"Reason To Believe: The Complete Mercury Studio Recordings" by ROD STEWART (November 2002 US Mercury/Universal/Chronicles 3CD Anthology Set with Five Albums (1969 to 1974), Single-Only Sides and Period Rarities - Suha Gur Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"…I Wouldn't Change A Thing…"

I've been meaning to heap praise on this 'Chronicles' tin of Scots Shortbread for years – so here are the tartan scarves, champagne buckets and caviar pillow stains…

US released 19 November 2002 (reissued January 2005) – "Reason To Believe: The Complete Mercury Studio Recordings" by ROD STEWART on Mercury/Universal/Chronicles 440 063 422-2 (Barcode 044006342221) is a 3CD set and breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 (79:19 minutes):

1. Street Fighting Man [Side 1]

2. Man Of Constant Sorrow

3. Blind Prayer

4. Handbags And Gladrags

5. An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down [Side 2]

6. I Wouldn't Ever Change A Thing

7. Cindy's Lament

8. Dirty Old Town

Tracks 1 to 8 are his debut LP "An Old Raincoat Won't Let You Down" – released February 1970 on Vertigo VO 4 in the UK. It was called "The Rod Stewart Album" in the USA and its September 1969 release on Mercury SR-61237 featuring different artwork to the UK issue (same tracks). As this is effectively an American release – the booklet doesn’t picture the lovely 'photograph' gatefold of the UK artwork.

9. Gasoline Alley

10. It's All Over Now [Side 1]

11. Only A Hobo

12. My Way Of Giving

13. Country Comforts

14. Cut Across Shorty [Side 2]

15. Lady Day

16. Jo's Lament

17. You're My Girl (I Don't Want To Discuss It)

Tracks 9 to 17 are his 2nd solo LP "Gasoline Alley" – released May 1970 in the USA on Mercury SR-61264 and September 1970 in the UK on Vertigo 6360 500.

Track 18 is "It's All Over Now" – issued as a 7" single edit in the UK on Vertigo 6086 002 in September 1970 (the album track "Jo's Lament" was its B-side).

Disc 2 (77:08 minutes):

1. Every Picture Tells A Story [Side 1]

2. Seems Like A Long Time

3. That's All Right / Amazing Grace

4. Tomorrow Is A Long Time

5. Henry/Maggie May [Side 2]

6. Mandolin Wind

7. (I Know) I'm Losing You

8. (Find A) Reason To Believe

Tracks 1 to 8 are his 3rd album "Every Picture Tells A Story" – released 16 July 1971 in the UK on Mercury 6338 063 and May 1971 in the USA on Mercury SRM-1 609. It eventually peaked at No.1 in the UK - famously the LP shared the No.1 spot with the "Reason To Believe b/w Maggie May" single that found the B-side 'Maggie May' flipped and it becoming the hit. 

NOTE: "Maggie May" that opened Side 2 of the album was preceded on original LPs by a 30-second instrumental called "Henry" which was listed on the LP as '0. Henry' to '1. Maggie May' Although this 3CD set does not note that song on the rear track list - it is here incorporated into the whole - Track 5 therefore running to 5:45 minutes in total.

9. True Blue [Side 1]

10. Lost Paraguayos

11. Mama You've Been On My Mind

12. Italian Girls

13. Angel

14. Interludings

15. You Wear It Well

16. I'd Rather Go Blind

17. Twistin' The Night Away

Tracks 9 to 17 are his 4th album "Never A Dull Moment" – released July 1972 in the UK on Mercury 6499 153 and Mercury SRM-1 10646 in the USA

Tracks 18 is "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out Of Me)" is the non-album B-side to "Angel" – a UK 7" single issued in November 1972 on Mercury 6052 198

Disc 3 (70:47 minutes):

1. Pinball Wizard - a cover of The Who track from "Tommy" – it was featured on the June 1973 compilation LP "Sing It Again Rod"

2. Oh! No Not My Baby

3. Jodie – Tracks 2 and 3 were non-album and the A&B sides of a 7" single in both the USA and UK in September 1973

4. Sweet Little Rock 'n Roller [Side 1]

5. Lochinvar

6. Farewell

7. Sailor

8. Bring It On Home To Me / You Send Me

9. Let Me Be Your Car

10. (You Make Me feel Like) A Natural Woman

11. Dixie Trot

12. Hard Road

13. I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face (Instrumental)

14. Girl From The North Country

15. Mine For Me

Tracks 4 to 15 are his 5th album "Smiler" – released September 1974 in the UK on Mercury 9101 001 and Mercury SRM-1 1017 in the USA

16. Missed You

17. You Put Something Better Inside Me

18. Crying Laughing Loving Lying

19. Every Time We Say Goodbye

20. So Tired – Tracks 16 to 20 all 'Previously Unreleased in the USA' session outtakes first released on the 1995 2CD retrospective set "Handbags & Gladrags"

The 24-page booklet is housed in a three-way fold-out card digipak with each flap featuring live photos (pictures beneath the see-through plastic trays also). AMY LINDEN provides the liner notes and there's discography info on each track and overall recording credits. But the big news is the SUHA GUR remasters which are fantastic – full of presence and life and that raunchy feel Stewart got at the time.

Lyrically and musically – there is so much richness here. Armed with a God-given set of tonsils and a way with observation and melody - song after song smacks you over the head with greatness and smart choices. And all of it with that fantastic band of musical brothers - Ronnie Wood, Martin Quittenton, Ronnie Lane, Mick Waller and Ian McLagan - effortlessly dripping British Rock 'n' Roll swagger - something that seemed to come to them so easily in those Mercury Records halcyon years.

But while the overly familiar "Picture" and "Moment" (from 1971 and 1972) are 5-star Rod Stewart classics with nuggets like the gorgeous "Mandolin Wind" and the raucous "Los Paraguayos" – it's the first two on Vertigo (UK) and the massively underrated "Smiler" that I keep returning to when I play this massive CD haul. We get the superb keyboard contribution of Keith Emerson on "I Wouldn't Ever Change A Thing" (before ELP) and Stewart's beautifully sensitive cover of "Only A Hobo" – a Dylan outtake from "The Times Are A-Changin'" sessions. And there's that stunning mixture of rockers versus ballads – the thread runs right through from his fab take on Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller" in 1974 backtracking to his own "Lady Day" in 1970.

Amongst the previously unreleased "Missed You" is a self-penned gem (it is listed as Previously Unreleased in the US for this release) - but you can see why his take on Labi Siffre's 1972 classic "Crying Laughing Loving Lying" (originally on Pye Records and from the album of the same name) stayed in the can - it just doesn't suit Rod. Better is his version of an old Stealers Wheel tune called "You Put Something Better Inside Me" written by Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan. Recorded n the summer of 1973, the Cole Porter hymn "Every Time We Say Goodbye" (also listed as PU in the US) is nice and a hint at a genre-love that Stewart would return to decades later - the Great American Songbook. And his own "So Tired” (an outtake from the "Smiler" sessions) is very good too.

To sum up - five whole albums, rare single sides and a batch of previously unreleased for under nine-quid is a bit of a no-brainer really. "Reason To Believe..." is a rare instance of quality and quantity combined - and of all of it wrapped up in that top-quality remastered sound…

"...Combed my hair in a thousand ways…but I come out looking the same…" - Rod sings on "Every Picture Tells A Story". 

Forget all the expensive alternatives - this is the musical mirror you want to look in to…