Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Maggie May (Early Version)
2. Seems Like A Long Time (Alternate Version)
3. Italian Girls (Early Version)
4. You Wear It Well (Early Version)
5. Lost Paraguayos (Alternate Version)
6. I'd Rather Go Blind (Alternate Version)
7. Angel (Alternate Version)
8. Think I'll Pack My Bags (Early Version of "Mystifies Me")
9. Farewel (Early Version)
10. Girl From The North Country (Alternate Version)
11. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Man (Alternate Version)
12. So Tired (Early Version)
13. This Old Heart Of Mine (Alternate Version)
14. To Love Somebody (Early Take)
15. Sailing (Alternate Version)
16. Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright) (Early Take)

Disc 2:

1. The First Cut Is The Deepest (Alternate Version)
2. Rosie (Acoustic Version)
3. Innocent (The Killing Of Georgie Part III)
4. Hot Legs (Early Take)
5. You're In My Heart (The Final Acclaim) (Acoustic Version)
6. I Was Only Joking (Early Take)
7. Scarred & Scared (Early Take)
8. When I'm Away From You
9. Oh God, I Wish I Was Home Tonight (Early Version)
10. Time Of My Life
11. TV Mama
12. Maybe Baby
13. Stupid
14. Guess I'll Always Love You (Alternate Version)
15. The Great Pretender (Acoustic Version)

Disc 3:

1. Thunderbird
2. Dancing Alone (Alternate Version)
3. I Wish You Would
4. Sweet Surrender (Alternate Version)
5. Show Me
6. Ghetto Blaster (Early Version)
7. Satisfied (Alternate Version)
8. Hard Lesson To Learn (Alternate Version)
9. Heaven
10. In My Life (Piano Version)
11. Love Is A Four Letter Word
12. Forever Young\x{201d} (Piano Version)
13. My Heart Can't Tell You No(Alternate Version)
14. I Go To Jail For You
15. A Good Lover Is Hard To Find

Disc 4:

1. Let The Day Begin (Alternate Version)
2. The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar (Alternate Version)
3. Windy Town (Piano Version)
4. In A Broken Dream (1992)
5. This Wheel\x{2019}s On Fire
6. I Wanna Stay Home
7. I'm A King Bee
8. Looking For A Love
9. Kiss Her For Me
10. The Long Journey Home
11. Now That You\x{2019}re On Your Own
12. Dylan's Day Off
13. On And On
14. Rockin' Chair
15. Sugar Lips
16. The Changingman
17. May You Never

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2774 in Music
• Released on: 2009-09-28
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: .82 pounds

CD Description
Spanning more than 25 years, this four CD collection’s 63 songs--including outtakes and rarities--provide extraordinary insight into the studio work of one of rock’s legendary figures and paint a picture of what might have been. Many of these performances are more stripped down and intimate than their released counterparts in a true showcase of Rod’s creative process. A rare and revealing insight into the real creative workings of a legendary artist.

Customer Reviews

Forgotten how good he was!
This is a truly amazing box set comprising a mixture of unreleased early versions of songs, and some unreleased mastrerpieces.

The early version of Maggie May keeps the same tune but the lyrics are totally different.
Highlight of the first disc is a pared down version of I'd Rather go Blind which, along with many other tracks, demonstartes what a great soul singer yer man is.

On disc 2 there is an unreleased track, Innocent, which is a sequal to Killiing of Georgie which looks at the events from the killers point of view and what happenned next to him.

Other highlights include an all star recording of In a Broken Dream including Dave Gilmour and John Paul Jones. There are also some great stripped back tracks such as Scarred and Scared and a lovely version of the late John Martyn's May You Never.

This is a must for not just Rod Stewart fans but for anyone who wants to hear a true rock legend in his prime and without many of the bells and whistles that later producers added to the tracks.

When Rod the Mod was great.
As a long standing Rod Stewart fan who had become increasingly bored with the 'Songbook' series, the 'Sessions' collection has been something of a revelation. Here are 4 CD's and 63 previously unreleased recordings. Amongst them are embryonic versions of old favourites, alternate versions and the most interesting to my ears are the recordings that were done and dusted but never released until now. And many of those latter songs are far superior in my view to much that Rod has officially put out over the years. If you want proof, then listen to the Frankie Miller songs 'When I'm away from you' and 'Kiss her for me'. Just magic. Take Elvis Costello's 'The Long Journey Home', Noel Gallagher's 'Rockin Chair', Paul Weller's 'Changing Man' and John Martyn's 'May You Never'. Here are great songs done in the way that only Rod can, emphasising his talent as the great interpretative singer. Then there is the case that 'less is more'. Simpler versions of songs that appeared in over produced forms, listen to them here in their superior and simpler styles. Take 'Windy Town' with just a piano, a version of 'Sailing'that won't make you cringe and a killer version of 'First Cut is the deepest'. There is Stewart the songwriter at his best on the unheard of part 3 of 'Killing of Georgie'. And to top it all, a 1992 recording of 'In a Broken Dream' with a super group backing including Dave Gilmour, John Paul Jones and Nick Lowe. This set contains Rod at his very best. It just makes you question why many of these recordings were left off the official releases. Whoever was advising him? There are some real beauties. If you have liked anything Rod has produced you will absolutely love much of what is on offer here. And it has a terrific book to lead you through the gems included. Buy and enjoy.

A good overview
Since his career as a credible artist took a nosedive in the mid 70's from which it has barely ever recovered it is easy to forget what an important figure Rod once was in the world of rock. A superb interpreter of other people's songs and, although far from prolific, he was no mean composer himself; and even in decline as a recording artist he remained a charismatic performer. Unlike his two great contemporaries David Bowie and Elton John, Rod has never had a late career revival. They too both suffered artistic slumps, but Bowie has had a series of very creditable albums during the past dozen years, whilst Elton has also issued occasional albums which, if not quite up to the standards of his 70's heyday, aren't far off. No such revival for Rod, who as far as I am concerned released his last consistently decent album as far back as `76.

I am certainly not convinced by the Great American Songbook recordings which some have claimed heralds a late renaissance. Even in his heyday, superb rock, folk and blues singer as he was, Rod never had the voice for these types of songs, and his voice on these recordings sounds painfully thin. Why listen to Rod Stewart, whose voice has declined anyway by these recordings, singing those songs when you can listen to Sinatra at his peak interpreting them? I think the only really worthwhile album Rod has released since `A Night On The Town' is the Unplugged recordings. There have been occasional decent songs, but no completely worthwhile albums.

So we come to this four disc set of outtakes and alternative versions. The set doesn't actually cover Rod's entire solo recording career as it begins in '71 rather than `69 so there is nothing from the first two excellent albums. Rod's entire reputation really rests on those first four classic solo albums and the work he did with the Faces at the same time, although honourable mention must be given to his work with Jeff Beck prior to this. The set begins with alternative versions of a couple of tracks from `Every Picture' followed by a slew of songs from `Never A Dull Moment'. From here on virtually every album Rod released is touched upon either in the form of alternative versions or outtakes which didn't make the final album.

As I said in my review of the Faces box set most artists tend to release the best version of a song, so by and large the `alternative' versions are usually `inferior' versions, and it is pretty much the case here. Indeed the alternative versions of early songs such as `Maggie Mae' and `You Wear It Well' are very rough indeed featuring guide lyrics and occasionally very basic instrumentation. The fact that they are still worthy of investigation shows how good Rod actually was back then and they are certainly more listenable than some of the `rough' stuff on the Faces box.

Similarly outtakes are often left out because they aren't as good as the songs which make the final albums. Again here though there are a good number of worthwhile outtakes which amount to the equivalent of a new Rod Stewart double album. Some are songs made well known by others: Dylan's `This Wheel's on Fire' and `The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar', Paul Weller's `The Changingman', Oasis's `Rockin' Chair.' The Beatles `In My Life', Buddy Holly's `Maybe Baby' to name a few, whilst others are outtakes that are either by less well known artists or written by Rod himself. Many such as `Think I'll Pack My Bags,' `Scarred and Scared,' `Windy Town,' `Dylan's Day Off,' range from good to excellent. There is also a superb version of one of my favourite Rod interpretations `I'd Rather Go Blind' and a later excellent version of the fine Rod as Python Lee Jackson recording `In A Broken Dream.'
However there are also a few clunkers. `Thunderbird' has been hailed as one of the best and most important of the outtakes, however I find it overlong (it is the longest track in the box) and thoroughly monotonous - I'd had more than enough of it before it was half way though; whilst `Innocent' aka `The Killing Of Georgie Part 3', would also have been best left in the can as it is certainly not up to the standard of the other parts of that song. There are also a couple throwaway hidden tracks (why do record companies still persist in this irritating practice?) which are supposed to be humorous and show Rod at work (there is also some excessive swearing on one). These are the types of features we expect on box sets to give the `rounded picture' but are unlikely to be played more than once.

In conclusion this box set really sums up Rod's career - great in parts but extremely inconsistent. Obviously it is aimed squarely at committed fans; newcomers who want an overview of his entire career would be much better off with either of the double compilations `The Story So Far' or the more recent `Some Guys Have All The Luck,' or even better get the complete Mercury recordings three disc box set which contains all his first five albums (the first four of which are essential for anyone interested in classic rock) together with non album singles and outtakes.