It’s hard to remember now, after decades of listening to him sing shlock, that Rod Stewart was once an artist who mattered. He could rock as raucously as the Rolling Stones with the Faces, but his standout skill was his sensitive way with the ballads and the folk-based songs on his solo albums. “Gasoline Alley” kicked off his second solo LP with an elegy for his childhood home that sounds like an old Scottish folk tune, a feeling heightened by the acoustic guitar and mandolin that dominate the track.
That’s the second video below. The first one is something I found while looking for the album track — a grainy film of Stewart in 1971 singing it a cappella in a Hamburg, Germany, apartment courtyard, taking advantage of the natural acoustics and early-morning hour to show off his pipes. But what’s really great is what he does when he finishes, which is the essence of Rod as he was when he mattered.
“Gasoline Alley” is still on Stewart’s set list, only now he sings it in Las Vegas.