You can make me dance...

Thanks to the release of his autobiography, Rod Stewart has been fairly ubiquitous on UK TV and in the papers of late.  He even showed up in Glasgow and, touchingly, shed a tear or two when Celtic FC beat Barcelona a few weeks back.  If the truth be told, however, Rod's presence was felt round these parts rather a lot just prior to all of that.  For years I've really liked "You Wear It Well" and "Maggie May" but never bothered to buy them or make any effort to hear anything else.  Then, one evening in late autumn, BBC Radio Scotland played this:

It was The Faces' final single (credited to Faces/Rod Stewart) 38 years ago and I was totally taken aback by just how much I flipped for it.  After all, I'd spent the last two decades studiously avoiding most of the established rock canon. Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised, however.  Didn't John Peel say repeatedly that The Faces were the greatest live band he ever saw?  The appeal of  "You Can Make Me Dance..." lies in its loose feel and the way the guitars seem precision tooled for maximum sway but that, importantly, it isn't weighed down by a needless/endless blokey guitar solo.  You can dance to it, too - it's practically disco!  Rod's vocal is amazing; all those casual asides and exclamations are brilliant.  He plays the role of the rogue with the glint in his eye to perfection.  By the time the prancing strings come in at the end, I'm not just dancing but punching the air.  I should've had the courage of my convictions and played the copy I bought in Brighton's Wax Factor at Monorail's 10th birthday party.  I wonder how well it would've gone down.  Mono's dancefloor probably wouldn't have been quite as heaving as somewhere like the Motherwell Miners' Welfare Club's over Christmas 1974.  Must've been glorious!