Battle Royale, Round 1: Rod Stewart vs The Stones, 1969
By Mr. Moderator on Jun 21, 2008
Although 1969 was one of the more contentious of years for The Rolling Stones, a year in which they lost founding guitarist Brian Jones and, symbolically, lost rock 'n roll's innocence at Altamont [a moment of cliched, insincere silence, please], it was a great year for the Stones' rock 'n roll output. The band followed up the fantastic "Honky Tonk Woman" single with what I believe is their best album of the Mick Taylor era, Let It Bleed.
In this opening round of our examination of the musical contributions by Rod Stewart and the Stones from 1969 through 1976, the acknowledged titans of swaggering Anglo-Americana Rock laid down the gauntlet. I don't need to list the highlights, do I? What I love most about this album is its seamless mix of all that would mark the band's transition into it's early '70s epic status while pushing against the constraints of danceable pop expectations. I think the album is killer rock 'n roll, and I'll state up front that Round 1 goes to the Stones.
Faces, "Wicked Messenger"
Rod Stewart, "Street Fighting Man"
Considering we're booked for an 8-round bout, let's not discount the body shots landed by upstart Rod Stewart, who by 1969 had set his sights beyond his prominent vocal role with Jeff Beck Group and embarked on the dual tasks of, with Jeff Beck Group bassist Ron Wood, replacing mighty might Steve Marriott in the no-longer small Faces AND becoming a solo star. What bolder way to open these ventures with covers of Bob Dylan and the Stones themselves?
Follow up:
The first Faces album with Stewart and Wood, the little-discussed First Step, sounds as clear, ballsy, and open as Let It Bleed. Song for song, it doesn't hold up to the Stones' 1969 album, but it's a cool spin nevertheless. Sonically, it's a huge step ahead of the compressed, muddy sound of later-period Small Faces recordings, whether you prefer the new lineup's bluesier songs or not.
Rock Town Hall's tongue-in-cheek banner motto, fans of ron wood era stones need not apply, is kept in check by Wood's work with Stewart through Beck, Faces, and Stewart's solo albums. Although the Stewart version of "Street Fighting Man" is all over the place, the combo of Stewart, Wood, and solo Stewart drummer Mickey Waller make up for their lack of focus, style, and craft with real street-fighting fury. In short time, Stewart's solo band would put it all together and, with the tag-team of the fully developed Faces, allow Stewart to give the Stones a run for their money.
As we await Round 2, here are a few more 1969 recordings featuring Rod Stewart. The first song features the Stewart-Wood singing dynamic that would propel future Faces recordings. The second shows the HEAVY influence of Stewart and Wood's work with Jeff Beck Group. The third is for fans of The Office (original UK version). The fourth example is a few years ahead of the stuff rock nerds like myself tend to overvalue on Led Zeppelin III.
Faces, "Shake, Shudder, Shiver"
Rod Stewart, "Blind Prayer"
Rod Stewart, "Handbags & Gladrags"
Faces, "Around the Plynth"
ROUND 1: The Stones
Next: Battle Royale, Round 2: Rod Stewart vs The Rolling Stones, 1970
Previously: Ground rules and methodology
19 comments
The third is for fans of Absolutely Fabulous.
Time for a comedy-nerd pince nez. "Handbags and Gladrags" was the theme to The Office (the original UK version, obviously.
TB
The year-by-year comparisons that I plan to examine definitely need to take into consideration the body shots. I wouldn't be surprised f there is a round that seems to lean ever so slightly to one contestant but that will be judged the opposite way owing to damage in previous rounds. For the first round, though, it's tough to beat Let It Bleed!
This Wheel's on Fire was a British hit in 1968 for Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and The Trinity. Driscoll recorded the song again in the early '90s as a duet with Adrian Edmondson as the theme to Absolutely Fabulous. (Does Auger play on this? I can't find anything that says he did.) In any case the version that is used on the show is not the Auger/Driscoll recording from '68.
Edmondson had a small recurring role on the show as the restaurant critic at the magazine Patsy worked at. He is more famous for having played the immortal Vyvyan on The Young Ones, and he's also married to AbFab star Jennifer Saunders.
That version of Street Fighting Man is a bit of a mess though, isn't it? And the engineer must have been loaded. It sounds awful. Micky Waller could really pack a wallop.
But if we're trying to stack them up against the Stones, I don't think they're in the same league. In my opinion Gimme Shelter has a legitimate claim to be the greatest rock song/track ever. It's ambitious on a level the Faces can't even imagine, and it succeeds in every way.
In comparison the Faces at this point are inspired amateurs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlFJjPxylO4
Now, back to the Royale!
TB
We'll see what happens as Rod and the boys come into their own.
Mwall, feel free to educate us further on this devotion of apprentice concept. Sounds like it could help the discussion.
Sure. Just for the record, Harold Bloom's book The Anxiety of Influence defines seven ways that apprentice writers try to overcome their (self-selected) masters. Actually his ideas are mostly bullshit but the general concept has had more staying power.
In this case I think we could narrow it to three possibilities:
1) The apprentice wants to be the master ("I wish I'd been the lead singer on the Stones' 'Street Fighting Man'").
2) The apprentice wishes to conquer the master ("We were on a live bill with them and kicked their asses" or "We put out a better album this year than they did"). I think Stewart has a shot for some glory in this category. After all, even though the NBA Finals Playoff Rivalry stands, I believe, at 10-2, nonetheless The Lakers have beaten, and even dominated, the Celtics sometimes.
3) The apprentice displaces the master on the apprentice's own terms ("When I play my music, no one will ever think of the Rolling Stones again."). Here, Rod has no shot. To be fair, this one is really difficult to do. Just the mere fact of having been born after the great artist makes it nearly impossible--for instance it's not your fault, Mod, that you were born after the Beatles, but it is your burden. But it is possible, though, to achieve #3. I would maintain for instance that the Stones themselves achieved this; in listening to them, we don't immediately have to think about Chuck Berry or Muddy Waters. It's a cool question for historians but not much more.
For the record, the fault of my having been born after the Beatles had never been in question until this point.
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