Every Picture Tells a Story |
|
Released: May 28, 1971 Charted: June 19, 1971 Peak: 14 US, 16 UK, 19 CN, 15 AU, 14 DF Sales (in millions): 2.5 US, 0.1 UK, 6.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock |
Tracks:Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
Total Running Time: 40:31 The Players:
|
Rating: 4.653 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings)
Quotable:“Few rock albums are quite this powerful or this rich” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
|
About the Album:Music critic Jimmy Guterman ranked this the best album of all time, calling it “Stewart’s bid for rock-and-roll-immortality.” JG “Without greatly altering his approach, Rod Stewart perfected his blend of hard rock, folk, and blues on his masterpiece, Every Picture Tells a Story.” AMG It was “a loose, warm, compassionate album, rocking hard with mostly acoustic instruments.” 500 Rod Stewart had only abandoned his job of grave digging three years earlier, but he’d already recorded two albums with the Jeff Beck group, two solo LPs, and was the frontman for the Faces. The core for this album consisted of drummer Mickey Waller, “a devotee of Buddy Rich,” CM guitarist Martin Quittenton, pianist Pete Sears, and bassist Ronnie Wood, “who had become Stewart’s best mate.” CM They recored the album quickly – in less than two weeks. The album sounds “rough and ready, almost sloppy. A couple of tunes seem like afterthoughts…But the reality is that there’s a fierce ambition at work here that makes the complex look effortless and disguises the extraordinary leaps this album takes.” CM “Every song on the album, whether it’s a cover or original, is a gem, combining to form a romantic, earthy portrait of a young man joyously celebrating his young life.” AMG This is “a man in love with the world and his ability to describe that world.” JG Stewart’s “voice is unique and distinct. It lends itself perfectly to these songs.” BS The album kicks off with the “loosely autobiographical” CM acoustic title track. While “devilishly witty” AMG and marked by “self-deprecating humour,” CM the song “is a mildly sexist and casually racist song about a man travelling around the world sharing his experiences with different women.” BS It opens with twelve-string guitar played by Ronnie Wood and “goes into hyper-drive with Mick Waller’s primitive drumming.” AMG Long John Baldry is featured on backing vocals. The song was used in the movie Almost Famous. That title cut and Maggie May are “among the most durable pop-music offerings of the century.” JG Both are “shattering acoustic hard-rock numbers about young men…gaining experience in ways they never expected.” JG “Maggie May,” “the ornate, ringing ode about a seduction from an older woman – is the centerpiece.” AMG It was “the track that would change Stewart’s life and set the course for a massive career.” BS It was originally the B-side for Reason to Believe, but radio DJs flipped the song and played “Maggie May” instead. However, “the unbearably poignant Mandolin Wind, has the same appeal.” AMG It is a “moving ballad of a country couple toughing out a long winter on the farm.” 500 Writer Nick Hornby called it “as tender and generous-spirited as anything by any of those bedsit people, and a good deal less sloppy.” CM Stewart brings in his old band the Faces to “blister on the Temptations cover I Know I’m Losing You.” AMG “Stewart knows not to mimic the Motown original. He accepts…that personal expression far outlasts attempts to copy, that copying is in itself not merely fruitless but intolerable.” JG It is “perhaps the Faces’ finest moment.” CM When it came to covers, Stewart said, “I look for a song that’s probably been forgotten, that no one’s done for a long time. Something that can fit my voices so I can sing it right, and something with a particular strong melody.” CM That included “definitive readings” AMG such as “a rollicking That’s All Right,” AMG the Arthur Crudup tune which, in Elvis Presley’s hands, launched his career at Sun Records. Stewart’s version features “breathtaking guitar work from Sam Marshall.” CM There’s also “Bob Dylan’s aching Tomorrow Is a Long Time,”JG in which Stewart “found new melodies…that not even Dylan realized were there.” CM Tim Hardin’s “brilliant ‘Reason to Believe’” CM becomes “an organ-driven call for moxie in the face of resignation” JG They “are equally terrific, bringing new dimension to the songs.” AMG Stewart also covers Seems Like a Long Time, originally done by Brewer & Shipley (best known for “One Toke Over the Line”), and even “tackles Amazing Grace and makes it his own.” CM This is “a great rootsy rock record” BS which bears similarities to the work of the Rolling Stones in the mid-1970s, thanks to the influence of guitarist Ronnie Wood, who would be with the Stones by that point. BS “It’s a beautiful album, one that has the timeless qualities of the best folk, yet one that rocks harder than most pop music – few rock albums are quite this powerful or this rich.” AMG |
Resources and Related Links:
Other Related DMDB Pages:
First posted 2/18/2010; last updated 10/1/2023. |
No comments:
Post a Comment