DISQUS

Popdose: Reedeeming Rod: “People Get Ready” (1985)

  • DwDunphy · 1 year ago
    Off to a good start, Matt.
  • Dave Lifton · 1 year ago
    One of Rod's best vocals of any period, not just the 80s. But the problem isn't that the production is dated, but that for years it was only available on Beck's album.
  • EricGrubbs · 1 year ago
    Thanks for posting this. I highly recommend checking out the Walker Brothers version of this song as well.
  • dslifton · 1 year ago
    One of Rod's best vocals of any era, not just the 80s. But the problem was that for years it was lost on one of Beck's solo albums, and not Rod's.
  • Jeremy1Esq · 1 year ago
    a truly great song
  • Beau · 1 year ago
    I nearly mentioned "People Get Ready" on the last post. The reunion with Beck did him some good.

    Didn't last long, as I recall.
  • Todd · 1 year ago
    Really well done. Thanks!
  • jabartlett · 1 year ago
    I second your notion that there are worthwhile tunes in the Rod Stewart catalogue after 1972, and I agree that the emotion Rod expresses here is real. Even in the video (if I am recalling correctly), he and Jeff Beck perform separately for most of it, but when they finally see one another, Rod looks as though he is genuinely overjoyed to see Beck.
  • 1Py_Korry1 · 1 year ago
    I remember buying the 45 of this song when it came out (yes, I'm old), and was surprised to hear such a soulful sound from Rod.

    I'm not too much of a tech head, but many songs in the 80s have a compressed sound that really thins out the recording. Anyone know what kind of compression/production techniques producers were using back then to get that sound? I really didn't notice it when almost every record at the time had that sound, but now it really stands out when I hear recording from that era.
  • JS · 1 year ago
    Rod sings like his IDOL, Sam Cooke.
  • mojo · 1 year ago
    I loved this song when it first came out during my impressionable high school years; later it pushed me to investigate Mayfield. I can't really say I have a taste for Rod, old or new, but he was definitely a gateway drug to better artists, so I'll give him props for showing me a path.
  • Johnny Bacardi · 1 year ago
    I put the cutoff date for Good Rod at 1976 myself, for what that's worth- I still like Night on the Town and Atlantic Crossing quite a bit.

    This one got my hopes up back in '85; it was the best thing I'd heard Stewart participate in in ages. Of course, he didn't take long to let me down again.

    Oh, and I really liked Jimmy (Wet Willie) Hall's vocals on Beck's Flash album, from whence "People Get Ready" came...
  • TheMod · 1 year ago
    I don't really care what anyone says, Rod has always been good...Vocally...I admit albums like "Body Wishes" "Foolish Behaviour" and maybe "Every beat of my heart" were 98 percent rubbish...Albums like "Out of order" "Camoflage" "Tonight I'm yours" were good cds...His best 90s work "A spanner in the works" an album with all of the usual rod elements, and "When we were the new boys."
    I think it is a sweeping statement to say he "Sold out" or "Sucked after 76." Sure he might have off and on , but The VOICE never left through that time. And someone with a great voice that "sells out" to trends doesn't mean they are all of a sudden a "Bad Singer."