![]() ![]() Yet Never a Dull Moment lives up to its title. Hepworth’s rocktastic perspective means he misses a trick or two 1971 was also the year reggae insinuated itself in the British psyche via hits such as Dave and Ansell Collins’s Double Barrel, and if you are looking for 1971 music with “afterlife”, Al Green and Curtis Mayfield deserve attention. Truly this was another country, though one whose music remains all too familiar, thanks to “heritage rock”, a concept Hepworth also traces to 1971 the year saw a burst of nostalgia exemplified by Don McLean’s American Pie and George Lucas’s American Graffiti. To counterbalance rock’s youthful glamour, Hepworth begins his book with a sobering sketch of everyday UK life: no mobile phones, 70,000 telephone boxes, two-thirds of the population have no bank account, smokers everywhere (even in hospitals) and “the only people with tattoos got them in the services”. These were bruisers, “not a hippy among them”, who realised pop’s new money‑making power. Promoter Bill Graham’s mother had died in Auschwitz, Zeppelin manager Peter Grant was an East End evacuee, producer Tom Dowd had worked on the Manhattan Project. To what is often a familiar story Hepworth brings rare perspicacity into the business machinations of the era, whose movers and shakers were, as he points out, often from a previous, less starry-eyed generation. The vestiges of 60s idealism fell away after 1971, there was no “underground”, everything was mainstream.Įven the staid Tapestry marked the emergence of a new kind of record buyer – young women, who identified with “themes of shelter, stability and trust… Carole King became the sister they might have had”. Palatial 24-track studios became the norm, their productions marketed with a new slickness, not least on FM radio with its freshly arrived concept of AOR. Arena rock reached new heights of grandiosity – Led Zeppelin at the Sam Houston Coliseum rather than the Bath Pavilion – with live albums such as the Allman Brothers’ At Fillmore East acquiring fresh importance. George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh provided the template for subsequent charity bashes. The year’s innovations came in many forms. “TV was nowhere, movies were in retreat, music was king,” he justly claims. Yet he is surely right that ’71 marked a step change in pop history, one driven as much by the industry’s commercial clout as by its music, fecund and memorable though that often was. Previous years had hardly been short of groundbreaking bestsellers, while Hepworth, who wears his nostalgia on his sleeve, concedes that the music of one’s youth inevitably rings most potently. ![]() His scratchy, but soulful voice lends itself to these type of songs.Rod Stewart is 'dressed like a disreputable clerk out of Dickens… a gifted cynic who knew the arts of survival'Īs much is contestable. He should go back to doing these types of folksy "blue-eyed soul" songs. Myla from San Diego, CaOne of my favorite Rod Stewart songs.The folksy blue-eyed soul stuff, which he is known for, is Rod at his best!! Jim from Long Beach, CaMyla, Well said!! This on the Rod Stewart that I know and love.Mark from Jefferson City, MoThis is before he turned into a Barry Manilow wannabe.'After all the years I hope it's the same address'. Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn August 20th 1972, "You Wear It Well" by Rod Stewart entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #87 and on October 8th, 1972 it peaked at #13.He actually hates writing lyrics.īut the fact is. Rod Stewart doesn’t rate himself as a good songwriter. Who had recently ended her marriage to Peter Sellers. He dumped her for the very famous Britt Ekland. Unlike all his later girlfriends, she wasn’t very pretty, especially when she smiled.īut she had Rod Stewart’s chief obsessions. Rod Stewart was often away for long periods touring when he was dating her. I wonder if this song is about his kinda first English girlfriend. The way any guy talks to or discusses a girlfriend. I think that is why his songs were so successful. It has always been, for me, like the song is written about me. Melinda from AustraliaWhy is it that Rod Stewart’s songs from this early period always seemed to be written to the heart of every girl who loved his songs.AnonymousRod said once that the song about his ex JoJo Lane Lane who later married Denny Laine.From The Darkside from U S ACould this be a song for Princess Margret?. ![]()
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