Rod Stewart: Never A Dull Moment - 1972

"The album is the last of Rod Stewart's epic fusions of hard rock and folk" - Stephen Thomas Erlewine - AllMusic

 

Rod Stewart's fourth solo album follows the same excellent blues-folk-soul-rock path that was so successful on the previous year's Every Picture Tells A Story. Once again, members of The Faces make large contributions so the album is, once again, very much like a Faces album.

True Blue is a fabulous rocking opener - great riffs, drums, blues rock vocals from Stewart and another one of those Stay With Me rocking instrumental (with added vocals) endings that end things on such a high note.

Lost Paraguayos was one of those mandolin-drive folky rock workouts like Reason To Believe and Mandolin Wind. Again, excellent, thumping drum backing from Kenney Jones and top notch work from the whole band. It contains some dodgy lyrics about sex with an underage girl and ending up in a Mexican jail as a result. Good old Rod, eh? Just this side of the law, it seems.

Mama You Been On My Mind. The quality continues into this impressive, steel guitar-dominated Dylan cover. As mentioned in the review of the previous album, Stewart rarely, if ever, gets his Dylan covers wrong. 

Italian Girls is a pure Faces-style rocker, dominated by Ronnie Wood's guitar and yet another convincing Stewart vocal. Although he cut so many songs like this, I can always find time for them. Classic Rod is classic Rod. Stewart's tribute to the recently-deceased Jimi Hendrix, Angel, is both soulful and beautiful. A worthy dedication to a great, departed genius. Stewart turns it into a valedictory anthem, his vocal truly soaring. Interludings is a brief bit of what it says it is - interludings. Written by Ronnie Wood's brother. 

The massive hit single You Wear It Well is almost the match of Maggie May. It gets as much radio play, even now, and is up there in Rod's top five. It is another "character" song about a woman, in the Maggie May mould. Its intriguing lyrics certainly are worn well in the song. "I've been meaning to phone yah, but from Minnesot-agh...". This has Stewart showing off his vocal affectations to the max. 

This album also sees Stewart impressively taking on the Etta James soul classic, I Would Rather Go Blind, rather in the fashion he attacked The Temptations' I Know I'm Losing You, full of grit, blues energy and balls. Rod could cover soul, make no mistake about that. Once again, The Faces and the other musicians are outstanding on this. 

Then, to finish, Stewart covers Twistin' The Night Away, a song from another of his heroes, Sam Cooke and it is a true delight - fast, rocking, full of soulful vigour and marvellously catchy. Oh, and there is that great drum rat-a-tat bit near the end. Heaven. 

While there are only four original tracks present on the album - True Blue, Lost Paraguayos, Italian Girls and You Wear It Well it is of no matter as the covers are of such a high quality that it still makes for an excellent album. The original 8-track cartridge release apparently included the country-rock hit single What Made Milwaukee Famous, which was ok, but somewhat lightweight and certainly is not missed here. 

Incidentally, I always thought Rod looked decidedly strange on the front cover.

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