ROD STEWART : LIVE AT ABBEY ROAD

 

  1. Tonight I'm Yours
  2. Some Guys Have All The Luck
  3. Addicted To Love
  4. Handbags And Gladrags
  5. Reason To Believe
  6. The First Cut Is The Deepest
  7. It Takes Two
  8. Baby Jane
  9. Blue Moon
  10. What A Wonderful World
  11. The Way You Look Tonight
  12. Sentimental Reasons
  13. Maggie May / Gasoline Alley

Label : Main Stream

Venue : Abbey Road Studios, London, UK

Recording Date : October 8, 2004

Quality : FM Recording (A+)

Review : Live At Abbey Road captures Rod Stewart in the famous Abbey Road Studios in London for a BBC Radio broadcast on December 11, 2004, performed in an intimate setting far removed from the arenas he usually filled. The set draws on both his rock past and his more recent embrace of the Great American Songbook, pairing older hits like "Some Guys Have All The Luck," "Reason To Believe" and set closer "Maggie May" with standards such as "Blue Moon," "What A Wonderful World" and "The Way You Look Tonight." The relaxed, stripped-down atmosphere of the studio setting suits the smoky warmth of Stewart's voice particularly well on the Songbook material, while the rockier numbers still carry enough grit to remind listeners why he built his reputation in the first place. As an unofficial release drawn from the BBC broadcast, the recording offers a rare glimpse of Stewart performing in one of music's most storied rooms.

Review (Beehive Candy) : This is Rod Stewart performing live at Abbey Road Studios in London, England, back on October 8th 2004, to an audience of around 300 people, the show was recorded for a subsequent Xmas broadcast. This is a superb show featuring an incredible choice of songs, with Rod clearly loving the intimate environment and responsive audience. 2004 was a very busy and successful year for Rod who reunited with Ronnie Wood for concerts of Faces material. A Rod Stewart and the Faces best of Changing Faces reached the Top 20 of the UK album charts. Five Guys Walk into a Bar..., a Faces box set compilation, went into the shops. Rod Stewart has also mentioned working with Wood on an album to be entitled You Strum, I'll Sing. In late 2004, Stardust: the Great American Songbook 3, the third album in Stewart's songbook series, was released. It was his first US number one album in 25 years, selling over 200,000 albums in its first week. It also debuted at number one in Canada, number three in the UK and Top 10 in Australia. His version of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World", featuring Stevie Wonder, made the Top 20 of the world adult charts. He also recorded a duet with Dolly Parton for the album - "Baby, It's Cold Outside". Stewart won his first ever Grammy Award for this album.

Review (Albums That Should Exist) : Here's another BBC album performed by Rod Stewart. Like the previous three, it's a BBC concert. The last Stewart BBC concert I posted was from 1986. There's a big jump of nearly 20 years to this concert in 2004. In the meantime, his career had been slowing down until 2002. That year, he released the album "It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook." Consisting entirely of covers of songs from the pre-rock and roll era, it was a big hit, going multi-platinum. Furthermore, he realized it was an easily repeatable formula. By the time of this concert just two years later, he'd released two more albums along the same lines, with those big hits as well. His next four albums would be thematic cover albums as well. Personally, I'm not a big fan of these "Great American Songbook" cover albums. Others, such as Linda Ronstadt or Sinead O'Connor, have done the same idea better. So I was worried this concert would be dominated by those covers, since he'd just released three albums like that. However, it turns out this is pretty much just a typical Rod Stewart concert, consisting of hits from earlier in his career. There's only a four song stretch near the end of the concert (tracks 15 to 19) that has songs from his most recent "Great American Songbook" album, which was "Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Volume III," released the same month this concert took place. Additionally, Robert Palmer had recently died at the time of this concert, so Stewart played one of Palmer's biggest hits, "Addicted to Love," as a tribute to him. This album is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.