The word genius often gets thrown around in discussions of music history. The descriptor has been awarded to some of the biggest musicians of all time, including pioneers and genre progenitors like The Beatles and David Bowie, but there are some best-selling artists whose work has entirely escaped it. Rod Stewart may have hundreds of millions of record sales to his name, but it would be a huge stretch to describe his discography or art as ‘genius’.
Stewart never penned an all-time classic record or pioneered a new genre, but he did win over hearts and charts with his raspy-voiced, cringe-inducing tales of sex and love. Between the disco-infused ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?’ and the soft rock stylings of ‘Maggie May’, Stewart topped the charts over 30 times.
With a career that spans over half a century, he has a mammoth amount of material to his name. His discography encompasses 32 studio albums and nearly 150 singles, but his affable nature has rarely come close to earning him the “genius” title. In fact, his songwriting has more often veered into uncomfortably misogynistic territory, such as in the questionable lyrics to ‘Hot Legs’.
Consequently, it might seem that Stewart isn’t particularly well-placed to assess the genius of his peers, but he once, nonetheless, heaped his credit on another artist using the descriptor. Picking out ten of his favourite tracks for BBC Radio 2’s Tracks Of My Years, via Rock and Roll Garage, Stewart shared his love for songwriter Bobby Womack.
Stewart featured ‘Lookin’ For A Love’ on the list, a 1962 track by Womack’s early project, the Valentinos. “Bobby was a good friend, and I remember listening to this album and this track. He was in a group called The Valentinos, I think, and [I remember] going, ‘Oh my god, another great voice,’” Stewart recalled. “Sadly, he is gone as well,” he continued, “But this just left a big impression with me.”
“I knew Bobby; he was a lovely man, didn’t look after himself though,” he recalled, “I used to be telling him, ‘Give up the drugs, you know.’ Because I remember me and Ronnie [Wood] went to see him play one of his last concerts in Kentish Town, and I think he might be doing the stuff and didn’t warm his voice up. You have to warm your voice up, and he was terrible for three or two numbers. But still a genius.”
Womack received renown in genres such as soul and rock, working with the likes of Sam Cooke and the Rolling Stones, but, not unlike Stewart, the decisions made in his relationships and personal life would, or should have, tainted his legacy. Soul fans were outraged when Womack married his late friend and collaborator Cooke’s widow Barbara, and the controversy continued when he pursued her teenage daughter, his stepdaughter.
So, while Stewart may have considered Womack a musical “genius” and a “lovely man”, there are certainly question marks over whether his legacy stresses his successes over his wrongdoings.
