BOB SEGER Working on the Right Moves

Rip It Up, Issue 18, 1 December 1978, Page 11

808 SEGER Working on the Right Moves

Peter Thomson

These are the memories That made me a wealthy soul Bob Seger is reminiscing: “In high school I had slicked back hair like a greaser and dressed in points, pegged pants, dark jacket. I was tall, underweight and shy, super shy. I happened to fall into a faster crowd than I’d ever been in before. Because I played music I was sort of a gimmick for those guys. I never had a car because I never had any money . . . “I guess the best moment of my life up to that time was one night when I was 17. I was a senior at high school, 1962, the first time I made love to a girl and I was just thanking God I got over that hurdle. She wanted to learn and I wanted to learn and that’s what brought us together. It wasn’t any kind of heavy affection.’’

Years later he reworked these memories of adolescent passion into songs. But even before “Night Moves" and “Brave Strangers” Seger’s music had often, if not so overtly, reflected his youth.

“Up until I was ten we were okay, middleclass. After my dad split, my brother started supporting the family and then we were very poor. I was on my own a lot.” The resultant sense of desperation was to pervade much of his songwriting. He credits his mother for bringing him up with a strong, conservative discipline. Seger entered rock & roll, not from any sense of rebellion but, as his comment about high school indicates, the desire for recognition. As the sweat pours out your body Like the music that you play Seger recalls, “After high school, for the next four and a half years I worked six nights a week, five sets a night until my first record. And then when I made that record we started touring.” He played strip joints and bowling alleys, grotty roadhouse bars and stinking gymnasiums, all the while building a reputation as one of Michigan’s fiercest rockers. Locally his records became big sellers but elsewhere Bob Seger remained unknown. "It was incredible,” he assures, “We had ten straight top 10 singles in Detroit. We were becoming a legend up here we weren’t making any money but everyone thought of us as their Rolling Stones. Outside of the state we just didn’t exist." He doesn’t exaggerate. Beautiful Loser, the album prior to the live set which began the breakthrough, sold 100,000 in the Detroit area and 80,000 in the rest of the U.S. combined.

It was only the intensity of this local support which sustained Seger during the long hard years, although at one stage he almost quit, going as far as enrolling at university in 1969. Why then, considering that he was playing essentially the same kind of music for which he is now famous, should his popularity have remained so isolated for so long? As he correctly claims, “My sound isn’t particularly regional.” The answer is somewhat more involved.

He's always willing to be second best Partly it was bad luck and timing. On one occasion, just as a Detroit hit was about to be pushed nationally, his record company folded up.

There were also some dubious managerial decisions. Seger has always been cautious in

making business moves. As a journeyman musician this was probably necessary for survival, but refusal to allow his record companies the common practice of financially assisting the band’s touring meant that live performances remained home-centred. Seger explains: “We never let anybody finance us because we’re always afraid of being in debt.” Jumping from one record company to another (three times) didn’t help either. There was never much chance to build the requisite promotional machinery required to create national attention. However the reasons for the long delay in getting beyond regional fame were not solely extra-musical. For about four years Seger, as he puts it, “got blown away by guitar. I sort of stopped being creative and just tried to be a lead guitar player.” It hampered his stagecraft. His current lead guitarist says bluntly, “Bob’s good but certainly not a blockbuster. He sings so much better and he can get out front and work an audience.” Seger is more succinct: “I should never have gone to see Eric Clapton.” Furthermore he had problems with bands, which would sometimes break up just as he was about to promote a record. Until 75 Seger's groups were run democratically everyone decided how and what to play. This meant that often the leader was stuck playing guitar, unable to perform much of his material. Once he finally decided to lead, Seger formed his Silver Bullet Band “The first one that was really behind me all the way . . . They're all from the Detroit area, all grew up listening to my singles and all believed in me.”

He has praised the SBB as being responsible for his popular breakthrough, but superb though it is, a band is not enough for success, it never is. Seger had begun turning out some of the very finest songs in rock.

With music, ladies and burned out babies I was tryin' to write a couple of lines Of course he had been composing good material for years. As early as 1968, with the single “2 plus 2 equals ?”, Seger had shown Detroit fans what the rest of the world’s rock audience has since come to realize: that he is one of the few gr3at songwriters who has something to say and rocks like fury. “2 plus 2 equals ?’’ remains one of the best anti-war songs to emerge from America’s Vietnam period. In general however, it is the album Back in '72 which marks the beginning of his most mature writing. The title track contains a clear-sighted indictment of his generation's shallow attitudes, and in “Turn the Page" and “Neon Sky” he created brilliant miniatures of a musician's life on the road. There was also the wonderful “Rosalie" (recently covered by Thin Lizzy.) Seger calls Seven “The first album where I took charge and said it’s gonna be my way from now on.” (The local hit single was a magnificently pounding "Get out of Denver.") On Beautiful Loser he encouraged by old friend Glenn Frey made his first attempts at musical diversity, but when “Katmandu” became another Detroit - and - nowhere - else hit single, it began to look as if the title track might be somewhat autobiographical. Moreover, although the album includes some beautiful songs it doesn’t really work the production and many arrangements sound unfinished.

By 1975 Bob Seger had his Silver Bullet Band but, as he sings, to be over 30 and still aspiring “You get to feelin’ weary when the workday’s done.”

Deal me up another future From some brand new deck of cards

He didn’t want to release Live Bullet , arguing it was technically inferior, and besides, Frampton and Kiss had made double-live albums seem ‘campy’. Yet it was this set which was to start awakening the rest of the world to a performer who could already headline concerts in Detroit’s 80,000-seat stadium.

To a Seger fan Live Bullet is an important document. Its atmosphere conveys some feeling of the intense hometown worship Seger received prior to his worldwide success. The repertoire consists largely of his biggest Detroit hits, and side 1 in particular contains superior versions of his best songs from Beautiful Loser. “Jody Girl”, a passionate portrait of the wasted potential in housewife lives, deserves special mention.

It was fitting that a live recording should begin the breakthrough for a performer who spent 200 nights a year on the road. The album's platinum success bought him time to recoup his energies and examine his progress.

The results of these reflections are now world famous. The irony is that, after 13 years as a journeyman musician, Bob Seger cracked the international top ten with an album on which he had faced the possibility that he was past it. When it was written, “Rock ’n’ Roll Never Forgets” probably seemed an aging rocker’s stubborn attempt at self-assurance. Now it sounds like nothing less than a triumphant celebration, and the perfect complement to the aching sense of loss expressed in “Night Moves”. The latter number is by now so famous that its title has entered the popular lexicon. Deservedly so. To this writer at least "Night Moves" is one of rock’s rare works of genius. No one standing over-head

In making Stranger In Town Seger had to overcome the 'platinum paranoia’ of living up to Night Moves. It finally took him eight months "We were in the studios probably more than the last five albums combined." The resulting performances show Seger attempting to reconcile the spontaneity he’s always worked from with the calculation he can now afford. His vocal delivery has previously been full throttle, the sound of a stage performer recording in a few days off from touring. Here his extravagance is becoming modulated and his style more polished. By now, of course, Bob Seger is far from being a stranger in town. His status in rock's community of success is such that he has recently begun working with Bruce Springsteen, co-writing songs for a Del Shannon comeback album (to be produced by Tom Petty). As a writer, Seger can create brilliant rockers and ballads of varied tempos and on a wide range of themes. If his music has few frills it’s always very solid, built to last. As a performer he’s energetic and hard-working with a magnificent raspy voice. As a star he’s already shown the strength and tenacity to last. More than a star, he’s a rock ’n’ roll hero.