Music Monday #43: The Story So Far: The Very Best Of Rod Stewart

I was born in 1988 and grew up mostly in the 90s.  I've lived a life that spans the technological revolution that was led by the Internet, experiencing life before, during, and after its arrival and expansion and eventual domination.  In the 90s when I grew up very few people had PCs, they weren't as ubiquitous as they are now for the simple reason that there wasn't a lot you could do with them unless you were a PC gamer or needed one for work.  The former of which was still evolving given the limited resources that existed, although some incredible games did emerge in those time periods most of them were confined to console gaming.

Without music streaming services, without all-you-can-eat access to music, you were limited to only a few routes to discovering new music.  Those were through record shops, through the radio, through Music stations if you had satellite television, through the end of week chart shows like Top Of The Pops here in the UK, or through referrals from friends and family where you exchanged music.  My parents taste in music for this reason had some influence on the music I was exposed to, one artist in particular stands out in this regard for me as my Dad had a love of his music and that is Rod Stewart.

'The Story So Far: The Very Best Of Rod Stewart' is a greatest hits compilation that brought together most of his music collection, released in 2001 it covers most of the tracks that I heard growing up so I've chosen to include it here.  There are a lot of tracks on this compilation that mean a lot to me but I will limit those I mention.

'Rhythm Of My Heart' is the first track I want to focus on, the chorus "Oh, the rhythm of my heart, Is beating like a drum, With the words, 'I love you' rolling off my tongue, No, never will I roam, For I know my place is home, Where the ocean meets the sky, I'll be sailing" these words to me speak of the comfort I find in my family, in particular my parents.  There's something childlike and innocent about feeling safe and secure in their presence.  Over the years these lyrics came to mean more to me, they reminded me that no matter where I went or what I did, I could always come home if I needed to.  This sentiment is something that other artists have captured too, notably Cyndi Lauper with her song 'Come On Home' from her 'Twelve Deadly Cyns' album which narrowly missed the cut but gets an honourable mention here. 

'Downtown Train' and 'Sailing' get a mention here as particular favourites on this album but more for the music rather than the lyrics.  This album however also features 'Every Beat Of My Heart' which holds a special place in my heart.  I was born in Northern Ireland, a place that has seen great conflict and divides over the issue of nationality.  Those of us born here are both British and Irish by birth but there are those who identify as one more than the other, or only one.  Nevertheless there is a history here that is shared between Britain and Ireland, these islands have been divide many times but there is an inescapable bond that exists that still remains despite the differences.  Every Beat Of My Heart is a song about longing for your homeland, about wanting to be where you belong, and the desire to go home.  The verse "And we'll drink a toast to the blood red rose, Cheer a while the Emerald Isle, And to the northern lights and the swirling pipes, How they make a grown man cry" these refer to England's Rose, to the Island of Ireland, and to Scotland respectively, I haven't travelled further than Europe in my time, the UK, Ireland, and France I have criss-crossed more times than I can count, through it all though I've never really been able to feel a sense of belonging, apart from Paris but finance makes the idea of living there almost impossible for me.  Every Beat Of My Heart in many ways taps into that feeling of wondering where I belong and the only answer I've ever found was that I belonged where people love me, which can be anywhere in the world as long as they are with you.

On a lighter note there's one more track on this compilation I want to mention and that is 'The Motown Song' which saw Rod collaborate with The Temptations in 1991.  The lyrics "Bring over some of your old Motown records, We'll put the speakers in the window and we'll go, On the roof and listen to the Miracles, Echo to the alley down below" these lyrics remind me of my time in London, in particular my second year of University when I rented a flat in central London with 3 flatmates.  We rented the top 4 storeys of a 5 storey building.  The very top of the flat had a bathroom with a skylight that we kept a step ladder so we could climb up and out onto the roof.  London is a very expensive place to live, as students it cost the four of us £27,000 [$54,000 at the time] to live in that flat for the year.  I spent many nights up on that roof, having a view in London was something nobody we knew could afford, the view from my bedroom window was a brick wall.  This song however reminds me of one particular night spent up on that roof with a guy I had fallen for so hard, nothing ever came of it though for reasons I've already discussed at length.

My Dad's music collection also formed the basis for much of my exploration of music from the 70s and 80s, and earlier.  Artists like Thin Lizzy, Toto, The Cars, Whitesnake, Status Quo, Alice Cooper, Starship, Europe, Kenny Loggins, ELO, The Jam, T.Rex, Falco, Steve Winwood, The Eurythmics, and Kim Wilde to name a few, all of which feature in my library, indeed I probably could have written 52 posts for each decade but that would have saw me repeating a lot about my personal life and these are artists I wasn't around to witness their music careers first hand, and although that is also true for some artists on this list I have tried to keep it to a minimum.