• Voto:
Non so molto del Rod Stewart recente, la mia conoscenza della sua discografia si ferma al 1972, anno in cui esce "Never a Dull Moment", so solo che da lì in poi si è preoccupato più di rimpolpare il portafogli che di produrre musica di qualità. Però so che fino al 1972, fra la militanza nel Jeff Beck Group, quella nei Faces e la prima parte della sua carriera solista, è stato in grado di fare cose eccelse, potendo fare affidamento su una voce graffiata al limite del rauco estremamente affascinante e caratteristica.
Fra il 1970 e il 1972, da solista, è capace di infilare una tripletta di dischi da leccarsi i baffi, tutti basati sulla stessa formula vincente: mescolare pezzi originali a reintepretazioni di gran classe di canzoni altrui. "Gasoline Alley" è il primo anello di questa catena, completata da "Every Picture Tells a Story" e dal già citato "Never a Dull Moment".
Ad accompagnarlo ci sono i membri dei Faces, ai quali si aggiungono anche altri musicisti, che forniscono alla carismatica voce di Rod un supporto estremamente efficace, in cui a farla da padrone, a parte in un paio di episodi, è il gran lavoro delle chitarre acustiche, che si intrecciano in maniera sempre perfetta, riuscendo a creare molteplici sfumature sonore capaci di rendere l'ascolto molto succulento ed appagante per chi ama un certo tipo di atmosfere. Ma a rendere il tutto ancora più piacevole ci pensano i massicci interventi principalmente di chitarra slide e piano, oltre che di organo, mandolini e archi, che contribuiscono a creare un impasto sonoro denso ed articolato, avente un che di ispirazione "rollingstoniana".
"Gasoline Alley" è un disco che si lascia ascoltare con gran piacere e che scorre con una facilità invidiabile, in cui già dall'omonima opener, in cui gli accordi di chitarra acustica fanno da tappeto per la voce di Rod doppiata da ben due chitarre elettriche, che vengono successivamente coadiuvate anche da un mandolino, viene messo in chiaro che si è di fronte ad un disco di qualità estremamente elevata. Concetto che viene corroborato dalla lunga "It's All Over Now", uno dei primi successi dei Rolling Stones, qui in una trascinante versione in cui piano e chitarra slide sono sugli scudi, ma anche dalle personali rivisitazioni di "Country Comfort", tratta dal monumentale "Tumbleweed Connection" di Elton John, e di "Only a Hobo" di Bob Dylan, dal country-folk sostenuto da un basso martellante di "Cut Across Shorty", impreziosita da un assolo centrale suonato su un violino sporchissimo, e dagli altri due pezzi a firma di Rod, anch'essi a forte matrice acustica, "Lady Day" e "Jo's Lament". E con la chiusura affidata alla elettrica "You're My Girl (I Don't Want to Discuss It)" c'è pane anche per i denti di chi ama il rock più sanguigno e verace.
Forse non il disco in assoluto migliore di Rod Stewart (i due successivi hanno quel qualcosa in più che li fa raggiungere livelli di assoluta eccellenza), ma comunque un ottimo lavoro, in cui il cantante inglese dimostra di avere una classe invidiabile, figlia di un'esperienza già consolidata nonostante la giovane età, ed una sana spontaneità che forse gli verrà a mancare in seguito.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Gasoline Alley (04:05)
I think I know now what's making me sad
It's a yearnin' for my own back yard
I realize maybe I was wrong to leave
Better swallow up my silly country pride
Going home, running home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Going home, and I'm running home
down to Gasoline Alley where I was born
When the weather's better and the rails unfreeze
and the wind don't whistle 'round my knees
I'll put on my weddin' suit and catch the evening train
I'll be home before the milk's upon the door
Going home, running home
down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Going home, and I'm running home
down to Gasoline Alley where I was born
But if anything should happen and my plans go wrong
Should I stray to the house on the hill
Let it be known that my intentions were good
I'd be singing in my alley if I could
And if I'm called away and it's my turn to go
Should the blood run cold in my veins
Just one favor I'll be asking of you
Don't bury me here, it's too cold
Take me back, carry me back
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Take me back, won't you carry me home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Take me back, carry me back
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Take me back, carry me back
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
Take me back, carry me back
Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from
03 Only a Hobo (04:16)
As I was out walking on the corner one day
I spied an old hobo, in the doorway he lay
His face was all covered in the cold sidewalk floor
I guess he’d been there for a whole night or more
He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leaving nobody to carry it on
Leaving nobody to sing his sad song
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
A blanket of newspaper covered his head
The step was his pillow
The street was his bed
One look at his face
Showed the hard road he’d come
And a fistful of money
Showed the coins that he’d bummed
He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leavin’ nobody to sing his sad song
Leavin’ nobody to carry it on
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
Does it take much of a man
To see a whole life go down
To look on the world
From a hole in the ground
Too late for your future
Like a horse that’s gone lame
To lie in the gutter
And die with no name
He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leavin’ nobody to sing his sad song
Leavin’ nobody to carry it on
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
04 My Way of Giving (03:57)
(steve marriott, ron lane)
I've been told it's just a matter of time
Before you meet someone who opens your eyes
But time's on my side so nevertheless
I know the pain of too much happiness
Chorus:
It's all part of my way of giving
And I'm giving it all to you
More than love it's a way of living
And what more would you have me do
Although I'm not a guy that means to hurt
And if at times it seems our love won't work
I tell you honey, you must surely realize
See all confusion in my cloudy eyes
(chorus)
Although I'm not a guy that means to hurt
And if at times it seems our love won't work
I tell you honey you must surely realize
See all confusion in my cloudy eyes
(chorus)
05 Country Comforts (04:44)
Soon the pines will be falling everywhere
Village children always fighting for fair share
And the six-o-nine goes roarin' down the creek
As Parson Lee prepares his service for next week
I saw grandma yesterday down at the store
Well she's really lookin' fine for eighty-four
And she asked me if some time I'd fix the barn
Poor old girl, she needs a man down on the farm
Chorus:
And it's good old country comforts in my bones
Just the sweetest sound my ears have ever known
Just an old fashioned feeling in my bones
Country comforts and the road that's going home
Down at the mill they've got a new machine
Foreman says it cuts manpower by fifteen
"Oh, but that ain't natural" old man Grayson says
'cause he's a horse-drawn man until his dying days
(Chorus)
07 Lady Day (04:00)
North winds have made my face a little older
And my back is bent through trying too hard
My vest is torn so I make no perfect picture
To place upon your white-washed wall
I'd like to stay but you have not asked me
Still I don't really expect you to
Dusty boots would shame you now Lady Day
Are we really that far apart
I wis hthe world could see you now Lady Day
Laughing down at your oldest friend
The one who shared just about all he had
In a one-sided love affair
I get scared when I remember too much
Wasted time I suppose you could say that
Strange it don't seem that way to me
But wait a minute
I don't even think you're listening
Just let me tell you how I really feel
I've seen the inside of your heart Lady Day
When you want to be shown the way
I loved you then as I love ya now girl
08 Jo's Lament (03:26)
I stayed away so long Jo
don't think that I could come back
You're doin' so well without me girl
you'd laugh if you'd know'd where I'm at
You knew me when it was all my world
Somehow it's all passed me by
But don't let on to my friends Jo dear
that things ain't turned out as planned
You bore my child then I left you aside
I don't expect you to forgive
But Jo I can say in a funny old way
I was sure that I had it made
I still possess a photograph
my memory to refresh
But fade it may Jo I can say
I was sure that I had it made
You bore my child then I left you aside
I don't expect you to forgive
But now I'm not so young and I'm so afraid
to sleep alone for the rest of my days
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