Every Picture Tells A Story

Certain Songs #2003: Rod Stewart – “(I Know) I’m Losing You”

January 13, 2021 by Jim Connelly

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.

Certain Songs #2002: Rod Stewart – “Mandolin Wind”

January 12, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Every Picture Tells a Story
Year: 1971

. . .

So how did Rod follow “Maggie May” — a song with a mandolin solo for the ages — on Every Picture Tells a Story? With an entire song about mandolins! And the wind they make!!

Well, that’s not entirely true, as “Mandolin Wind” is really a heartfelt love song.

Certain Songs #2001: Rod Stewart – “Maggie May”

January 11, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Every Picture Tells A Story
Year: 1971

. . .

So you’re sound asleep in bed, on a cool early Autumn morning. And you’re beside that cute boy you’ve been sleeping with. And he really is a boy, at least compared to you. He’s legal, so it’s not like that, but you’re on the wrong side of an age that you maybe never thought you were ever going to get to in the first place. But here you are, and back when you were the boy’s age, they lined up to be with you, but that was a long time ago, and he was the first one in quite some time that truly seemed like he was into you, and you stopped thinking about the future because the present was so nice.

And then the boy rouses you out of that sound sleep and goes:

Certain Songs #2000: Rod Stewart – “Every Picture Tells A Story”

January 9, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Every Picture Tells a Story
Year: 1971

. . .

Choosing your all-time favorite song when you’ve written 2000 posts about your favorite songs is a fools game. I mean, it might be “Answering Machine” or “Left of The Dial” or “Ceremony” or even “The Swish.”

Or it might very well be “Every Picture Tells A Story.”