Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Premium Gasoline
Rod Stewart upped the ante on his second album, Gasoline Alley. He took the basic folk sound of acoustic guitars and juiced it up by adding mandolins and electric instruments to create an unique sound. The album doesn't contain any hit singles, but many of the songs have become staples in Rod Stewart's repertoire. Songs like the title track, "Cut Across Shorty", "Lady Day" and "Jo's Lament" are filled with vivid lyrics and Mr. Stewart sing them in that signature whiskey-soaked voice. He does fine covers of Bobby Womack's, by way of The Rolling Stones, "It's All Over Now", Bob Dylan's "Only A Hobo" and Elton John's "Country Comforts".
Rating:  - Hot Rod -- gearing up...
Eight years ago, a child of the Sixties asked me... If I posessed this LP -- I said NO There were no hits on that album, I thought to myself... Didn't blow the dough...The album I did offer up to my liberal-crackpot-nostalgic friend/boss (Ellen, you know I love ya) was Every Picture Tells A Story. She didn't bite...dear readers, don't you make the same mistake. Every Picture is as good as Rod gets, unless you're into his current lounge-music act. But Gasoline Alley has more than a few tempting fumes to offer. I bought the CD recently and here are my remarks: Straight up: "Cut Across Shorty" is FLAT-OUT CLASSIC Rod, with the whisky bottle in hand as he urges his blue-collar band -- which includes one of the great lost drummers of all time, Mickey Waller -- on to ragged heights of glory. Listening to this cut, it's clear that in his prime, Rodney was more than a great singer...the guy knew how to lead and inspire a band. Big-time. But apart from that and the title track, Warm Rod was still too derivative...literally. The guy was always singing somebody else's songs! Covering a lame-o tune like Elton John/Bernie Taupin's "Country Comforts" makes one wonder about the man's taste, even as he puts on his most affected clothes in giving Dylan's "Only a Hobo" a very credible reading. The Stones had already done the definitive version of "It's All Over Now" so what was the point of that? Given that, "Lady Day" anticipates one of his other great singles, "Mandolin Wind," in terms of (real, heartfelt?) apology to the fairer sex... only to get trumped by "Joe's Lament" and its outright admission that men, being the screw-ups that they are, really need a good woman at the end of the day to snuggle up against, no matter what kind of evil/neglect they've been a part of that day. Sorry, Rod...you lost me there. You were always best when surrounded by a bunch of guys who just wanted to play a little rock and roll. "Goin' home, goin' home, back to Gasoline Alley where I started from..."
Rating: - This is Rod Stewart at his peak. The rest is downhill.
Gasoline Alley is by far the finest Rod Stewart Album he has ever or will ever record. Great tunes - "Cut Across Shorty" is an example of solid lyric and instrumentals. If you hate Rod Stewart, you won't hate Gasoline Alley.
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