(Credits: Far Out / Warner Bros. Records)
When looking at rock and roll, it’s always about more than the typical blues structure that everyone goes back to. Bands like Cream and Led Zeppelin may have perfected what could be done with the blues on their albums, but Rod Stewart felt that was only one piece of his sound when working in The Faces or The Jeff Beck Group.
He had more musical faces, and Every Picture Tells a Story was the first time most of us heard something more than rock and roll belting. Stewart had been inhabiting folk music on his breakout solo record, but throughout history, he hasn’t really gotten enough credit for being a musical chameleon.
Some of the shapes that he shifted into might not have been celebrated by everyone, like ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’, but compared to every other 1970s crooner, he actually managed to pull off the transition to synthesisers a lot better than anyone thought on ‘Young Turks’.
But before rock, blues, or even folk music, Stewart’s first love always came from listening to old soul classics. Many of the greatest crooners of his childhood held a special place in his heart, and while people like Sleepy John Estes may have been a mainstay in many British kids’ households at the time, he was cuing up The Temptations and trying to channel his inner David Ruffin.
The world of Motown Records already set up what was essentially the Avengers of soul music, but before there was a Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke gave everyone a taste of what real soul could be. Ray Charles was practically the inventor of the genre, but if he was playing the tunes everyone wanted to hear, songs like ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ was the first time people got to hear a genuine form of protest music delivered with the same ethereal beauty as any other pop masterpiece.
While Stewart held Cooke in high regard, he had a different response when asked which of Cooke’s songs he wished he could have written, saying, “‘You Send Me’. I always find when I do a Sam Cooke song, I’m a poor imitation of him. I just hear myself trying to sound like Sam Cooke. It’s a waste of time. I’ll never do a Sam Cooke song again. There’s honesty for you!” Listening to Stewart’s voice, though, he does have a bit of that soulful croon in him.
That signature rasp is what everyone remembers when listening to his classics, but hearing the way that he holds on notes is truly reminiscent of Cooke’s style. Whereas singers like Mariah Carey have created their own lane of melismatic notes that sound like they have been ripped out of a gospel choir, Cooke was always tasteful when he used it, often bringing that one smidge of spice to tracks like ‘You Send Me’.
Thus, when Stewart claimed that he would never sing a Cooke song again, it was never meant to be out of disrespect. There’s simply no way of topping the kind of perfection that the man set for everyone else, and while it could get a little too much for some fans, no one could argue that every line coming out of his mouth in the early days was absolutely pitch-perfect whenever he performed.
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