New Bob Seger hits CD: "Ultimate Hits: Rock And Roll Never Forgets"

Yeah, "River Deep - Mountain High" is a studio cut with overdubbed applause, but I decided to call it "live" because (a) Mongrel lists it that way; and (b) it segues into Disc Two's opening live track. Like yourself, I wish there was a live version. Surely over the years he's recorded some live shows that had some off-the-wall tracks on it such as this one.

It's so irritating to see compilation after compilation fail to give a complete picture of his brilliant career.

Finally, my compilation lists Disc Two's "Sunspot Baby" as "Sunset Baby". Typo.

 

That's an amazing photo and great story since I've walked into that store(it will always be Hudsons to me) a thousand times over the years. I had no idea that the grand openning had such a cool history.

So...any idea what the set list was like?

 

Some notes from the show I found on-line:



Seger: "I'll never forget this gig we did at Oakland Mall. We'd been making records for about three years and had about seven Top Ten singles, and we went out and did about half an hour at this shopping mall in front of 20,000, the biggest crowd we'd ever played for. The Rationals were there, Ted Nugent was there, but we closed the show. We did all our hit songs, that's all we did. Scott Morgan [of the Rationals] came up to me and said, 'I can't believe it.' And Glenn Frey said the same thing. 'You just played hit after hit. I can't believe it.' This is 1968, right?" Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, June 16, 1978.

The legendary Oakland Mall concert must have been an amazing scene. People of my generation talk about 'being at Woodstock' as kind of the end-all be-all of concerts -- but I what I would give to have stood with the crowd that day in Oakland.

Longtime Seger fan Rob Maisch adds this info about the concert:

"The guy who gave me my first job in the Shopping Center Industry was the Marketing Director of Oakland Mall's Grand Opening. His name was Bob Jones and knowing of my interest in Bob Seger, he told me the story of how he had included that parking lot concert as a part of Oakland Mall's Grand Opening Events ...and that it almost cost him his job!

As I recall, he had figured the concert would be a sure-fire way to generate enormous Grand-Opening traffic and free publicity for the mall. He especially wanted to make a huge splash against existing competitor Northland Mall and more specifically his semi-friend/arch-rival Stan Eichelbaum who was then acting as Northland's Marketing Director.

What he hadn't reckoned on, he told me in retrospect, was that the concert almost totally negated ANY "regular shoppers" from visiting the Mall or shopping in the brand new stores because of the wall-to-wall cars coming off of the 14 Mile Road Exit from I-75 in both directions, as well as the major traffic snarls throughout the local streets surrounding the mall trying to get into the mall for the concert!

Concert-goers had sucked up ALL of the available parking spaces in the Mall's parking lot and numerous spaces had already been surrendered to accommodate staging and the concert area in front of Hudsons Department Store!

The only retail activity this afforded to the mall during that Grand Opening Day was kids running in and out for Cokes and snacks from the fast food vendors and long lines forming at the mall's small community restrooms!

Needless to say, the Mall merchants who had spent months building, decorating, stocking and getting their stores ready for the "magic day" of Grand Opening were left with no REAL customers to speak of and ample time to organize a lynch mob to go looking for Mr. Jones!

He laughed about it from the distance of about five years in his rearview mirror, but said he caught holy hell from just about everybody from the Detroit news media, to Troy and the surrounding suburbs police, due to the horrible driving and parking conditions it created in the area that day.

Bob passed away about a dozen years ago, a true pioneer in the shopping center marketing field and there still is a monthly industry newsletter that bears his name. I have many fond memories of him as a friend and as a mentor in my earliest days in that business. He did teach me that malls and rock & roll never, EVER mix!!! Not even when it's Rock & Roll of the magnitude of Bob Seger's! Thought you'd enjoy this ancillary tale of that long ago concert.

Best Regards,
Rob Maisch"

 

wow.

 

Bump.

Did anyone get this 2CD? Best Buy has it for $6.99 at least until Wednesday.

How's the sound? How does the mono Ramblin' Gamblin Man sound on this set? What about Turn the Page; is it the common version from Live Bullet or the original studio version from Back in '72?

 

wal-mart has a bonus track, does wal-mart price match?

 

threads like this one really show the disconnect with, well, everywhere else. This is a hits collection, nothing more. Many artists have repackaged similar material to death. Seger really only has Greatests 1 and 2 and whatever else has his early stuff.

So now a variation of 1 and 2 are together. It more or less covers what a casual fan would want and as well as lesser fans and those who want more than a couple hits. that's its function. Yes there are omissions, but serious fans being offended by this is like ridiculous.

This comp arriving does not = your dream fantasy release not arriving. he's released very little over time and could have released deeper cuts whenever, but chose not to.

 

Any comments on the sound quality? If it's not a brickwalled mess it might be worth 6.99.

 

Here's the Mono Ramblin' Gamblin' Man. Blech...first time on CD and they botch it up.



Yes, it sounds like it looks. I'm sticking with a needledrop of the Capitol single. As hot as that 45 was cut, it's still more dynamic than this.

 

Thanks for the report. Given the state of the latest Live Bullet and Nine Tonight remasters, I didn't have high hopes. Is there a mastering credit on this set?

- Joe

 

http://detnews.com/article/20111122/ENT04/111220308/1424/ENT04

 

You are absolutely correct. This collection is not for me, and I'm happy for the fans who did not already pick up the first 2 collections. It's just frustrating to see Seger pander to the casual fans again while ignoring the cries from his long time fans. He's certainly not the first artist to repackage hit hits, but he's one of the few artists of his generation still going after all of these years without acknowledging his past and his lifelong fans. Dylan has his bootleg series, Springsteen released "Tracks" and "The Promise," The Beatles (not active, but still...) released the Anthology series, and yet Seger hides from the past. I am happy that frat parties can continue to blare "Old Time Rock & Roll," but the die-hard fans deserve better.

 

Respectfully..."botched it" is a little strong. This studio version never sounded great. I think they did with it what they could...this is about all the gas that's left in it...I mean...it could be worked on forever, it's an old track and this is about the best I think we will ever get. The balance of this 2-CD set sounds very nice (IMO, extraordinary!) indeed! I love Steve's 'Night Moves' gold CD. The 'NM' tracks on this disc sound just as good to me. I want the old stuff as much as anyone else, but a few new goodies is better than none

 

No it isn't. "Botched it" is being polite. I wouldn't care if the mastering engineer reads my words. This person's work is awful.

 

Interesting piece here on pre-1975 Seger: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/bob-seger-bootleg-compilation/Content?oid=3770583

 

What is the bonus track?

 

A special Walmart edition of "Ultimate Hits" will include an exclusive track, "Living Inside My Heart," which was in the movie "About Last Night."


From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20111122...ises-on-Seger’s-‘Ultimate-Hits’#ixzz1eSt89LXo

 

What I get from that article:
The Good
Seger, 66, was working on other things, including tracks from his vast archive (for another "Early Seger" volume) when manager Punch Andrews suggested he put that aside and help with a repackaging of his greatest hits in time for the holidays.

Hopefully it's longer than the first one or as cheap.

The possibly Bad

"'Hey Hey Hey Hey' is kind of similar to 'C'est La Vie' (aka Chuck Berry's 'You Never Can Tell'), which worked so well on the first greatest hits... "We took it, and I re-sang a few parts of it, beefed up a few parts, and we mastered the crap out of it. It's a powerhouse. It's fun to sing live, too!"

Which could mean they brickwalled the sh it out of it.

 

Sadly he was probably just doing as he was told.

On "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man", as so-so as the original recording was, the mono single (and even the fake stereo LP and 1993 CD version) retained the song's dynamics and energy. This version sounds flat by comparison when played at the same volume level.

Most noticable to me was the bloated bass during the intro. You can tell it was jacked up to the nth degree to maintain an overall volume level (drowning out the organ and Bob's vocals in the process), as it lowers back to a reasonable level when the vocals begin. It's level seems cut in half by the time Bob sings "I was born lonely...." On the single the bass maintains it's level in the mix.

Overall IMHO Seger's (once edgy) vocals seem both tamed and buried in the mix, and the organ sounds like someone threw a horse blanket over it.

Perhaps "botched" wasn't strong enough.

 

It's called "mastering the crap out of it"!

 

Robert Vosgien mastered this set, giving it a spin now.

 

confirmed Turn the Page is the live version. No studio version. Bummer!

 

Here's the DR analysis...another total hackjob. Spare your ears (and your wallet)...almost every track is clipping ay some point...

Analyzed folder: D:\DISC 1\
DR Peak RMS Filename
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR6 over -7.58 dB 01 - Old Time Rock and Roll.wav
DR6 over -7.93 dB 02 - Hollywood Nights.wav
DR7 over -9.69 dB 03 - Night Moves.wav
DR7 over -8.60 dB 04 - Mainstreet.wav
DR7 over -9.00 dB 05 - Roll Me Away.wav
DR8 over -12.02 dB 06 - Turn the Page (Live).wav
DR6 over -7.45 dB 07 - Her Strut.wav
DR7 over -8.78 dB 08 - Still the Same.wav
DR7 over -9.12 dB 09 - You'll Accomp'ny Me.wav
DR7 over -10.96 dB 10 - We've Got Tonight.wav
DR6 over -8.67 dB 11 - Like a Rock.wav
DR7 -0.00 dB -9.46 dB 12 - Fire Lake.wav
DR7 over -8.15 dB 13 - Tryin' to Live My Life Without You (Live).wav
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of files: 13
Official DR value: DR7
=========================================================

Analyzed folder: D:\DISC 2\

DR Peak RMS Filename
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR6 over -7.44 dB 01 - Rock and Roll Never Forgets.wav
DR7 over -8.83 dB 02 - Against the Wind.wav
DR5 over -6.18 dB 03 - Ramblin' Gamblin' Man.wav
DR6 over -6.98 dB 04 - The Fire Down Below.wav
DR5 over -7.94 dB 05 - Travelin' Man (Live).wav
DR6 over -8.02 dB 06 - Beautiful Loser (Live).wav
DR7 over -8.53 dB 07 - Shakedown.wav
DR8 over -10.16 dB 08 - Shame On the Moon.wav
DR7 over -7.91 dB 09 - Katmandu.wav
DR6 -0.00 dB -7.99 dB 10 - Little Drummer Boy.wav
DR7 over -8.46 dB 11 - Wait for Me.wav
DR6 -0.10 dB -6.77 dB 12 - Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey.wav
DR6 -0.10 dB -7.83 dB 13 - Downtown Train.wav
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of files: 13
Official DR value: DR6
=========================================================

Keeping in mind that the latest RHCP CD has a DR of 4-5 and it easily is the worst sounding disc this year - with this one sitting at 6 (with several 5's) should tell you all you need to know...

Obviously Bob (or anyone in his camp who cares about sound) was not around for this mastering prep...

Cheers,

VP

Check out how bad most of today stuff is @

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/index.php

 

I picked it up at Best Buy for $7.00. Not sure if I will open and keep it though. Probably a waste of money.

Pat

 

Vosgien didn't master the entire set. "Wait For Me", "Hey Hey Hey Hey", and "Downtown Train" were mastered by Brian Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering.

Derek