The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 432

Number 432

Rod Stewart

"Maggie May"

(1971)

Genre: Rock

just one more bite .. OK?

The Mighty Rod .... er .. Rod Stewart, that is, has an interesting track record with the ladies. Rod is a pioneer of his time as he was the first person to clone all his girlfriends, therefore never having to put up with one aging. Who says Rock & Roll stars are not rocket scientist's? Rods latest clone, [who he named Penny ... ah, but for a thought] is his latest creation as of 2007. Now if my maths is correct, Rod won't be going back to his laboratory till the year 2013 [which is a bummer as the world ends in 2012] to no doubt create his newest clone [which he will probably announce as Threepence or a single letter of the alphabet - as it will be back in fashion then, eh Elle? .. er]. I will leave the last words to Rod ..... "Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house" Amen brother, Amen.

Rod & clone #3

Rod Stewart may have began his career as a respected singer, yet that respect eroded as he got older, as he became more concerned with stardom than music. While he has recorded some terrible albums -- and he would admit that freely -- Stewart was once rock & roll's best interpretive singer as well as an accomplished songwriter, creating a raw combination of folk, rock, blues, and country that sounded like no other folk-rock or country-rock. Instead of finding the folk in rock, he found how folk rocked like hell on its own. After Stewart became successful, he began to lose the rootsier elements of his music, yet he remained a superb singer, even as he abandoned his own artistic path in favor of following pop trends. With the Jeff Beck Group, Stewart began his climb to stardom. He and the former Yardbird guitarist pioneered the heavy blues-rock team of a virtuoso guitarist and a dynamic, sexy lead vocalist that became the standard blueprint for heavy metal. Truth, the band's debut album, was released in the fall of 1968, becoming a hit in both America and Britain. The Jeff Beck Group toured both countries several times in 1968 and 1969, gaining a dedicated following. In the summer of 1969, they released their second album, Beck-Ola, which became another hit record in both the U.S. and U.K. However, the group fell apart in the fall.

Rod & clone #6

After rejecting an offer to join the American rock group Cactus, Stewart and Jeff Beck Group bassist Ron Wood joined the Small Faces, replacing the departed vocalist/guitarist Steve Marriott. With Wood switching over to guitar, the group shortened their name to the Faces and recorded their debut album, First Step. During this time, Stewart had also signed a solo contract, releasing his first album, An Old Raincoat Won't Let You Down (retitled The Rod Stewart Album for its American release), at the end of 1969; the record failed to chart in the U.K., yet it made it to number 139 on the U.S. charts. On the album, Stewart's folk roots meshed with his R&B and rock influences, creating a distinctive, stripped-down acoustic-based rock & roll that signalled he was a creative force in his own right. The Faces released First Step in the spring of 1970. The album was a departure both from the R&B/pop direction of the Small Faces and the heavy blues of the Jeff Beck Group; instead, the group became a boisterous, boozy, and sloppy Stones-inspired rock & roll band. The album fared better in the U.K. than it did in the U.S., yet the group built a devoted following on both continents with their reckless, messy live shows. Stewart released his second solo album, Gasoline Alley, in the fall of 1970, supporting it with an American tour.

Rod receives award for science!

The following year proved to be pivotal in Stewart's career. At the beginning of 1971, the Faces released their second album, Long Player, which became a bigger hit than First Step, yet his third solo album, Every Picture Tells a Story, made Rod Stewart a household name, reaching number one in both America and Britain. "Reason to Believe" was the first single from the album, becoming a minor hit in both the countries, but when DJs began playing the B-side, "Maggie May," the single became a number one hit in both the U.K. and U.S. for five weeks in September. The Faces released their third album, A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse, a couple of months later. Thanks to the success of Every Picture Tells a Story, the album was a Top Ten hit in both countries; it also launched the single "Stay with Me," which became the band's only Top 40 hit in the U.S. ~ [Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide]

For Small Faces see Number 706

For Jeff Beck see Number 636

For Rolling Stones see Number 689 & #767

Who or what is Maggie May?

Rod & clone #7

"Maggie May" expresses the ambivalence and contradictory emotions of a young man involved in a relationship with an older woman, and is thought to have been written from Stewart's own experience. The song was Stewart's first substantial hit as a solo performer and launched his solo career. It remains, arguably, his best-known song. A famous live performance of the song on Top of the Pops saw The Faces joined onstage by DJ John Peel, who pretended to play the mandolin (the mandolin player on the recording was Ray Jackson of Lindisfarne). Stewart himself was amused by the song's success, saying, "I still can't see how the single is such a big hit. It has no melody. Plenty of character and nice chords, but no melody." ~ [Source: Wikipedia]

What does Rolling Stone think of the Rod?

"Maggie May," purportedly about a schoolboy's ill-fated romance with a floozy, is debatably the album's most wonderful selection, with an irresistible tune and an overall sound that somehow evokes a warm late-summer afternoon. It's got charming words and is beautifully played by all present, with a celeste chiming in ever so charmingly here and there. Exhilarating is the only way to describe the mandolin break at the end. Boring as half of it may be, there's enough that is unqualifiedly magnificent on the other half of Every Picture Tells A Story to make it clearer than ever before that if Rod Stewart ever allows himself the time to write himself a whole album, it will be among the best albums any of us has ever heard. Until such time, a lot of souls will have no choice but to truck about half-saved. ~ [Source: Rolling Stone 1971] they love the rod

Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '432nd Song of all Time' was "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight & The Pips. Gladys Knight has not appeared in The Definitive 1000.