Rod Stewart, lead singer with the off-again, on-again Jeff Beck Group, has come up with a superb album of his own. Imagination pervades the music, in the choice of material, in the frequent use of beautiful bottleneck guitar work to draw out the subtler aspects of many cuts (Ron Wood is responsible here), and in the range Stewart himself displays on virtually every vocal.

British albums are often over-done, with good ideas transformed into gimmicks; on this record the music sustains itself through innumerable listenings. A bass solo is not an indulgence here but a perfect lead-in to striking piano; the bottleneck is so sparing that you simply hunger for more of that brilliant sound. What is more amazing is that the musicians make their statements with the same sort of friendly sympathy that recently has been displayed only be the Stones and by the three geniuses of Traffic. Their soul is in their timing.

Stewart opens by taking the big risk, with "Street Fighting Man." And, like Johnny Winter's "Highway 61 Revisited," Rod's performance shows no self-consciousness, no worry about the "right way" to do it. He starts in the middle, brakes with a crash, and then a familiar "We Love You" riff on the piano carries the song back to the Stones' beginning, Rod's ending. It's just a fine piece of music, not a cover.

"Handbags & Gladrags" clinches it. It will remind most of the Stones' "No Expectations"; the same soft despairing heart-breaking Floyd Cramer-style piano played by Mike D'Abo, and again, the sort of restraint and timing that make a listener with the song would never end. It's a very sophisticated composition, a brief story that's full of emotion but which never slides into dull sentiment. Like the rest of the songs Stewart is singing here, it's not going to get old.

Stewart's LP is perhaps the only album released this year that reflects something of the feeling of Beggar's Banquet, aside from Let It Bleed. And, unlike so many records of 1969, issued with a flood of hype and forgotten after a dozen playings, this one is for keeps. Many LPs are a lot flashier that this one, but damn few are any better.

- Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 2-7-70.

Bonus Reviews!

This interesting, if spotty, hodgepodge of delicate folk ballads and blazing rave-ups is highlighted by "An Old Overcoat Won't Ever Let You Down." * * * *

- John Floyd, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

The Rod Stewart Album offers a formative glimpse at Stewart's songwriting ("An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down") and interpretive (the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man," Michael D'Abo's "Handbags and Gladrags") prowess. * * * *

- David Okamoto, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996.

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