When a career path stretches back over fifty years it is impossible to avoid the occasional roundabout of anomaly.
As the work of Detroit-rocker Bob Seger contains countless references to ‘the road‘ the freeway analogy is not inappropriate, particularly as the musical highway Seger has travelled since 1965 has at last seen him enter a parking lot reserved only for such artists as The Beatles, Prince, Eagles, Adele and Michael Jackson – his 1994 Greatest Hits album finally attaining platinum status.
It is the latest and most likely final irony in the Bob Seger story, the first ten years of which were spent making a series of fine albums that brought critical acclaim but precious few sales, earning him the reputation of a talent ever-destined for the wilderness.
From a well honed Chuck Berry/Creedence sound he switched to Springsteen influenced rock, his breakthrough coming in 1976 with a magnificently raucous double live album, Seger’s subsequent career peaking with the bittersweet success of ‘Against The Wind‘ – a 1980 effort that sold millions only to be annihilated by the critics (Dave Marsh in Rolling Stone magazine labelled it ‘cowardly‘ and although I wouldn’t go that far, my feelings were made known in the Samtimonious.com post (see below).
Like many ‘Best Of’ packages, ‘Bob Seger’s Greatest Hits‘ is not a definitive collection of his finest work, record sales no yardstick for accomplishment. ‘Roll Me Away‘, ‘Hollywood Nights‘, ‘We’ve Got Tonight,’ ‘Mainstreet‘, ‘Still The Same,’ and ‘Like A Rock,’ are all finely crafted rock songs whose inclusion is a given, while ‘Night Moves‘ is quite simply a masterpiece – the finest song ever written about the moment innocence succumbs to experience.
Of the remaining seven songs on ‘Greatest Hits,’ ‘Turn The Page,’ from the ‘Live Bullet‘ double album is a solid pick, a wonderful account of travelling hundreds of miles to play small club gigs, recorded in front of a huge audience at the Cobo Hall in Detroit – how about that for irony.
But the other six songs are an opportunity wasted when considering what could have been included. Some of them are decent songs that sound fine in the context of the album they are taken from, although the specially recorded Chuck Berry cover ‘C’est La Vie,’ is a pointless exercise as Seger was a master in writing Berry-styled rockers – ‘Rock n Roll Never Forgets‘, from the ‘Night Moves‘ album even name checks Chuck – but the most ridiculous inclusion is ‘You’ll Accompany Me‘ from the ‘Against The Wind‘ LP.
When Dave Marsh used the term ‘cowardly‘ he must have had this track in mind – even staunch Seger fans such as myself cannot find defence for a song that starts: ‘A gypsy wind is blowing warm tonight.’ It is the sort of line that earned the late Dan Fogelberg a career of rotten reviews and the length of Lake Michigan from the vivacity of ‘Night Moves.’
Clearly contrived to be a hit single ‘Accompany‘ served its purpose, going Top Five in the US and becoming a staple of his live shows for years to come, but as part of a career overview leave it out – or off in this case. What ‘Greatest Hits‘ really needed to satisfy Seger devotees was ‘Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man‘ his powerhouse debut single from 1965 or the incendiary ‘Get Out Of Denver,’ from the ‘Beautiful Loser‘ album of ten years’ later.
By 1976 it had become a song every bar band on each side of the Atlantic had to know (check ‘Eddie and The Hot Rods’ dynamite version). Witty lyrics on top of a turbo-charged Chuck Berry riff, the ‘Live Bullet‘ take brings the house down.
In front of a partisan Detroit crowd, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band produce a gold medal performance and hell, I’m going to say it – those two nights at the Cobo Hall in September 1975 were the moments when Bob Seger truly became a platinum artist.
This article was first published on 26/4/2018.
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Bob Seger never really hacked the UK market. I came across him some 15 years ago when I happened upon an old tape I’d recorded from the radio some time previously and playing ‘Turn the Page.’ There was no introduction to the song so it was a while before I wrote some of the lyrics into google and got the name. Naturally I bought the Live Bullet CD, from a record shop in Connecticut where I was working at the time. It’s been on my phone ever since.
Hi Chris – hmm…Bob Seger, now he is a strange one. I first became aware of him around 76/77 in the wake of discovering Springsteen. I liked ‘Stranger In Town’ (78) and then became instantly hooked on ‘Live Bullet’ which is when my completest tendencies started to kick in and I tracked down (eventually) his pre 1975 work, most of which had disappeared. I thought it was fabulous (still do) a great writer and vocalist, most of the material (drawing on Stones, Creedence, Van Morrison influences) just seemed so likable. But after his major breakthrough (Stranger In Town, Hollywood Nights single etc) his output became a little formulaic and compromised. I kept on buying his albums naturally, but if I look for something of his to play would go for the sixties and seventies rather than eighties or nineties (having said that his 95 album ‘It’s A Mystery’ is excellent). You are right to say he never broke through in the UK (for whatever reason he seemed reluctant to play shows here – the only two I know of were in November 1980). Always one to do things on his own terms he records and tours very infrequently these days – but in the US at least retains a massive following. Regards Neil
I also own this album and have to agree that some of the songs I would happily have replaced with others of his, but as a whole album I like it, the songs fit as a whole.
Hi Cassie – hope you are well; Certainly agree the album would have been better served with the inclusion of other songs rather than focusing on his late seventies output, but hey it worked – look at the sales. There was a later double-album compilation and without wishing to nit-pick I don’t think that did the trick either with the inclusion of some very questionable selections – but that still doesn’t alter my opinion of Bob Seger being a great talent and ‘Live Bullet’ being right up there as one of the greatest live albums ever made.
Best wishes – Neil
Good crew . There was a time way back when your man soundtracked a fair portion of my life. Somehow we parted . I wish you and he a most successful time with your new recording . Did you put shakedown on it . . Sincerely Neville Drinkwater.
Hi Neville – hope you are well; Thank you for taking the time to get in touch. Most appreciated. Like you by the sound of things, a soundtrack of my twenties and thirties would include a fair number of Bob Seger songs and his live album ‘Live Bullet’ I must have played at least once a week for years!! ‘Shakedown’ is not on this particular album (its on Greatest Hits 2 if memory serves and a later double CD compilation). Great singer, great writer – there is not much that Bob Seger has done that I can honestly say I don’t like. Best wishes – Neil