Songfacts®:

• The title track of Rod Stewart's 30th studio album, this borrows its chorus from folk singers A. L. Lloyd And Ewan MacColl's 1957 sea shanty "Blood Red Roses." Stewart told Uncut: "It's a whaling song. I used to listen to Ewan MacColl sing it. He always used to hold his ear (does an impression of MacColl) ' go down, you Blood Red Roses, go down.' So I've taken that bit and turned it into a whole song."
• Stewart used to idolize MacColl back in the '60s, and would watch out for the folk singer's visits to London. "I'd go and sit down at a folk club in Oxford Street and listen," he told The Sun.
  
  Stewart's early love of MacColl's songs led to him covering "Dirty Old Town" on his 1969 debut album, An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down.