl (I Don't Want to Discuss It)" that I think requires special consideration. This is the only other song on which Stewart is backed by most of Faces (Ian McLagan is listed as "not available due to bus strike"). An easy way to dismiss Stewart and Faces, especially when compared to the conventionally accepted musical seekers known as Mick Taylor-era Stones, is to call them a "great party band." Check out the original version, which follows in a sound-only YouTube clip, and tell me that a mere party band would have what it takes to make something out of such a formless turd of a song. Rod and his mates may not have been able to synthesize broad musical traditions the way the Stones could, but damn if they couldn't dig in and elevate the material they covered and otherwise plundered. This ain't no party.
Without having to resort to use of Rod's guest vocals for the Australian group Python Lee Jackson's "In a Broken Dream", the judges hereby declare their winner for 1970...
ROUND 2: Rod Stewart
13 comments
I saw the Faces a couple of times back in the day, not in '70, maybe '72 or so, and they were sloppy but really a lot of fun live. A party band in the best sense, with a real sense of camaraderie and real connection with the audience. They were not deep and made no pretense of being so. And you didn't get mandolins and dobros live, just Stonesy capital R Rock.
On the other hand when I saw the Stones in '75, they weren't exactly deep either. It was in Baton Rouge, the first date of their first tour with Woody, and it sounded like they hadn't rehearsed at all. The Meters blew them off the stage, or maybe it just seemed like they did, because I was peaking on mushrooms at exactly the right time to feel that way.
Ya-Ya's, an album by a great band who's making a great live party band record. Funny that it's the Stones who are the party band in this year. Stewart, stretching out into some more original and fully achieved songs relative to his own history, while at the same time there's nothing here that's gonna make anybody forget "Jumping Jack Flash." Show me the knockout, man. I wanna see the knockout.
hahaha! yeah!
that was awesome!
and true!
Ya Ya's isn't a good document of the 69 tour, but it is a great record, and I can't think of any weak points, besides an unforgivable edit in Sympathy for the Devil. Historically, it's the album the label never wanted to release, but because of Trade Mark of Quality's Live'r Than You'll Ever Be bootleg, Ya Ya's came into being, and the bootleggers became the target of the RIAA and BPI.
I say Rod's not even up on his hands and knees yet. Let It Bleed almost killed him, and Ya Ya's may not have landed the knockout punch, but it doesn't lose anything to Gasoline Alley. Rod's wearing boots of lead, and The Stones aren't even sweating yet.
Leaving aside Hot Rocks, Ya-Ya's and Exile are the two best Stones records for party time. I'd put Some Girls there too except a couple of the songs are likely to make the ladies angry. Just for the record, when I say party I mean it can't just be a bunch of guys huffing beside the nitro tank.
I'll show more love the Faces way, but for now I see a reeling Rod, having given the champ a good couple of body blows, finding out that it didn't hurt the champ much, and it just seems to have pissed him off. The champ hasn't even used his strong hand yet!
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