Release Review: Every Picture Tells A Story

28.05.2025 09:43

‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ is the third studio album by British singer-songwriter Rod Stewart, which was released by Mercury Records on 28 May 1971. It combines hard rock, folk and blues and reached number one in both the UK and US charts as well as third place in the Jazz & Pop Critics Poll for the best album of 1971. It was a continued success with critics and was ranked 172nd on Rolling Stone's list of the ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’ in 2003, which was moved to 177th in the 2020 reissue.HistoryThe album is a mix of rock, country, blues, soul and folk and features Stewart's breakthrough hit ‘Maggie May’ as well as ‘Reason to Believe’, a song from Tim Hardin's 1966 debut album. ‘Reason to Believe’, featuring Pete Sears on piano, was released as the album's first single, with ‘Maggie May’ as the B-side; however, ‘Maggie May’ became more popular and was a No. 1 hit in both the UK and the US.The album includes a version of Arthur Crudup's ‘That's All Right (Mama)’ (the first single for Elvis Presley) and a cover version of the Bob Dylan song ‘Tomorrow Is a Long Time’, which was first released on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II in 1971.All five members of the Faces (of which Stewart was the lead singer at the time) are featured on the album, with guitarist/bassist Ronnie Wood and keyboardist Ian McLagan on Hammond B3 organ making the most appearances. Due to contractual restrictions, the line-up lists were somewhat vague, and it was unclear whether the version of the Motown hit ‘(I Know) I'm Losing You’ was recorded by the full Faces line-up. Other contributors included Ray Jackson on mandolin (although Stewart has reportedly forgotten his name and only mentions ‘the mandolin player in Lindisfarne’ on the cover) and Micky Waller on drums. Maggie Bell did backing vocals (labelled on the cover as ‘vocal abrasives’) on the title track, and Madeline Bell sang backing vocals on the next track, ‘Seems Like A Long Time’. Pete Sears played all the piano on the album, with the exception of the track ‘I'm Losing You’, which featured Ian McLagan on piano, along with the Faces as a band.

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The best day of his life: Holger from Berlin meets his idol Rod Stewart

17.04.2025 11:08

It is 25 March 2014 - a cold and foggy day in Berlin. It's early on this Tuesday morning and thousands of cars are making their way through the city's congested streets. Around the underground stations and bus stops, people are hurrying back and forth, all on their way to their offices, shops and businesses to go about their daily business. The usual chaos in the German capital, like almost every morning. Things are much more relaxed in a cosy flat in the east of the city. Holger sips his morning coffee in peace, music blaring from the radio. Since reunification in the 1990s, he has rightly been one of the most enthusiastic Stewart fans in the whole of Germany. ‘I grew up in the GDR, so it wasn't so easy to follow everything Rod Stewart did. But I did notice a few things. And when the wall came down, I simply lived out my fandom,’ he says. Holger took off and there was hardly a concert in Germany where he wasn't standing or sitting in the front row. ‘Sitting is for arse,’ Holger emphasises. ‘You have to stand at a Rod Stewart concert. Even if all arenas are now seated’. But standing or sitting - the main thing is to be there and always in the front row, even with today's enormous ticket prices, this is a must for Holger. ‘The concerts have cost me a small fortune, but you only live once, right?’ says the blond-haired man. ‘Of course I'll be there again this year’. Rod Stewart is playing seven concerts in Germany in 2025, coming to Dortmund, Bremen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne, Munich and Mannheim in May and November/December. But we digress. So Holger is drinking his coffee, as he always does before travelling to work, and has no idea what the next few hours have in store for him. Everything looks like a normal day at the office for the Berliner. But then he suddenly pricks up his ears: Rod Stewart is being talked about on the radio. Holger assumes that the station is once again doing one of those adverts for the German tour announced in the summer, which should also bring the Brit to Berlin for a concert. But when the announcer talked about the stadium at the Alte Försterei (the home ground of Bundesliga football club 1. FC Union Berlin) in connection with Sir Rod, the Berliner listened more closely. And was told that the singer was coming to Berlin that day for a promotional event that would take him to the Alte Försterei, among other places.All of a sudden, Holger's peace and quiet was over. He saw the opportunity to finally fulfil his big dream of meeting Rod Stewart in person and maybe even getting an autograph.Holger was immediately on fire. Rod Stewart is coming to Berlin and will be at the Alte Försterei. Today. The day's planning was thus turned on its head. The Rod fan immediately rang his boss and spontaneously took a day off. Then he threw on his clothes, grabbed his camera and put Rod Stewart's autobiography ROD in his rucksack. Thus ‘armed’, the now 56-year-old made his way to the Alte Försterei.

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