Customer Reviews

Blondes Have More Fun

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Blondes Have More Fun is the album that is easily the most critically reviled of all of Rod Stewart's albums and is a target of alot his fans. People call it Rod Stewart selling out to disco music and to a degree they're right. "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" is pure disco and in 1979 disco was king. The song was a number one hit and a platinum seller. The thing people overlook is that "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" is the only disco song on the album and while the rest of it isn't vintage Rod Stewart music, it's not bad. In fact there are some songs like "The Best Of My Life", "Ain't Love A Bitch" & "Scarred & Scared" that are high quality. Also, if you take "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" for what it is, it is a catchy piece of music. If you're looking for Every Picture Tells A Story, you won't find it here, but with Blondes Have More Fun, you get a solid, workman like effort.

Never did any Rod Stewart album generate the kind of love/hate sentiment more than Blondes Have More Fun. Having already endured criticism, and cries of "sellout" for moving away from jolly old England, and settling in Los Angeles, and the subsequent cries of "sellout" for issuing the appropriately titled, "Atlantic Crossing", Rod dared to join the late 70's and horror of horrors, recorded a so-called disco tune. The truth is, most rock acts at the time were delving into the disco craze, trying to capitalize financially. The Stones (Miss You), Kiss (I Was Made For Loving You), Blondie (Heart of Glass), ELO (Entire Xanadu sountrack). So, criticism of Rod is very harsh, in my opinion. Especially when you consider that BHMF is a solid rock album on the whole.



I don't care what anyone says, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy is a great tune! And, unlike what most people thought, not autobiographical. As Rod does better than anyone else, he is telling a story. The lyrics start, "He sits alone, waiting for suggestions." After the mega hit, one kickass rocker, Dirty Weekend is next. In the style of the great Rod rockers, this one is basically a "head's down, meet you at the end in three minutes" tune. Rod displays his self-depricating sense of humour a lot on this album, as evidenced by 'Aint Love a Bitch. A cute little ditty that you'll be signing the rest of the day. Rod then slows things down a notch for a nice ballad, Best Days of My Life, before some more self-deprication on the rocking, Is That The Thanks I Get?



Side Two ( I Love vinyl) is more good stuff. With the highlights being the humourous (and again self-depricating) Attractive Female Wanted and Last Summer. You have to wonder if Rod was having trouble keeping girlfriends at the time he recorded this! Nice uptempo numbers such as the title track and a cover of Standing in the Shadows of Love fill out the cd, and we end with a song called Scarred and Scared. In my opinion this song is autobiographical, but I have no idea what the actual story is behind it.



The story here was that critics pretty much hated this album, but the fans ate it up. With the exception of Rod purists, who burned their copies of Every Picture Tells A Story in protest...



Overall this album is worthy of your music catalogue. Don't be afraid of disco folks. It's well dead...It's not coming back because you enjoy Do Ya Think I'm Sexy!

Tremendous Album! One of Rod Stewarts best. Just a memorable group of songs that will endure time. Great rock with a hint of tinderness.

I have almost every Rod album ever released and I feel that this album is one of his most listenable albums ever. You can pretty much press play from beginning and listen to the very end of this CD and not get bored. How many times can you say that about ANY album these days? Not too many times.

From the hedonistic, party music of "Do You Think I'm Sexy", "Dirty Weekend", and "Blondes Have More Fun", to the honesty and humor of "Ain't Love A Bitch", "Is That The Thanks I Get", and "Attractive Female Wanted, to the the warmth of "The Best Days Of My Life" and pain of "Scarred and Scared", "Standing In The Shadows Of Love", and "Last Summer" (this song ain't as nice as you think despite of its Carribean vacation-like atmosphere) , this album is a masterpiece!

This one is definitely one of Rod's best albums!

I'm only 24 years old, but the first album I remember listening to over and over as a small kid was this one. Even today, I still have to pop this in my cd player from time to time. It is a great album and, in my opinion, Rod's last album before he suffered from all the sappy ballads he did in the 80's. This album shocases Rod's hard edge such as Dirty Weekend (which, thankfully, I didn't pick up on most of the dirty lyrics as a kid, the title track, but also had alot of softer, well written songs such as Ain't Love A B**ch, and Happiest Days of my Life. A great album overall.

Of the many Rod albums that I own, this has to be one of the best. It is alot of fun to listen to, and everyone has experienced some of the songs at least once in their life.

Some folks out there are enamored with this CD and the big disco smash Do Ya Think I'm Sexy. others may think old hot Rod expanded his style. To some degree Rod Stewart did do the later. However, Blondes Have More Fun is just an ordianry ten song set.

Don't get me wrong, these songs do not ofend me in any great way. They just do not thrill me. The prevous release, Foot Loose and Fancy Free consisted of edgy rock tunes and touching ballads. There are too many ho hum ballads with lifeless arrangements. The rockers are a little better but fall short of previous gems like Hot Legs and Born Loose. Dirty Weekend may have catchy guitars but the hooks and lyrics are somewhat forgettable. The title track is pretty catchy but does not break any ground in the creative department. Is That The Thanks I Get has a pretty catchy chorus and the cover of Standing In The Shadows Of Love is quite memorable. The disco hit Do Ya Think I'm Sexy has a few catchy moments but just does not stay to memorable over its five minute length. I could go on about the other five songs but the response would be the same: Some good moments but basically forgettable.

Therefore unless you are an established fan of Hot Rod, I would say that you could live without this recording.

I think the music portrayed the time perfectly, for the year it was released. Our music was changing quickly. He had to plug at least one disco tune. Turned out pretty good for him. Everyone I knew had that cassette tape. The remastered is even better. The memories are always better with Rod around! There isn't much that I don't like about Rod Stewart. Though it was in the disco era, he released this at the right time. A Classic to say the least.

I own just about EVERY SINGLE ALBUM by Rod Stewart up to the early 80's. Most of the time, Rod is very serious with what he's singing about but he also knows how to have fun with his music. If that's what you're looking for, then THIS ALBUM is it. I love to listen to this album when I just wanna goof off and not take anything seriously. Also, almost every single song here is very listenable. You can't say that with many albums!

Quite the departure from his previous album Foot Loose & Fancy Free this album showcases songs that don't exactly keep moving within themselves. Not to say this album doesn't showcase Rod's versatility but both in terms in sound of songwriting and such but there's something that just seems missing. Much of it could be something of a lack of performance vigor in the force of Rod's voice itself. Obviously the two main points of contention on this album are the lead off track "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" and a version of "Standing In The Shadows Of Love". These are the only songs here that actually showcase the disco beat and bassline that tends to make people think of these albums. I've even heard this referred to as Rod's "disco album" as well as being a "trashy album with a lot of bad double entandres". Well on the later that is something of the case but on the former I would have to say no. By no means is this a full on disco album and,interestingly enough that's what keeps it from being as expansive as the standard Rod Stewart fare. This album features a lot of rockers such as "Dirty Weekend","Ain't Love A Bitch","Attractive Female Wanted" and the title song but frankly these are actually somewhat weaker imitations of what Stewart had already done before in this direction and don't offer anything particularly new in that effect. It wasn't exactly surprising since Stewart had found himself stuck in something of a rut in much the same way years earlier on Smiler,his final Mercury release. Same can be said on "The Best Days Of My Life" and "Is This The Thanks I Get?",two ballads that,with their folksy guitar sound and melody line again are repetitious of what came before,without really offering particularly strong songcraft. On the other hand two of the songs that offer something ear catching ARE the two uptempo disco/rock numbers. They may not have been what Rod Stewart fans wanted to hear at that time,or even now but they did serve to keep things fresh even despite disco's detractors. Another excellent tune here is the lightly Caribbean tinged,light pop/jazz styled groove of "Last Summer",with a breezy tale of beach side love and loss that's a refreshing change of pace from the usual gluttonous sexual themes of most of the rest of the tunes here. The album does end on a compelling musical not with "Scarred and Scared" which has the kind of great moody rhythmic and melodic changes that closer defined where Stewart was going musically beforehand. This is not his worst album by any means but does show the perhaps Stewarts "new sound" that began to take shape on Atlantic Crossing four years earlier and served him well over the succeeding two albums after was in itself beginning to go a bit South and that Rod Stewart was,for the second time in his solo career in the need for another change up.