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This Review and 204 More Like It Are Available In My
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CAPT. FANTASTIC - 1975
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional CD Reissues & Remasters
All Reviews From The Discs Themselves
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"...Home Again...Across The Sea..."
Issued in Blighty in November 2000 - can this forgotten CD Remaster really be 'over' 20 years old in 2021? Well it is - and at just above a fiver-English (brand new and sealed) from darling Jeff and his Amazonian hoards – tis still bloody good value for money too.
Common consensus tells us that Rodders lost something in his transition from fantastic Faces frontman vocalist intertwined with a stunning solo career in the first half of the Seventies when he segued to this - his August 1975 Warner Brothers big Stateside push that came complete with a model wife, saffron scarf, bubbly glass in hand, Art acquisitions on the Malibu walls and burgers bigger than Kenny Everett's bum-pads in that now infamous slag-off sketch (very sexy Ken).
But actually, as far as I'm concerned, the musical rot did not really start in until December 1978's "Blondes Have More Fun". I know some of the more sexist tunes like "Hot Legs" were hard to take then and even more so now – but like most fans of my advanced years, I've always held a torch for "Atlantic Crossing" (1975), "A Night On The Town" (1976) and "Foot Loose And Fancy Free" (1977) - a trio of good to occasionally great albums in a period where most Rock acts were either floundering or downright superfluous to Rock 'n' Roll requirements. I don't want to talk about it – how you broke my heart - yes I do - here are the boozy half-and-half pass-the-champagne-Britt details...
UK released November 2000 - "Atlantic Crossing" by ROD STEWART on Warner Brothers 9362-47729-2 (Barcode 093624772927) is part of the Warner Remasters Series and is a straightforward CD reissue of his 1975 LP that plays out as follows (44:27 minutes):
Fast Half
1. Three Time Loser [Side 1]
2. Alright For An Hour
3. All In The Name Of Rock 'n' Roll
4. Drift Away
5. Stone Cold Sober
Slow Half
6. I Don't Want To Talk About It [Side 2]
7. It's Not The Spotlight
8. This Old Heart Of Mine
9. Still Love You
10. Sailing
Tracks 1 to 10 are his sixth studio album "Atlantic Crossing" - released August 1975 in the UK on Warner Brothers K 56151 (reissued January 1978 on his own label Riva Records RVLP 4) and August 1975 in the USA on Warner Brothers BS 2875. Produced by TOM DOWD - it peaked at No. 1 in the UK and No. 9 in the US album charts. "Three Time Loser", "All In The Name Of Rock 'n' Roll" and "Still Love You" written by Rod Stewart - "Alright For An Hour" co-written with Jesse Ed Davis while "Stone Cold Sober" was co-written with Steve Cropper of Booker T & The M.G.'s. The other five tracks are cover versions (each discussed below).
MUSICIANS featured were:
GUITARS - Steve Cropper (Booker T & The M.G.'s), Jesse Ed Davis, Jimmy Johnson and Fred Tackett
MANDOLIN and VIOLIN - David Lindley
KEYBOARDS - Barry Beckett and Albhy Galuten
HORNS - The Memphis Horns
BASS - Duck Dunn (Booker T & The M.G.'s), Bob Glaub, David Hood and Lee Sklar
DRUMS and PERCUSSION - Willie Correa, Roger Hawkins, Al Jackson and Nigel Olsson (Elton John's Band)
BACKING VOCALS - Cindy and Bob Singers, The Pets and The Clappers
STRING ARRANGEMENTS - Arif Mardin for "Sailing" and "I Don't Want To Talk About It" - James Mitchell for "This Old Heart Of Mine"
The foldout three-way gatefold slip inlay offers only credits alongside that photo which adorned the inner sleeve of the 1975 LP and naught else. For such a huge album, it seems kind of cheap and piddly and has not been expanded ever since. But the 24-Bit High Resolution Audio supplied in this Warner Remaster done by PATRICK KRAUS rocks like the proverbial clappers. The recordings were top notch originally anyway, but this CD has a real punch and swagger – amplifying what was boogie-on-down one minute (Side 1) – then Soulful and swaying the next (Side 2). To the record...
Recorded in America with a very Memphis Rock-Soul feel and produced by the legendary Tom Dowd – the LP title wasn't just a nod to his new future and aspirations - Rod had literally upped sticks to the USA to escape (like so many at the time) ludicrously crippling British taxation laws that we're robbed him of almost all his earnings. More importantly, with "Atlantic Crossing", Stewart had also left behind the 'sound' of his old British Steamhammer, Jeff Beck Group and Faces muckers Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and Martin Quittenton. Now it was sessionmen galore – Soul Boys like Steve Cropper and Jesse Ed Davis who also understood and loved Rock and R&B and Funk. There was a deliberate commercialism to "Atlantic Crossing" – a ten-track winner full of potential singles – least not of all the arms-waving-in-the-air Celtic-ish ballad "Sailing" (a cover version of a Sutherland Brothers single from 1972 on Island Records penned by Gavin Sutherland) of course repeating the No. 1 status of the album in the UK.
A huge fan fave and a great snotty little rock 'n' roller, "Three Time Loser" opens proceedings on Side 1 with a catchy chorus wrapped around a tale of too many girls our determined monogamist thought were the one only to find they left him with more than a memory. "Alright For An Hour" gets Funky - a slight Reggae swing where it's alright for a day but it didn't last through to the weekend (drums and bass so clear). Five minutes of a great guitar boogie follows with "All In The Name Of Rock 'n' Roll" where Rodders and his band take on New York and all points thereafter (a very Stones swagger to this one - look out kids - it's the FBI wanting to know what's that in your fruit bowl that's keeping up on stage all night every night).
Not for the first time on this album does Rod tap into Dobie Gray's output when he hits us with a Soul-Rock Reggae-fied rendition of "Drift Away". Give me the beat boys to sooth my Soul - I wanna get lost in your Rock 'n' Roll and drift away. Originally written by Mentor Williams but made a hit on MCA Records by Dobie Gray, unfortunately Rod's version is strangely lacking despite all that great musicianship (Dobie's is one of the greatest Soul singles ever in my book – a song that actually touches you – something Rod’s version absolutely doesn’t). Back to boozy Mick Ronson-type Lou Reed riffage in the excellent "Stone Cold Sober" - a co-write with guitarist Steve Cropper of Booker T & The M.G.'s - one of the first tunes to make real use of The Memphis Horns as the guitars riff and the pianos roll – it ends Side 1 on a real high with great slide guitar and soloing too.
Time to smooch with the slow half. It seems astonishing even now that the stunning Danny Whitten-written Crazy Horse cover version of "I Don't Want To Talk About It" - a song that is so synonymous with Rod Stewart - wasn't actually issued as a 45-single in 1975 anywhere. It would have to wait until April 1977 in England to see it relegated to the B-side of "The First Cut Is The Deepest" on Riva Records RIVA 4 (the US single featured "The Balltrap"). This is really where his newer more sophisticated sound started - all those acoustic guitar notes and Arif Mardin arranged strings swirling around your speakers. "...Talk About It" is followed by a much more successful cover of "It's Not The Spotlight" - a Barry Goldberg and Gerry Goffin song made famous by both Bobby Bland and Dobie Gray - a street of dreams remembrance that still has the power to move.
In November 1975 his own Riva Records issued his cover of The Isley Brothers Motown classic "This Old Heart Of Mine" as a single with "All In The Name Of Rock 'n' Roll" on its flip-side and was rewarded with a No. 4 chart position in the UK. I've never liked it - insipid really - but that Sax solo sounds splendid now. One of the album's forgotten tunes is his own "Still Love You" - an awkward declaration about a girl with cherry wine spilled on her dress - nights out dancing - two hearts now parted. And of course "Sailing" made him an international superstar in 1975 - a huge four-and-half-minute hit that had gone unnoticed when The Sutherland Brothers Band put it out in July 1972 on Island Records. It only goes to show his uncanny knack at noticing the potential in a song.
For sure the inlay to "Atlantic Crossing" is merely functionary and some of the tunes are a wee bit 'too' saccharine for most tastes nowadays - but the good stuff is great.
"...I am sailing, home again, across the sea, I am sailing stormy waters, to be with you, to be free..." - Rod sang on that global dominator of a song. Revisit this continent joiner of an album...though perhaps with a bottle of real ale instead of a glass of bubbly this time (and maybe loose the negligee too). Well done my son...
