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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rod_stewart_1971.png]]
2
3->''"Rod Stewart was once interviewed saying how he felt it was so wonderful to be married to his newest wife, that he'd 'rather have his dick cut off' than cheat on her. That's a direct quote, by the way. Some time later, Rod 'Spread your wings and let me come inside' Stewart is sued for divorce from his wife on the grounds of adultery."''
4-->-- '''The Dominator''', ''The Takeover Man''
5
6[[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]] Roderick David Stewart [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever CBE]] (born 10 January 1945) is a British singer-songwriter best known for his raspy voice and a flair for storytelling in his lyrics. He has had a considerably longer and more varied career than many people probably realize. After navigating the London {{Folk|Music}} and {{Blues}} scenes in TheSixties, Stewart fronted the Music/JeffBeck Group, and was also the lead singer for Music/{{Faces}} concurrently with his early solo success.
7
8Beginning with his solo debut in 1969, Stewart's early material mixed {{Rock}} with his folk and blues influences, and lyrics that reflected a working-class sensibility. Picture an English Music/BruceSpringsteen years before Springsteen began his career and you have an idea of what Stewart was doing at that point. In 1971 he achieved a BreakthroughHit with "Maggie May", a song about a teenage boy who is tired of shacking up with his much older lover. After that, his music gradually became more slick and Rock-oriented, and he became famous—or infamous—for sexually-charged songs like "Tonight's the Night", which discusses seduction of a virgin (including an almost explicit description of him demanding she let him get inside her); "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy", a {{Disco}} tune about a man and woman who have sex after meeting in a nightclub; and "Young Turks", about a boy and girl who decide to run off together when their parents won't let them be together any more (probably because he got her pregnant). By TheEighties he had softened his style into lighter soft rock and ballads, and shortly after the TurnOfTheMillennium he successfully reinvented himself as a crooner of traditional pop standards on a series of ''Great American Songbook'' albums.
9
10He might also be famous for his numerous girlfriends and wives (and sometimes both together), including Creator/BrittEkland, Alana Hamilton, Rachel Hunter, Penny Lancaster and others. He has one daughter from one of his wives.
11
12He tried to be a footballer (soccer player for you Americans) and typically tosses a soccer ball out into the audience for them to bounce around. He's also known for having very rowdy hair, and he's a model train enthusiast.
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14As usual, you can find the basics at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Stewart The Other Wiki]].
15----
16!!Solo Studio Discography:
17* ''The Rod Stewart Album'' (North American title) [=/=] ''An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down'' (international title) [[note]]The two versions have different covers as well, but the album was actually [[ShortRunInPeru released in the US and Canada three months]] before its UK issue [[/note]] (1969)
18* ''Gasoline Alley'' (1970)
19* ''Every Picture Tells a Story'' (1971)
20* ''Never a Dull Moment'' (1972)
21* ''Smiler'' (1974)
22* ''Atlantic Crossing'' (1975)
23* ''A Night on the Town'' (1976)
24* ''Foot Loose & Fancy Free'' (1977)
25* ''Blondes Have More Fun'' (1978)
26* ''Foolish Behaviour'' (1980)
27* ''Tonight I'm Yours'' (1981)
28* ''Body Wishes'' (1983)
29* ''Camouflage'' (1984)
30* ''Every Beat of My Heart'' (1986)
31* ''[[Music/OutOfOrderAlbum Out of Order]]'' (1988)
32* ''Music/VagabondHeart'' (1991)
33* ''A Spanner in the Works'' (1995)
34* ''When We Were the New Boys'' (1998)
35* ''Human'' (2001)
36* ''It Had to Be You... The Great American Songbook'' (2002)
37* ''As Time Goes By... The Great American Songbook Vol. II'' (2003)
38* ''Stardust... The Great American Songbook Volume III'' (2004)
39* ''Thanks for the Memory... The Great American Songbook Volume IV'' (2005)
40* ''Still the Same... Great Rock Classics of Our Time'' (2006)
41* ''Soulbook'' (2009)
42* ''Once in a Blue Moon: The Lost Album'' (2009)
43* ''Fly Me to the Moon... The Great American Songbook Volume V'' (2010)
44* ''Merry Christmas, Baby'' (2012)
45* ''Time'' (2013)
46* ''Another Country'' (2015)
47* ''Blood Red Roses'' (2018)
48* ''The Tears of Hercules'' (2021)
49----
50!! "Every Trope Tells a Story, Don't It?":
51
52* ArtistAndTheBand: During his tenure with the Faces, the groups' billing changed from "Faces" to "Faces featuring Music/RodStewart" and finally "Rod Stewart and Faces" before Ronnie Lane (the group's other main songwriter and vocalist) quit and they essentially just [[IAmTheBand became Stewart's backing band]].
53* BabiesEverAfter: "Young Turks" is about a teen couple, Billy and Patti, who run away from home and start anew. To show that everything turns out great, the last line of the song (before a repeat of the chorus) is, "Patti gave birth to a ten pound baby boy! YEAH!"
54* BoleroEffect: The final 90 seconds of "Lost Paraguayos" features the same 14-note horn riff repeated over and over with increasing intensity, along with Rod doing vocal riffing and Ron Wood adding some guitar runs.
55* ChewingTheScenery: He...clearly had fun singing "Hot Legs".
56-->"I love ya, HONAAYYY!"
57* ChickMagnet: One of the more famous examples in music industry. Women were basically throwing themselves at him back in the '70s.
58* ChristmasSongs: His ''Merry Christmas, Baby'' album.
59* CoverAlbum: Increasingly prevalent in later years, including albums of swing, rock and soul covers.
60* CoverVersion:
61** The very first song on his debut album was a cover of [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand "Street Fighting Man"]], and that set the pattern for most of his albums having at least one or two covers on them. Some have more covers than originals, including some of his most widely loved albums (for instance, five of the eight tracks on ''Every Picture Tells a Story'' are covers: "Seems Like a Long Time" by Ted Anderson, which Stewart found on an album by Brewer & Shipley; "That's All Right" by Arthur Crudup, probably best known in Music/ElvisPresley's version; "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" by Music/BobDylan; "(I Know) I'm Losing You" by Music/TheTemptations; "Reason to Believe" by Tim Hardin).
62** There's the odd case of "Ooh La La", which he covered on ''When We Were the New Boys'' and had a hit with in 1998. Yes, it was a Music/{{Faces}} song from when he was in the band, but he didn't write the song (Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood did) or sing it (Wood did). Stewart's version was intended as a tribute to Lane, who died shortly before Stewart recorded the album.
63* TheCoverChangesTheGender: [[Music/ArethaFranklin "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Man"]], and a few other similar examples.
64* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: His version of the Gerry Goffin[=/=]Music/CaroleKing song "Oh No Not My Baby" leaves out the final verse where the narrator and his lover reconcile, making it a song about a man regretting that he believed his unfaithful lover.
65* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: "Maggie May". [[spoiler:Stewart was sexually abused by an older woman in his teens, and the song is about his experience]]
66* EightiesHair: One of the most notorious male offenders.
67* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Rod is famous for this. He named one of his albums basically after the trope.
68* FakeOutFadeOut: Particularly on his early albums he had a habit of restarting songs after they seem to be over, beginning with the very first song on his debut album, "Street Fighting Man". It's done in a different style than the original by Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} and seems to have a cold ending. But then it starts again with Stewart repeating the first verse, but doing it more explicitly like the Stones' version. A few songs later, "Handbags and Gladrags" closes with the piano playing the song's recurring hook for what sounds like one final time, with Rod humming along with it. The final piano note sustains for a few seconds and it sounds like it's beginning to FadeOut, but then it picks up the riff one last time for a few bars before the ''real'' ending.
69* GratuitousFrench: The whispers at the end of "Tonight's the Night", courtesy of Britt Ekland, Stewart's then-girlfriend.
70* HarshVocals: The vocal style he's most known for. In actuality, though he sometimes had this style on his more uptempo or electric numbers (ie. "Hot Legs") his voice simply has rasp, even on songs the vocals couldn't be considered harsh.
71* HomophobicHateCrime: "The Killing of Georgie (Part I & II)" was inspired by the RealLife murder of a gay friend during the 1970s.
72* IntercourseWithYou: Several:
73** "Maggie May" isn't entirely about this, but there is a verse where he describes the nights he spent with her.
74** "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy", a tale of a one-night stand (that may or may not have led to something more in the long run).
75** "Tonight's the Night", a.k.a. the one where he says "Spread your wings and let me come inside".
76* ItWillNeverCatchOn: "Maggie May" began life as a rough song sketch Stewart played around with but didn't think was very good. Then while making ''Every Picture Tells a Story'', Creator/MercuryRecords told him the album needed one more song, and it had to be an original rather than a CoverVersion. He hurriedly finished writing the song, but still wasn't convinced it would work. In an attempt to try ''anything'' that might kickstart it, he added a celesta and a mandolin to the mix. Mercury agreed that it didn't have much chance for success, releasing it as the BSide to "Reason to Believe". Instead, radio stations flipped the single over and "Maggie May" became the massive hit that turned him into a star.
77* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The line "Find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helping hand" in "Maggie May", since that's essentially how he came to be involved with Music/{{Faces}}, which he was still a member of at the time.
78* LegFocus: The girl he's singing about in "Hot Legs".
79* MarketBasedTitle: His debut album was called ''An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down'' in the UK and ''The Rod Stewart Album'' in the US, but since it was released in the US first, arguably ''Raincoat'' counts as the trope example.
80* MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: The later verses of "Every Picture Tells a Story" have the narrator end up in China, where he falls in love with a woman he calls Shanghai Lil.
81* MrsRobinson: Maggie in "Maggie May". The song doesn't specify how big the [[AgeGapRomance age gap]] is between her and the narrator, but we know that he's young enough to still be in school, and that in her case, "the morning sun when it's in your face really shows your age."
82* NewSoundAlbum: A few times throughout his career, probably most notably ''Camouflage'' (1984) and ''It Had To Be You: The Great American Songbook'' (2002), synth-rock and jazz standards respectively. Apart from that, change had been present but more gradual, dramatic departures usually being limited to singles.
83* NonAppearingTitle:
84** "Maggie May" qualifies. He only ever calls her "Maggie".
85** The first two songs on ''Never a Dull Moment'', "True Blue" and "Lost Paraguayos". "Lost Paraguayos" actually makes a slight bit of sense on examination, since the lyrics talk about "South American sun." It's also a PunBasedTitle, as a parody of Los Paraguayos, a traditional Latin music band from Paraguay who've toured internationally since TheFifties.
86** Also some of his later hits, like "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" (the chorus goes "If you want my body and you think I'm sexy...") and "Young Turks" (the chorus starts out "Young '''hearts''' be free tonight").
87* OhNoNotAgain: Said word for word in "Infatuation".
88* PackagedAsOtherMedium:
89** The cover of ''Every Picture Tells a Story'' is supposed to look like a sheet music cover from circa 1910 (the "Classic Edition" note at the top was borrowed from an actual old sheet music cover). The mock sheet music illustrations for the songs in the inner artwork make it more obvious.
90** His first GreatestHitsAlbum, 1973's ''Sing it Again, Rod'', had a die-cut cover that resembled a glass of scotch.
91* RailEnthusiast: He's probably the most well-known of these in music. He is a model train enthusiast with a 1:87 scale representation of New York's "Three Rivers" Manhattan and the surrounding area that is so enigmatic only [[http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02606/rodstewarttrains_2606147b.jpg Model Railroader]] magazine is allowed exclusive access, and has attained the title of "Master Model Railroader" - he's appeared on the front cover of that magazine ''four times''. On his travels, he always books two hotel rooms - one for his trains. The video of his cover of Tom Waits' song "Downtown Train" was shot in the Hoboken, New Jersey train terminal and features him hanging off moving trains like an old railroading hand. See [[https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50403561 this good recent summary of his passion for the hobby]]; he's so detail-oriented that he even takes particular care to get the grimy pavements of the urban streets right.
92** [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/nov/23/rod-stewart-helps-restore-model-railway-trashed-by-vandals He even donated money to help a model railway club rebuild their models]] after [[TeensAreMonsters a trio of teenagers trashed it all]] [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy while drunk]].
93* RockIsAuthenticPopIsShallow: People who champion his pre-1975 work (both solo and with groups) tend to view that more rock-based music as his definitive sound, and everything that came after it as shallow pandering. But considering that two of his big musical idols were Music/SamCooke and Creator/AlJolson, his turn away from HardRock really isn't that surprising.
94* RougeAnglesOfSatin: For reasons that have never really been explained, it's "'''Da''' Ya Think I'm Sexy", not "'''Do''' Ya...".
95* {{Sampling}}: The synthesised "string" melody in "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" is borrowed from Bobby Womack's 1975 song "(If You Want My Love) Put Something Down on It".
96* SelfPlagiarism: "You Wear it Well" was very obviously intended as "Maggie May v2.0", with an arrangement that follows the earlier song's outline almost to a T.
97* SexyDiscretionShot: A musical version occurs in "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy"; right after the main character brings his date to his apartment, we get treated to [[{{Sexophone}} an instrumental break]]. The next verse starts with them waking up the next morning, making it clear what they spent that instrumental break doing...
98* ShoutOut: "The Creator/{{Motown}} Song"
99* SiameseTwinSongs: The brief acoustic guitar piece before "Maggie May" on ''Every Picture Tells a Story'' is technically a separate song called "Henry". On ''Never a Dull Moment'', "Maggie May" soundalike "You Wear it Well" is preceded by a similar piece called "Interludings".
100* SillyLoveSongs: "Tonight's The Night," "Reason to Believe," "You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)," "My Heart Can't Tell You No," etc.
101* SingingVoiceDissonance: His speaking voice has a strong Scottish accent (reflecting his family background), but he completely ditches it when he sings.
102* SinisterSwitchblade: The title character of "The Killing Of Georgie" gets murdered by a thug with a switchblade.
103* SnowMeansCold: "Mandolin Wind"
104-->The snow fell without a break\
105Buffalo died in the frozen fields, you know\
106Through the coldest winter in almost fourteen years\
107I couldn't believe you kept a smile
108* SpoilerTitle: Take a wild guess what ends up happening to Georgie in "The Killing of Georgie".
109* StealthParody: "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" was a parody of disco culture that was taken seriously by the anti-disco backlash.
110* UnpluggedVersion: Stewart did a twenty one unplugged set for Creator/{{MTV}}'s ''Unplugged'' series. Seventeen of the songs (thirteen on the original release) would make it onto the accompanying album ''Unplugged...and Seated''.
111* UrbanLegend: The infamous "Stomach pump" [[http://snopes.com/music/artists/rockstar.asp story]], which has also been attributed to other musicians.
112** There was also one that he played the harmonica on Millie Small's 1964 hit "My Boy Lollipop". This one remains uncertain, though Stewart has denied it.
113* VocalEvolution: Surprisingly averted, especially with his [[HarshVocals known style of singing]]. He's lost some range, but on certain recordings in later years he still sounds just like he did in the early 70s.

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