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Rating:
The MTV Unplugged series has marked, for many great musical guardians, bland performances or, certainly, not unforgettable ones; the exception to the rule comes from this acoustic live... and seated (age is what it is...) of Mr. Rod Stewart.
Last spark of a career of POP excesses, in '93 Rod Stewart produced one of his many sparkling live performances with an hour and a half of concert without the slightest drop, and within which even the wrinkles of time seem to contribute to the creation of a certain mood. A Champagne-blonde singer, in an unbuttoned white shirt, chest rigorously shaved, with bracelets and gold chains, as flashy as ever in his simplicity, a showman and eminent stage animal, this Rod is one of those gentlemen who, despite the age and the last unconvincing Jazz renditions, always hit the right night live.
Touching and irreverent, at once melodramatic actor and clown, in the 90 minutes of this show, few times one does not feel involved by this kind of brawl from the tavern. The songs present are the racing colts, the usual ones, in them are found unattainable women, fickle girls, gala evenings, songs to sing at the top of your lungs, taverns, alcohol, and marginality, mad loves, desperate loves, romanticisms, all performed with total lightness and irony and with decidedly new and almost always improving arrangements, which unexpectedly work well acoustically as one would not have expected.
The dance opens with the very lively “Hot Legs”, indestructible Rhythm’n’Blues where a naughty seventeen-year-old bothers poor Rod... who, playful as ever, shouts that he doesn’t want to know! Buffoon... After the bubbly start, we move to a song with style, a song that poorly concealed, already in unsuspecting times, the love for the Jazzy atmospheres of his latest Songbook. “Tonight Is The Night” with one of the most repetitive choruses ever (very different comes to mind Tonight is the night by Neil Young, it's evident these are words that lead to obsessive repetition!) is a song that longs for romanticisms from a European urban milieu, an unidentified French village is mentioned, in the moment Rod teaches the art of love, a true gem of the genre, like taking a woman from the door to the bed without appearing like a swine. It moves to an intense and more collected moment with the wonderful “Handbags & Gladrags” by Michael D’Abo, performed and played with sincere pathos by a rich but, above all, cohesive band (lately, this song has also been one of the many victims of the Stereophonics).
“Once I was a young man and all I have to do was smile...” here it is, the secret!
Rod doesn't resist too long in the shoes of the refined interpreter and the commitment is immediately tempered by two songs from his more rock-oriented repertoire, “Cut Across Shorty” and “Every Picture Tells A Story” the latter written with his longtime friend, and illustrious guest of the evening, Ronnie Wood (guitarist of the Stones). Perhaps the most beautiful Pop song ever is this “Maggie May”, whose acoustic version presented on this LP brings greater freshness, transforms the song into poetry for every season, you can feel the March wind, but leaves fall from the trees. It does not drop the level with the subsequent "Reason To Believe" by Tim Hardin, where Rod Stewart (at the time still gifted vocally...) highlights once more his qualities as an expressive and refined interpreter.
“Someone like you make it easy to live without somebody else... Still I look to find a reason to believe..”
“People get Ready” by the great Curtis Mayfield is perhaps the only moment where the tone drops and, together, the tension of the concert. Graceful version, but decidedly too pompous with an overabundance of strings, I would say, "sanremese." Definitely better the “cover” of Van Morrison, “Have I Told You Lately”, romantic and well-written song to which this interpretation adds nothing and removes nothing. To introduce a moment of great emotional intensity like the touching “Tom Traubert’s Blues” by Tom Waits, Rod still brings laughter, never giving up on the eternal mix of sentiment and irony that pervades him, and he turns boldly to the audience: “in order to sing this song my friend Tom asked me to build him a pool behind the house where the boys can play...” a story that Rod often brings up also regarding that "Downtown Train" which would have been curious to hear unplugged (at the time when Rod reprised his horrid version of "Downtown Train" I felt like crying...). “Tom Traubert's Blues” is in any case another peak of the album. Elegiac and perfect, less heavy and drunk than the Waitsian version, but splendid lyrical aimed at the moon and darkness falls in the room, and Rod becomes as passionate and touching as ever in quoting the verses of this rogue poetry.
Many people discovered Waits through Rod Stewart who, if he takes something away from the splendid original versions, gives greater ease to the listening of those not used to Waitsian expressive modules. The following “The First Cut Is The Deepest” is a kind of little musical miracle where starting from a beach tune by the first, and not really memorable, Cat Stevens, a splendid and very Stewartian piece developed, where the rich but sober instrumentation and the choirs blend creating a unique suggestion (Last year this song was also by Sheryl Crow, a girl eternally promised left in the air). Following is “Mandolin Wind” a “traditional” love song in the fullest sense of the term, Rod like an old cowboy picks up his mandolin and whispers words of love to his beloved...
“..’Cause I know you don’t play, but I teach you one day, because I love you..”
One of the most vibrant and instrumental pieces from the time spent with the Small Faces was certainly “Stay With Me” (also redone in a questionable way by Def Leppard, if I'm not mistaken...), which once again shines in this acoustic version, where every instrument finds its space of glory and improvisation and which takes nothing away from the rampant and original version. On the same resounding line is “
It will appeal to all Unplugged fanatics (but for them, the title is enough...) and lovers of the Acoustic and Neo-Acoustic genre. Especially addressing the worshipers of the American songwriting tradition, I recommend giving this album a listen, they will find many cues, great classics by Rod Stewart performed with new verve and excellently amalgamated with covers that almost always provide new arrangements and new light to the interpreted pieces, and that’s no small thing. Specifying my vote, among the MTV Unplugged series, the vote should be 5, for the emotional charge and pure feeling, but evaluating the concert within the realm of sound, a 4 seems more than sufficient to me. And then, isn’t it splendid that a former football player, Scottish, flashy, womanizer loaned to music, at sixty years old still sings about his mischievous high school companions ?? Better than Prozac!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Hot Legs (04:25)
Who's that knocking on my door
It's gotta be a quarter to four
Is it you again coming 'round for more
Well you can love me tonight if you want
But in the morning make sure you're gone
I'm talkin' to you
Hot legs, wearing me out
Hot legs, you can scream and shout
Hot legs, are you still in school
I love you honey
Gotta most persuasive tongue
You promise all kinds of fun
But what you don't understand
I'm a working man
Gonna need a shot of vitamin E
By the time you're finished with me
I'm talking to you
Hot legs, you're an alley cat
Hot legs, you scratch my back
Hot legs, bring your mother too
I love you honey
Imagine how my daddy felt
in your jet black suspender belt
Seventeen years old
He's touching sixty four
You got legs right up to your neck
You're making me a physical wreck
I'm talking to you
Hot legs, in your satin shoes
Hot legs, are you still in school
Hot legs, you're making me a fool
I love you honey
Hot legs, making your mark
Hot legs, keep my pencil sharp
Hot legs, keep your hands to yourself
I love you honey
Hot legs, you're wearing me out
Hot legs, you can scream and shout
Hot legs, you're still in school
I love you honey
03 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
05 Every Picture Tells a Story (04:49)
Spent some time feelin' inferior
standing in front of my mirror
Combed my hair in a thousand ways
but I came out looking just the same
Daddy said, "Son, you better see the world
I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to leave
But remember one thing don't lose your head
to a woman that'll spend your bread"
So I got out
Paris was a place you could hide away
if you felt you didn't fit in
French police wouldn't give me no peace
They claimed I was a nasty person
Down along the Left Bank minding my own
Was knocked down by a human stampede
Got arrested for inciting a peacful riot
when all I wanted was a cup of tea
I was accused
I moved on
Down in Rome I wasn't getting enough
of the things that keeps a young man alive
My body stunk but I kept my funk
at a time when I was right out of luck
Getting desperate indeed I was
Looking like a tourist attraction
Oh my dear I better get out of here
'for the Vatican don't give no sanction
I wasn't ready for that, no no
I moved right out east yeah!
On the Peking ferry I was feeling merry
sailing on my way back here
I fell in love with a slit eyed lady
by the light of an eastern moon
Shangai Lil never used the pill
She claimed that it just ain't natural
She took me up on deck and bit my neck
Oh people I was glad I found her
Oh yeah I was glad I found her
I firmly believe that I didn't need anyone but me
I sincerely thought I was so complete
Look how wrong you can be
The women I've known I wouldn't let tie my shoe
They wouldn't give you the time of day
But the slit eyed lady knocked me off my feet
God I was glad I found her
And if they had the words I could tell to you
to help you on the way down the road
I couldn't quote you no Dickens, Shelley or Keats
'cause it's all been said before
Make the best out of the bad just laugh it off
You didn't have to come here anyway
So remember, every picture tells a story don't it
06 Maggie May (06:00)
Wake up Maggie I think I've got something to say to you.
It's late September and I really should be back at school.
I know I keep you amused but I feel I'm being used.
Oh Maggie I couldn't have tried any more.
You led me away from home just to save you from being alone.
You stole my heart and that's what really hurts.
The morning sun when it's in your face really shows your age
But that don't worry me none in my eyes you're everything.
I laughed at all of your jokes - my love you didn't need to coax.
Oh, Maggie I couldn't have tried any more.
You led me away from home, just to save you from being alone
You stole my soul and that's a pain I can do without.
All I needed was a friend to lend a guiding hand
But you turned into a lover
And mother what a lover, you wore me out.
All you did was wreck my bed
And in the morning kick me in the head.
Oh Maggie I couldn't have tried any more.
You led me away from home cause you didn't wanna be alone
You stole my heart I couldn't leave you if I tried.
(Really long Guitar Improv Bit)
I suppose I could collect my books and get on back to school.
Or steal my daddy's cue - make a living out of playing pool.
Or find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helpin' hand.
Oh Maggie I wished I'd never seen your face.
You made a first class fool out of me
But I'm as blind as a fool can be
You stole my heart, but I love you anyway.
(guitar bit again, this time with mandolins too!)
Maggie I wished I'd never seen your face
I'll get on back home one of these days
(a few whoo hoos...)
07 Reason to Believe (03:53)
If I listened long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true
Knowing that you lied
Straight-faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe
Someone like you
Makes it hard to live without
Somebody else
Someone like you
Makes it easy to give
Never think about myself
If I gave you time to change my mind
I'd find a way just to leave the past behind
Knowing that you lied
Straight-faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe
If I listened long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true
Knowing that you lied
Straight-faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe
Someone like you
Makes it hard to live without
Somebody else
Someone like you
Makes it easy to give
Never think about myself
Someone like you
Makes it hard to live without
Somebody else
Someone like you
Makes it easy to give
Never think about myself
Whoo
Someone like you
Makes it hard to live without
Somebody else
Someone like you
Makes it easy to give
Never think about myself
Someone like you
Makes it hard to live without
Somebody else
08 People Get Ready (04:45)
People get ready
There's a train a-coming
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels humming
Don't need no ticket
You just thank the Lord
People get ready
For the train to Jordan
Picking up passengers
From coast to coast
Faith is the key
Open the doors and board them
There's room for all
among the loved the most
There ain't no room
for the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all mankind just
To save his own
Have pity on those
whose chances are thinner
Cause there's no hiding place
From the Kingdom's Throne
So people get ready
for the train a-comin'
You don't need no baggage
you just get on board !
All you need is faith
to hear the diesels humming
Don't need no ticket
you just thank, you just thank the Lord
Yeah
Ooh
Yeah
Ooh
I'm getting ready
I'm getting ready
this time I'm ready
this time I'm ready
11 The First Cut Is the Deepest (04:18)
I would have given you all of my heart
But theres someone whos torn it apart
And shes taken just all that I had
But if you want Ill try to love again
Baby Ill try to love again but I know
The first cut is the deepest
Baby I know the first cut is the deepest
But when it come to being lucky shes cursed
When it come to loving me shes the worst
I still want you by my side
Just to help me dry the tears that Ive cried
And Im sure going to give you a try
And if you want Ill try to love again
Baby Ill try to love again but I know
The first cut is the deepest
Baby I know the first cut is the deepest
But when it come to being lucky shes cursed
When it come to loving me shes the worst
I still want you by my side
Just to help me dry the tears that Ive cried
But Im sure gonna give you a try
cause if you want Ill try to love again
Baby Ill try to love again but I know
The first cut is the deepest
Baby I know the first cut is the deepest
When it come to being lucky shes cursed
When it come to loving me shes the worst
12 Mandolin Wind (05:18)
When the rain came I thought you'd leave
'cause I knew how much you loved the sun
But you chose to stay, stay and keep me warm
through the darkest nights I've ever known
If the mandolin wind couldn't change a thing
then I know I love ya
Oh the snow fell without a break
Buffalo died in the frozen fields you know
Through the coldest winter in almost fourteen years
I couldn't believe you kept a smile
Now I can rest assured knowing that we've seen the worst
And I know I love ya
Oh I never was good with romantic words
so the next few lines come really hard
Don't have much but what I've got is yours
except of course my steel guitar
Ha, 'cause I know you don't play
but I'll teach you one day
because I love ya
I recall the night we knelt and prayed
Noticing your face was thin and pale
I found it hard to hide my tears
I felt ashamed I felt I'd let you down
No mandolin wind couldn't change a thing
Couldn't change a thing no, no
The coldest winter in almost fourteen years
could never, never change your mind
And I love ya
Yes indeed and I love ya
And I love ya
Lordy I love ya
13 Highgate Shuffle (04:04)
(public domain / Rod Stewart)
Oh, yeah
Let the band play one time now
It was early one morning,
I was on my way to school
Early one morning,
I was on my way to school
Got lost on monday morning,
I broke my teachers rule
I was in love with you, baby,
before I learned to call your name
I was in love with you, baby,
before I learned to call your name
Now you're in love with someone else
You're bound to drive poor me insane
Oh, yeah ( )
I said bye, bye bye, baby, bye bye
I said bye, bye bye, baby, bye, bye ...
ha ha
I said bye, bye bye, baby, bye, bye ...
bring it down here
I said bye, bye bye, baby, bye, bye ...
bye, bye bye, baby, bye, bye ...
I said bye, bye bye, baby, bye, bye ...
Yeah,
bye, bye bye, baby, bye, bye ...
bye, bye bye, baby, bye, bye ...
I said bye, bye bye, baby, bye, bye ...
14 Stay With Me (05:18)
In the morning
Don't say you love me
Cause I'll only kick you out of the door
I know your name is Rita
Cause your perfum smelling sweeter
Since when I saw you down on the floor
guitar
Won't need to much pursuading
I don't mean to sound degrading
But with a face like that
You got nothing to laugh about
Red lips hair and fingernails
I hear your a mean old jezabel
Lets go up stairs and read my tarot cards
Stay with me
Stay with me
For tonight you better stay with me
Stay with me
Stay with me
For tonight you better stay with me
So in the morning
Please don't say you love me
Cause you know I'll only kick you out the door
Yea I'll pay your cab fare home
You can even use my best cologne
Just don't be here in the morning when I wake up
Stay with me
Stay with me
Cause tonight you better stay with me
Sit down, get up, get down
Stay with me
Stay with me
Cause tonight your going stay with me
Hey, whats your name again
oh no, get down, wooo
16 Gasoline Alley (03:45)
I think I know now what's making me sad
It's a yearnin' for my own back yard
I realize maybe I was wrong to leave
Better swallow up my silly country pride
Going home, running home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Going home, and I'm running home
down to Gasoline Alley where I was born
When the weather's better and the rails unfreeze
and the wind don't whistle 'round my knees
I'll put on my weddin' suit and catch the evening train
I'll be home before the milk's upon the door
Going home, running home
down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Going home, and I'm running home
down to Gasoline Alley where I was born
But if anything should happen and my plans go wrong
Should I stray to the house on the hill
Let it be known that my intentions were good
I'd be singing in my alley if I could
And if I'm called away and it's my turn to go
Should the blood run cold in my veins
Just one favor I'll be asking of you
Don't bury me here, it's too cold
Take me back, carry me back
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Take me back, won't you carry me home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Take me back, carry me back
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Take me back, carry me back
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Take me back, carry me back
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
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Other reviews
By franc'O'brain
The good intentions are thwarted by the vocal cords of the Londoner of Scottish origin, which, as usual, seem clouded by a layer of post-coital fatigue.
There are a total of 15 tracks, destined for twilight moments, between a nostalgic tear and a yawn.
