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Rating: The sky covered with clouds and a raincoat. A child and an adult man running on the grass on an autumn afternoon.
The expressive power of an album cover should not be underestimated. For example, An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, the solo debut of former Faces member Rod Stewart, belongs to that group of albums featuring a strong evocative presence that leaves you amazed.
Musicians of the caliber of Keith Emerson and Martin Pugh accompany a broken voice with a melancholic tone that tells of how he lost what he loves and how he fears losing what remains.
Recorded in 1969, with the collaboration of artists from Jeff Beck Group and Steamhammer, it was released in the USA under the title Rod Stewart Album, leaving you with the Blues and rain in your soul.
The cover of Street Fighting Man by the Stones shows how the band doesn't limit themselves to doing the basic assignment well, presenting a melodic structure rich in noteworthy guitar moments (Ronnie Wood does not yet know that he will periodically play the song with Keith in the years to come).
Of the splendid covers, Rod and his broken voice have delivered hundreds, but perhaps none as much as Handbags And Gladrags (Mike D'Abo and Chris Farlowe), which picks up the theme of the entire album and is the song that compels you to listen to the entire record with that piano in the background and the trumpet weaving the perfect carpet for the first refrain:
What will become of you, my love, when you are stripped of the suitcases and clothes your grandfather sweated to give you?
In the titletrack, the bass is the most fascinating instrument, with those Blues notes descending into the depths and lifting you powerfully, just like the father's raincoat that doesn't let you fall down.
How fascinating can a gray and cold day be?
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Street Fighting Man (05:08)
Everywhere I hear the sound
of marching, charging feet boy
'Cause the summer's here
and the time is right for
fighting in the street boy
Hey think the time is right
for a palace revolution
Where I live the game to play
is just to compromise my solution
What can a poor boy do
except to sing for a rock 'n' roll band
'Cause you see bein' London town
there's just no other place
for a street fighting man
Hey did I tell you that my name
was called disturbance
And I'll shout and scream
and I'll kill the king and
I'll rail at all his servants
What can a poor boy do
except to sing for a rock 'n' roll band
'Cause you see bein' London town
there's just no place
for a street fighting man
Everywhere I hear the sound
of marching, charging feet boy
'Cause the summer's here
and the time is right for
fighting in the street boy
What can a poor boy do
except to sing for a rock 'n' roll band
'Cause you see bein' London town
there's just no other place
for a street fighting man
04 Handbags and Gladrags (04:25)
Ever seen a blind man cross the road
trying to make the other side
Ever seen a young girl growing old
trying to make herself a bride
So what becomes of you my love
When they have finally stripped you of
The handbags and the gladrags
That your Grandad had to sweat so you could buy
Baby
Once I was a young man
and all I thought I had to do was smile
You are still a young girl
and you bought everything in style
Listen
But once you think you're in you're out
'cause you don't mean a single thing without
the handbags and the gladrags
that your Grandad had to sweat so you could buy
Sing a song of six-pence for your sake
And take a bottle full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds in a cake
And bake them all in a pie
They told me you missed school today
So what I suggest you just throw them all away
the handbags and the gladrags
that your poor old Granddad had to sweat to buy
They told me you missed school today
So I suggest you just throw them all away
the handbags and the gladrags
that your poor old Granddad had to sweat to buy ya
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