For a long time ‘Footloose & Fancy Free’ (the very title tells you where Rod’s head was at in 1977) was one of my favorite Rod Stewart albums . Most of the the music critics weren’t impressed with FLAFF at the time, but what do they know? They wrote off Rod after ’75 anyway. Personally, I rank it right up there with all his the Mercury classics – even after all these years it still makes my top ten list. Rod himself has also stated in past interviews that it’s one of his best efforts, and that he still remains very proud of it… (with very good reason). But not only does FLAFF contain three all time Stewart classics: “Hot Legs”, “You’re In My Heart”, and best of all his personal opus “I Was Only Joking”, with two of those becoming forever concert staples. FLAFF has a certain “feel” and “cohesiveness” about it that really works well (it almost seems like a concept album) that was somewhat lacking on the previous three albums. And this was in no small part due to Rod then having a solid and consistent backing band again, instead of just using various players on each individual track. That alone made all the difference in the overall quality of this album. The only real complaint I have with FLAFF is that it seemed a bit too short with just eight tracks. Even though the cuts were lengthy (or were they drawn-out?), it somehow feels like an album that was missing and in need of a few more songs.
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Rod Photo by David J Uribe