The Steel Guitar Forum

Last month I was doing a gig, was asked to play a ballad, and decided on one of my favorites; "You Go To My Head". One of the patrons of the establishment was heard to remark "Oh, yeah, that's that Rod Stewart tune".
At first I didn't believe it, then I was persuaded to fathom that Rod Stewart had recorded it, as well as alot of other old chestnuts, in a recent studio outing.
My first reaction was to wonder how long one would wait for some monotone talentless slob to ram a beautiful melody down your throat before you'd figure it out on your own. Sheesh.
It's only been around for 40 odd years now. Some doorknob like Rod Stewart, who's likely incapable of even writing a chord chart for the tune, has to ram it into the public's subconsciousness via MTV and a room full of marketing wizards before it's a real tune, er what ?
Tonight I was subject to a real treat. Instead of commercials on the T.V., I was exposed to Mr. Stewart's video (oh, that's why... he has a video! Yay !) of "Time after Time". Great old tune, subjected to a particularly typical but heli-lame treatment. The camera shots were particularly appropo (maximum 4 second duration) for an audience of people who have the attention span of a cocker spaniel. The juxtaposition of leisurely swing music (rendered by carefully selected musicians who looked like they'd spent last night sleeping over a sewer grate) combined with the lightning-fast stereotyped camera angles of MTV was just silly. I mean, silly .
No doubt the audience had time to run and check their e-mail during the video, without missing too much footage of an audience of fawning couples enraptured by Mr. Stewart's bold and risky statement of cashing in on good music that slipped under the radar of an otherwise insipidly stupid public before they were born.
What brilliance, what artistic foresight he displayed by croaking through some of America's most cherished musical gems like Kermit the Friggin' Frog.
Give the guy a Pulitzer Prize. I'd say, just offhand, that this is the best thing I've heard since that dink Kenny G had the gall to overdub his pathetic honkings over the hallowed classics of Louis Armstrong.
What the heck is wrong with people, anyway ?
Ron, help me out with this, would ya ?
-John

I have re-read my preceding comments, and feel an apology is in order.
To all those that own cocker spaniels, I am truly sorry. No offense was meant in my callous interpretation of comparing your dog with Rod Stewart. That was completely out of line, and I apologize.

-John

Any number of artists have gone through the 'I'm gonna dig out the old chestnuts and be cool" phase, but this is by far the worst. Willie Nelson did it. So did Linda Rondstat(sp) I liked those. Especially annoying is Rod's usr of the old rock style mic stand moves. The record buying public NEVER ceases to amaze me! Billy W
PS> My cocker spaniel forgives you.

John Boy, what would have been your opinion had you not known it was Rod Stewart? I personally like it. It certainly beats that other crap thay call music they are force feeding us. Don't you agree?

BTW, I have not seen the video yet, I would have changed the tv channel if I had seen who it was.

Now go take your medicine like a good boy and quit complaining.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Kenny Dail on 06 January 2004 at 11:19 PM.]</p></FONT>

As Jimmy Durante would say, "Everybody's trying to get into da act."

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kd...and the beat goes on...

John,

This is a great rant on The Duke of Puke:
http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm

Bob

Now THAT's unequivocal!!

(I do like the "Today's Quote" that came up on the page when I looked at it:
Today's Quote:

'It's easy when you knows how!' - Fats Waller, responding to a question about his seemingly effortless playing)

Nick Allen

"One never knows do one." Fats W.

I have no problem with aging rock artists expanding their view of what music is.
And by extension their core audiences view also.

Hey that could be me too. I am not doing what I did when Rod was with Small Faces.

At his age I would have been surprised if he didn't try some old good songs, to prepare for a career in his geriatric years. And maybe his tatses have matured, even if his producers haven't as much.
They could just be gradually be building a bridge from era to era, so as not to loss older fans.

Didn't Sinatra totally change his style when his voice lost that old smooth croon.
Natalie Cole does some standards and nothing like her early stuff.
Linda Rondstadt went into light opera and other things to good effect.

I have not heard/seen this CD/DVD, and don't know if I will.
But Rod always could put over a song, from his days with Jeff Beck onward.

But John I agree 110% agree with the Kenny G comment; that was into the abyss of poor taste and no line will be thrown down to pull him back.

On the otherr hand Natalie Cole did it right with her dad's song, but if ANYONE had the right AND the chops to do it, it was her.
And that was a very rare gem.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 07 January 2004 at 01:54 AM.]</p></FONT>

Don't hold back, John. Tell us how you really feeeeel...

John...It coulda been worse. (think Ozzy, Eminem, Brittney etc etc)

....another quote(BB King): "I never could play like anyone else, so I guess that's why I play like me"....

A rare occasion where I can't go with you, John. The marketing thing, yeah. And that guy whose name starts with a K---I have my computer programmed to spew vile stuff if I even utter his name.
I never much cared for Stewart but in recent years I've had several revelatory moments regarding him where I came to appreciate his possession of a distinctive style---even if derivative, he has still forged a signature sound. And for whatever reason, he has earned my respect enough that I will forgo cynicism (a rarity!) about his motives regarding this classic songbook project and accept it on his terms as simply something that he wanted to do because he digs the material and he has enough juice with his record label that he can do as he pleases.
I have to admit, though, that I haven't heard any of it. I may come back to this thread begging for mercy after a listen. And MTV doesn't find its way on my TV too often so I'm not in danger of seeing the video.

I have a confession to make. I think Rod Stewart is one of the all time great rock singers. The stuff he did early on with the Faces gives him a free pass in my book. He is a real hambone and has a cheese factor that is off the scale but I do love his voice.

Bob

Haha, Kenny, of course you're right - I guess there's an outside chance that Stewart's momentary lapse into good taste might educate some people about music they're not aware of.
Why they're not aware of it, I do not know. I suspect because to many of them, it doesn't exist until it's pre-chewed like pablum and presented with a side order of fries.
The real reason this sort of thing incences me so much is because of the large number of dedicated musicians I know who have dedicated their lives to studying the intricacies of this sort of music, unable to make a living at it, and playing to empty rooms...
Meanwhile, Woody Allen could fill Carnegie Hall for a month straight with a mediocre jazz band led by a truly pathetic clarinet player. Woody's not fit to carry the cases of many of the musicians I know, yet they can't make the rent.
Even in our own little wasteland, we have some singers that truly deserve recognition like Tim Tamashiro http://www.braggcreek.ca/performingarts/pertimtam.htm
or Micheal Buble http://www.michaelbuble.com/home.php
who could deftly sing Mr. Stewart into a bag without taking the cigar out of their mouth. And nobody's ever heard of them.

That's OK. I'm working on a 5/4 version of "Wake Up Maggie" for my next gig. It took most of the day, but I managed to find all 5 notes of the melody.
-John

I'm glad you edited your remarks so as not to offend the lovable cocker spaniel John.

One of my grandest memories is of being at a Faces show featuring Rod Stewart at the Roundhouse in London...1971 as I recall. Had to be the most exciting rock concert I had ever or have ever seen or heard. He was extrordinary. But I digress.

The standards thing has been done a bunch of times From Willie Nelson to Carly Simon.
I personally would love to do a bunch of Johnny Mercer songs on steel. Perhaps someday I will.

LOL...people of Rod Stewart's magnatude prefer to think of themselves as "entertainers" instead of singers. Another prime example is Joe Cocker.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

I think of Joe Cocker not so much as an "entertainer" as an "interpreter". He takes a perfectly good song and "reinterprets" it so that it becomes completely unintelligible. But I still love his singing. It's his dancing I could do without!

<font size=1> But, seriously, folks like Stewart, Cocker, Tom Waits and a few others I can't think of right now have voices full of emotional content. Do they have great voices? No way. But can they "deliver" a song. Yup, they sure can. Sorry, John, but I can't walk with you on this one...

I'd add Louis Armstrong, Kris Kristofferson, Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash to Jim's list.

I haven't heard Rod Stewart's record, but I'm all in favor of musical cross-pollination - if that's the right word. It works in all directions - I gave my mother (a great Sinatra/40's music fan)Willie's "Stardust" album - she loved it and is now a Willie/country fan as well...

And as ever - if you don't like it, don't listen to it, and don't buy it... It's that simple, folks
Nick

If you want to hear a REAL crossover get Michael Bolton's Opera album.
He has performed live with Pavaroti in Italy too, and got good reviews.

Yes, he does pop/soul and has huge hits.
But the cat can sing. A fully trained singer of high calibur.
And he did an album bound to confuse many in his audience because he loves the music.

Some in my french family here are serious opera afficionados and they fell in love with it instantly. This includes my sister-in-law with the 3.5 octave mezo-soprano voice.

He sings Tenor with a Baritone tambor which is unusual and interesting also.

Now to me that is both real cross-polination and big cajones too. So you can't write off all pop singers as a waste.

Lets add Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff to list of non singers but entertainers. Perhaps song "stylists," as someone else put it, is a better term.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Kenny Dail on 08 January 2004 at 12:43 PM.]</p></FONT>

KD
I think you would have to add Hank Jr, David Allen Coe, Tim Mc Graw to that list also, Not Singers in the true sense of the Word such as Faron Young or Ray Price

Not having heard the Rod Stewert recording, I can't comment on it. But I agree in principle that an artist should be able to expenad his or her repetoire of styles in any direction he or she chooses. The test is whether or not they can pull it off, as Linda Ronstadt did with her collaborations with Nelsen Riddle.

I also think that it's good for young andiences to be exposed to older musical styles. I soo far too many people who are of the opinion that music was invented by Jimi Hendrix in 1967, and everything that came before either doesn't exist, or must be regarded as "the enemy."

Maybe some of these kids who are hearing these songs for the first time will go back and discover the great artists of the past who sang this music when it was fresh and new.

After all, how many people discovered B.B. King and Muddy Waters because of Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones?

However good or bad Rod Stewert's recordings might be, chances are that for some people at least, they will serve as a starting point for an interest in that style of music.

Ok, Ok, gang, I give.
My original point was lost, and it's my own fault. My original intent was not to slag Rod Stewart (that was just an amusing personal sideline).
I wasn't trying to question what was going on the bandstand. I was questioning what was going on in the audience.

I am a pop culture neandrathal. It's hard for me to accept the fact that these people weren't there to hear great music... they were there to see Rod Stewart. And they couldn't care if he sang "Wake up Maggie", Gershwin, or did an armpit-fart version of the William Tell Overture. They were there to worship at the altar of the Cult Of Personality.

In fact, as Mike has pointed out, if Rod Stewart had instead decided to recite Shakespeare while tap dancing in a vat of oatmeal, it probably would have been a great boon to the Stratford Shakepearean Festival.
Ok, so I still don't get it, I guess.
-John
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by John Steele on 08 January 2004 at 10:04 PM.]</p></FONT>

I'm a long time Rod Stewart fan- I saw him live the week that Maggie May hit number one and he was stunning!
However, I did think that his first "American Songbook" album was a step too far. He recorded it after a major throat operation followed by a long lay-off, and I don't think he had really found his new voice.
On the other hand, I was given the second standards album for Christmas, and I love it. He can't really do most of his old repertioire now. because his voice is not the same. The raucous rasp has gone, replaced by a smoother, but still husky, sound.
He's a singer and performer. What do you expect him to do after a struggle to get well again?
Would you stop steeling for ever if you
injured a finger?
I think you'd find a way to carry on doing what you love.
Cheers
Dave