The 1986 song Rod Stewart knows was ridiculous: “One of the sillier I’ve ever recorded”
There’s never enough room for some lighthearted tunes in rock and roll. This is a genre that was built on tracks that had lyrics like ‘wap-ba-ba-loo-bop a-wap-bam-boom’, so no one’s exactly looking to rewrite Shakespeare every time they make a record.
There was still a baseline of quality to most Rod Stewart songs, but he freely admitted that the song ‘Love Touch’ was far from the most intellectual tune that he ever made.
For an artist who built his reputation on charisma rather than lyrical complexity, Stewart has always been surprisingly honest about the weaker moments in his catalogue. Unlike many veteran musicians who fiercely defend every release, he has never shied away from admitting when a song failed to live up to his own standards.
Looking back on Stewart’s discography, that’s a pretty high bar to clear. While he was never on the level of Bob Dylan or anything, Stewart did have some fine lyrical gems in his catalogue, and could occasionally tug on a few heartstrings when writing tunes like ‘Forever Young’ and ‘Maggie May’.
But at the same time, it’s hard to really see him as a rock legend when he also has ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ under his belt. Just like other fallen heroes like Kiss after him, Stewart got the flair for disco and would forever be looked at as a seasoned jock who suddenly figured that his time would be better served trying to perform ballet.
It’s nothing for artists to switch on a dime like that now, but considering where Stewart was then, it’s a miracle he survived with some dignity intact. Then again, the 1980s brought their own fair share of problems during the synthesiser-pop period of his career.
Despite the idea of his grizzly voice blending with squelchy piano chords making zero sense, there were still some gems to be found in serious tunes like ‘Young Turks’. But even by the wide curve that people judge love songs on, ‘Love Touch’ is one of the desperate attempts to get a lover back as there is in rock and roll, with Stewart claiming that he’s the best that this lady has ever had and consoling her for his bad behaviour.
Although songwriter Holly Knight helped flesh out the tune, Stewart was less than diplomatic about their work together, eventually calling the track “one of the silliest songs I’ve ever recorded”. In retaliation, Knight felt comfortable digging up those musical skeletons all over again, saying, “I was heartbroken and stricken. Like, This is news to me. If you want to talk about a song that is embarrassing lyrically, I would say ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?’ falls in that area.”
For all its faults, though, ‘Love Touch’ is the better song compared to his disco trainwreck. The 1970s version of selling out felt cheap and unwarranted, but the 1980s version of Stewart at least knew better than to try to writhe on the floor like some horned-up dog when trying to apologise to his other half.
Then again, Stewart’s entire career had peaks and valleys like this, so should we even be that surprised that he owned up to one of his tunes being a little bit stupid? It’s not something anyone wants to revisit by any stretch, but considering so many other artists don’t realise when they make something incredibly cringy, it’s nice to know that Stewart is acutely aware of the embarrassing sides of his catalogue.
Stewart’s criticism of ‘Love Touch’ says as much about his personality as it does about the song itself. While plenty of artists spend decades defending every decision they have ever made, Stewart remains refreshingly candid about the highs and lows of his career. Even if ‘Love Touch’ isn’t a song he looks back on fondly, his willingness to laugh at his own mistakes only makes his greatest achievements seem more genuine.
