The Bob Seger Album By Album Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by JamieC, Jul 13, 2011.

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  1. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Thank you for the bump. I had missed the rokritr interview. I did not know how closely Bob Seger worked with Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Interesting.
     
  2. Burningfool

    Burningfool Just Stay Alive

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    Nice interview, thanks for posting it. I did not know that Seger had co-writen Heartache Tonight. Hope he kept his end of the publishing on that one!

    Chris
     
  3. Blair G.

    Blair G. Senior Member

    Location:
    Delta, BC, Canada
  4. Great interview, thanks for sharing.
     
  5. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    The first three singles are classic Seger and rescue the album. His only number one album and its not even close to his best, but that ship had already sailed. Still an easy listen and mostly pleasant.
    Her Strut is lyrically the worst:"I love to watch her strut, yeah I do respect her butt"?!??? What about the rest of her?

    4/5

    P.S. Thanks to Rockritr for sharing more of his interviews with the man himself.
     
  6. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Nine Tonight

    From Wiki:

    Nine Tonight is a live album by American rock band Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, released in 1981 (see 1981 in music). The album was recorded at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan, in June 1980 and at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts in October 1980. "Tryin' To Live My Life Without You" was a U.S. Top 5 pop hit, peaking at #5.

    The 2011 remastered album has a Bonus Track called "Brave Strangers"

    Track listing
    All songs written and composed by Bob Seger, except where noted.

    No. Title Writer(s) Length
    1. "Nine Tonight" 5:14
    2. "Tryin' To Live My Life Without You" Eugene Williams 4:03
    3. "You'll Accomp'ny Me" 4:12
    4. "Hollywood Nights" 4:49
    5. "Old Time Rock & Roll" George Jackson, Thomas Earl Jones III 5:17
    6. "Mainstreet" 4:12
    7. "Against the Wind" 5:27
    8. "The Fire Down Below" 4:47
    9. "Her Strut" 3:57
    10. "Feel Like a Number" 4:10
    11. "Fire Lake" 3:51
    12. "Betty Lou's Gettin' Out Tonight" 2:59
    13. "We've Got Tonight" 4:55
    14. "Night Moves" 5:44
    15. "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" 3:35
    16. "Let It Rock"" (edited for CD) Chuck Berry 10:36
    (6:18)

    Tracks recorded in Boston: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 15, 16

    Tracks recorded in Detroit: 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

    Personnel
    Bob Seger - acoustic guitar, guitar, piano, electric guitar, vocals
    Drew Abbott - electric guitar, acoustic guitar
    Colleen Beaton - vocals
    Chris Campbell - bass, background vocals
    Craig Frost - organ, piano, keyboard, clavinet
    Kathy Lamb - vocals
    Pamela Moore - vocals
    Shaun Murphy - percussion, vocals, background vocals, harmony vocals
    Alto Reed - organ, flute, horn, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
    David Teegarden - drums, background vocals
    June Tilton - vocals

    Charts
    Album - Billboard (North America)

    Year Chart Position
    1981 Pop Albums 3
    1986 The Billboard 200 130

    Singles - Billboard (North America)

    Year Single Chart Position
    1981 "Tryin' To Live My Life Without You" Mainstream Rock 2
    1981 "Tryin' To Live My Life Without You" Pop Singles 5
    1981 "Feel Like A Number" Pop Singles 48
    Seger: "People think a live album is a cinch to put together, but it can be real tough. It took months and months to get the album right." Dennis Hunt, January 16, 1983, L.A. Times. "Seger: Hard Work and Low Profile"

    --------------------------------------------------------
    From the Seger files

    Some tracks were recorded at Pine Knob outside Detroit, but weren't used. For the material from Cobo Arena and Boston Gardens that was used, Seger recorded three new vocals, some backup vocals and polished up one guitar part.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Tracks
    Trying To Live my Life Without You
    The single charted at # 5

    Seger said he recorded this Otis Clay song to show how the Eagles had ripped off the melody in "The Long Run."



    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Nine Tonight
    Seger: "'Nine Tonight' was written for Against the Wind, but it didn't make it on, after exactly 161 mixes over the course of two weeks. Then Irving Azoff wanted it for the Urban Cowboy album, and still I couldn't let it go. I said yes, but at the last minute I told Punch no, and my phone number was changed so Irving couldn't scream at me, since he had the jackets all printed up and the album at the plant, ready to be mastered. Finally, I gave in, and it became such a popular song on the road in 1980 that I felt compelled to name the live LP after it." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."
     

    Attached Files:

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  7. rokritr

    rokritr Shoveling smoke with a pitchfork in the wind


    Actually, that's a common misnomer about the lyric to "Her Strut".......

    While the "words" are the same, they have been misconstrued since the song's release........the lyrics are actually:

    They love to watch her strut
    They do respect her, BUT they love to watch her strut


    Seger has said that his inspiration for the song came from Jane Fonda.....who he saw as a strong, intelligent, independent woman who also could turn the head of every man by her body and looks alone......

    While the song has been considered "sexist" all these years, it's ironic that Seger's intention behind the song was just the opposite :righton:
     
  8. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Heh heh. I know, but isn't that what you thought of the first time you heard it?
     
  9. mrmaloof

    mrmaloof Active Member

    Location:
    California
    I'm sure the pun and double meaning on Her Strut is intentional.

    Nine Tonight is a disappointing live album. It's too close to what's on the studio albums without the spark and differentiation that Live Bullet offers. Teegarden's drumming isn't up to Martin's drumming before or Brewer's after. It's pleasant enough, but also a continuation of the high commercialization of Against The Wind.

    - Joe
     
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  10. Baron Von Talbot

    Baron Von Talbot Well-Known Member

    Bad timing, more like a Greatest Hits from the last 5 years since Night Moves. That venture could only fail. Too early after the classic LIVE ! It is not without good moments of course : Highlight is the section with the hits Mainstreet, Against The Wind & Fire Down Below. the following section is interesting because of the newer material not heard live before. I also enjoy We Got Tonight as an intro to the only song, that makes this a keeper - the live version of Night Moves. So the song selection is good, but as Bob said to safe and too much sounds exactly like the album versions . A major disappointment.
    Like the sequel to a Block buster without the excitement of the original.
    If someone did not know the Live album he might even love it... Have not played it in years.
     
  11. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    The most pointless album of Bob's. Boring. Any single concert going back 10 years at that point would have been better. Bullet got it right. Nine Tonight did not. If Bullet is one of the greatest live albums ever, Nine Tonight is among the most pedestrian.
    Meh.

    3.5/5
     
  12. Slokes

    Slokes Cruel But Fair

    Location:
    Greenwich, CT USA
    Is it just me, or was there a radio edit version of the "Tryin' To Live My Life Without You" versus what's on the Nine Tonight CD? My impression is the former is a tight, snazzy number that kills all the way through, but that the other wanders and feels kind of loose and patchy.
     
  13. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    The studio track of Nine Tonight, as it appeared on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack, was a great track. It deserves being issued on a Seger album.
     
  14. parkmebike

    parkmebike I'm in love with a girl...

    Wow - I did not know there was a studio recording of Nine Tonight! And all these years I've had the Urban Cowboy soundtrack in my collection, but have never played it...that's going to change this weekend!
     
  15. KBanya

    KBanya Active Member

    Location:
    CT
    While I will agree, ‘Live…’ is an album that is hard to top…possibly my favorite album of all time, I am a staunch defender of ‘Nine Tonight’ as well.

    I remember, at the time, Capitol was considering a hits album. Along the way, somehow, it turned into a live album…this is fine with me as I prefer live albums over hits albums anyway. Now, I have seen Seger every tour since 1978…actually, several times per tour. The ‘Against the Wind’ tour was a monster. The band was in top form and the setlists, while fairly similar night-to-night, were killer. ‘Nine’ is a fairly good snapshot of what I consider to be a historical moment in Seger’s career. He had just completed a world tour, landed his first number one album, and sold out shows in the largest cities/venues in the world. I remember being at Madison Square Garden, NYC (just a few days prior to the ‘Nine’ live recordings done in Boston), his first ever appeaence at the venue, and the show was exceptional. The “electricity” was in the air. I remember thinking…I wasn’t at Cobo Hall for the recording of ‘Live Bullet’, but damnit, this is pretty darn close.
     
  16. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Next we will gaze into...The Distance
     
  17. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    The Distance

    From Wiki:

    The Distance is the 12th album by American rock singer Bob Seger and his fourth with The Silver Bullet Band. It was released in the final week of 1982 (see 1982 in music). It peaked at #5 on Billboard's album chart and sold close to two million copies in the United States.

    The album's lead single, "Shame on the Moon", was Seger's biggest hit, holding at #2 for four weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 behind Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". It also hit #1 Adult Contemporary and crossed over to #15 Country.

    Track listing
    All songs written and composed by Bob Seger, except where noted.

    No. Title Writer(s) Length
    1. "Even Now" 4:31
    2. "Makin' Thunderbirds" 2:58
    3. "Boomtown Blues" 3:38
    4. "Shame on the Moon" Rodney Crowell 4:55
    5. "Love's the Last to Know" 4:26
    6. "Roll Me Away" 4:39
    7. "House Behind a House" 4:00
    8. "Comin' Home" 6:06
    9. "Little Victories" 5:52

    Personnel
    The Silver Bullet Band (on all tracks but "Comin' Home")
    Bob Seger - guitar, vocals
    Chris Campbell - bass
    Craig Frost - keyboard (except on "House Behind a House")
    Alto Reed - saxophone on all tracks except "Shame on the Moon", "Love's the Last to Know", "Roll Me Away", and "Little Victories"
    The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (on "Comin' Home")
    Barry Beckett - keyboard
    Pete Carr - guitar
    Roger Hawkins - drums
    David Hood - bass
    Randy McCormick - keyboard

    Additional Musicians
    Drew Abbott - guitar on "Makin Thunderbirds" "Shame on the Moon"
    Russ Kunkel - drums on all tracks except "Comin' Home"
    Roy Bittan - piano on "Even Now" & "Roll Me Away"
    Michael Boddicker - synthesizer on "Roll Me Away"
    Don Felder - guitar on "Even Now" & "Boomtown Blues"
    Glenn Frey - harmony vocals on "Shame on the Moon"
    Bobbye Hall - percussion on "Even Now", "Makin' Thunderbirds", "Boomtown Blues", "Shame on the Moon", and "Roll Me Away"
    Davey Johnstone - guitar on "Love is the Last to Know"
    Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar - guitar on "House Behind a House"
    Bill Payne - synthesizer, keyboard on "Shame on the Moon", "Love's the Last to Know", and "Comin' Home"
    Waddy Wachtel - guitar on "Makin' Thunderbirds", "Shame on the Moon", "Roll Me Away", "House Behind a House", and "Little Victories"
    Additional vocals
    Ginger Blake - background vocals on "Comin' Home"
    Laura Creamer - background vocals on "Shame on the Moon" and "Comin' Home"
    Linda Dillard - background vocals on "Comin' Home"
    Shaun Murphy - background vocals on "Shame on the Moon" abd "House Behind a House"
    Bonnie Raitt - harmony vocals on "Makin' Thunderbirds"
    Joan Sliwin - background vocals on "Shame on the Moon"
    Production
    Producer: Jimmy Iovine
    Engineer: Shelly Yakus

    Charts
    Album - Billboard (North America)

    Year Chart Position
    1983 Pop Albums 5

    Singles - Billboard (North America)

    Year Single Chart Position
    1982 "House Behind A House" Mainstream Rock 29
    1983 "Boomtown Blues" Mainstream Rock 11
    1983 "Even Now" Mainstream Rock 2
    1983 "Even Now" Pop Singles 12
    1983 "Roll Me Away" Mainstream Rock 13
    1983 "Roll Me Away" Pop Singles 27
    1983 "Shame on the Moon" Adult Contemporary 1
    1983 "Shame On The Moon" Country Singles 15
    1983 "Shame On The Moon" Pop Singles 2
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From the Seger Files

    The Distance took 14 months to record. Most of that time was spent waiting around for Seger to write the songs. The actual sessions went relatively fast. Seger spent tabout three weeks in the studio recording, cut demos for about 25 songs, and recorded 17 tracks.

    "Near the end of the album I was almost looking for excuses to keep it going, touching up things that nobody heard, just being stupid. For me, the two big traumas in making a record are doing the lead vocals and doing the mix. The writing can be fun, the solo and overdubs are fun, the rest is hell. I was worried about the album right up until the time I played it for Springsteen. He loved it, and I felt it was okay." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."

    "We could have gotten this record out in late November, but we stopped dead for Thanksgiving. Punch was not into that, but I had to yank him away and go home. Guess it's age, mellowing out. 'Love's the Last to Know' reflects that especially. The first verse deals with the wanderlust that's always in the back of your mind in a relationship; the second verse deals with the realization that you get used to treating strangers better than the people who are closest to you -- you take advantage of them. I've been preaching this to Punch, who's a solid workaholic." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."

    For a while, Seger wanted The Distance to be a two-record set -- despite his belief that most studio double albums would be better as single albums. The Distance was delayed three weeks while Seger argued with Punch and Capitol, and in the end, they talked him out of it.

    After The Distance was finished as a single album, Seger told Springsteen he had wanted to make the album a double, and Springsteen said, "Why didn't you?"

    Seger: "So I called Jan this morning and said, 'You know what Bruce said about the double album?' And she said, 'Yes, I know what he'd tell you to do.'" Seger broke into a loud chuckle. "She said to me, 'Someday you'll have the guts he's got. Someday you'll stand up to everybody too.'" ?, February 3, 1983, Rolling Stone. "Life in the Nasty Lane."

    "I don't think I've ever heard a great double studio album beyond the Beatles White Album that couldn't have been a better single album...There were three factors involved in my choice: ego, creativity and the actual price of the record. The last one won out. I want my fans to get what I'm doing and it's a bad time economically to put out a double album. If we had kicked and screamed, we could have sold it for $11.98 or $12.98, but records cost too much now anyway." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."

    "I've always thought that double studio albums were egotistical -- until this album. I've never bought a double studio album that knocked me out. It's just too demanding for the fan, who doesn't want to listen to two records. I had to reconcile that in my mind; it was really creativity vs. ego.

    "The bottom line was in this economy, the fans can't afford to go buying double albums. We didn't want to make it difficult for people to get the album, or make it impossible for them to buy it. It kills me that I couldn't get this all out. Heck, the next time I make an album will be 1984; they (the songs) might not make any sense then." Gary Graff, March 28, 1983, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger at Home: No Need for Pretension."
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Tracks

    Shame on the Moon
    The song charted at #2, Seger's highest-charting song at that point. Seger received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance for "Moon."

    Seger wanted to avoid writing any medium-tempo songs for this album. "They're my trademark, but I just got tired of writing them. They're easy for me to write, and I wanted to get away from the easy approach." Dennis Hunt, January 16, 1983, L.A. Times. "Seger: Hard Work and Low Profile"

    "I wanted to write stuff that was hard for me to write, and rock 'n' roll is hard for me to write. It's a limited format. You have less time to say what you want to say, and it's hard to say anything meaningful in that context. People aren't listening to the words much in that kind of song." Dennis Hunt, January 16, 1983, L.A. Times. "Seger: Hard Work and Low Profile"

    Seger solved the problem of not writing medium tempo songs by covering Rodney Crowell's "Shame On the Moon."

    Don Henley originally turned Seger on to Crowell. Seger was buying a Rosanne Cash album, so he bought a Crowell album too. (Cash and Crowell were married at the time.)

    Shame on The Moon became the first single off the album.

    "It was a big battle between that ["Shame on the Moon"], "Even Now," "Thunderbirds" -- and actually they really wanted "Coming Home" for the Christmas Season. Steve Meyer, the Capitol singles guy, thought "Home" was a number one record, but that was if the album had come out in November. [It came out in December.] I wanted "Thunderbirds," Iovine wanted "Even Now." Springsteen, Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty all wanted "Even Now" when Iovine played it for them, screaming that it was a number one single...Capitol didn't want to go that hard for a first single, we didn't want to go that soft with "Coming Home," so we compromised on "Shame on the Moon," which I felt might be a single somewhere down the line, but I didn't want it to be the first one." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Roll Me Away
    The song charted at #27.

    Seger: "That was written about a motorcycle trip I took to Jackson Hole, Wyo. I wanted to do that for a long time. It was fascinating being out. The first night it was 42 degrees in northern Minnesota; the second day it was 106 in South Dakota and all I had on was my shorts, and my feet were up on the handlebars to keep them from boiling on the engine. It was just silence and feeling nature." Gary Graff, October 1994, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger Tells The Stories Behind The Hits."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Coming Home
    The song was written for Against the Wind; Seger rewrote the lyrics for The Distance. Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Even Now
    The song charted at #12.

    "Even Now" contains the line that Seger says he used "to set up the whole album": "Out in the distance, always within reach/ there's a crossroads where all the victims meet." [Who are the victims? Is he one of them?]

    "The idea is that there's always a way you can screw up when you're in a relationship. There's always that little thing in the back of your mind saying, 'I'm gonna screw up, I'm gonna go out with somebody else and lie, or whatever. Whatever it takes to mess up a relationship.'" ?, February 3, 1983, Rolling Stone. "Life in the Nasty Lane."

    "'Even Now' is the closest one to my bone, 'cause it's about me and Jan and tells about our near-breakup last year -- a week and a half during which I thought the bond might be broken and I sat around devastated...we've been together eleven years, since around the time just before the Smokin' O.P.'s album." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Little Victories
    "I wrote that to be a harrowing song. It's about those first couple of days after something falls apart, when you're close to a bad, almost suicidal depression. That happened to me and Jan a few times, but we got it together.

    "There was a harrowing moment this year -- as a matter of fact, that's what the song's about. I went away for ten days and really thought it was over. That's when you're just determined, and you think, 'How am I gonna get through this?' Okay, I got up today, that's a little victory. I made myself a cup of coffee and I didn't cry. I went out and jogged two miles..." ?, February 3, 1983, Rolling Stone. "Life in the Nasty Lane."

    "I was really destroyed when it happened. I thought, 'There's no way I can put this back together. My great love and my best friend are gone. I was sitting in a truck with my dog. Somewhere in Nebraska, as a matter of fact." ?, February 3, 1983, Rolling Stone. "Life in the Nasty Lane."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    House Behind a House
    The song refers to "this little place behind my new house where I keep my gold records." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Making Thunderbirds
    Seger worked for General Motors for half a day, putting rubber around windshield glass, but he cut his hands, so he quit. He worked for Ford for three weeks. "I was so poor I didn't have a car and I was hitchhiking to work. I had wanted to write a song about the production line in Detroit and make it a blues song, 'cause I remembered how blue I was. You'd become a robot, and nobody would ever talk to me at work because of the plant noise. You couldn't use earplugs because you had to hear bells for when the line would stop." Timothy White, 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."

    "When 'Thunderbirds' was originally written it was a slow blues, and if there's one thing Punch hates it's slow blues -- I could never get one on a record of mine -- so I was punking around with the Linn and I got a real great fast shuffle feel, so I put it on tape and started playing 'Thunderbirds' with it, using the vari-speed, and that's how it came about. Before that, I had always liked the lyric but not the overall song...I set the Linn to sixty degrees off the beat with a heavy accent on two and four." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."

    "I wrote 'Thunderbirds' around 1978, during the time of Stranger in Town. I had only the first verse and parts of the second verse. When I got into it this last time, I wrote the third verse about the plants being closed and people out of work." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Reviews

    "(The Distance) is also intimately involved with creating the kind of characters Seger offered in Night Moves and Stranger in Town: working- and middle-class Middle Americans struggling against their emotional and economic circumstances, not always winning but never ceasing to fight." Dave Marsh, 1983, The New Rolling Stone Record Guide

    "It's hard to think of any performer in rock history who has flirted with commercialized mediocrity as fully as Seger did in the late '70s and rebounded with such striking artistic power." Dave Marsh, 1983, The New Rolling Stone Record Guide

    David Fricke, writing in Rolling Stone, gave The Distance five stars. Fricke said the album was "Not a very happy album, but ultimately, it is an encouraging and at time, triumphant one...About the lives, mistakes and promises at either end of the highway."

    Fricke compared the album favorably to the "mawkish campfire sentimentality that plagued Against the Wind."

    Dennis Hunt, writing in the LA times, described the album as "loaded with robust rock 'n' roll and is nearly equal to his phenomenal 1977 album, 'Stranger in Town.'"
     

    Attached Files:

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  18. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
  19. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    The contributions Roy Bittan made to "Even Now" and "Roll Me Away" are tremendous. Something about the way he plays piano you just know it is him. These are my two favorite Bob Seger songs (along with "Hollywood Nights").

    I mentioned this is another thread but "Even Now" deserves to have been on one of the many compilations that have been released.
     
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  20. mrmaloof

    mrmaloof Active Member

    Location:
    California
    I love the first 6 tracks - the first 3 are one of Seger's best album-opening triple shots ever, and Side 1 as a whole sequences really well. I'm not as fond of the last 3 songs, but when I listened again a few days ago I liked them a bit better than before. Overall it's a great return to rocking form from the MoR of Against the Wind and the studio-like Nine Tonight.

    It's also by far the best sounding, best produced album up until this point, perhaps ever. Jimmy Iovine did a great job here. What a wonderful candidate this would be for Steve and Audio Fidelity to release.

    - Joe
     
  21. stumpy

    stumpy Forum Resident

    Location:
    South of Nashville
    You'll never convince anybody who lived in Houston in 1981-82 that "Boomtown Blues" wasn't about their city. I moved down with my wife in '82 and all we witnessed were people moving back to where they had come from the prior 3-4 years. The boom had busted in the oil business and before the construction business could put on it's brakes, entire subdivisions were built and standing empty. We ended up leaving the next year.
     
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  22. Picca

    Picca Forum Resident

    Location:
    Modena, Italy
    Yesterday I did buy Back in '72, MOngrel and System in cd, menifactured by a strange argentinian company. I suppose they're bootlegs or something, but they don't sound bad at all, better than mp3s from the web. I imagine that there's some info somewhere in this forum but my search has been a nightmare.
     
  23. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Like a Rock

    From Wiki:

    Like a Rock is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger, released in 1986 (see 1986 in music). The title track is best known for being featured on Chevrolet truck commercials. "Fortunate Son" is a live track from 1983, which was added as a bonus to the CD release of the album. The vinyl version ends with "Somewhere Tonight". The song "Miami" is featured in an episode of the TV series Miami Vice This is the first studio album credited to "Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band" that doesn't feature the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section replacing the Silver Bullet Band on any tracks.

    This album marked a temporary change in Seger's musical direction with some songs heavily influenced by popular music in the late 1980s.

    History

    The album was originally going to be named "American Storm" after the first track and was going to be released in December 1985, but it was delayed and the name was changed.[2]


    Track listing
    All songs written and composed by Bob Seger, except where noted.

    No. Title Writer(s) Length
    1. "American Storm" 4:17
    2. "Like a Rock" 5:56
    3. "Miami" 4:40
    4. "The Ring" 5:35
    5. "Tightrope" Craig Frost, Seger 4:31
    6. "The Aftermath" Frost, Seger 3:30
    7. "Sometimes" 3:31
    8. "It's You" 4:03
    9. "Somewhere Tonight" 4:25
    10. "Fortunate Son" John Fogerty 3:20

    Personnel
    Silver Bullet Band
    Bob Seger - acoustic guitar, guitar, piano, vocals
    Craig Frost - organ, synthesizer, piano, keyboard
    Chris Campbell - bass
    Alto Reed - baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone

    Additional musicians
    Guitars
    Dawayne Bailey - acoustic guitar, guitar, electric guitar on "Like a Rock"
    Pete Carr - guitar on "American Storm"
    Dann Huff - guitar on "Sometimes"
    Fred Tackett - acoustic guitar, guitar on "The Ring" "Sometimes" "Somewhere Tonight"
    Rick Vito - acoustic guitar, guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar on "Like a Rock" "Miami" "The Ring" "Tightrope" "The Aftermath" "Somewhere Tonight"

    Drums & Percussion
    John "J.R." Robinson - drums on all tracks except:
    Russ Kunkel - drums on "American Storm" "Like a Rock"
    Gary Mallaber - drums on "The Ring"
    Paulinho Da Costa - percussion on "Miami" "The Aftermath" "It's You"
    Keyboards
    Bill Payne - synthesizer, piano, keyboard on all tracks except "Tightrope"
    David Cole - synthesizer on "It's You"

    Horns
    Gary Grant - trumpet on "Miami"
    Gary Herbig - saxophone on "Miami"
    Jerry Hey - trumpet on "Miami" "The Aftermath" "Sometimes"
    Kim Hutchcroft - saxophone on "Miami" "Sometimes"
    Bill Reichenbach Jr. - trombone on "Miami" "The Aftermath" "Sometimes"
    Marc Russo - saxophone on "Miami" "The Aftermath" "Sometimes"
    Ernie Watts - saxophone on "Miami" "The Aftermath" "Sometimes"

    Additional vocals
    Laura Creamer - background vocals on "Tightrope" "The Aftermath" "It's You" "Somewhere Tonight"
    Mark Creamer - background vocals on "Tightrope" "The Aftermath" "It's You"
    Donny Gerrard - background vocals on "Tightrope" "The Aftermath" "It's You" "Somewhere Tonight"
    Don Henley - background vocals, harmony vocals "Miami"
    Shaun Murphy - vocals & background vocals on "Tightrope," background vocals on "The Aftermath" "Somewhere Tonight," harmony vocals on "Sometimes" "It's You"
    Timothy B. Schmit - background vocals "Miami"
    The Weather Girls (Izora Armstead and Martha Wash) - background vocals on Like a rock, Tightrope and The Aftermath.

    Production
    Producers: Punch Andrews, David N. Cole, Bob Seger
    Engineers: David N. Cole, Greg Edward, Shelly Yakus
    Assistant engineers: David Axelbaum, Bob Castle, Judy Clapp, Peter Doell, Steve Himelfarb
    Mixing: Punch Andrews, David N. Cole, Bob Seger
    Mastering: Wally Traugott
    Horn arrangements: Jerry Hey, Alto Reed
    Art direction: Bill Burks, Roy Kohara
    Design: Mark Shoolery
    Photography: Aaron Rapoport

    Charts
    Album - Billboard (North America)

    Year Chart Position
    1986 The Billboard 200 3

    Singles - Billboard (North America)

    Year Single Chart Position
    1986 "American Storm" Mainstream Rock Tracks 2
    1986 "American Storm" The Billboard Hot 100 13
    1986 "Fortunate Son" Mainstream Rock Tracks 9
    1986 "It's You" Adult Contemporary 22
    1986 "It's You" Mainstream Rock Tracks 8
    1986 "It's You" The Billboard Hot 100 52
    1986 "Like a Rock" Adult Contemporary 21
    1986 "Like a Rock" Mainstream Rock Tracks 1
    1986 "Like a Rock" The Billboard Hot 100 12
    1986 "Miami" The Billboard Hot 100 70
    1986 "Tightrope" Mainstream Rock Tracks 35
    1986 "The Aftermath" Mainstream Rock Tracks 9
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From the SegerFiles

    Fortunate Son" is the CD "bonus track" and the flip of American Storm. The track was recorded live from the encore of a 1983 show.

    The LP was going to be released in 1984. Then Seger changed the title and got rid of much of the material. "It took me a while to get over that and recharge." Jack Curry, Spring 1986, USA Today. "Bob Seger sings blues no more."

    After he had second thoughts, Seger pulled back the original album and started again. Only two of the nine original songs remain -- "Like A Rock" and "American Storm." Gary Graff, April 4, 1986, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger finally releases new album."

    Seger wrote 25 (some sources say 30) finished songs for the album. Not included on the album are: "Wildfire," "Star Tonight" (given to actor Don Johnson for his album), "Days When the Rain Would Come," "Living Inside My Heart" (Used as the B side of "Like A Rock" and in the movie "About Last Night") and "Snow Today."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    He spent four months mixing the album. "Whenever the engineer left, I was literally sitting there punching things up. I learned about echoes and boards. It's the first time I was in the studio for every part of the creative." Jack Curry, Spring 1986, USA Today. "Bob Seger sings blues no more."

    "I wanted to hone the limiting on the mix so that it would leap out of the compression of the average car radio like a monster." Musician Magazine, June 1986.

    "I never planned to take this long to make the record, but I wanted to produce it myself and it took me months just to learn how everything worked in the studio. It was an experiment and the whole thing got out of hand. There was nobody to say 'no' to me and I ended up recording 25 songs in four cities." Robert Hillburn, April 13, 1986, LA Times. "Bob Seger Returns in the Eye of the Storm"
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The album was mostly written in Michigan, although he wrote Miami in Florida.

    Seger wrote all or part of 100 songs. Reportedly, his breakup with Jan and the end of another two-year relationship slowed down the process. "Tightrope" and "Somewhere Tonight" are reportedly about the break-up with Jan. 'It's You' is about the second relationship, which was already over by the time the album was released. Robert Hillburn, April 13, 1986, LA Times. "Bob Seger Returns in the Eye of the Storm"

    Seger: "The time since The Distance has been my dark period." After The Distance, Seger broke up with his girlfriend, started a new relationship, and broke up again. "They were both cases where I'd gotten real close to her family and everything. So it was real sad, and some of the songs came out of those moments when you're asking all the questions: Was it me? Was it them? Was it my career? When you're working hard, sometimes you never know." David Hinkley, September 21, 1986, New York Daily News. "On the Never-Ending Road Again."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "From Live Bullet through Wind, I hardly took a day off. It was building, building, building. After Night Moves got to No. 4 [in 1977] I wanted that No. 1. With Against the Wind, my manager and I knew exactly what record to make, and we went out and made it.

    "Then I took some time off, and for The Distance we kicked back a bit. Like A Rock is somewhere in between. It's a solid '80s record. I didn't expect it to be a No. 1." David Hinkley, September 21, 1986, New York Daily News. "On the Never-Ending Road Again."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    On the Album Name

    The album was going to be called American Storm, but the title was changed just before release.

    "There have been so many songs with America in the title or the lyrics -- and I like a lot of them. I heard Bruce's song ('Born in the USA') long before it came out and I kept telling everybody that it was going to be a special record. And I doubt if there'll be an album I like better all year than Jackson's new one. [Jackson Browne's Lives in the Balance.] But that's not what my album is about and we didn't want anyone to be confused. That's why we changed the title...we switched to Like A Rock to avoid that comparison." Robert Hillburn, April 13, 1986 L.A. Times. "Bob Seger returns in the eye of the storm."

    At one point Seger wanted to name the album Wildfire -- from a song about the excitement of a new romance. The song, a driving number similar in energy to "Roll Me Away," ultimately didn't make it on the album. Jack Curry, Spring 1986, USA Today. "Bob Seger sings blues no more."

    Musicians/Sessions

    Seger: "The crucial new players on Like A rock were Rick Vito...and John Robinson, who played great stuff on Michael Jackson's Thriller and toured with Glenn Frey. When John came into the studio with us in LA in July 1985, that was the turnaround moment for the entire project." Musician Magazine, June 1986

    Seger listened to Michael Jackson's Thriller?

    Graff: "During his 40th birthday party, he put the word out to Silver Bullet Band members...that he was looking 'for some new kind of grooves.' Frost came up with 'Tightrope' and 'The Aftermath,' two grinding modern-sounding rockers that Seger said could be the start to a long collaboration between the two musicians." Gary Graff, May 4, 1986, The Detroit Free Press. "The rock of rock."

    "The 'Like A Rock' vocal is live; we cut 'Miami'...on the fourth take; 'Sometimes' was a wrap on take three; we had 'Aftermath' on take five; all of the piano solos are live." Musician Magazine, June 1986.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Reviews

    Stephen Holden: Like A Rock, the album, "has all the qualities that have made Mr. Seger one of rock music's working-class heros for the last decade: catchy folkish melodies, an unstoppable drive, lyrics that address people's everyday lives and, most of all, a voice that inspires trust." Stephen Holden, May 14, 1986, The New York Times. "Bob Seger's View of Life and Loving"

    Holden also noted "a deep and special connection to soul music."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Critic Harry Sumrall makes a habit of trashing Seger. He pulled no punches for Like A Rock, as follows:

    "On a first, superficial listening, the songs of Like a Rock would seem to live up to that title....Another solid rock record from Bob Seger...But is it? Beneath the musical bravado of Like a Rock, there are nagging questions....

    "It is one thing to speak, lyrically, of taking the 'easy way,' but it is quite another to actually take that way. And on Like a Rock, Seger has done just that. Put flatly, the record is, musically, a bore. The power chords and raspy vocals have all been heard before, as have the down-home ballads...

    "Like A Rock is stale, derivative '70s rock at its worst, music that takes the musical easy way, that never challenges or enlightens the listener...music that denies the creative potential and vitality of rock." Harry Sumrall, April 20, 1986, San Jose Mercury News. "The new Seger sounds like the old Seger, except when he sounds like someone else."
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Like a Rock was also reviewed in the L.A. Times on April 13, 1986 by Chris Willman, under the headline "Moss Gathers Under 'Rock.'"

    "A sense of coasting pervades the album", according to Willman, who calls it a letdown that wasn't worth the 3 and a half year wait. The album is full of "well-meaning stuff...(but) the personal revelations aren't all that revealing anymore."

    Commenting on "The Ring," Willman writes: "You know that these naive dreams won't come true by the end of the tune because it's a Bob Seger song, after all, and he's still up to what he often does best: crooning nostalgic and melancholic ballads of loss, regret and disillusionment." (And yet Seger's own naive dreams of rock & roll success have come true.)

    American Storm, Willman says, is "an anti-drug anthem so artfully done you'd never guess it was an anti-drug anthem."( Okay, I agree with him on that point.)

    "The flat arrangements don't help," he concludes. Which raises the question -- what planet is Chris Willman from?
     

    Attached Files:

  24. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    Like a Rock is the only Seger album that I have only ever owned on cassette. That certainly dates it. :laugh:

    Before this thread got me thinking seriously about all Seger's albums, I wouldn't have rated LAR very highly, but now I find it's held up better than I recalled.

    "American Storm" - Great rocker, though the oft-repeated criticism that you can't tell it's an anti-drug song without someone telling you as much is true. The lyrics do at least let you know Bob is wound up about something other than yet another failed romance or lost youth for a change. And that's refreshing, isn't it?


    "Like a Rock" - Overexposed thanks to the Chevy commercials, but a heartfelt paean to lost innocence nonetheless. The only problem is that, well, that topic is like unemployment for Bruce Springsteen or unrequited love for Melissa Etheridge - after a while you do feel like saying "Another song about that?!" But if you can look past that, it's a great song all right.

    "Miami" - The topic has been done better elsewhere, but I do love that sax solo at the end.

    "The Ring" - The lost verse (in which he beats her up) would have filled in a lot of blanks as to just what went wrong here. As it is, my verdict is "well-done, but too depressing to be enjoyable". One is tempted to wonder why she didn't just leave him, but I suppose Seger is of the generation in which that wasn't done. Until you remember that his father did exactly that.

    "Tightrope" and "The Aftermath" - These are both high on the list of songs I didn't recall being very impressed with, but which I really liked when I went back and listened to them for the first time in years. They do, of course, tell essentially the same story.

    "Sometimes" - One of the weaker songs on the album, though it's an amusing trivia question: the only title Seger has ever used for two different songs (the other one is on Brand New Morning).

    "It's You" - Here's why I can't criticize Seger too harshly for writing so many sad and angry songs: he's a lot better at those than he is at happy ones.

    "Somewhere Tonight" - One of only two Seger songs ("Railroad Days" is the other) that have made me cry. Remember what I said about "The Ring" being well done but hard to listen to because it's so sad? This is even more so. I don't even try to listen to it at the time of year he's singing about, especially since I have in fact had my heart broken in fall more times than in any other season.

    "Fortunate Son" - Suitable as a bonus track. It doesn't really add anything to the original, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It just sounds like what it is: Seger getting back to his roots and rocking out with an old favorite. Why not?
     
  25. mrmaloof

    mrmaloof Active Member

    Location:
    California
    This is one of my favorite Seger albums and has been since it was released. It has a great flow and mix of moods. The songwriting is consistently fine.

    I like Seger trying out different sounds for him on Tightrope and The Aftermath. Somewhere Tonight is one of the saddest songs ever written and Seger's singing on it is amazing. The title track is one of Seger's finest nostalgia songs. The Ring tells the story of Jody Girl, or Jody Girl's sister, a bit further down the road. I even got the anti-drug references in American Storm when it came out.

    While the next two albums are good, I don't think his albums get back to this quality level again until Face the Promise- in part because the two albums in between are too long to maintain the consistent quality of Like A Rock.

    - Joe
     
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