Rod Stewart

The previous review hits it on the head, these two were huge fans of The Jeff Beck Group, The Faces, and Rod's first 4 solo albums, however, they tear into most of his late '70's stuff. For me (I became a fan in '85 - "People Get Ready" {and that's when I bought this book for $ 1.00})the image at that time was cringe-worthy, but he was writing & recording some of his best music. 3/4 of "A Night on the Town" is very good, "Foot Loose..." is great thoughout, "Blondes..." has some of my favorite tracks ever - "Scarred & Scared", "Is That the Thanks I Get", "Ain't Love a Bitch", "Attractive Female Wanted", and "Foolish Behavior" has only one duff - "Better off Dead". It's also kinda funny that right when this book was published (2/81) Rod was putting out his best album in years - "Tonight I'm Yours". If these two are still around, they're probably ripping their hair out with what Rod's doing now - The Great American capitalist cash in.

At first glance, this is nothing more than a typical soft cover fanzine loaded with pics. But authors Lester Bangs and Paul Nelson, two of Rolling Stones best writers in the 70s, make this something much more than a quick bio filled with myths and facts. Instead the two give their opinions on Rod's career from its beginning through 1980. (Nelson actually worked with Stewart at Mercury records in the early 70s). What makes this such an unusual animal is that for the most part, the pair really hate Rod Stewart's 1975-80 output, so much of the book is a criticism of what happened to Rod Stewart,--they often ponder if his selling out was something he could recover from and why it happened in the first place. (Thank God the pair are not around to see Rod's 2006 complete sell-out called "Still the Same....Great Rock Classics"). Such a book was destined to fail as fans really don't want to read a book criticizing their hero. But anyone with an open mind, and anyone with a desire to read great rock critics bemoaning the loss of one their favorite rock stars will find this a great book. I've read it about ten times and absolutely love it. Good luck finding it!