Search - Rod Stewart :: Little Misunderstood: The Sixties Sessions

Rod Stewart has long been lambasted by critics for selling out one of rock's greatest voices. Indeed, his career prior to "Hot Legs" and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" was as dizzying as it was promising, as he bounded from obscurity to front Jeff Beck's seminal post-Yardbirds quartet, then quickly segued into the revamped (Small) Faces and an initially acclaimed solo career, all in a head-snapping blur. This 18-track anthology uncovers the mostly obscure roots of Stewart's solo recording career, from the slavish, sometimes shaky 1964 covers of blues and early R&B standards cut as demos (hence their sometimes spotty sound quality) that make up the album's first half, through early, misdirected record-label efforts to turn him into a pop singer (the singles "The Day Will Come," "Shake," and "I Just Got Some," backed on the latter by Brian Auger's Trinity) to more artistically familiar and rewarding turf like the self-penned slow blues "So Much to Say," the string-inflected title track, "Come Home Baby" (a duet with Brit R&B diva P.P. Arnold, featuring an all-star session crew that includes Keith Richards and Keith Emerson) and Python Lee Jackson's 1968 "In a Broken Dream." Stewart's other two recordings with the band are also featured. The latter handful of tracks were recorded as the singer split his time between a simmering solo career and the skyrocketing fortunes of the Jeff Beck Group. While many of these tracks have been previously--and haphazardly--released, this marks their best compilation and documentation to date. --Jerry McCulley