The Rod Stewart “shagging song” that has aged terribly: “Hot legs you can scream and shout”
Of all the hit singles and fan favourites that Rod Stewart has penned over the years, the vast majority have revolved around his appreciation, or lack thereof, for women. From the smash-hit of ‘Maggie May’ chronicling the singer’s earliest sexual experiences, to the somewhat less sentimental ‘Ain’t Love a Bitch’, the Highgate-born singer has never been one to shy away from discussing his sexuality.
Not wishing to elicit a shudder, but it is fair to say that the strained vocals of Rod Stewart have likely provided the soundtrack to various romantic encounters over the course of the singer’s six-decade-long career. However, there is one track in particular that Rod the Mod identifies as one of his “dirty, rude, shagging songs”.
‘Hot Legs’ was released in 1978, taken from his eighth solo album, Foot Loose & Fancy Free. Peaking at number five in the UK singles charts, the track is a blues rock number evoking the 1960s sounds of The Rolling Stones and even Stewart’s own group, Faces. Approaching the barriers of hard rock at points, the song is a fairly standard effort from Stewart, the kind of sound you had come to expect from the mulleted rocker. Its lyrical content, however, was another story entirely.
The track, composed entirely by Stewart himself, revolves around a romantic encounter with an unnamed woman. The singer, who was a well-known womaniser during this period, refers to this woman only by her legs: “Hot legs you’re wearin’ me out, hot legs you can scream and shout.” A painfully objectifying track, it seems a wonder that ‘Hot Legs’ reached such heights of commercial success, as well as remaining a live favourite of Rod Stewart to this day.
Referring to ‘Hot Legs’ as a “dirty, rude, shagging song” becomes all the more cringe-worthy when taking into account that the unnamed pair of legs that the track revolves around belong, not to a woman, but to a school girl. “Hot legs, are you still in school?” Stewart asks within the first verse before removing any ambiguity later on, affirming, “Hot legs, you’re still in school”.
Sadly, this is a near-constant theme in many rock songs of the time. Ted Nugent’s ‘Jailbait’, Kiss’s ‘Christine Sixteen’, Winger’s ‘Seventeen’ and The Knack’s ‘My Sharona’ all deal with a similar age gap and an unwelcome catchy chorus about an older man trying to hook up with a teenage girl.
Stewart, who was in his mid-30s at the time he wrote the track, does not seem to see any issue with his “shagging” song centring around a girl of below 16, saying, “This is what rock and roll is all about for me: raw, with plenty of fighting guitars, and a steady back beat courtesy of Carmine Appice – known for his short arms and long pockets” within his Storyteller anthology.
The singer, now approaching his eighth decade, still holds a candle for the incredibly problematic ‘Hot Legs’. A regular feature of his live show, it seems as though changing societal attitudes since the 1970s have not caught up with Rod Stewart. However, he has previously altered the lyrics to the last verse of ‘Hot Legs’ – presumably to lessen the effects of the horrendously objectifying and misogynistic track. However, it is fair to say he has not been successful in that aim.
The tune feels like a relic from the past, an uncomfortable reminder of rock’s many dirty secrets. To say that it has aged badly is an understatement, but to hear Stewart’s constant defence of the wretch-inducing song is enough to turn your stomach.
