The Best Album Rod Stewart (N)Ever Made

It was 1980 and Rod the Mod was miffed. The world at his feet, platinum records and platinum blondes galore, Blonde on Blonde so to speak...and yet. Where was the critical respect that was owed to him? Ever since his crossing the Atlantic and too many nights on the town, critics seemed to have it out for him. Was it his foolish behavior? Why couldn't he simply be foot loose and fancy free like in the younger days? Blondes have more fun is what they say, but Roderick wasn't having any. So he hatched a secret plan. Record a back to basics record incognito, and see what those damn critics - independent of their perception of him - would say. "I'll show 'em", he said to himself, assembled a crack crew of studio musicians and carefully chose a number of songs to cover. To futher tease the critics, he even included his own take on old Face colleague Ronnie Lane's "Ooh La La", originally sang by the band's other Ronnie. When tasked with finding a fitting pseudonym for his secret record, tentatively titled Watch That First Step (to imply it was a debut album by an unknown artist), Rod paused for a second, then said "I was thinking of some of the ol' lads recently, like Bruce and Stephen, so why wouldn't I be Bruce Stephens? Yeah, that sounds about right." Rod's team even hired a stand-in for the album cover so that the ruse would be complete. Now, he only had to get the record out and watch the critics' praise for this exciting newcomer roll in...

Or so it could seem, if you listen to Watch That First Step. The first thing you realize when you hear Bruce Stephens singing here is how uncanny the resemblance to Rod S. is, sometimes spookily so. If you play "The Heart Of Saturday Night" to a panel of people, even experts, and ask them what they'd think of this Rod Stewart outtake, I'm pretty sure most, if not all, would fall for it. But enough of Rod S., some words about Bruce S. His big claim of fame, as the sticker on the album notes, was being a member of Blue Cheer for two albums in 1969. He then founded another band, Pilot (not the famous one) who broke up after releasing an album and a single apiece. And then he gigged and hustled for the rest of the 1970s, at times recording a demo or two in search of  a record deal. That record deal, and record, finally came in 1981,and what a beauty it is. Stephens only has one (co-written) song on the album, but the covers are well-chosen and beautifully played. The best one is easily his version of Barbara Keith's "Detroit Or Buffalo". Keith's original is great, so is Neal Casal's cover, who revived the song for a (small) new audience to discover in the 1990s. But Stephens version tops both of them, for my money. Just fantastic stuff. 

Watch That First Step has never been issued on CD, so I had to source this from two different sources, and on some tracks you have some very minor vinyl crackles. The bonus track section collects most of Pilot's songs which were in the same vein as Step, as well as a couple of bits and bops (Blue Cheer's classic "Saturday Freedom" among them). With this package you pretty much have all the Bruce Stephens that you'd ever need. Rod S. might've had the hits and the fame in 1981, but Bruce S. had the better album, by far. Some (blue) cheers for that, please...