Warner Brothers, who has started a program of rereleasing Rod Stewart's catalog with deluxe editions, is digging extra deep into their vaults for The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998. The four-disc set contains 63 tracks from throughout Stewart's career including alternate versions and previously unheard songs. The album will be out on September 29.
More than a third of THE ROD STEWART SESSIONS 1971-1998 chronicles the torrent of indelible recordings Stewart unleashed during the ’70s. Fittingly, the set opens with a decidedly rough take of Maggie May, the #1 hit from Stewart’s third solo album–Every Picture Tells A Story–that broke him as a solo artist in 1971. SESSIONS offers alternate versions of well-known hits from that era such as Sailing, Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright), You Wear It Well, and an acoustic version of You’re In My Heart (The Final Acclaim). Alongside those are rarities like the unfinished Think I’ll Pack My Bags (which later appeared on Ron Wood’s solo debut rewritten as Mystifies Me), an early version of So Tired that finds the band working out the arrangement in the studio, and an acoustic version of the B-side Rosie. Of special note is the rumored-to-exist but never heard—until now—sequel to The Killing of Georgie; Innocent (The Killing of Georgie Part III) completes the epic narrative begun on 1976's A Night On The Town album with a ferociously rocking performance taken from the sessions for the following year's Foot Loose & Fancy Free. Stewart ended the decade with a hits package that was to include his cover of British pub-rocker Frankie Miller’s When I’m Away From You that has remained unreleased until now.
SESSIONS touches on six albums Stewart released during the ’80s, including Foolish Behaviour (1980), which was originally intended to be a double album, but was eventually scaled back to a single disc. Along with an early version of the album track Oh God, I Wish I Was Home Tonight the collection also features four unreleased tracks presumably destined for the second disc Time Of My Life, TV Mama, Stupid, and Buddy Holly’s Maybe Baby. While the multitracks for Tonight I’m Yours (1981) have gone missing, the producers managed to recover an unreleased song called Thunderbird from the session’s only surviving mixdown tape. The collection closes out the decade with several tracks from Out Of Order (1988), including a tender reading of Forever Young that features Stewart accompanied only by a piano and the improvised in the studio and then abandoned I Go To Jail For You.
The final SESSIONS disc is dedicated to Stewart’s resurgence as an artistic and commercial force in the ’90s. It begins with six songs recorded in the summer of 1992 that were shelved in favor of Unplugged…And Seated, including a cover of Bob Dylan and The Band’s This Wheel’s On Fire, and an all-star remake of the 1969 Python Lee Jackson song (originally also sung by Rod) In A Broken Dream, which features Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. Also included is Stewart’s cover of Bobby Womack’s Looking For A Love, which was surprisingly left off A Spanner In The Works (1995) and a version of Oasis’ Rockin’ Chair that he recorded for When We Were The New Boys (1998).
The full track list is after the cut. Maggie May (Early Version) Seems Like A Long Time (Alternate Version) Italian Girls (Early Version) You Wear It Well (Early Version) Lost Paraguayos (Alternate Version) I'd Rather Go Blind (Alternate Version) Angel (Alternate Version) Think I'll Pack My Bags (Early Version of Mystifies Me) Farewell (Early Version) Girl From The North Country (Alternate Version) (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Man (Alternate Version) So Tired (Early Version) This Old Heart Of Mine (Alternate Version) To Love Somebody (Early Take) Sailing (Alternate Version) Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright) (Early Take) The First Cut Is The Deepest (Alternate Version) Rosie (Acoustic Version) Innocent (The Killing Of Georgie Part III) Hot Legs (Early Take) You're In My Heart (The Final Acclaim) (Acoustic Version) I Was Only Joking (Early Take) Scarred & Scared (Early Take) When I'm Away From You Oh God, I Wish I Was Home Tonight (Early Version) Time Of My Life TV Mama Maybe Baby Stupid Guess I'll Always Love You (Alternate Version) The Great Pretender (Acoustic Version) Thunderbird Dancing Alone (Alternate Version) I Wish You Would Sweet Surrender (Alternate Version) Show Me Ghetto Blaster (Early Version) Satisfied (Alternate Version) Hard Lesson To Learn (Alternate Version) Heaven In My Life (Piano Version) Love Is A Four Letter Word Forever Young (Piano Version) My Heart Can't Tell You No (Alternate Version) I Go To Jail For You A Good Lover Is Hard To Find Let The Day Begin (Alternate Version) The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar (Alternate Version) Windy Town (Piano Version) In A Broken Dream (1992) This Wheel's On Fire I Wanna Stay Home I'm A King Bee Looking For A Love Kiss Her For Me The Long Journey Home Now That You're On Your Own Dylan's Day Off On And On Rockin' Chair Sugar Lips The Changingman May You Never
Warner Brothers, who has started a program of rereleasing Rod Stewart's catalog with deluxe editions, is digging extra deep into their vaults for The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998. The four-disc set contains 63 tracks from throughout Stewart's career including alternate versions and previously unheard songs. The album will be out on September 29.
Comments (2)
i've heard rod's lookin for a love and its killer. worth it for that track alone. before he made the literal atlantic crossing, rod the mod was a real blue eyed blues force to be reckoned with. at last a document to prove it!
Wow, I can't believe I'm just finding out about this box set. Gonna pick it up on the way home.
Rod deserves all the crap you can throw at him these days I suppose, but he's criminally underrated for his early work. He was right up there with the best of them, and better than most in my book.