{"id":1501,"date":"2008-06-21T15:19:14","date_gmt":"2008-06-21T19:19:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-02-07T10:50:03","modified_gmt":"2009-02-07T10:50:03","slug":"battle-royale-rod-stewart-vs-the-stones-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/battle-royale-rod-stewart-vs-the-stones-1969\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle Royale, Round 1: Rod Stewart vs The Stones, 1969"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ecF95ITFjSQ?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nAlthough 1969 was one of the more contentious of years for The Rolling Stones, a year in which they lost founding guitarist <strong>Brian Jones<\/strong> and, symbolically, lost rock &#8216;n roll&#8217;s innocence at <strong>Altamont<\/strong> [a moment of cliched, insincere silence, please], it was a great year for the Stones&#8217; rock &#8216;n roll output. The band followed up the fantastic &#8220;Honky Tonk Woman&#8221; single with what I believe is their best album of the <strong>Mick Taylor era<\/strong>, <em>Let It Bleed<\/em>. <\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/letitbleed.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/div>\n<p>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&#8217;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&#8217;s transition into it&#8217;s early &#8217;70s epic status while pushing against the constraints of danceable pop expectations. I think the album is killer rock &#8216;n roll, and I&#8217;ll state up front that <em>Round 1 goes to the Stones<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Faces, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/WickedMessenger.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Wicked Messenger&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rod Stewart, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/StreetFightingMan.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Street Fighting Man&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Considering we&#8217;re booked for an 8-round bout, let&#8217;s not discount the <strong>body shots<\/strong> landed by upstart <strong>Rod Stewart<\/strong>, 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 <strong>Steve Marriott<\/strong> in the no-longer small Faces AND becoming a solo star. What bolder way to open these ventures with covers of <strong>Bob Dylan<\/strong> and the Stones themselves?<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/the_faces_first_step.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"314\" height=\"320\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The first Faces album with Stewart and Wood, the little-discussed <em>First Step<\/em>, sounds as clear, ballsy, and open as <em>Let It Bleed<\/em>. Song for song, it doesn&#8217;t hold up to the Stones&#8217; 1969 album, but it&#8217;s a cool spin nevertheless. Sonically, it&#8217;s a huge step ahead of the compressed, muddy sound of later-period Small Faces recordings, whether you prefer the new lineup&#8217;s bluesier songs or not. <\/p>\n<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jJ0S5oG3FDw?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nRock Town Hall&#8217;s tongue-in-cheek banner motto, <em>fans of ron wood era stones need not apply<\/em>, is kept in check by Wood&#8217;s work with Stewart through Beck, Faces, and Stewart&#8217;s solo albums. Although the Stewart version of &#8220;Street Fighting Man&#8221; is all over the place, the combo of Stewart, Wood, and solo Stewart drummer <strong>Mickey Waller<\/strong> make up for their lack of focus, style, and craft with real street-fighting fury. In short time, Stewart&#8217;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. <\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s work with Jeff Beck Group. The third is for fans of <em>The Office<\/em> (original UK version). The fourth example is a few years ahead of the stuff rock nerds like myself tend to overvalue on <em>Led Zeppelin III<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Faces, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/ShakeShudderShiver.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Shake, Shudder, Shiver&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rod Stewart, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/BlindPrayer.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Blind Prayer&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rod Stewart, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/HandbagsandGladrags.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Handbags &amp; Gladrags&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Faces, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/AroundthePlynth.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Around the Plynth&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>ROUND 1:<\/strong> The Stones<\/p>\n<p><em>Next:<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2008\/06\/22\/battle-royale-round-2-rod-stewart-vs-the-1970\">Battle Royale, Round 2: Rod Stewart vs The Rolling Stones, 1970<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Previously:<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2008\/06\/20\/ground-rules-for-rock-town-hall-s-upcomi-1976\">Ground rules and methodology<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/ws.amazon.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=V20070822\/US\/rotoha00-20\/8002\/15437b5a-dfd8-4f09-8812-8a6c6a57301f\"> <\/script> <noscript><a HREF=\"http:\/\/ws.amazon.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Frotoha00-20%2F8002%2F15437b5a-dfd8-4f09-8812-8a6c6a57301f&amp;Operation=NoScript\">Amazon.com Widgets<\/a><\/noscript><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8216;n roll&#8217;s innocence at Altamont [a moment of cliched, insincere silence, please], it was a great year for the Stones&#8217; rock &#8216;n roll output. The band followed <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/battle-royale-rod-stewart-vs-the-stones-1969\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[42,149,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}