“It was annoying”: How Rod Stewart got away with ripping off his bandmate
There are no rules when it comes to pop music. Some people might claim to be one of the greatest artists to ever touch the Earth, but it only takes a few bad decisions and a couple of people to tear someone back down to zero if they have the right idea. But for someone who was at the top like Rod Stewart was, he wasn’t always careful when paying attention to the people behind his classic tunes.
When Stewart was first starting, though, there was no reason to think that he wouldn’t still be a part of The Faces. While he had previous stints with The Jeff Beck Group, his bluesy rasp on songs like ‘Stay With Me’ became the group’s calling card for years, so hearing him make something that was meant to be folksy on Every Picture Tells A Story had a good chance of being ignored by the public if he didn’t have the right songs.
And it’s not like Stewart was looking to break free from The Faces. There was simply some tunes that he needed to get out of his system that were never going to work with the band’s image, so why not make something on his own? It was a fine enough idea on paper, but once ‘Maggie May’ started gaining traction, the entire world became much bigger than anything Stewart realised.
After his ode to teenage lust took over the world, Stewart was a solo star whether he liked it or not, and he would have plenty more hits in his arsenal. And while a tune like ‘Mandolin Wind’ didn’t have as much of a knockout punch as his previous hit, it fit right in amongst the other albums out at the time. He had that bluesy range, but since this was the era of the singer-songwriter, it fit quite comfortably next to the Carole Kings and James Taylors of the world.
But Stewart needed a band behind him if he wanted to tour the record. He was never the folksy songwriter who could entertain a crowd with a guitar in his hand, and while the sound of the record was absolutely phenomenal, chances are session players like Raymond Jackson weren’t willing to play along with him when he figured out that he didn’t even get acknowledged by Stewart later.
Despite Jackson having an integral role in shaping the song ‘Mandolin Wind’, he remembered that Stewart never gave him proper recognition in the credits, saying, “It was annoying that Rod left my name off the credits [‘The mandolin was played by the mandolin player in Lindisfarne. The name slips my mind’ according to the sleeve]. I asked him later: ‘Surely you could have got the information from the company?’ But he didn’t apologise. My mandolin made it whole, if you like, glued it all together.”
That wouldn’t even be the last time that Stewart found himself in hot water with his instrument choices. Fans were already pissed off for having to deal with the fallout of ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’, but beyond the dejected rock and roll fans, Stewart ended up stealing from Jorge Ben Jor by taking from the song ‘Taj Mahal’.
Even if Jackson’s performance helped shape Stewart’s career, his story is a lesson that most artists need to learn the hard way. It would be a no-brainer for people to get the credit they deserve, but all’s fair in love and rock and roll when the artist starts moving on to their next project.
