Track Listing

1. Street Fighting Man
2. Man of Constant Sorrow
3. Blind Prayer
4. Handbags & Gladrags
5. Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down
6. I Wouldn't Ever Change a Thing
7. Cindy's Lament
8. Dirty Old Town

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26771 in Music
• Released on: 1998-03-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.com
Freshly split from the hard-edged Jeff Beck Group and about to join the anarchic Faces, Rod Stewart rocked out on his solo debut, but did so largely with the backing of acoustic instruments, reinventing songs like the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man" and Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town" with an appealing mix of rootsy, bluesy slide guitars and his own gravelly vocals. Backed with French horn and flutes, Mike D'Abo's "Handbags and Gladrags" has a gorgeous chamber-pop feel, and Stewart contributes five original tunes, including "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down" (the title track of the album's original English edition). Clocking in at only 33 minutes, The Rod Stewart Album is brief, but it's a brilliant kick-off to the singer's long and storied solo career. --Daniel Durchholz

Customer Reviews

****1/2. Underrated
Rod Stewart's first solo album, and the first in a tour-de-force of four sublime records, was retitled "The Rod Stewart Album" in the US, apparently because Stewart's American distributors felt that the original title ("An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down") was too quirky and "British".

Opening with an acoustic rendition of the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man", "The Rod Stewart Album" presented a raw combination of primarily acoustic folk, rock, blues and country which rocked harder than any other folk-rock or country-rock, and Stewart would continue in the same vein for another three albums. Three albums which, along with this one, remain the best in his career: "Gasoline Alley", "Every Picture Tells A Story", and "Never A Dull Moment".

The sound is very good, and the musicianship is never less than excellent. Michael Waller pounds the drums. Ron Wood plays bass and guitar (including some excellent slide work) alongside guitarists Martin Pugh and longtime Stewart-ally Martin Quittenton. And another Faces member, the great Ian MacLagan, lends a hand (or two), adding his sublime piano playing to several songs.

It's hard to point out any particular highlights, because almost everything is great. With this album, Rod Stewart established that rock can sound as rich and timeless as folk, and that folk music can be just as vigorous as rock. And he did this not only as an interpreter, breathing new life into the traditional "Man Of Constant Sorrow", Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town", and Mike D'Abo's "Handbags And Gladrags", but also as a songwriter, penning the tough rockers "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down" and "Cindy's Lament".

Did you see (or hear) Rod Stewart's "unplugged" session? If you did, and if you liked it, pick up this album right away.
4 ½ stars - highly recommended.

I keep coming back
There are a few artists of brilliant natural talent who seem unable to manage their careers after their initial success. I'm not talking about one-hit wonders, but genuine talents who get sidetracked somehow. Elvis is definitely one of them, and so is Rod Stewart. Rod's 80s stuff might be terrible (some of it is at least as bad as Elvis's "movies") but maybe the intelligence and emotion in "Handbags" or the self-awareness and humor of "Every picture tells a story" are still there somewhere. So I find myself continually defending Rod to my friends: "You just don't understand, he used to be SO good." I still predict a late-career comeback for Rod, a la Solomon Burke's "Don't Give up on Me."

Maybe Rod's early succes had something to do with his supporting cast. After all, Mick always had Keith to keep him musically focused. Ron Wood could have played that part for Stewart, but that did not come to pass. For whatever reason, Rod opted for superstardom, and oh the difference to us. (For a five-star album, check out "Every Picture Tells a Story").

FANTASTIC DEBUT!!!!!
This is an amazing solo debut by Rod Stewart, released in 1969 in England as "AN OLD RAINCOAT WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN" (in the US, it received the title "The Rod Stewart Album" - go figure why...).

The band here is tight and focused, Rod sings like never, it blends some very good originals by Rod with some covers. The singing here is full of passion a spontainety, something Rod would come to lose along the way...

Highly recommended.