Rod Stewart - Soulbook

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REVIEW: Rod Stewart - Soulbook (a.k.a. An Open Letter To Rod Stewart)

by Tim Cashmere - December 2 2009

Rod, stop it. Please. Why are you doing this to us? Why are you doing this to YOURSELF?

You have sung so many great songs over the years and have clearly been influenced by the legends of this genre, especially the one and only Sam Cooke. Cooke is one of my favourite singers of all time, and you have done him such a service, the way you pay tribute to him in every word that comes from your husky Cooke-inspired voice. I freaking love you, man!

So why, Rod? Why take so many great 60s and 70s soul songs and put them through some kind of modern day boring-machine that inexplicably sucks any of the soul right from the guts of these gut-fuelled tunes?

When The Four Tops sing ?ÇÿIt?ÇÖs The Same Old Song?ÇÖ it is freaking amazing. Seriously, what a corker of a tune it is! Why, Rod, must you turn it into elevator music? Even when it does kick in I half expect to hear a "Ding. Fourth floor." come through the speakers. You?ÇÖre capable of so much more! You know how I know this? Because I have seen you do it! In The Faces, in your early solo career, when my dad took me to see you as a teenager and when I saw you of my own volition as you were beginning to head down this incredibly safe, but horrendously boring path with the American Songbook series.

Even guest spots with Stevie Wonder on ?ÇÿMy Cherie Amour?ÇÖ, Mary J. Blige on ?ÇÿYou Make Me Feel Brand New?ÇÖ, the incomparable Smokey Robinson on his own ?ÇÿTracks Of My Tears?ÇÖ and Jennifer Hudson on ?ÇÿLet It Be Me?ÇÖ don?ÇÖt give this album the authentic edge you must have been going for.

What really irks me is Jackie Wilson?ÇÖs phenomenal floor-stomper ?Çÿ(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) High and Higher?ÇÖ is turned into something my grandparents would call ?Ç£nice?Ç¥. My grandparents would hardly call that soccer hooligan singing ?ÇÿStay With Me?ÇÖ in 1971 ?Ç£nice?Ç¥.

Had Smokey Robinson heard your cover of ?ÇÿYou?ÇÖve Really Got A Hold On Me?ÇÖ when he recorded with you? He isn?ÇÖt in love when he sings it, he is being driven mad, torn apart on the inside from emotional distress and you can hear it in his vocal. That?ÇÖs what makes these songs so great! It?ÇÖs not just a great song, it?ÇÖs a great performance of a great song.

Once upon a time you covered The Temptations?ÇÖ ?ÇÿI?ÇÖm Losing You?ÇÖ and made it wholly your own. This time you closes the album with The Temptations?ÇÖ ?ÇÿJust My Imagination?ÇÖ, which is a perfect way to put your listener to sleep after an hour or so of long, long, listening.

This album is safe. It?ÇÖs safe as hell. It?ÇÖs slick. It?ÇÖs over-produced and it has way too many layers of strings and backing vocals and bits and pieces. It?ÇÖs not the simple, straight to tape, uncut masterpieces of the 60s and 70s, but hey, what do I know? Human Nature proved this crap sells, and if Rod makes another squillion out of it, good on him.

Maybe, Rod, one day I?ÇÖll understand? Maybe one day I?ÇÖll get it. Hell, I know this album isn?ÇÖt aimed at people my age. But what does someone in their late 20s know about music from the 60s? We know it had guts. It had grit. It had soul. You know how we know this? YOU TAUGHT IT TO US. As a kid I asked my parents what a "Motown song" was when I heard you sing about it in 1991. That song was everywhere and is the first moment I knew that soul music was for me.

Those gritty recordings captured a moment that Idols and Popstars have only failed at their desperate attempts to gloss over in the vain hope that we might not notice how amazing the originals were and go swooning over the latest over-marketed piece of crap rammed down our throats, and now you, Rod, are in that league.

What becomes of the broken hearted? They go home and listen to their old Motown records. They put the speakers in the window and they go, on the roof and listen to the Miracles echo to the alley down below. Listen to this album once, then listen to your old Motown Records again and again... and again.

Track listing:

It?ÇÖs The Same Old Song
My Cherie Amour (with Stevie Wonder)
You Make Me Feel Brand New (with Mary J. Blige)
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
Tracks Of My Tears (with Smokey Robinson)
Let It Be Me (with Jennifer Hudson)
Rainy Night In Georgia
What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted?
Love Train
You?ÇÖve Really Got A Hold On Me
Wonderful World
If You Don?ÇÖt Know Me By Now
Just My Imagination

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