Vagabond Heart: Part 1...

I don't care what anyone says, the cbe that is the legend is Rod Stewart indeed. A good ol'London boy who got kicked out of The Kinks. Way before they were The Kinks yeah and he was booted out because the drummer's mother didn't like his voice, rock & roll! Rod wouldn't let that get him down, no! Then the story goes, well, a bit Pete Doherty. But then he wouldn't be the first now would he. Drinking like a complete twat, busking, and playing in going nowhere bands he finally stumbled on Jeff Beck, and sung for the bloke. I've Been Drinking from 1968 is one of the better songs they came up with...thats if you can get over that nagging feeling that it's going to burst into the Moody Blues "Go Now". It really is hard to do!

Anyway, Jeff Beck and his head got really really huge and wanted to do they're own thing (together) so that was that. Fuck you Beck because that meant our dear Roderick could do it too! And Come Home Baby was the result, a duet with P.P. Arnold. I first heard this on an Immediate Records reprint 7, it was the b-side to a Small Faces song and it blew me away. I know why it was there, but it really shouldn't have been. Anyway, Rod took Ronnie Wood who was playing bass for Jeff Beck with him to what was Britain's greatest band - The Small Faces. More about that in part 2 lol. Before that all kicked off Stewart and Wood went and recorded everybodys dad's favourite song and mine, Maggie May. A Wood driven masterpiece, I reckon he was one of the greatest bassists of all time, anyway here's the vid with Plonk Lane "playing" bass, John Peel "playing" the mandolin and them all playing football...Ah these were the days: