1.
It was after hearing
Specialty Records', Larry Williams
inimitable gravely voice, that Rod Stewart decided
he would become a lead vocalist. With his own
inimitable gravely voice, and his one-of-the-lads
demeanor, and longtime reputation as a master
showman, Rod Stewart became one of the true
superstars of the '70s. A onetime soccer player,
gravedigger, and street singer, Stewart began his
career with U.K. singer Long John Baldry's group
the Hoochie Coochie Men in 1964, moved on to later
groups such as Steam Packet and Shotgun Express,
and established himself internationally in 1968 as
lead vocalist of the Jeff Beck Group.
-----
Before leaving, he signed a
solo deal with Mercury Records that would lead to
1971's international No. 1 smash "Maggie May"; at
the same time, he and Beck Group bassist Ronnie
Wood became key members of reconstituted '60s pop
group the Small Faces. By the time the Faces
disbanded in 1975, Stewart was an enormously
successful solo act and has continued making top
10, platinum-selling albums well into the
'90s. -----
While Stewart's brilliance
as an interpretive singer has often been the major
focus of his acclaim--indeed, many think his
readings of Cat Stevens's "The First Cut Is The
Deepest" and Danny Whitten's "I Don't Want To Talk
About It" are definitive--his song writing skills
are in many ways critically undervalued.
-----
While he has generally
tended to use collaborators--most often band
members or accompanying musicians such as Ronnie
Wood or Martin Quittenton in the early days, Gary
Grainger, Jim Cregan and Carmine Appice later
on--several of his biggest hits, including
"Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright)," "Hot
Legs" and "You're In My Heart (The Final Acclaim)"
were entirely self-penned. -----
In fact, during the earliest
phase of his solo career--between 1969's "The Rod
Stewart Album" and 1971's "Every Picture Tells A
Story"--the singer drew as much critical attention
for the folksy warmth of his song writing style as
his singing prowess. -----
Even later, while Stewart
was scoring top 40 hits with the comparatively
shallow lyrical fare of "Hot Legs", he was also
producing sophisticated and intelligent work such
as the top 30 "The Killing Of Georgie (Part I and
II)," a moving song about the death of one of his
friends.
During the
same period (1969-79) -- Stewart was dogged by
press accounts of his glamorous personal life, which has included a string of notably
beautiful blonde girlfriends and wives (including
Britt Ekland, Alana Hamilton, and current spouse
Rachel Hunter), and his tax-driven 1975 move to
glitzy Los Angeles--which made him a prime target
of celebrity-cruising paparazzi for much of the
decade.
-----
Nonetheless, as musical
trends came and went, whether disco or punk and new
wave rock, Stewart's noteworthy consistency
throughout the '80s won him back much of the
critical admiration he'd lost during the "Sexy"
period. -----
Alternative heroes such as
the Replacements spoke warmly of the singer's early
'70s work with the Faces, and in the '90s, hugely
popular bands such as the Black Crowes reached the
top of the charts playing music obviously deeply
influenced by Stewart. Additionally, the fact that
the singer's 1989 top 5 hit "Downtown Train" was
penned by a critical favorite like Tom Waits
suggested Stewart's taste was as contemporary as
ever; at 45, he was still no dinosaur.
-----
Stewart became (and remains)
an enormously popular concert attraction, and was
one of many older artists to resolidify his career
via one of MTV's Unplugged sessions. Rod Stewart
"Unplugged and Seated", 1993 set, shot to No. 2 and
went double platinum; further, it provided him dual
hits via his remakes of Van Morrison's "Have I Told
You Lately" and Tim Hardin's "Reason To Believe,"
the latter of which he'd originally covered on
1971's Every Picture Tells A Story.
-----
By late 1993, Stewart had
yet another large hit on his hands with "All For
Love," taken from that year's film The Three
Musketeers and featuring the triple-talent lineup
of Stewart, Bryan Adams, and Sting. In 1998, he
released the oddly-titled "When We Were The New
Boys," which actually contained covers of songs by
Oasis, Primal Scream and Waterboy Mike Scott. In
all, three decades into a hit-filled career, Rod
Stewart remains very much in the picture--and that
picture, as the song goes, tells one very
fascinating story.
Rod
Stewart Quotes From
Smiler -----
"I'm a great
model railway enthusiast and I'm building a huge
layout over there in California so that takes up a
little bit of time and football takes up a little
bit of time. And then there's the Children and I
like to go out with the lads two or three times a
week and go completely mad and sometimes I get
barnet done . . . it's still all my own hair, you
know. -----
Which is
more than can be said for Elton. Bald bugger. And
in between all that, I sometimes try to fit in a
bit of music." -----
"I'm a great
model railway enthusiast and I'm building a huge
layout over there in California so that takes up a
little bit of time and football takes up a little
bit of time. And then there's the Children and I
like to go out with the lads two or three times a
week and go completely mad and sometimes I get
barnet done . . . it's still all my own hair, you
know. Which is more than can be said for Elton.
Bald bugger. And in between all that, I sometimes
try to fit in a bit of music.". - - that's
Roderick David Stewart in his own words.
Born
in Highgate, North London,
on 10th January 1945. -----
Rod's father
Robert Joseph Stewart came from King's Port in
Edinburgh, Scotland. Rod's mother, Elsie, came from
Upper Holloway, North London. The Cockney girl fell
for the Scot and the couple married in 1928.
-----
The Stewart
clan began to appear afterwards. Rod's brothers Don
and Bob and his sisters Mary and Peggy were all
born in Scotland. However the family moved to
London to 507 Archway Road, Highgate where after a
gap of eight years, young Roddy was born. This
means that Rod is the only member of the family to
have been born in England, a misfortune which Rod
has tended to overlook.... -----
Thirty minutes
before Roderick was born a big shock had hit the
district in the shape of a German V2 rocket which
made a direct hit on Highgate Police Station. Rod
reflected years later: -----
"I've always
thought that I was very lucky because that bomb
fell just a stone's throw from where I lived. I've
sort of had a feeling that I nearly didn't make
it." -----
Rod Stewart's
childhood was conventional. He lived above the news
agent's shop in Archway Road in North London. The
news agent's shop was owned by the Stewarts
themselves. As already mentioned, Roderick was the
youngest of five so he was spoiled by his family
but of course, he was taught to respect his elders,
especially his parents. -----
He was mainly
interested in football and model railways. He's
never lost that passion over the years. He still
enjoys to play with the model railway and football
is still as important (or even more) to him than it
was way back in the fifties. He was very much
interested in the singer Al Jolson, an American
Jewish baritone, who was very popular in the
thirties. Rod's father and the two brothers were
football fans. They even started a local team
called the 'Highgate Redwings'. -----
Al Jolson was
Rod's great love and many times the Stewart family
would regularly gather around the piano and sing
Jolson's hits. When Rod became older, he started to
read books about him and began to collect his
records. He was very impressed by Jolson's
performing style. Jolson died in 1953. He was Rod's
strongest influence and that stayed with him
throughout his life. -----
Schooldays were
spent at the William Grimshaw Secondary Modern
School in Hornsey. Rod once said about
school: -----
" Horrific!
Primary school, which is from age five to eleven,
was just bearable because it was close to my home .
. . I'm very close to my whole family. But when I
went to Secondary Modern it was about five miles
away and that was unbearable. I really wasn't good
at school and I didn't like it, although I never
missed a day. My favorite subject was probably
history and I was very artistic, good at sketching.
I was real cocky, and that obviously comes from
insecurity. I was real aggressive, taking the piss
out of people all the time". -----
So, Rod felt
that only playing football could be a way he could
earn a living. He practiced as much as possible and
eventually signed apprentice papers with Brentford
FC in West London. Robert Stewart was very pleased
-- however, the apprenticeship wasn't a holiday.
-----
Young Roddy was
expected to get up early in the morning and much to
his dismissal found himself cleaning the first
team's boots most of the time. The training program
didn't appeal to him either and so after a few
weeks, much to Robert Stewart's disappointment, he
decided to leave the place and quit.
BIOGRAPHY
from Smiler tviNews / Biography participation, by
Dave DiMartino
The title always bothered the
singer. It led many to think
Stewart himself was posing the question. "If I ever
wrote a song which put a fly in the ointment or a
spanner in the works--it's this one," Stewart
pointed out in the liner notes to his 1989 career
retrospective, Storyteller/ the Complete Anthology:
1984-1991. "It was frightening, stirring up so much
love and hate at the same time:
-----
Most of the public loved it;
all the critics hated it. I can understand both
positions. Anyway, that was then. By the way, just
to set the record straight. This song is not sung
in the first person and your most humble vocalist
is not singing about himself nor am I praising my
minimal sex appeal. I am but a narrator telling a
story about a
couple."
-----
"To add a few tidbits about
the above", said, Josie Cory, in an interview for
this article, "when with Stewart upstairs in the
stage penthouse where he was getting ready for the
the second video song, and acting as his
hairstylst, he was all business. When I quized him
about the rock disco sound, and the blond Adrian
teen models, Troy had lined up for the shoot, and
which of the songs he thought was going to be the
big hit, Mr. Stewart in a serious round about way,
said, "Blondes have more Fun" . . . was the song
the band got into. His only complaint was the hair
dryer and the towels. The dryer wasn't powerfull
enough and the towels weren't brown . . . so . . .
he sent his assistant out to buy
them.-
---- "In essence", said
Troy, during the same interview for this article,
"I agree with those who say, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy"
and "Blondes Have More Fun", ended the era's Bee
Gee disco trend. "In 1979, we sold the studio to
disco hit maker Donna Sommer, who was just
celebrating her number one chart hit, "Hot
Stuff".
-----
After making a few music
videos, she turned the famous Hollywood studio that
once headquartered the sounds of CBS's Groucho
Marx, NBC's, Steve Allen, Rod Stewart, and my own
syndicated musical/comedy television show, -- into
a religious relic." It was Steve Allen, who used
the Hollywood Ranch Market across the street from
the Studio, as a video location focal point, to
interview people about, "Life in Hollywood".
Click
to learn more About Troy Cory's Vine Street Video
Center.
We Preserve The
Moment Yes90
tviNews S90 Rod Stewart PEOPLE
/
Feature Story
/ •
people/ /
Smart90, lookradio, nbs100, tvimagazine,
vratv, xingtv, Ddiaries, Soulfind,
congming90, chinaexpo, vralogo, Look
Radio, China Expo, Soul Find, s90tv,
wifi90, dv90, nbs 100, Kudoads665 -
Movies
- Television With No
Borders
CLICK
