I spent a little bit of time during my college years trying to find this week's featured tune on a Rod Stewart album (sounds quaint, but this would have been many years before the internet), only to find out after I began working at Camelot Music that Stewart had been in another band and that they had actually recorded it. I'm sure it's shown up on one of his many hits packages through the years, but it forced me to give a Faces greatest hits collection a listen, and that was quite fortuitous as they turned out to be a hell of a band in their own right.
I wrote about the Faces in Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXVI, and precious little has changed about the band's history or its remaining members who are still alive (though it was reported last year that those three members were recording new music, but nothing has as of yet been released). Otherwise, Rod Stewart is still touring and making music, Ronnie Wood is still with the Rolling Stones, and Kenney Jones is doing whatever it is that old fart wealthy drummers who whine about their taxes do.
"Stay with Me" was the first single from their 1971 album, the wondrously titled A Wink Is as Good as a Nod...to a Blind Horse (would easily rank in the top ten of all time cleverest album titles). The single reached #17 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and #6 in their native U.K. but it's best showing was at #4 in Canada (so many cool kids in the Great White North!). The album went to #2 in Great Britain and #6 here in the States.
"Stay with Me" is a rollicking number that tells the somewhat tawdry tale of a man asking a woman to stay the night...but to make sure she's gone in the morning. Somewhat oddly for a hit single, the band--most notably Ronnie Wood on guitar--plays some balls out rock and roll for almost a minute before Stewart's vocals kick in. Throughout the song, the band absolutely shines--Ian McLagan on keyboards, Wood on guitar, and Jones on the drums literally push the accelerator to the floor from beginning to end. All in all, though, the song is a perfect illustration of why Rod Stewart is considered one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time. With swagger ("Guitar!") and humor ("What was your name again?"), Stewart sings from the gut, and from the heart, and electrifies the band note by note and word by word. A truly great performance from a truly great band.
Lyric Sheet: "Red lips, hair, and fingernails/I hear you're a mean old Jezebel/Let's go upstairs and read my Tarot cards..."
Enjoy:
Republican = Traitor
Peace,
emaycee
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