Still the Same...Great Rock Classics Of Our Time

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
Unquestionably one of rock's greatest vocalists, Rod Stewart should have titled this album Great Rock Classics of My Time. Most of these Top 40 tunes and others like Dylan's "If Not for You" were popularized in the early to mid-'70s, when Stewart was entering his rock prime. He's perfect to croon Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," soulfully pained on Bonnie Tyler's "It's a Heartache," and right in the pocket on the Pretenders' "I'll Stand by You." And his unmistakable raspiness puts another layer of wisdom on the old Cat Steven's classic "Father & Son." But you also have to wonder about some of the safe song choices, such Badfinger's "Day After Day" and Nazareth's "Love Hurts." Why he continues to record mossy cover songs is a legitimate question. What's stopping him from getting back in trenches with some contemporary rock songwriters and really reinventing himself? The karaoke lounge is no place for a guy this great to hang. --Martin Keller

More Great Rod Stewart

It Had to Be You... The Great American Songbook

It Had to Be You... The Great American Songbook [ENHANCED]

Thanks For The Memory...The Great American Songbook IV

Customer Reviews: Read 178 more reviews...

1 out of 5 stars

Still the Same %#@& October 10, 2006
97 out of 135 found this review helpful

Here's a better album title for this dreck: ROD STEWART SINGS KARAOKE. One listen to this CD and it's clear that the once great Rod Stewart has become a parody of himself. While these performances can hardly be called awful, there's nothing here to celebrate either.

This is what I would expect from a Holiday Inn lounge crooner. Do some CCR ("Have You Ever Seen the Rain"), throw in some Eagles ("The Best of My Love"), add a little Bread ("Everything I Own") and leave everyone with a smile on their face. Unless, of course, you are old enough to remember when Rod Stewart was a serious artist.

Doing covers is nothing new for Stewart. Listen to his classic early albums when he did the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man," Elton John's "Country Comfort," Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe," or Hendrix's "Angel." Stewart made these songs his own. On STILL THE SAME, his performances are perfunctory at best. Hell, Bonnie Tyler did a better Rod Stewart vocal on the original "It's a Heartache" than the one Stewart himself turns in here.

My advice? Stick with the originals. Avoid this at all cost; the last thing we need is for this to become the first in a series.

1 out of 5 stars

OH MY GOD THIS IS S-O B-A-D October 12, 2006
35 out of 55 found this review helpful

I had high hopes for this disc - after the American Songbook debacles, which gave Rod the chance to sing songs he had no business singing to talk show audiences around the coutnry, I thought GREAT! The scottish rooster is going to get down by singing rock classics of OUR TIME! COOL! Just look at the titles - If Not For You, off of All Things Must Pass is 36 frickin' years old!!! These are old songs, sung by an old guy, for an old audience. They sound old. Rod sounds old. This is an act of marketing desperation. What comes next? Rod Stewart sings the Rogers & Hammerstein songbook??? Don't buy this disc - buy the Rhino Faces box set instead and hear 70s music sung by Rod at his peak. 'xcuse me while I kiss my metamusil.

3 out of 5 stars

New versions of great songs that didn't need to be covered October 17, 2006
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

A Brief History:
In the 60s, I liked Rod the Mod's single Good Morning Little Schoolgirl. He was great when he fronted The Jeff Beck Group and also with Python Lee Jackson as a session singer. Shucks, Maggie May is still one of my favorite songs. In the 70s, he entered the next phase of his career with those pseudo disco sex anthems like Do You Think I'm Sexy and Hotlegs which still make me want to hurl chunks of undigested bile. In the 80's, he teamed up with Jeff Beck again for People Get Ready and I was hoping they would record an entire album together, but things didn't work out. Amazingly, he's had unbelievable success with two CDs of standards. Still The Same uses the same formula only rock classics that sound like lounge music have been substituted. What's even worse is that on the CD cover he looks like Tammy Faye Bakker on a bad hair day.

1 out of 5 stars

Rod, Say It Isn't So..... October 10, 2006
19 out of 25 found this review helpful

I can only assume, after suffering through this CD,that it must be Rod's attempt at a comedy album. He simply can't be serious. First,whoever was in charge of song selection should be"drawn and quartered". These are rock classics but simply not worthy of Rod's interpretations. Yes, they were commercial successes in their day but most of them have not aged well.
There are a few exceptions,e.g. the tunes penned by Bob Seager,Bob Dylan,etc, but Rod's delivery of this material must be driving the composers"up the wall". The band,if there actually was one, sounds as if they're working with the same arrangement(with minor modifications) for each tune. Finally, Rod's singing is completely uninspired. I don't think he left home for this one,just"phoned it in".
It's truly sad to see a legendary performer fall to this depth.I don't understand it,he's made a zillion dollars on the endless American songbook Cds. You'd think he'd be up for some artistic challenges.What makes it even more a tragedy is when you compare this CD to what his contemporaries such as Dylan, The Who,etc, are doing these days.What could be possibly next? Rod singing Mitch Miller's greatest hits? One can only hope that the rumours of a one time Faces abbreviated tour and possible CD will come true.I'm convinced that project will recharge Rod's creative battery. Until then,I suggest the only use for this CD is to be played endlessly at GITMO to gain needed confessions from potential terrorist detainees. Although, on second thought, the use of this CD may violate the Geneva conventions!!

1 out of 5 stars

Still The Same Sh*** October 10, 2006
19 out of 26 found this review helpful

`Every Picture Tells A Story' is as perfect an album as you could come by. But in his senior citizen years, Stewart has prostituted himself with bastardized versions of standards via those mega-selling, artistically execrable `Songbook' series - musical abominations for sure. He's long lost his classic-era voice, but I had hoped that this new collection would rouse his long-lost aesthetic. His Muse, once upon a time, was about the Music - he's long sold his soul for gold [and platinum]. But the biggest fallacy is the title of the collection: 'Great Rock Classics'?! Is he fooling himself, or just his hardcore, hausfrau demographic? Bland Eagles, Cat Stevens, Bonnie Tyler, Elvin friggin' Bishop? The Pretenders' most UN-rock single ever? BREAD?!?!?! He should have dubbed the CD 'The Great Lite-Radio Classics'. And the true identifiable traditionals on the CD are rendered as mushy karaoke retreads, as the first single - the useless, uneventful remake of `Have You Ever Seen The Rain' - demonstrates. If it sells well [and why should we surmise it won't?], methinks me smells a `Still The Same, Part II' that will be, rest-assuredly, dropped right around next Christmas. Ah, Rod - Pop as Commerce. My grade: C-

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