Rod the Mod

Rod Stewart’s album Every Picture Tells a Story came out in 1971. This was during the last few months that we lived in Bloomington, Indiana where Daddy was working on his Doctorate.

Christ, I hated that town with the odd, ultra, pasty white kids who were constantly jabbing me -- asking me if I was Jewish ‘because you’re so dark,’ the dearth of mountains or even hills, the tiny apartment our family of six was squeezed into and it felt as though we were light years away from home.

Home is and was the east coast, where people say soda not pop and my parents sisters were aunts not ants. //shudder//

Yeah, I lived through those Bloomington days. Music, movies and the drama of anti war demonstrations on the Indiana University campus are to be thanked for that. It was an interesting time but then, aren’t they all.

I saw Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet at a second run theater. Shakespeare’s play and Zefirelli’s production were absolutely perfect for igniting all of my 12 year old romanticism. I wanted to wear those gorgeous, drapey clothes. I wanted to dance those passo e mezzos. I wanted the cute boy to be mad about me. I wanted to BE Juliet.

Recently, I attempted to reread the play and OOF, love my man Will but R&J? Not so much. I’m not the romantic I was at 12 or maybe just in a different way.

Back to Rod though, when WIUX radio first broadcast Maggie May, man, I was riveted. I climbed into his voice and the story he sang.

Mandolin Wind and Every Picture Tells a Story roared past Maggie May as my favs and they still are. I read the lyrics on line now and can hear Rod’s electric, molasses coated, rock slide of a voice welcoming and enveloping me.

Just 99 kinds of tremendous to say the very least.

Why is Rod in my brain this morning? On a lark I picked up his autobiography at the book store last week.  Though I’d fallen out of love with him when he did the execrable ’78 tune ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy‘ he’s still an artist whose work I cherish.

Only now, in reading his story do I get that, quite possibly ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ was just a laugh, a gas, NEVER meant to be taken as anything else. It’s clear, from his story so far, that he’s got a brill sense of humor and is def not up himself at all. Yes he’s got a thing about his hair and clothes (though, mostly, his hair) and that’s just AWESOME!

It blows my mind to realize, only now -- a zillion years on, that the utterly fab-ola album Truth with the brain fryingly phenomenal Shapes of Things, came out three years before in 1968. 

I first heard it in the mid '80s and that's when I fell back in love with Rod the Mod.

from Mandolin Wind

When the rain came I thought you'd leave
Cause I knew how much you loved the sun
But you chose to stay, stay and keep me warm
Through the darkest nights I've ever known
If the mandolin wind couldn't change a thing
Then I know I love ya

Oh the snow fell without a break
Buffalo died in the frozen fields you know
Through the coldest winter in almost fourteen years
I couldn't believe you kept a smile
Now I can rest assured knowing that we've seen the worst
And I know I love ya

from Every Picture Tells a Story

Paris was a place you could hide away
If you felt you didn't fit in
French police wouldn't give me no peace
They claimed I was a nasty person
Down along the left bank minding my own
Was knocked down by a human stampede
Got arrested for inciting a peaceful riot
When all I wanted was a cup of tea
I was accused
I moved on

Down in rome I wasn't getting enough
Of the things that keeps a young man alive
My body stunk but I kept my funk
At a time when I was right out of luck
Getting desperate indeed I was
Looking like a tourist attraction
Oh my dear I better get out of here
For the vatican don't give no sanction
I wasn't ready for that, no no

and from Reason to Believe

If I listened long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true
Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe