The Rods was actually almost a remastered re-release of the album 2259595 with a different title, different album artwork and different tracklist. All the tracks of The Rods, that can also be found on Rock Hard, are actually the same recordings with Stephen Starmer on bass guitar. Only the two new tracks "Nothing Going On In The City" and "Ace In The Hole" feature Garry Bordonaro on bass guitar.
Compared to the tracklist of Rock Hard, the ELF (3) cover "Sit Down Honey", "In Your Panties", "Gettin' Higher", and the The Young Rascals cover "You Better Run" were omitted and instead two other cover versions, "Nothing Going On In The City" and "Ace In The Hole", were added at the record company's request.
Additional track information:
The version of "Power Lover" here is edited a bit and about 10 seconds shorter than the one on 2259595.
"Gettin' Higher" (spelled "Getting Higher" here) and "Wings Of Fire" are bonus tracks.
"Gettin' Higher" is taken from the 1041262, that was released in 1981.
"Wings Of Fire" is taken from the single 389441, that was released in 1982.
"Nothing Going on In The City" was orginally released by White Honey on the album 1381725 in 1979.
"Ace In The Hole" was originally released by Robert Fleischman on the album 584945 in 1979.