Excellent Box Set

I looked around in record stores to find a greatest hits album by Rod Stewart and could never find a one or two disc set that had all the songs I really wanted on it. Finally I jumped on Amazon and found this outstanding four disc set that has everything any casual fan of Rod Stewart fan would want and then some. And unlike many greatest hits CDs I've purchased, the sound quality is outstanding.

This is definitely a product well worth the price.

Fans will enjoy it, and yet...

Rod Stewart is an amazingly long-lived chameleon with a proven ability to mine whatever is currently popular and strike gold. He's transformed himself many times over, from blues shouter to rock screamer to pop star to disco diva to jazz crooner.



He's pretty much done it all -- and been lambasted by critics and purists both for "selling out." There's some truth in their accusations, since the quality of his work has varied wildly over the years, as Rod himself will admit.



But Stewart is also a talented musician and writer who can usually get to the heart of melodies and lyrics and epress them vividly. I'm not much enamored of his latest foray into big band jazz, but his early and middle careers, as profiled on this retrospective, were full of fine moments. Don't be put off by the stories of his debauchery or by the song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" As the title of this compilation reminds us, he's a storyteller, and the song is about a pair of lovers, not him.



Inspired by such soul greats as Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, Stewart started working with Jeff Beck and with The Faces in the 60s, an interesting phase well-covered on Disc 1. Going solo, he charted again and again with the material on Discs 2 and 3, from classic albums like "Atlantic Crossing" and "Every Picture Tells a Story." Disc 4 is lacking, but even here there are bright spots like "Infatuation" and "Downtown Train."



Rod contributes some witty commentary and embarrassing publicity shots in the accompanying booklet, which unfortunately omits details about when or where recordings were made, with whom, or on which albums they were included. Given these omissions, and given that only about two CDs worth of really great stuff is included in this four-CD set, I can't give it more than three stars.

The Complete Rod - Almost!!

Having been listening to this collection again recently I felt compelled to review it, and can't believe no-one else has yet, well here goes! Up to date at the time of its' release it stands as a pretty good testament to Rods' work, starting with the Rod The Mod era, through early classics like "Handbags and Gladrags" and "Gasoline Alley", it moves through his really hot period of the mid to late seventies, on to his fling with the disco era "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" (ouch!!) and finally to a return to form with "Downtown Train". The early material shows his true raw talent, particularly with "I A'int Supersticious" performed with the Jeff Beck Group and "Stay With Me", easily the best thing the Faces ever recorded. Those unfamiliar with his back catalogue can discover gems such as "Cut Across Shorty" and "Every Picture Tells A Story". There are some throw away tracks within the package, (otherwise would be 5 stars), but it includes all his major hits. As a box set it is a very good compilation and definitely shows why Rod Stewart is amongst the most talented performers the UK (sorry Scotland) has ever produced.