Album: Every Picture Tells a Story
Year: 1971
. . .
You come at The Temptations, you best not miss. Their original 1966 version of “(I Know) I’m Losing You” was a masterpiece of pure tension, anchored by a gut-bucket Cornelius Grant guitar riff and a desperate David Ruffin vocal that was so compelling it went up to #8 despite not having a chorus. (SPOILER ALERT: There will be a shit-ton of Temptations when I get there).
And while Rare Earth had some how taken their pedestrian version up to #7 in 1970 — fucking hippies! — Rod Stewart decided to tackle it anyways, and with the help of The Faces, rocked it really fucking hard.
Rod’s version starts with some guitar riffing from Ron Wood over a funky bass line from Ronnie Lane, before Ian McLaglan plays the man riff on on the piano, over which Rod comes in.
Your love is fading, can feel your love fading
Woman, it’s fading away from me
At that point, Kenney Jones comes pummeling in with the drums, and “(I Know) I’m Losing You” hits a big, lumbering — dare I say, heavy? — groove, until it breaks down in the middle, so Ronnies Lane and Wood can hum in the background for awhile as Rod starts back up. From thereon, the song is never the same.
I don’t wanna lose ya
But I know I’m gonna grew ya
Oh no, I’m losing you
Woo
First, the whole band picks up speed, as Ian McLaglan takes a long piano solo, occasionally punctuated by an occasional “woo” from Rod, and at some point, it’s suddenly just Ron Wood’s riffing and Kenny Jones trying to hit all of his drums at the same time while still pile driving ever forward. Eventually, it’s just Jones doing a drum solo — and gang, I’m not a big fan of listening to drum solos, but this one kinda rules, mostly because it keeps the momentum of the song going — over which Rod is still begging and pleading.
I don’t wanna lose ya
But I know I’m gonna grew ya
Oh no, I’m losing you, I’m losing you
At which point, the whole band starts sneaking back in, with Wood alternating leads with riffs, Jones still kicking ass until at some point they all collapse under the weight of what has turned out to be a ridiculous arrangement, Rod getting the last word in:
Your love is fading, I can feel it fading
Oh, I’m losing you
Somehow somebody thought it was a good idea to release this crazy-ass shit — perfect as a late-night FM song — as the follow-up single to the eternal “Maggie May,” maybe because they figured that anything they released wasn’t going to be the same kind of world-beater, maybe because they thought it was funny. In any event, it did make it to #24 on the pop charts and of course onto classic rock radio forever.
“(I Know) I’m Losing You”
“(I Know) I’m Losing You” Live on the BBC, 1971
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