With John Fardy away this week, Hot Press journalist Colm O'Hare joined Shane for an 'interesting' (Shane's choice of word) choice for this week's Cultural Toolbox. The album in question is Rod Stewart's critical and commercially successful third album, 1971's Every Picture Tells a Story.
Colm started by discussing the 'mixed critical reception' that Stewart has faced in recent years. "Nick Horny said... 'being a Rod Stewart fan in the 70s didn't make you the coolest kid in the class - but it was nothing to be ashamed of'. That wouldn't have been the case much, much later... but back then he was highly thought of by a lot of people".
Colm mentioned that before Rod's solo career, he was knocking around as a jobbing musician, and this album brought together a lot of different influences.
Shane agreed, pointing out "it's very difficult to define this album - there's blues, there's folk, there's rock. It's a bit of everything".
What makes Every Picture Tells a Story such a memorable album, aside from iconic singles like Maggie May? Colm argued, "it's a great sounding album - that's the thing about albums from those days, each studio had a distinctive sound. There's lots of acoustic stuff on it - there are mandolins, there are fiddles. There's folk, there's rock and there's a bit of soul.
"It has a kind of an atmosphere, kind of a devil may care attitude," he added, explaining how Rod's band used to have a bar on stage.
Colm also suggested that Rod Stewart is "a serious muso. He was very good at picking good songs. He could write a little bit, but he was smart enough to know he wasn't prolific enough to come up [with more]". Rod wrote the song Mandolin Wind on this album, which Colm called a 'lovely song... a pastoral, kind of folky song.'
Rod Stewart might not always enjoy the most generous response in 2015, but Every Picture... remains a mainstay on 'greatest album of all time' lists. And as Colm said, "he's very, very hard to dislike. He puts on great shows. The last time I saw him in the RDS in 2007 he put on two nights in a row. It was just terrific... he's more influential than people would like to admit".
