Rod Stewart: A Night On The Town - 1976

Of the albums released after Rod Stewart "sold out" and became a somewhat preposterous, preening superstar, this is by far my favourite. I prefer it to the incredibly successful predecessor Atlantic Crossing. It is packed full of excellent, riffy rock songs and big rock ballads of the sort that Stewart did so well. 

The "slow side" starts with the smoochy Tonight's The Night. Here we get the sensual, seductive majesty of this knee-trembler with Rod going all lecherous - the lusty cocksman telling his innocent and apparently virginal young companion just exactly how good her night is going to be. It is ludicrously horny and corny, of course, but who cares, I can't help but love it. The original recording had Rod's squeeze at the time, Britt Ekland, sighing and cooing in French all over the end part. Subsequent releases have deleted it out, which was a shame as the vocals added a certain erotic atmosphere. 

The First Cut Is The Deepest is an absolutely stonking cover of Cat Stevens' tender original. Stewart turns it into a soulful anthem. I remember him coming on to Top Of The Pops to sing it in make-up! Heaven help us....where had the hard-drinking, scruffy lad from the Faces gone? 

A beautifully romantic tribute to a lover, with our Rod preferring her - luckily for her - to Streisand, Bardot and Loren - Fool For You is very much a typical mid-seventies Rod Stewart melodic organ-driven ballad.  

This was a truly remarkable song. A slow tempo, moving narrative about a friend of Stewart's killed (possibly) for being gay in the mid-seventies in New York. It may seem strange now, but a song like this was genuinely ground-breaking in 1976. Songs treating homosexuals sympathetically were extremely thin on the ground. Stewart's song was extremely tender and sensitive, coming from such an obvious "lad". Fair play to him at the time. 

The second side was the "fast" side, to get you in the mood for a night out. It is full of classic Stewart rock and The Balltrap is a pulsating tale about having continual sexual encounters with the same woman, who has poor old Rod firmly by the balls, it would seem. 

Manfred Mann's wonderful mid-sixties hit, Pretty Flamingo, is covered soulfully in true Stewart style, not detracting from the original in any way, making it sort of his own. I've always loved both the original and this one. Big Bayou is a pounding, horn-driven rocker for you here, I guess its original was swampy, but Rod makes it his own, in true barnstorming fashion. The Wild Side Of Life was later covered rockingly by Status Quo, here the song is given a barroom honky-tonk makeover. 

Trade Winds was recorded earlier in the seventies by both Roberta Flack and similarly gravel-throated (to Rod) Scottish blueser Maggie Bell, this captivating ballad ends proceedings on a slow tempo note but ending in a big singalong chorus. It's a good one. In many ways this is a commercial album that gets critically-ignored, which is a shame as it has hidden depths. A quick half hour of this every now and again is good for you. "Loosen off that pretty French gown.....".