Graham Reid | | 1 min read
When Rod Stewart's Smiler album came off the shelves at random for this on-going column it was probably the first time it had been on the stereo for 20 years, if not more.
And it is a surprising album.
Surprising in how lazy it was.
Stewart as a songwriter steps back for an album of mostly covers and – in the case of Paul McCartney's lyrical lame but pleasant Mine for Me – cast-offs.
Stewart only gets a couple of co-writes: Farewell with Martin Quittenton (a lesser rewrite of their superb Maggie May of three years previous) and with Faces pal Ron Wood for the rollicking and typically ramshackle Sailor, and the Dixie Toot with the Chris Barber Jazz Band.
Elsewhere he records Elton John and Bernie Taupin's rocking Let Me Be Your Car (with Elton on piano) but that wasn't considered by them much of tune. They didn't record themselves until years later and only released long after that. Another cast-off.
Quite why he decided to cover Aretha's signature song You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman – with the appropriate gender shift although an unnecessarily overwrought arrangement – is a mystery.
More understandable is him choosing Sam Cooke's Bring It On Home and You Send Me for a medley because they came easy to him.
Hard Road by Vanda and Young (of Easybeats fame) is an unmemorable knockabout boogie of the kind you'd find on a Faces or Stones album.
So it's the kind of shabby, lazy album that only a big star could get away with – it went to number one – after a brace of successful albums as he'd got away in the previous four years.
It came at the end of a golden period for Rod the soul singer but with his next album Atlantic Crossing he began the move into superstar status.
Smiler was the album between those poles and is probably best skipped over.
We'll ignore the two slight instrumentals but note that among the better songs are his interpretation of Dylan's Girl From the North Country and . . .
That might be it.
Back to the shelf Rod, and wipe that smile off your face.
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You can hear this album at Spotify here.
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Albums considered in this on-going page of essays are pulled from the shelves at random, so we can get the good, the bad or the indifferent from major artists to cult acts and sometimes perverse oddities.
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