The 1980s rock band Rod Stewart said needed to grow up: “Just haven’t matured”
Every rock star that has been around as long as Rod Stewart knows when to change with the times.
Even though he could have kept playing boozy rock and roll with The Faces, the fact that he could reach outside of his comfort zone and embrace the sounds of the 1980s or try his hand at being one of the leading figures of disco rock was never out of the question for him. But even though there were many new bands that he took a liking to, there were more than a few times when he could be a bit of a curmudgeon when hearing about kids complaining about their situation.
Then again, isn’t that what all great rock and roll is supposed to be? Some of the biggest names in music have usually adopted that ‘angry young man’ mentality whenever they made their first records, and even when some of them end up building a legacy for themselves, they want to keep that fire burning all the time. But that’s not the way that Stewart thought about things every time he played.
He knew that ‘Satisfaction’ had a bad attitude about it, but his version of the blues was all about trying to deal with the happier side of life. His heroes were people like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, and he wanted the chance to be able to make songs that made his audience feel alive every time he played. He could cater towards the dark side of life when he wanted to, but even in the age when he was singing ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’, no one could have prepared the world for punk rock.
The entire ethos of the genre was about tearing down the flashier stars of the day, and Stewart was no exception when he started performing. ‘Hot Legs’ may have been a great song for the time, but it was no match for people like John Lydon and Joey Ramone, thrashing every single club to the ground when they played. But even if Stewart liked his fair share of punk, he had a little bit of a bone to pick with The Clash.
Which is strange, considering they were one of the most accessible bands of the time. They wrote great pop songs throughout their career, but they just happened to be about politics and the problems facing the man on the street. Everyone could relate to them in one form or another, but Stewart felt that Joe Strummer and Mick Jones needed to lighten up a bit if they wanted to be one of the true greats.
Their music was still fantastic, but Stewart could have done with them growing up a bit rather than hearing them whine on every track, saying, “‘The Magnificent Seven’ is wonderful, one of the best tracks of last year, I reckon, and ‘Hitsville U.K.’ should have been a big hit. But you can’t keep whining and moaning about the state of the bloody world for the rest of your life. The so-called saviors of rock & roll, and I include the Clash in that, just haven’t matured.”
And while Stewart can gloat that he was right when the band ended up falling out over business decisions, it was never about them maturing. The reason why a lot of their songs hold up is because of how much people realise that they had more food for thought than your average punk, and everyone even thinking about becoming a rock and roll star could take a few cues from some of their deep cuts like ‘Safe European Home’ and ‘Complete Control’.
It could have been interpreted as whining by their peers, but Strummer wasn’t about to apologise for speaking his mind whenever he made a record. Some of the best rock and roll was made by people who wanted to push back against authority, and for a brief moment in time, the phrase ‘The Only Band That Mattered’ was one of the best descriptions that any band could have asked for.
