Gasoline Alley
Rod Stewart has become such a clown prince of rock & roll that it's sometimes hard to remember that at one point in his career he was making some of the best music on the planet.Gasoline Alley, Stewart's second solo album and his first after joining the Faces, was but one of four brief, brilliant records he issued in the early 1970s. All of its sure-handed tracks, the ballads and the burners, still sparkle and crackle today--especially the gorgeous autobiographical title track and his definitive takes of Elton John's "Country Comforts" and Bob Dylan's "Only a Hobo." Stewart's magic rasp invests every word with passion, making even a simple rockabilly chestnut like "Cut Across Shorty" into a lover's anthem. Great, great stuff.--Michael Ruby