The one musical moment Rod Stewart would love to relive again before he dies
Any artist like Rod Stewart can normally have a checklist of every time they had to pinch themselves when making their hits.
There are only so many times that someone can manage to be at the right place at the right time, but Stewart has managed to make a living out of turning the basic elements of rock and roll into absolute magic whenever he got behind the microphone. But even with all the work he has done with The Faces, Jeff Beck and beyond, there are always those musical babies that are a bit more special than others.
Granted, Stewart was forever grateful that he was even able to get a gig in the first place. England was already steeped in the blues when he started singing, and with the help of Long John Baldry, his way of getting his foot in the door with The Faces did give him a solid foundation. ‘Stay With Me’ was a booze-soaked hit that fit perfectly next to all the other blues rockers of the time, but if he had stayed with The Faces, we would be in for a short conversation.
He had room to go solo if he wanted to, but while Gasoline Alley was a fantastic record, but for many rock fans, he was still best known for being the shouter behind the Jeff Beck Group during the Truth era. It takes a miracle for anyone to turn away from what Beck is doing on guitar at the best of times, but even when standing behind the amplifiers, Stewart was already wowing people with that signature rasp when singing along to tunes like ‘You Shook Me’.
If he was treated as a band member for the rest of his life, he would have been happy, but when Stewart started making Every Picture Tells a Story, he needed to get other material out of his system. He had spent years playing straight blues, but there was a lot more folk-rock in his delivery when listening to the title track or ‘Mandolin Wind’. But nothing could have prepared him for what ‘Maggie May’ would do.
Because, really, the thought of the tune being a hit didn’t make any sense to him. It had a couple of nice chord changes throughout the tune, but it’s not like it was going to set the world on fire since it didn’t have any straight chorus. This was the definition of an album track, so it was practically a pipe dream when Stewart saw this simple tune about young lust find its way to the top of the charts.
Many more accolades were to follow, but when asked about the career moments he’d love to relive, Stewart knew it had to be the success of his single, saying, “It probably would be the day Maggie May become number one in Great Britain, you know. And I remember I was driving down Swiss College, a place in London. I heard it on the radio. I knew we would get close to number one, but it was number one.”
But beyond being a catchy tune on the radio, it also gave Stewart a lot more wiggle room for what he wanted to do. There were many options for him to branch out into different areas already, but perhaps the next move that he made didn’t have to cater to blues or even the traditional rock and roll songs that everyone expected out of his raspy voice.
As evidenced by the reception to ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’, it’s not like everyone collectively agreed with his direction, but the public reception didn’t always matter to him. Fans can often be fickle when it comes to what their favourite artists should sound like, but had Stewart not taken a chance on this kind of tune, we probably wouldn’t be talking about him with such reverence today.
