1991 Vagabond Heart was his last proper album 5/12 written by Rod

1995 A Spanner in the Works - 1 song co-written otherwise all covers

1998 When We Were the New Boys - all covers
2001 Human - new songs but written by others

Since then it's been the "songbook" dross...

2002 It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook
2003 As Time Goes By: The Great American Songbook 2
2004 Stardust: The Great American Songbook 3
2005 Thanks for the Memory: The Great American Songbook 4
2006 Still the Same... Great Rock Classics of Our Time 4
2009 Soulbook
2010 Fly Me to the Moon...The Great American Songbook Volume V

How frustrating for the Rod Stewart fan (I'm not a fan - don't own an album, but like some singles....but after seeing the songbook in different forms over the decade I was curious)

He needs to get back to his roots, but it's a case of too much money and no interest in the integrity of the music.

It's hard to believe that the bloke who made classic albums like Gasoline Alley has been reduced to churning out oldies from the crooning era.

But it clearly works for him & gets bums on seats at his gigs

.... and thats the crux of the matter... should an artist 'sell out' and make as much money as they can, or stick to being creative?

Prior to all these crooner releases Rod's albums were always patchy so you're better with one of the many GH collectiions available. The Story So Far double CD is brilliant.

Being creative is better IMO. I'd never buy a Rod album now. He's artistically dead.

... but where would this stop? i dont think i know of many artist that hasnt sold out to some degree, and why shouldnt they earn money? i do agree with you though but i dont think rods any more guilty then most artists. look at eric clapton for eg, leaving the yardbirds because they 'went commercial' (but created some brilliant, cutting edge singles) to concentrate on the blues...only in later life to produce some awful crap aimed at lining his pocket.

I'm no big Rod fan. The only 2 songs of his I really like are Maggie May and the Killing of Georgie, though sometimes I suppose in the right mood I could enjoy Sailing, but surely ANYONE could suddenly produce an album SO different and SO stunning you have to buy it. So never say never

An album of covers is very cheap and something NO artist should do.

If you ask me Rod hasn't released a decent record since 1972!

'cindy incidentally' with the faces was 73! id suggest that was decent

I dunno...is it selling out/laziness/lack of creativity

...or just semi-retirement?


but there's the creative curve thing, too, so not surprising, really.


maybe he just really likes the songs he's doing now, at the age he is...? I know my mother in law does, shes bought all his American Songbook. She's a sprightly 80.

with the exception of Johnny Cash