Rod Stewart - Tonight I'm Yours
#544
By Jim Coursey
November 6 1981
Rod Stewart
Tonight I’m Yours
Genre: He tries them all
Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Jim’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Highlights:
How Long
Only a Boy
Jealous
Young Turks
Requisite Rod Stewart Covers:
“How Long” by Ace
“Tear it Up” by Johnny Brunette
“Just Like a Woman” by Bob Dylan
I’m not sure when I first heard Rod Stewart, but it was likely when I was 10 and “Young Turks” was peaking on the US charts. I always liked the song, and it’s firmly attached to one of those fairly banal memories that stick with us for no clear reason, wafting across a basketball court in a rec center some afternoon. But I never liked it so much that I bought an album, and since 1981 have only accumulated the most rote knowledge of Rod -- I’ve heard “Maggie May”, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” and a few others, and could tell you he played with Jeff Beck / Faces without really knowing any of that music either.
This being the Listening Post, I chose to start this review from that same vantage point, and only after having heard and assessed the album did I go back and listen through seminal moments in his catalog. So for the most part, I’m reviewing this as a Rod Stewart noob.
Even from a point of relative ignorance, “Young Turks” alone tells me Rod Stewart is trying to move with the times. Artists approach this in a variety of ways. There’s the oblivious approach where an artist merely ignores whatever is happening around them; or the reactionary approach where they get more traditional as the world around them forges onwards; or the subtle approach, where they take a piece of the modern era into their otherwise established style. They could be more chameleonic, reinventing themselves so thoroughly that they seem made for the times, or poseurish, completely losing their identity to the prevailing sound of the day. Or they can just pump out a single or two in the modern style and tack them onto the album they were going to make anyways. “Tonight I’m Yours” is mostly the latter approach, or more truthfully a hodgepodge of all of the above, and the result is pretty unfocused and thus mediocre.
The album establishes the modern hook out of the gate, launching with two of the three singles which each riff on a different early 80s genre. “Tonight I’m Yours” is a peppy new wave track featuring a driving synth bass and Vapors-ish guitar lines; it’s a tad more punky and daring than “Young Turks”, but its lightweight vibe and cliché “let’s have a one night stand” lyrics render it ultimately forgettable. “How Long” veers into 80s soft rock with a rendition of the Ace hit. As covers go, it’s arguably not adding much to the track aside from Rod Stewart’s soulful rasp, but it is a solid cut and meets my somewhat under-informed expectations for Rod Stewart’s core sound as refigured for 1981.
At this point, Stewart does a 180, reaching back to the 50’s for some classic rock’n’roll. “Tora Tora Tora (Out with the Boys)” is a boogie with a 70s guitar sound and a shit-kicking vibe, while “Tear it Up” is a bit more classic in its approach to Johnny Burnette’s rockabilly track. Both tracks are decent for what they are, but it’s hard to make sense of what album I’m listening to anymore. Worse, “Tora Tora Tora” finds Rod channelling the average working Joe he never really was. Do we really believe Rod when he sings, “Payday Friday and the weekend's here / I've been workin' all week tryin' to pay for this gear” and “I want to talk about motorbikes, cars and things / no sophistication or designer jeans.” Maybe it would have worked for him a decade earlier, but it’s hard to stomach when he’s busy pumping out synth-heavy hits in his silk scarves and skinny jeans. Meanwhile, “Tear it Up” has a certain swagger to it, but adds more layers of confusion with an inexplicably ostentatious bit of classical piano before cueing up the main item. Campy pastiche artists like Queen could have made sense of that transition, but in Rod Stewart’s hands it comes off as random.
The next couple songs go heavy on the Dylan influence, and this is where it would have been useful to me to know Rod Stewart’s catalog. From my vantage point I would have never figured him for having Dylan as an influence, so I’m wondering whose idea it was to fit this stuff into a nominally “new wave” album? It was to my ultimate surprise that prior to “Tonight I’m Yours” Rod had recorded four Dylan covers in his solo career. But I wouldn’t know this until later.
“Only a Boy” is probably one of the better tracks here, and even with the big torch song performance it proudly wears a post-electric Dylan influence on its sleeve. Maybe it’s the best song of the album if you are looking for the pre-disco Rod. Either way, it’s followed by a spirited rendition of “Just Like a Woman” which works well enough but is far broader and more impassioned than any other Dylan cover Rod has recorded to this point.
If to this point, the album has felt continuous for two tracks at a time, the final four tracks feel like throwing darts blindfolded. “Jealous” brings us back to the 80s with it’s post-disco groove, but at its core it’s a fiery, bluesy song with a honking overdriven lead line. If any track finds a balance between the original Rod and the 1981 Rod, this is the one, and it’s not too shabby.
The magic all runs out with “Sonny”, a mawkish soft rock tune with a lyric cut from the same old Dylan fabric as earlier tracks, as Rod belts “cause she walks like you, She talks like you, She feels like you, But she ain't you.” Again, a decade earlier this song could have fit right in, and even a couple tracks earlier Rod was serving this stuff up admirably. But this one is undone by its syrupy Rhodes electric piano, stock 80s gated snares, and overwrought performance. Terrible song.
From the album’s nadir springs its standout track, but when the synthetic pulse of “Young Turks” cuts in, it isn’t so much a welcome reprieve as a splash of cold water in the face. It’s a terrible transition, and underscores the fish out of water quality of the new wave elements of the album. This is a pretty great song, and unlike on “Tora Tora Tora'', Rod’s empathy for the working class romantics of the song’s title is completely plausible. As with many pop hits, the celebratory tone disguises the darkness of the lyrics in which a young couple fight for their love against all odds and lose. As successful as the songwriting is, it’s hard not to hear the production and tepid synth pop veneer as dated and cliché, aging less well than other synth-heavy tracks of the day -- it’s the best song of this album, but far from the best of its era.
It wouldn’t be “Tonight I’m Yours” if it didn’t follow the bouncy synth hit with cloying gospel number “Never Give Up on a Dream.” For all its musicianship this track is sheer pap, especially when compared to a much defter and more moving track like 1976’s “The Killing of Georgie Pt I and II”. I can almost see Rod trying the same thing here, with “Young Turks” serving the tragic story of Pt I, and “Never Give Up” attempting the hopeful resurrection of Pt II. Whether that was intended or not, the short and sweet Beatles chorus from Pt II was far more effective, while “Never Give Up” is just predictable, overlong and overdone.
In the end, if I were to score this album based on the quality of individual tracks alone, I’d probably rate it a notch or two higher. Most of the songs on this album are at least decent, a few quite good, whether or not they are always to my taste. Rod is all in for this endeavor, whooping and hollering here through most of the album -- he is going to believe in this stuff with all his heart whether or not the audience will. But as an album, this feels more like Rod’s catalog on shuffle play rather than a single work; as a new listener I have no idea who Rod Stewart is besides being an exceptional singer. Rod pulls most of it off, but in trying to both stay true to his roots and adapt to the new sound, he creates an incoherent work, and the more Rod strains to show his passion, the more insubstantial the final product feels.
On the cover: I have to give high marks to Rod and photographer Raul Vega for this cover. Shadowing Stewart’s porcupine coiff with a silhouette of a flower arrangement in the background is a masterstroke, even if the Chevalier font is pretty tacky and feels especially dated. Perhaps Rod’s look shows dedication and the flowers imply romantic intent, underscoring his sincerity when he says that tonight he really is “yours.” Or it could all just be having a go at his hair. We may never know, but we can enjoy it nonetheless.
https://open.spotify.com/album/2TKdw00rzLxoqRcxoBICts?si=rQAc8UWPQiO9Aawn09ljXA
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