Rod Stewart's "Maggie May:" A Teenage Memory of Rod Stewart's Timeless Hit
How a 16-year-old digested a risque classic
In the summer of '71, when I was just sixteen, Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" dominated the airwaves with a vengeance, capturing the hearts and minds of many, including mine. Its raw, honest lyrics and catchy tune made it an unforgettable hit that summer.
As a sixteen-year-old, the theme of the song jumped out front and center: younger man/older woman. I mean, I wasn’t experienced with women, but I could certainly tell what Rod was talking about, and it sent my imagination swirling.
The song was written by Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton and is included on Rod’s album, “Every Picture Tells a Story.” If you’re familiar with the album version, there’s a short 30-second solo guitar intro titled “Henry,” written by Quittenton. “Maggie May” hit number one on Cashbox as well as spending five weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and was named Billboard’s number 2 song of 1971.
So, yeah, Rod Stewart and his song were a big deal. Funny thing, though, is that “Maggie May” was initially released as the B-side of the single, with Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe” as the A-side. But when radio stations began playing the B-side, “Maggie May” became the more popular song by far. It remains one of Rod Stewart’s best-known songs.
Now that we’re 50+ years in the future, it’s possible you haven’t heard the song, so let me fill you in if that’s the case. “Maggie May” is about a love affair between a younger man and an older woman. I imagined the younger man to be perhaps 19 or 20 (I was certainly too young for such a thing!) and the older woman to be around 35 or so. You know, “old.” It was just my imagination, but those were the numbers I had in my mind. Stewart has admitted that the song was written from his own experience, recalling in 2007, “Maggie May was more or less a true story, about the first woman I had sex with, at the 1961 Beaulieu Jazz Festival.” Do the math: Rod turned 16 in 1961. So maybe 16 wasn’t that farfetched. But at the time, we didn’t know what the song was really about or if it was based on something that really happened. Stewart has said the woman’s name was not Maggie May and that the name came from “an old Liverpudlian song about a prostitute.”
Let’s Go to the Lyrics!
There are some lines in the song that still knot me up a little.
Right away, Rod—in his inimitable unique raspy voice—sings:
“It’s late September, and I really should be back at school. I know I keep you amused, but I feel I’m being used.”
That line made me wonder, bu school, he meant high school or college. My mind said “college,” but hey, who knew? And that reference to being used? That seemed like a swell way to be used to a teenage boy. I mean…
This line also gets me:
“The morning sun when it’s in your face really shows your age. But that don’t worry me none, in my eyes you’re everything.”
What an evocative and telling description of a woman’s age, the morning sun in your face. It is very poetic, and his immediate comment after that observation is that it doesn’t matter; he really likes this older woman. So much is implied there, too: if it’s the morning sun, you can infer that the lad spent the night with the lass.
Then, of course, the bit about being “led away from home, just to save you from being alone.”
Okay, so there’s all of that talk about love and foolin’ around and so on, and that’s all great, but then he’s talking about leaving Maggie May and occupying his time other than hanging out with this older woman. It’s clear that the singer has decided it’s time to move on:
“All I needed was a friend to lend a guiding hand, But you turned into a lover. And Mother, what a lover, you wore me out. All you did was wreck my bed and in the morning, kick me in the head.”
Damn, I’d think. It’s over? Time to go? Now what? To my 16-year-old sensibilities, the line that still sticks with me is the singer’s ambivalence about his career choices:
“I suppose I should collect my books and get on back to school, or steal my daddy’s cue and make a living out of playing pool, or find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helping hand.”
Seriously? Playing pool? Is that a career choice? You can do that? And what about finding a rock band that’s not doing well and giving them a boost? That’s pretty rich, and I always thought that was the most unlikely route to take. Well, okay, playing pool as a career also makes no sense. What kind of world did he live in? It was certainly nothing I could relate to.
As for Rod Stewart, the rock and roll thing worked out pretty well, you have to admit.
In Never a Dull Moment: 1971—The Year That Rock Exploded, author David Hepworth details many wonderful stories about the music of that year and discusses in great detail how 1971 was a breakthrough year for Rod Stewart’s career, a year that set him up for decades.
Let me quote from David in a passage about Rod:
“Maggie May” marked the beginning of his career as a mainstream superstar (and “superstar” was a term that was just coming into use) and the end of his career as the kind of rock star who found favor with people who like to feel they decide on these things. It defined the Rod Stewart persona, the lairy lad on the lam, with the roving eye, the heart of gold, and an almost total lack of introspection.
Most of that can be attributed to a song he wrote about a lover he had as a teenager, something that he put into a poetic, lyrical, and musical concoction that still packs a punch.
To me, that’s what great—and timeless—songwriting is about.
Fun Fact about Rod Stewart
At 16, Rod used to haunt Eel Pie Island, and while he was waiting for a train at Twickenham, he’d sing the blues. He was overheard by Long John Baldry, who offered him a singing spot with his band, the Hoochie Cooochie Men. It beat his day job, digging graves, but he was so shy he’d sing with his back to the audience. But it was a start. Later, in 1971, when “Maggie May” was at the top of the chart, Rod, along with Elton John, another former member of Long John Baldry’s band, each produced a side of LJB’s new album, “It Ain’t Easy,” which was released shortly thereafter. You may recall the title song, written by American songwriter Ron Davies, being included on David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” album.
Another Fun Fact about Rod Stewart
Even though he was new to singing in a band in the mid-60s, Rod had been in a recording studio before. He played the harmonica on Little Millie Small’s gigantic #2 Billboard hit, “My Boy Lollipop.” That tidbit shows up in the Billboard Book of Number One Hits, although I’ve never seen any details about that factoid. “My Boy Lollipop” was number 2 in July 1964, held down by the Beach Boys’ “I Get Around” during its two-week run at number one.
Maggie May
Here’s the original album version of “Maggie May” by Rod Stewart: