Maggie May

By Randal C. Hill
50plus Magazine

One has to wonder if a mid-40s woman somewhere in 1971 England — possibly wearing a Mona Lisa smile — heard Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May” and realized she was the likely inspiration.

We’ll probably never know.

Roderick David Stewart was born in London in 1945, the youngest of five children of a construction foreman and a stay-at-home mother. He quit school at 15 to work various menial jobs, including that of gravedigger. Music became Rod’s free-time obsession, and he took up the guitar, the banjo and the harmonica, although he always preferred singing.

Later, mimicking such American soul stars as Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, Stewart sang with numerous bands before ending up in the iconic UK outfit, Small Faces.

He recorded both as the Small Faces front man and as a solo artist. The first two Rod Stewart albums didn’t bring him fame or fortune, but his third effort — Every Picture Tells a Story — made his name known throughout the music world, thanks to a hit single based on an event from his adolescence.

Years before America’s Woodstock and Monterey Pop concerts, England had the annual Beaulieu Jazz Festival. Held since 1956 in the town of Hampshire, the outdoor gathering offered music and a chance for hip young Brits to dress in bizarre outfits and “get wild.” In July 1961, Rod and some pals snuck onto the festival grounds and headed for the beer tent. There he met a woman about twice his age.

“One thing led to the next, and we ended up nearby on a secluded patch of lawn,” he recalled years later. Rod admitted that his “going all the way” for the first time lasted mere seconds. The experience, while brief, would be his ticket to superstardom a decade later.

Inspired by his introduction to manhood, Stewart eventually filled about 20 notebook pages with a fantasy yarn about a complicated and erratic relationship. He later developed the tale into a story-song about the trials and tribulations of a life shared with an older lady.

I feel I’m being used gives way to I love you anyway before the ultimate proclamation, I wish I’d never seen your face.

Rod and guitarist pal Martin Quittenton created “Maggie May,” gleaning the title from “Maggie Mae,” an old Liverpool folk song the Beatles included as a snippet on their Let It Be album.

Curiously, Stewart’s multi-million-selling “Maggie May” had almost been left off his Every Picture Tells a Story LP, as the tune had no chorus or hook — just a bunch of rambling verses. The future smash — recorded in just two takes — was released as the B-side of Rod’s 45 “Reason to Believe,” a Tim Hardin ballad.

But disc jockeys soon flipped the single, and seemingly overnight “Maggie May” handed the sandpaper-voiced rock ‘n’ roller his first international winner.