Rod Stewart’s Atlantic Crossing comes from one of the most fascinating periods in music history for me, a time when England’s extreme tax rates chased many musicians to American shores. It was also a point when people discovered there was more money than anyone could imagine to be made from rock ’n’ roll, and that sense of wonder and displacement left them prey for America. The easy access to everything and sense of too much left John Lennon, Keith Moon and countless others as wasted, helpless and absurd as beached whales on our shores.

But not Stewart. True, he found a starlet for his arm and bed, and the glam cover suggests he was equally out of place in stacked heels and a neon football scarf. But rather than succumb to indulgent pleasures, he connected to producer Tom Dowd and cut pre-Atlantic Crossing tracks with Booker T and the MGs, then the album itself with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. As the second disc of alternative versions shows, Stewart moved away from the Faces in steps. The previously unreleased versions of the album’s tracks are closer in feel to his old mates and are more interesting than many leftovers. On the other hand, the white reggae is as good as it could be, but you can hear the rhythm as a novelty, and it dates badly.

The album doesn’t, though, and it may have been the first step in the gloss-ification of Stewart but that doesn’t mean it is in itself glossy. More accurately, it cuts the strings to the band that kept him grounded. It’s hard to believe the Faces would ever have fooled around with “Sailing,” but “Three Time Loser,” ‘All in the Name of Rock ’n’ Roll” and “Stone Cold Sober” would have sounded fine in their hands. And the ballads weren’t far afield for them, either.

Besides presenting rougher versions of the album’s songs, the bonus disc also features Stewart’s tracks with the MGs, which are also pretty fine. They collaborate on the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” Elvis’ “Return to Sender” (the weakest of the lot), “This Old Heart of Mine” (a little soft) and an excellent version of Lee Dorsey’s “Holy Cow.” It represents the best of Stewart and the band, as both maintain their personalities on material that offered them interesting possibilities.

Soon after Atlantic Crossing, Stewart would artistically beach himself, but the chance to perform with the R&B bands he admired brought out the best in Stewart, and he wasn’t yet too far removed from his Faces days, so he still had some “best” left in him.