Should Rod Stewart have stayed with the Faces?

Yeah, his best work - with and without said Faces - was that early to mid 70s period. Look at it another way; if Rod and the Faces had stayed together into the mid 80s, how would they have looked/sounded? All synth and electronic drum machines? Gone all poodle-perm a la Jovi/Van Halen/Whitesnake etc? The Faces doing that?? It paints an awful picture. Rod on his own got away with it. They would never have. As much as I hated it, they split at the right time.

 

I even like "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" for what it is. What most people never got are that the lyrics are a wry third-person observation of a rather pathetic single-bar scene. It's as much about making fun of disco as it is being part of it. Everyone thought Stewart was singing about himself. Not that it hurt sales of the record, of course. And maybe that double-entendre was somewhat intended?

 

Leaving Faces was OK. Should have stayed with Jeff Beck, though!!

 

It's a fun discussion to have, but it's totally hypothetical.
Rod was always going to be about Rod. The Faces -- both big-F and small-f -- never mattered.
Exhibit A is the album credits on "Every Picture Tells a Story."
Most already know this, but to me it's very telling -- instead of crediting Ray Jackson for his magnificent mandolin contribution -- the contribution that arguably single-handedly turned a B-side of "Maggie May" into an international smash -- Rod Stewart couldn't even remember his name. He just credited "that mandolin player from Lindesfarne."
Bollocks.

 

In his autobiography, he mentions that would've been totally happy to have remained in Faces...

 

Rod 'got away with it' in as far as making a pile of cash goes. His music cred ended up round his ankles though imo. Once you end up being parodied on The Kenny Everett Show it's game over. I don't think dear old Ronnie Lane would have gone there and of course, Woody didn't.

 

It would be nice if Rod Stewart could reunite with The Faces for a special tour. The humble Ron Wood has been fine with rejoining them for tours and I don't believe other vocalists can fill the shoes of Stewart in The Faces.

 

I suppose it depends on how you feel about the musicians he used. Personally I would rather shoot myself, hang myself and then shoot myself again rather than listen to someone like Carmen Appice play drums, so that's pretty much me out from c. 1977 onwards.

 

I dunno, I always felt that the Faces were meant to be what they were-a fun loving hard drinking wild and crazy band that really had to have a relatively short existance for it to work. I like that they burned like a Muthaf$cker for a relatively short time in rock's existanace and then poof... they were gone. This vs continuing to "mature" through Rod if they stayed together, putting out decent albums but losing their edge.

 

This is because Rod was saving most of the great songs for his solo albums.

 

Money and billing.

 

Plus the fact that he can't really sing that stuff the way it should sound.

 

Okay - Sailing is a bit much - But the album overall has a great Booker T/Tom Dowd soul vibe, that represents a really striking departure in identity and style from both his English-folkie solo albums *and* the Faces. Normally we applaud artists who grow, and I think, through to 1980 or so, Rod really did keep pushing the envelop artistically

 

Not to forget that Ronnie Lane was long gone from the band by the time Rod left.

 

I agree with all of this except the part about Sailing. Sailing is fantastic.

 

Faces were done as soon as Ronnie Lane left. Stewart couldn't even be bothered turning up for some of the 'Ooh La La' album sessions. As a great final album, it's right up there with 'Abbey Road' for me.

 

I've never understood how people don't get that, either. I guess lots of people listen, but they don't 'HEAR'. When they heard 'The Killing Of Georgie' did they think he was in the closet?.

 

He might have done well as a solo artist, but we fans missed out on what could have been one of the best bands of all time. I still love those albums, most folks here in America don't have a clue that Ronny Wood was ever in a band before the Stones...and Kenny Jones was just the guy that replaced Kieth Moon. The Album Plonk did with Pete Townshend is a gem too.

 

I love Faces...but if Rod would have stayed with them, they would have sounded and charted a lot like Frankie Miller did. Same sound, but pub rock apparently just didn't sell anymore. Ronnie Lane left and carried on with a respectable solo career, utilizing his talents in a creative way. Rod Stewart left and quickly proved he had little talent and no creativity, and has forever since been a pawn of the record companies.

 

OK, then why can't I get "Some Guys Have All The Luck" out of my head?

And I read fairly recently that ol' Rod has outsold all his contemporaries, and I mean ALL of them, thanks to his American songbook records. He may have been "rock" with Jeff Beck and The Faces (and that's the stuff I prefer), but he became a megastar as a solo artist.

 

I for the most part agree, but Blondes was a great, fun, silly album.

 

And while I adored the Faces box set, I like what Rod did on his own very much (songbooks excluded). "Footloose and Fancy Free" ranks among my top 3 albums for him.

 

That is - IMO, natch - a great album. For me, it was his last great one, although 'Foolish Behaviour' has its moments.

 

Rod Stewart's checking account says no.