In these days of changing ways - so called liberated days

Continuing my trip back through the 1977 album charts.

12/06/77 : A Night On The Town - Rod Stewart

WHAT!?!  I can only assume that Rod had done something which meant that everyone was checking out his recent albums (this one's from '76).  Ah, some quick Googling tells us he'd just had a run of four weeks at the top of the singles chart with "I Don't Want To Talk About It/First Cut Is The Deepest", one of which is on this album and the other is on Atlantic Crossing, so I guess that explains that.  I'm expecting more surprisingly bearable music...

Yeah, it's not bad at all.  "The Killing Of Georgie" seems remarkably progressive for the time being about a gay man finding happiness and acceptance (before he's brutally murdered anyway) - especially when you see it got to #2 in the UK singles chart.  Unlike our previous two visits, this is less obviously fast or slow with a lot of it sitting somewhere in between, but it's all worth a listen and is nicely of its time without having horribly dated.

We're at #16 in the charts this week on his sixth week of a fourteen week run which was his third visit - his first run was 28 weeks and he spent his first eighteen weeks in the top ten, with two weeks at #1.  The top five this week were The Beatles, The Muppets, ABBA, Eagles and A Star Is Born and the highest new entry is the incredibly hip and happening Johnny Mathis best-of (#9).

Wikipedia tells me this is his seventh album and it's regarded as one of his finest - so obviously there are very few other sentences on it, but there's still some interesting stuff in there.  The album cover, as I'm sure you know, is based on Bal du moulin de la Galette by Renoir (with added Rod) and "Tonight's The Night" was considered controversial and banned by several radio stations due "to the very obvious lyrics about sex and loss of virginity" (they're really not subtle - "spread your wings and let me come inside").  The album did very well commercially - #1 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden and #2 in the US, with it selling two million copies over there.

"Customers also listened to" Faces, James Taylor, Ike Turner and Don MacLean - a somewhat strange mix!  I think this is probably my least favourite of Rod's albums we've met this year, mostly because of its lack of variety but it's still an interesting listen and considerably more enjoyable than I'd have imagined before I started this year.

05/06/77 - In which I learn absolutely nothing
19/06/77 - Surprisingly enjoyable

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