Hear the sultry isolated vocals for ‘Maggie May’ by Rod Stewart
Released on the 1971 album Every Picture Tells A Story, ‘Maggie May’ by Rod Stewart details one of the most momentous moments in the young singer’s life: losing his virginity. That might sound a little crude for a pop song, but Stewart’s lyrics are far from gratuitous, painting a warts-and-all portrait of a woman he seems to have known for a very short amount of time indeed.
Stewart was 16 and attending the Beaulieu Jazz Festival near the New Forest. If you think a jazz festival on the grounds of Lord Montagu’s country estate sounds a little staid, think again, buster. In 1960, the year before Stewart attended, thirty-nine revellers were injured when a riot broke out.
According to one BBC commentator, things “got out of hand” when young jazz fans started clambering over the scaffolding platforms holding the television arc lamps in place. Three people were taken to hospital, a girl was hit by a flying beer bottle, and two boys were seriously injured when the scaffolding finally collapsed, which in turn caused the piano to cave in.
This was the kind of chaotic revelry Rod was hoping to experience when he set off to the festival, carrying a backpack covered in CND badges on his back. When he arrived, his expectations were more than met. Young, dumb and hoping for tent-bound action, the aspiring musician soon found himself rolling around with an older woman.
In his memoir, The Autobiography, Stewart describes the experience in some detail: “At 16, I went to the Beaulieu Jazz Festival in the New Forest,” he begins. “I’d snuck in with some mates via an overflow sewage pipe. And there on a secluded patch of grass, I lost my not-remotely-prized virginity with an older (and larger) woman who’d come on to me very strongly in the beer tent. How much older, I can’t tell you – but old enough to be highly disappointed by the brevity of the experience.”
Apparently, Rod was rather nervous and later confessed that the sex was over “in a few seconds.” However, he chose not to divulge that information in ‘Maggie May‘, the title of which comes from a Liverpudlian folk song about a Lime Street prostitute. The track was written while Stewart was working with guitarist Martin Quittenton from Steamhammer. The two met at Martin’s house in Muswell Hill, London, and started tossing around some ideas. Quittenton came up with a rough chord progression, at which point Stewart began singing the words to ‘Maggie Mae’ over an improvised melody. Memories of that night in 1961 came flooding back, giving birth to this classic track.
You can check out Rod Stwart’s isolated vocals for ‘Maggie May’ above.
