Comments on: ROD STEWART - “I Don’t Want To Talk About It”/”The First Cut Is The Deepest”

By: SteveM

SteveM — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:05:26 +0000

I’m sure if money was all they were after they would’ve covered Typically Tropical. And they certainly could’ve done with a bit more sun.

By: intothefireuk

intothefireuk — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:09:22 +0000

# 36 Err..money ?

By: SteveM not in New York, London or Paris but Munich

SteveM not in New York, London or Paris but Munich — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:55:47 +0000

hated the EBTG cover at the time (unaware it was a cover back then) but now I´m quite fond of it/the song generally. most strange. now wondering what motivated EBTG´s decision to cover it incidentally.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:24:33 +0000

Just put your trust in me - I’ll try not to let you down.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:20:52 +0000

think like one what?

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:26:29 +0000

All this conflict! Aren’t we ready to show that we can come together and think like one?

By: intothefireuk

intothefireuk — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:45:57 +0000

I don’t recall which side was the more played but ‘First Cut..’ is by some margin the worst offender here. A lazy vocal and soporific band performance do not ’sell’ the song for me. I wasn’t familiar with the PP version of the song so could make no comparison, I just knew that Rod’s version sucked big ones. ‘I Don’t Wanna…’ however, is an ok song and one that has grown on me over time. In 1977 though I would have viewed both about as welcome as a trip to the dentist as their pedestrian pace would have seemed to slow to a crawl with the imminent arrival of a certain royal salute. It beggars belief how Rod clung to the top an extra week (or weeks) when he had already outstayed his welcome so hats off to Auntie Beeb for ensuring Liz’s parade wasn’t reigned on.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:09:46 +0000

As commemorated by Liverpool FC’s Top 20 hit that month, a modified cover of the Rubettes’ “We Can Do It.”

By: rosie

rosie — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:54:23 +0000

Passing the memorial to Emlyn Hughes, Barrow’s second-favourite sporting son, this morning I was reminded that during the uncontentious part of Rod’s reign and just two-and-a-half months after my father’s death, Dad’s beloved Liverpool FC won the European Cup at last. Although I don’t believe, and never have believed in such things I liked to think as I watched the match that Dad was cheering on the ‘Pool on from the great terrace in the sky. Of course, they kept on winning it after that, year after year (except for the years when Nottingham Forest or Aston Villa won it.)

By: Erithian

Erithian — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:06:01 +0000

Lee - you’re more likely right though. Maybe I just spent more time looking at the back than the front.

By: LondonLee

LondonLee — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:04:14 +0000

Re: #25

I always considered the Renoir pastiche to be the back cover and the boater ‘n’ blazer portrait was the front. I could be wrong though.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:56:08 +0000

IT WISNAE ME

(of course, one year later Rod would record his not unrelated masterpiece)

By: Erithian

Erithian — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:35:13 +0000

Incidentally, it was while Rod was number one with this that we had a little bit of anarchy in the UK - or at least Wembley - when Scotland beat England 2-1 on 4 June and the Tartan Army staged their famous pitch invasion, breaking one of the crossbars. Whether Rod was involved is debatable, but he did claim to have a piece of Wembley turf in his possession in later years. (Any comment on this from our Caledonian friends??)

By: Erithian

Erithian — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:29:22 +0000

As long as the “worthy” isn’t prefixed by “cringe”.

Lee - the cover of “A Night on the Town” may well make him look punchable, but was a witty adaptation of a Renoir painting (someone can no doubt give me the title). The idea of inserting the artist into a famous painting was then taken up for Bow Wow Wow’s “See Jungle” album at the instigation of… Malcolm McLaren. Aha - another thread in the conspiracy theory.

I must admit to having liked both these sides. Good soulful Rod with the warmth in his voice and selling the song. It’s a different style of performance of “First Cut” from PP Arnold’s, but they both put the message across effectively with their instruments of choice. Not a lot more to say.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:34:46 +0000

Yeah but usually in those cases the “worthy” gets prefixed by “dull and…”

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:36:17 +0000

Of course, describing a piece of pop music as “worthy” isn’t always a compliment.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:09:34 +0000

Dale termed it a “worthy” number one. I think he got “worthy” confused with “worthless.”

By: mike

mike — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:04:54 +0000

Everything But The Girl’s cover of “I Don’t Want To Talk About It” was, along with Leonard Cohen’s “First We Take Manhattan”, the first CD single I ever bought. Other than that, I’m claiming Official Chart Blackspot Immunity and shall refrain from further comment on Rod’s effort. Unlike Deniece’s “Free”, some singles aren’t worth the bother of revisiting…

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:23:05 +0000

In case anybody missed it, Dale played ‘I Don’t Want to…’ today. I’m not sure it was quite as good as I remembered it.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:52:49 +0000

‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’ has always come across as a tasteful plod to me, in both the Rod and Everything But The Girl versions. However, I do always end up singing along, so I’m pleased to find out that there’s an original out there somewhere motivated by a sense of intense and necessary emotion.

By: LondonLee

LondonLee — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:24:03 +0000

Britt Ekland-era Rod isn’t very good (though it was to get worse) but my Mum loved it. The shot of him on cover of the ‘Night On The Town’ album just makes you want to punch him in the face, it’s like Bryan Ferry’s ‘Another Time Another Place’ cover but without an ounce of wit or style - just a rich rock star looking like a prat in a boater and blazer. He’s the George Best of rock music, great talent brought low by a fondness for blonds and the ‘high life’

Having said that I pretty much like any version of ‘First Cut..’ - even Rod’s I can take.

By: Mark M

Mark M — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:34:16 +0000

If Rod changed a couple of the words of First Cut, then the Norma Fraser version (on Soul Jazz’s Studio One Soul) changes big chunks of the chorus (and is excellent) – but that’s fairly common for Jamaican covers. Going back to Rod, I don’t mind either side of this single at all – although that’s on the provision I never have to watch the footage of late 70s Rod singing them… Not having been around at the time, the whole Sex Pistols number one fuss has no bearing on how I feel about this record.

By: Martin Skidmore

Martin Skidmore — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:35:40 +0000

I remember them both about equally, so I’m surprised people are saying that First Cut Is The Deepest got all the airplay. I’m with Chris on that song being overrated - I have a couple of other versions, and it always seemed a slightly inelegant, forced song.

By: richard thompson

richard thompson — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:09:19 +0000

Rod seemed more exciting in the Faces, this record was much played by Noel Edmonds, most number ones were at the time, he never played the Pistols of course.

By: Waldo

Waldo — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:47:31 +0000

Right. This means war, of course. Since it is clear that just about all of us will be making the same angry point about this record (or more properly, the one “below” it), I am just going to publish my own thoughts (clearly recalled from back in the day) as I originally drafted them, mindful of the fact that I shall be replicating those of several of you who feel exactly the same way. For it was nothing short of an outrage. So here we go…

Actually no, I DON’T want to talk about it because this routine and rather uninspiring double-A was at the forefront of the most unconscionable subterfuge involving the government of the day and a slaveringly servile and completely bias BBC (funny how things don’t change much). Not Rod’s fault, of course, but his disc was beyond any reasoned debate out-soled clearly by the Pistols’ admittedly less than deferential salutation to Brenda in the precise week of Her Maj’s 25th wotsit. This alternative National Anthem was deliberately frozen out by being kept in second place behind Stewart and a disaster of seismic proportions was averted in Hazelmere. I was fucking spitting blood back in the day, as the corruption was so blatantly transparent, and democracy (a ballot being cast in the form of the purchase of a record) had not so much been abused as totally ignored. Fast forward to today and I feel much the same way, as I believe, in my stupidity, that fair play is an intrinsic British value and that cheating at games, arguing with umpires and lying about elections are only things that swarthy foreigners do. And then I look at our Establishment today and I wonder who the hell I’m trying to kid.

Apologies and love to Rod the Mod, btw, whom we have not seen the last of by a long chalk. Blameless, obviously. Good man, Rod. Sometimes.