Maggie May

Album

Every Picture Tells a Story

Label

Mercury Records

Genre

Folk-pop

Composer(s)

Rod Stewart;Martin Quittenton

Entered Chart

Aug 14, 1971

Peak Date

Sep 25, 1971

Released

July 1971

Recorded

1970

Catalog #

Mercury 73224

B-Side

Reason To Believe

This song was inspired by the woman who deflowered Stewart when he was 16. In the January 2007 issue of Q magazine, Stewart said: "'Maggie May' was more or less a true story, about the first woman I had sex with, at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival." With his reputation on the line, Stewart was nervous. He said the encounter was over "in a few seconds." The name "Maggie May" does not appear in the song; Rod borrowed the title from "Maggie Mae," a Liverpool folk song about a Lime Street prostitute that the Beatles included on their Let It Be album. Stewart liked the play on words the title created, sometimes introducing the song by saying, "This is 'Maggie May' - sometimes she did, sometimes she didn't." In his memoir Rod: The Autobiography, Stewart provided details of the experience that led to this song. Wrote Stewart: "At 16, I went to the Beaulieu Jazz Festival in the New Forest. I'd snuck in with some mates via an overflow sewage pipe. And there on a secluded patch of grass, I lost my not-remotely-prized virginity with an older (and larger) woman who'd come on to me very strongly in the beer tent. How much older, I can't tell you - but old enough to be highly disappointed by the brevity of the experience." Remarkably, there is video of Stewart at the festival, which took place in July 1961. This song came together when Stewart began working with guitarist Martin Quittenton from the band Steamhammer. They convened at Stewart's house in Muswell Hill, where Quittenton played some chords that caught Rod's ear. As he sussed out a vocal melody, he started singing the words to the folk song "Maggie Mae," which got him thinking about that day 10 years earlier when he had a quick-and-dirty tryst. They made a demo with Stewart singing fractures lines. From there, he got to work on the lyrics, filling a notebook with ideas and arriving at a story about a guy who falls for an older woman and is now both smitten and perplexed. This was the first big hit of the rock era to feature a mandolin, which was mostly heard in folk music. Stewart first used the instrument on "Mandolin Wind," which was one of the first songs he recorded for the album. He liked the results, so he used it on "Maggie" as well. "Maggie May" remains the biggest mondolin-based hit ever recorded, although the theme music for The Godfather, released the following year, may be more recognized. Report this ad Every Picture Tells A Story was Stewart's third solo album, and the one that made him a superstar. At the time, he was still lead singer of the Faces, and for this session, which took place at Morgan Sound Studios in Willesden, England, he brought in two of his mates from that group: Ronnie Wood (guitar/bass) and Ian McLagan (organ). The other musicians were drummer Mickey Waller (he forgot to bring his cymbals to the session, so those were overdubbed later), guitarist Martin Quittenton and mandolin player Ray Jackson. The song came together quickly in the studio, helped along by Jackson's mandolin contribution. Jackson had been hired to perform on the song "Mandolin Wind," which is why he was available. Stewart asked him to play something they might use to end the song, which he improvised on the spot. This became a huge hit in Britain and America, topping both the UK and US charts at the same time. Every Picture Tells A Story was also the #1 album on both sides of the Atlantic, making him the first artist to have the #1 song and album in both the US and UK simultaneously. Stewart's success in the UK was expected, as he had a following there as a member of the Faces, but he was little known in America before "Maggie May" took off. There is no real chorus in this song, but plenty of vocal and instrumental changes to keep it interesting. Running 5:46, it was considered an oddity with no hit potential and nearly left off the album. Stewart's record company, Mercury, didn't think it was a hit either, so they used it as the B-side of the "Reason To Believe" single. Some stations played "Reason To Believe"; it peaked at #62 in August 1971. But others flipped the single and played "Maggie," forcing Mercury to put it out as a single. It went to #1 in October. There are competing claims as to who was the first to play "Maggie May" on the air. Stewart has often said it was a DJ in Cleveland that did it ("If it wasn't for a diligent DJ in Cleveland who flipped it over, I would've still been digging graves" he wrote in his Storyteller anthology); Mitch Michaels, who played it when he was filling in at WMMS in Cleveland, claims this was him. Chuck Buell, who was the music director at WLS in Chicago, says he was the one who broke the song. In Forgotten Hits, Buell said he would always listen to B-sides of singles he considered for airplay, and when he flipped the "Reason To Believe" single and heard "Maggie May," he pegged it as the hit. He put the song in rotation, which agitated the Mercury record rep who was in charge of getting "Reason To Believe" airplay as part of a carefully planned promotional strategy. But Buell doubled down; he called Ted Atkins, the program director at KHJ in Los Angeles, to tell him about "Maggie," and Atkins also loved the song and put it in rotation. Data from radio station surveys shows that KJR in Seattle, WIXY in Champaign, Illinois, WQAM in Miami and KQV in Pittsburgh all played the song in July or August 1971. Ray Jackson, a British musician who played in the band Lindisfarne, played the mandolin on this song and on a few others for Stewart. In 2003, Jackson threatened legal action against Stewart, claiming he deserved a writing credit for his contribution. Jackson, who says he made just the standard £15 session fee for his work, stated: "I am convinced that my contribution to 'Maggie May,' which occurred in the early stages of my career when I was just becoming famous for my work with Lindisfarne, was essential to the success of the record." Stewart employed Jackson on subsequent recordings, but didn't hear about his beef with the composer credit until the '80s. Stewart's retort (through a spokesman): "As is always the case in the studio, any musical contributions he may have made were fully paid for at the time as 'work-for-hire.'" Adding insult is Jackson's credit on the album notes, which reads: "The mandolin was played by the mandolin player in Lindisfarne. The name slips my mind." Jackson never brought the case to court, but his threat did illuminate his contribution and help publicize his artistic endeavors. The 32-second acoustic guitar intro that appears on the album version was added later. Written and played by Martin Quittenton, it was listed as a separate song called "Henry" on UK versions of Every Picture Tells A Story. This was Stewart's way of giving Quittenton a bonus: No matter the length, any song on an album earns royalties for the writer. This section was excised from the single release, which still came in at 5:11, far longer than most hit singles. When this became a hit, Stewart's popularity surpassed that of his group, so Faces shows started being billed as "The Faces with Rod Stewart," making him the focus. Stewart moved to America a few years after this came out. He was doing very well there, but also wanted to avoid the huge taxes England levied on high-income entertainers. This was around the same time The Rolling Stones left England for tax reasons. Their album Exile on Main St. is a reference to their "tax exile" status. Many big hits from the '70s were labored over in the studio (we're talking about you, Eagles!) but "Maggie May" flowed out of sessions that were free-flowing and relaxed. "I remember the sessions for Every Picture... because they were so easy," Stewart recalled in his Storyteller collection. "In two days we had 'Maggie May,' 'Reason To Believe,' and 'Every Picture Tells A Story,' and made a start on 'Mandolin Wind' - not bad considering we spent as much time in the pub as we did in the studio."

Wake up, Maggie I think I got something to say to you
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
Oh, Maggie, I couldn't have tried any more
You led me away from home
Just to save you from being alone
You stole my heart, and that's what really hurts

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

I laughed at all of your jokes
My love you didn't need to coax
Oh, Maggie, I couldn't have tried any more

You led me away from home
Just to save you from being alone
You stole my soul, and that's a pain I can do without

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
Oh, Maggie, I couldn't have tried any more
You led me away from home
'Cause you didn't want to be alone
You stole my heart, I couldn't leave you if I tried

I suppose I could 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 'n' roll band
That needs a helping hand
Oh, Maggie, I wish I'd never seen your face
You made a first-class fool out of me
But I'm as blind as a fool can be
You stole my heart, but I love you anyway

Maggie I wish that I'd never seen your face
I'll get on back home one of these days, ooh, ooh