Gasoline Alley
By Rod Stewart
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Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 Gasoline Alleylyrics 4:00
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songwriter
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guitar, songwriter
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Stanley Matthewsmandolin
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- A2 It's All Over Nowlyrics 6:23
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guitar, bass
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drums
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piano
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William Gaffwhistle
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- A3 Only a Hobolyrics 4:20
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acoustic guitar
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acoustic guitar, bottleneck guitar
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acoustic guitar
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Dick Powellviolin
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Dennis O'Flynnbass violin
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songwriter
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- A4 My Way of Givinglyrics 4:10
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guitar
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bass, vocals, songwriter
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drums
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organ
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songwriter
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- B1 Country Comfortslyrics 4:45
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guitar, bass
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drums
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piano
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vocals
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- B2 Cut Across Shortylyrics 6:30
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acoustic guitar
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acoustic guitar
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drums
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Dick Powellviolin
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bass
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songwriter
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songwriter
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-
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songwriter, guitar
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guitar
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guitar
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Dick Powellviolin
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Dennis O'Flynnbass violin
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- B4 Jo's Lamentlyrics 3:35
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songwriter, guitar
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guitar
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guitar
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- B5 I Don't Want to Discuss It 4:30
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guitar
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bass
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drums
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- Total length: 42:28
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Review
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22 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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Gasoline Alley [p] 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Gasoline Alley 33 rpm1970 Vinyl LP TLA-6756
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Gasoline Alley 33 rpm
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Gasoline Alley Gatefold
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Gasoline Alley 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Gasoline Alley 33 rpm
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Gasoline Alley 33 rpm
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Gasoline Alley Remastered
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Gasoline Alley Remastered
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Gasoline Alley CD Sized Album Replica, Gatefold, Limited Edition, Remastered2007 CD UICY-90395
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Gasoline Alley 180 gram, Gatefold
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Gasoline Alley Bonus Tracks, CD Sized Album Replica, Gatefold, Numbered Edition, SHM
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Gasoline Alley Limited Edition, Paper/Cardboard Sleeve, Remastered
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Gasoline Alley 33 rpm, Numbered Edition, Remastered
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Gasoline Alley 180 gram, 33 rpm, Digital Download, Gatefold
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Gasoline Alley Remastered
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Gasoline Alley 33 rpm
46 Reviews
My copy of Gasoline Alley is not only a gatefold, but the jacket is textured, you can actually feel the cobblestones. I’ve never seen another like it, I’ve been asked to sell, but I’d rather have my textured memories, then have a few dollars that will no doubt find their way into the gasoline tank of my car.
The aging rockstar you see today is not the Rod Stewart I came to know and love. Rod was an original, as original as Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, or just about anyone else you could name. The thing that set Rod apart from the others, besides that great, truly mop-top shaggy haircut was what he brought to the music ... and that was a believability, which is what made his fall from grace so tragic. These were odd times on the music scene, you could almost taste it in the air, The Beatles were all but gone, Led Zeppelin was becoming bigger and dumber then they realized, and progressive-rock was the wave that was washing over the land. But there stood Rod Stewart, like The Band, dishing out these rare songs and ballads filled with honesty, rock folk tales presented in a mild country manner through Stewart’s gravely beautiful voice, along with a unique blend of acoustic and electric instrumentation that sounded more like stories to be told on the front porch while passing ‘round a joint, and a bottle of Blue Nun wine.
Where Stewart and his mates conjured these sounds and verse, at this time, is beyond me ... mixing guitars, a wishful piano, and that haunting unexpected emotionally filled mandolin, making the song “Gasoline Alley” nearly a perfect number ... a simple lament for times and places long since gone; though as memories go, they probably never existed with the beauty Rod drapes them with.
“Going home, running home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I stated from
Going home, and I’m running home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I was born ...
Rod blends the album as he always did, and always will, with some of his own material exquisitely interwoven with brilliantly chosen and executed covers. Many of the covers gave fading genres, like Soul and R&B new life, often being the first time I’d heard a white man sing these songs like he owned them. But it’s his version of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin song “Country Comforts” that seals the deal ... the song is just so kind, and filled with an atmosphere that if we could all just help each other, and lay aside our own needs, that we could make this world a better place ... and with the War in Vietnam still raging, this notion sounded very good to me. I will say that “Jo’s Lament,” a song about relationships, cut a little too close to the bone, as I was one of many loosing myself in that useless war, with haunting lines like:
“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 ...”
And I was only 20 at the time.
Even his uptempo numbers are bathed with this same communal feel, tracks like “Cut Across Shorty” inspire textures of sensitivity for things that may have happened in our lives, but happened so fast that while the results are remembered, the beauty of watching it happen have all but slipped away. Rod’s muses were working in overdrive, actually telling us that “I get scared when I remember too much,” but he keeps on remembering, and he keeps on laying it at our feet, and I kept holding his songs in my hands like they were rare jewels, taking me back to places that were nothing more then distant memories. Sometimes I began to think that the memories were memories, but Rod’s voice and verse brought me home ... and the really strange thing is, now when I listen to Gasoline Alley, I’m filled with a longing for those who stood at my side in Vietnam, for those I’ve loved and lost, for those voices that still echo in my head, and for those who never came home. Rod Stewart put a lot of honest heartfelt happy creases on our faces, just when we needed them the most.
The aging rockstar you see today is not the Rod Stewart I came to know and love. Rod was an original, as original as Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, or just about anyone else you could name. The thing that set Rod apart from the others, besides that great, truly mop-top shaggy haircut was what he brought to the music ... and that was a believability, which is what made his fall from grace so tragic. These were odd times on the music scene, you could almost taste it in the air, The Beatles were all but gone, Led Zeppelin was becoming bigger and dumber then they realized, and progressive-rock was the wave that was washing over the land. But there stood Rod Stewart, like The Band, dishing out these rare songs and ballads filled with honesty, rock folk tales presented in a mild country manner through Stewart’s gravely beautiful voice, along with a unique blend of acoustic and electric instrumentation that sounded more like stories to be told on the front porch while passing ‘round a joint, and a bottle of Blue Nun wine.
Where Stewart and his mates conjured these sounds and verse, at this time, is beyond me ... mixing guitars, a wishful piano, and that haunting unexpected emotionally filled mandolin, making the song “Gasoline Alley” nearly a perfect number ... a simple lament for times and places long since gone; though as memories go, they probably never existed with the beauty Rod drapes them with.
“Going home, running home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I stated from
Going home, and I’m running home
Down to Gasoline Alley where I was born ...
Rod blends the album as he always did, and always will, with some of his own material exquisitely interwoven with brilliantly chosen and executed covers. Many of the covers gave fading genres, like Soul and R&B new life, often being the first time I’d heard a white man sing these songs like he owned them. But it’s his version of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin song “Country Comforts” that seals the deal ... the song is just so kind, and filled with an atmosphere that if we could all just help each other, and lay aside our own needs, that we could make this world a better place ... and with the War in Vietnam still raging, this notion sounded very good to me. I will say that “Jo’s Lament,” a song about relationships, cut a little too close to the bone, as I was one of many loosing myself in that useless war, with haunting lines like:
“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 ...”
And I was only 20 at the time.
Even his uptempo numbers are bathed with this same communal feel, tracks like “Cut Across Shorty” inspire textures of sensitivity for things that may have happened in our lives, but happened so fast that while the results are remembered, the beauty of watching it happen have all but slipped away. Rod’s muses were working in overdrive, actually telling us that “I get scared when I remember too much,” but he keeps on remembering, and he keeps on laying it at our feet, and I kept holding his songs in my hands like they were rare jewels, taking me back to places that were nothing more then distant memories. Sometimes I began to think that the memories were memories, but Rod’s voice and verse brought me home ... and the really strange thing is, now when I listen to Gasoline Alley, I’m filled with a longing for those who stood at my side in Vietnam, for those I’ve loved and lost, for those voices that still echo in my head, and for those who never came home. Rod Stewart put a lot of honest heartfelt happy creases on our faces, just when we needed them the most.
Published
SR 61264 Vinyl LP (1970)
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An even stronger set than Rod Stewart's debut album, with the Faces allowing themselves to be a bit more of a distinctive presence this time (offering a particularly interesting take on some of their own old Small Faces material for Rod's cover of the soulful My Way of Giving). Rocking out a bit more than on the somewhat more subdued debut, Stewart and the gang are not afraid to wear their Stones influence on their sleeves (see, for instance, the version here of It's All Over Now), but at the same time offer their own distinctive take on a blues-rock sound.
Published
Early Rod could hardly fail, with such a great band and the powerhouse of creativity he used to be. "Country Comforts" is my personal highlight, excellent faux-Country from the Elton John/Bernie Taupin team sung with so much feeling, title track and the "It's All Over Now"cover also rule..
Published
Proof that Rod Stewart used to be one of the most talented rock musicians of all-time.
Have you heard his recent stuff? It's worse than snorting steak sauce out of Linda Tripp's ass cheeks.
Have you heard his recent stuff? It's worse than snorting steak sauce out of Linda Tripp's ass cheeks.
Published
Album 252 of 1001: Gasoline Alley by Rod Stewart
I don’t know if I’ll ever let initial reviews not affect me. The day I do is gonna make this whole listening thing way easier. Never heard of Rod Stewart. But I saw that people don’t like this that much, and was immediately like “Ehh, must not be very good”. Don’t listen to what other people say. That’s step number one, and basically the only step to properly hearing new music. This shit slaps. I still really don’t know who Rod Stewart is, and I don’t care very much. Funnily enough that seems to be the consensus with this guy. People don’t really know how he got famous, or what he’s really done. He’s not anything special and he never has been. And somehow I could almost feel that through the music. But why is it all of the sudden you have to be something game changing for your music to be good? Not everyone can be Michael Jackson. There are bands who go decades without ever being discovered, until some random person on 4chan finds their shit (looking at you Panchiko). Rod is who he is, and I dig it. His voice has a nice gravel to it, and the instruments sound nice. All that matters to me for something like this. This album is a mix of softer acoustic songs and more pumped up tracks with electric guitar and bass. Some songs go fully without drums, and I can appreciate how stripped back they feel. But there are also some songs with an undeniable groove, like I Don’t Want to Discuss It or My Way of Giving. Take it as a lesson that you can be looked at as a rather unremarkable figure, and still become one of the best selling musicians ever. But none of that stuff really matters anyways. Just make the music you love.Rating: 8/10
Favorite tracks: Gasoline Alley, Only a Hobo, My Way of Giving, Country Comfort, Cut Across Shorty, I Don’t Want to Discuss It
Least favorite track: Lady Day
Would I recommend this to someone: Yes
Favorite tracks: Gasoline Alley, Only a Hobo, My Way of Giving, Country Comfort, Cut Across Shorty, I Don’t Want to Discuss It
Least favorite track: Lady Day
Would I recommend this to someone: Yes
Published
4/10
Rick like this needs to have a bit of an edge to give it what it deserves; this sounds about as dangerous as a rubber duckie.Published
This is non-music to me, with that roots rock blues that go in one year and out the other, with no in-between. I can recognize instruments, singing, even lyrics, but to me this is the bare minimum in which music can be. Stewart's voice is that high pitched gruffness that you find a lot in music like this, but otherwise it is completely unnotable to me as a record. No bad moments (save for his voice in the beginning when you're getting used to it) but certainly no good moments, and isn't that a worse offense than something being so bad its entertaining? Maybe so.
Published
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Songs are about as beige as the album cover
I went many years thinking I didn’t like Rod Stewart because I hate Sweet Caroline, and only a few years ago found out it’s actually Neil Diamond that I don’t like. Another reason I thought I didn’t like him was because I don’t like the song Mandy, but again came to realise my dislike is for Barry Manilow. So let’s give Rod his fair chance!
Songs I already know: none
Favourite after listening: Only A Hobo, Country Comfort
Overall: 5/10
This was very middle of the road old-man-rock music. It doesn’t try anything interesting, but also doesn’t do anything terribly. It’s the kind of album where you just stop paying attention and forget you’re listening to anything. You’re not anticipating the end so so can stop listening, but at the same time you’re also not invested while listening. It’s very fitting that the main colour on the album is beige, because this album could not be more neutral. Side note, the two tracks I thought were best are covers of Bob Dylan and Elton John, so he shined brightest for me when performing music where somebody else took the wheel with the actual writing.
Published
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