The Rod Stewart Album

Certain Songs #1997: Rod Stewart – “I Wouldn’t Ever Change a Thing”

January 5, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Rod Stewart Album
Year: 1969

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My favorite song on The Rod Stewart Album is a multi-part keyboard-drenched epic that features one of the most human moments I’ve ever heard on any record. Never a prolific writer, Rod snaked around that by being an ace interpreter, especially of his own songs, where he brought out their soul-baring aspects without ever getting maudlin.

“I Woudn’t Ever Change a Thing” is a prime example of this, an insanely wise look back from a guy who was way too young to be this wise.

Certain Songs #1996: Rod Stewart – “Handbags and Gladrags”

January 4, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Rod Stewart Album
Year: 1969

. . .

Alright, let’s see if we can set the scene. It’s late 1969, and a few months prior The Jeff Beck Group had released their second album, Beck-Ola, and just after touring that record, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood left Beck and replaced Steve Marriott in the Small Faces, soon to lose the “Small” because neither Stewart nor Wood were as diminutive as the other guys.

But before they record it, Stewart has a solo album to do, having signed a contract with Mercury records in late 1968 for what Stewart says in his highly entertaining autobiography was the price of sports car.