The Bob Seger Album By Album Thread

Still The Same and Feel Like A Number were released in advance of the album, and "Number" i just considered lame. I could have written better IMO. So the lead single left me lukewarm. But then the album dropped and other than "Number" it was a very good album. Quite a few Seger classics reside here.

4/5

 

I was a little kid when Stranger In Town was released, but I remember hearing Feel Like A Number on the radio and being blown away. That hard-driving rhythm and shouting high-pitch vocals...I remember thinking "ok, so *that's* what hard rock is!"

 

Coming next week. Against The Wind!

 

Man I wish Stranger In Town was released by DCC back in the day.

 

I don't know what's medium about it. It's simple, but it really works!

 

Stranger In Town is one of my favorite albums period.

 

I don't know why I get some kind of weird enjoyment (kick) when someone calls one of my favorite songs on an album basically a "turd". Especially from someone who is a fan of the man (or band.) But I've lived long enough to know one person will never come across another person who has their exact same taste in music. I'll keep it anonymous to keep the peace.

 

Man, if you think Feel Like A Number is lame, I like to hear the one you could write.

 

Note the past tense. I was 22. I was hard core Seger and hated the lyrics. I felt it was too easy and trite. I appreciate it now as a vocal excercise for Bob, and one of his big hits. I always try to write about how it hit me at the time.

On another subject, After Against The Wind we will be taking about a 2 week break. I had planned to run straight through, but my Mother-in-law's untimely passing means I have to go to Florida to help settle her estate and clean out the house for sale. Sad.
So I beg your indulgence, and invite you to talk amongst yourselves over any previous album(or single), or on Bob's career up til this point and I'll be back with Nine Tonight in 3 weeks.

 

Sorry to hear the news. I know from experience you've got a big job ahead of you.

 

Sorry for your loss, Jamie.

- Joe

 

Against The Wind

From Wiki

Against the Wind is the 11th album by American rock singer Bob Seger and his third with The Silver Bullet Band. It was released in 1980 (see 1980 in music). It is Seger's only Number 1 album to date, spending six weeks atop the Billboard 200, and knocking Pink Floyd's massive-selling The Wall from the top spot. The album also earned two Grammy Awards.

Track listing
All songs written and composed by Bob Seger.

Side One
No. Title Length
1. "The Horizontal Bop" 4:03
2. "You'll Accomp'ny Me" 4:00
3. "Her Strut" 3:51
4. "No Man's Land" 3:43
5. "Long Twin Silver Line" 4:18

Side Two
No. Title Length
6. "Against the Wind" 5:34
7. "Good for Me" 4:03
8. "Betty Lou's Gettin' Out Tonight" 2:52
9. "Fire Lake" 3:30
10. "Shinin' Brightly" 4:30

The Silver Bullet Band perform on tracks 1-3, 6 & 8

The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section perform on tracks 4, 5, 7, 9 & 10

Personnel
The Silver Bullet Band
Bob Seger – guitar, vocals, background vocals
Drew Abbott – guitar
Alto Reed – horn, saxophone
Chris Campbell – bass
David Teegarden – percussion, drums

The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
Barry Beckett – piano, keyboard
Randy McCormick – organ, keyboard
Pete Carr – guitar
Jimmy Johnson – guitar, horn
David Hood – bass
Roger Hawkins – percussion, drums

Additional Musicians
Bill Payne – organ, synthesizer, piano on "You'll Accomp'ny Me"
Dr. John – keyboard on "Horizontal Bop"
Paul Harris – organ and piano on "Against the Wind" and piano on "Betty Lou's Getting Out Tonight"
Doug Riley – synthesizer on "No Man's Land"
Sam Clayton – percussion on "You'll Accomp'ny Me"
Backing harmony vocals on "Fire Lake"
Glenn Frey
Don Henley
Timothy B. Schmit
Backing harmony vocals on "Against the Wind"
Glenn Frey
Bob Seger
Backing Vocals on "You'll Accomp'ny Me" "Good For Me" and "Shinin' Brightly"
Ginger Blake
Laura Creamer
Linda Dillard

Production
Producers: Punch Andrews, Steve Melton, Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Bob Seger, Bill Szymczyk
Engineers: John Arrias, Steve Melton, Bill Szymczyk
Mixing: Punch Andrews, John Arrias, Steve Melton, Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, Bob Seger, Bill Szymczyk
Mastering: Wally Traugott
Remastering: Robert Vosgien
Art direction: Roy Kohara
Photography: Tom Bert
Paintings: Jim Warren

Charts
Album – Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1980 Pop Albums 1

Singles – Billboard (North America)

Year Single Chart Position
1980 "Against The Wind" Pop Singles 5
1980 "Fire Lake" Pop Singles 6
1980 "You'll Accomp'ny Me" Pop Singles 14
1980 "The Horizontal Bop" Pop Singles 42

Awards
Grammy Awards

Year Winner Category
1981 Against the Wind Best Recording Package
Against the Wind Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal

Criticism
Despite its massive success, critic Dave Marsh gave Against the Wind harsh criticism: "I'd like to say that this is not only the worst record Bob Seger has ever made, but an absolutely cowardly one as well." Marsh had followed Seger since before Night Moves, when Seger finally gained national fame, and essentially said in this review that Seger's long, tireless struggle to stardom is trivialized by this record. "He had to fight hard to prove there was still a place in rock & roll for a guy like him, and, with Night Moves, he won. This is the LP that makes such a victory meaningless. ... It makes me sad, and it makes me angry (another emotion that's disappeared here, though it's often fueled Seger's finest work). Maybe rock & roll never forgets, but the best thing anybody who ever had any hope for Bob Seger can do is try not to remember Against the Wind and pray for something better next time. I wouldn't hold my breath."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Seger Files

Reached 1 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. The first and only Seger album to go to Number 1. The album took two years to make.

Seger and the Silver Bullet Band (Drew Abbott, Alto Reed, Chris Campbell and David Teegarden) won a Grammy in the category "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" for Against the Wind -- though whether that means the song or the album, I'm not sure. Art Director Roy Kohara also received a Grammy for Best Album Package.
-------------------
Going for Number One

Seger: "I was aiming for a totally commercial album. Maybe it was a little too commercial, but I wanted to make sure I had three hit singles on it. I had never had a No. 1 album and I wanted one." Dennis Hunt, January 16, 1983, L.A. Times. "Seger: Hard Work and Low Profile"

"We wanted to really have a No. 1 album; that's what we went for on that album. We dropped away a little bit from rockiness and went straight for the singles charts on all 10 cuts, virtually." Gary Graff, October 1994, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger Tells The Stories Behind The Hits."

As the album went up the charts, Seger did everything he could to promote it:

"We were going for Number One. We were Number Two for five weeks and I called Punch and said 'Take 'em all. Every city! I don't care! We're playin' every night.'" Dave DiMartino, September 1980, Creem. "Safe At Home Or Against The Wind: Bob Seger Bops Horizontally"

"We had a chance to make it and we wanted to make some history. At least some Silver Bullet history if nothing else, so we could say we were Number One at least once in our lives. 'Cause the market may change...Who knows?" Dave DiMartino, September 1980, Creem. "Safe At Home Or Against The Wind: Bob Seger Bops Horizontally"
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Lookin' Back on ATW
Seger, on how he worked prior to making Against the Wind:

"I was a very hard-working person, but I probably wasn't the best person to be around, unless you were really in my inner circle...if you weren't within that circle, I was so busy working all the time..that I was quite closed off. I think it wasn't until 1980 that I really opened up, and that's why I think I have such fond memories of Against the Wind. I think at that point I had relaxed, and you can almost hear it, there's less desperation -- I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing -- but Against the Wind is far more relaxed and offhand than Stranger in Town and Night Moves are." Radio Interview: In the Studio with Redbeard for Against the Wind.

Seger: "I think of all the albums I've ever done, Against the Wind is probably the easiest for me to listen to...it's probably the most fulfilled I ever was as a songwriter. Things were going along real good, I was very relaxed, the tracks were very spontaneous, and the people I was working with, it was very exciting to be working with them...Bill Szymczyk, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Billy Payne, the girls, Shaun and Laura, we were doing so well....I really look back very fondly on that album." Radio Interview: In the Studio with Redbeard for Against the Wind.
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Reviews
Dave Marsh criticized the album in a May 15, 1980 review in Rolling Stone titled, "Bob Seger's 'Wind' is mostly hot air."

Marsh called the album "not only the worst record Bob Seger has ever made, but an absolutely cowardly one as well. Against the Wind betrays all those years that Seger worked in the Midwestern wilderness...he had to fight to prove there was still a place in rock & roll for a guy like him, and with Night Moves, he won. This is the LP that makes such a victory meaningless. Against the Wind is all retreat."

Marsh characterized the tracks as "failure-proof songs that are utterly listenable and quite meaningless...I keep expecting to hear him say 'Have a Coke and a smile.'"

He similarly criticized the ballads, "none of which contains a line sufficiently memorable to quote."[Not even, "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then"?]

"There's more than a hint of the Eagle's malicious misogyny and preppie snobbery in these numbers," Marsh writes, "-- not just 'Fire Lake,' to which the insufferable Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Timothy B Schmit contribute precise backing vocals."

In summary, he calls the album, "a complete acquiescence to the Eagle's pop philosophy...'Who wants to take that long shot gamble?' Bob Seger asks in 'Fire Lake.' And his answer, despite superficial nods at rebellion, comes back clearly: not me."

Later, Marsh commented on his negative review of Against the Wind, and his subsequent positive review of The Distance, as follows:

"In the first place, I wasn't wrong about either of the records in question: Against the Wind really is that bad, The Distance just that good. In fact there are only three lines in all of the former review that I regret. The crack about Coca-Cola ["I keep expecting to hear him sing, 'Have a Coke and a smile.'"] because it's too smart ***; the claim that there are no lines worth quoting in the ballads (the lines from Against the Wind in which Seger haltingly expresses his indecisiveness --'Well those drifter days are past me now/ I've so much more to think about / Deadlines and commitments/ What to leave in/ What to leave out'-- aren't just memorable, but haunting) and of course the final kiss off. ["Maybe rock and roll never forgets, but the best thing anybody who ever had any hope for Bob Seger can do is try not to remember Against The Wind and pray for something better next time. I wouldn't hold my breath."] Even so, it's only the third for which I apologized, because it's only the third that struck me as requiring an apology. Seger had made an empty windbag of a record, and it didn't live up to his previous standards, much less his potential, but that record can now be seen almost as a housecleaning before moving on toward what he's really capable of doing."

 

Stranger in Town

While I like the album overall I fell that it falls short of being above average. There are too many by-the-numbers rockers like Hollywood Nights and Old Time Rock 'n Roll. The ballads on this album were below par as well. Still the Same, Till It Shines and We've Got Tonight were a big step down from earlier Seger ballads like Night Moves (the song), Jody Girl, Big River or Travelin' Man.

With Stranger in Town it seemed like the music was created less for young people in high school and more for people attending their 30 year high school reunion. Things got better on Against the Wind though.

Scott

 

Just bumped up this thread:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=140714

an earlier discussion about "Against the Wind".

 

I don't think Against The Wind is any classic, but this thread has reminded me just how dopey Dave Marsh can be.

 

I like the title track, takes the formula of his former ballads just that little notch higher and more melodic from start to end - without those usual breaks and ; totally smoothed out of course - still it works in creating a feeling and painting a picture.
Even though I got the LP in my collection I have no idea how the rest goes - it is always the same with Bob either I dig an album and every song clicks and leaves an impression (even if I like that certain tune on an LP or not) - or I can play the album and forget how it sounds 5 minutes later..
I don't blame him for aiming at the No 1 position. He had the chance, so why settle with less ?

 

Talking bout Bob Seger albums I like and how each track is tightly burned into my memory like those few songs by my favorite artists.

It took me quite some time to come to terms with this album. It is very different from say SEVEN and LIVE BULLET; but it is the best album from Bob Seger imo and one of the best american Rock'n Roll LP's of the later 70ies.
First thing that you notice after playing it for the first few times is how diverse the music is and that is not only because of the Rockers / Ballads; but nearly every song is influenced by another genre, straight old Rock'n Roll, Pop ballads, Country & Western etc.
Next thing it is obvious that you don't hear the same band on all of the trax. The Silver Bullet Band is responsible for the hardest hitting trax- I like all of them very much. Things get more different, when The Muscle Schoals are at charge - strange kind of Rock for someone from europe, who knows mainly Hard Rock, Blues and Progressive Rock.
Anyway it is Bob Seger's voice and song writing that keeps Night Moves afloat and interesting enough to play at least one side at a time without skipping.
The opener is kind of lame tbh. I can see how the topic and Rock'n roll By numbers arrangement makes this a main success in Live shows; but as an opener for a 1986 LP it is mediocre at best; still it works 3/4
Next is the best song Bob Seger ever wrote. It is just that kind of topic and telling a story of remembering the days of youth that appeals to everyone and the fact the song is very cleverly broken down in segments with hooks and that line Thunder - Last Night I Woke Up To Thunder.. that haunts the listener as well as the singer, then the acoustic guitar and main line build like only Stairway To Heaven etc build. 5 star 100 & bullet proof material, next up is a lighter track, but you couldn't stand anything as deep as NM anymore - but as superficial as the lyrics may be The Band really works hard and after a while the power of the hard rocking band along with the image of hot girls shaking what they got gets you. 4.5 stars, closer to 5.
Solid Hard Rock!
Now another deep track with a flute section and the image of the christ in the arena where the Lions wait. As close to Progressive as Bob ever got. I love it and it is a great way to end this fine album side. Man an LP has two sides a shame this went out of the window when CD appeared.
Anyway - this is a nearly perfect LP side - 5 stars from me so far.

Now comes the flip side which took years and years for me to really appreciate as much as the A Side !

It starts strong with Sunspot Baby, I like the line looked in Miami , Looked in Negril (cause I've been there many times, too); closest I came was a month old bill - sunspot baby sure had a real good time. Fantastic opener - 5 stars
Mainstreet lives from that Lead guitar line - just a perfect Pop tune - 5 stars,
Come To Poppa didn't click as easy as the former two; but that 60ies Proto Metal finally wins me over - 3 for the Song and another point for the tight playing - 4 stars.
Ship Of Fools, well scratches head WTF was Bob thinking when he wrote, recorded and selected this song ? It feels completely out of place on this song selection... without a rating.
After years I made my peace with it; but often for years I just ignored the rest of the LP and played side 1 or the first 2 songs, maybe the first three of Side 2.
I think due to Steve Hoffman's mastering it fits better within the CD.
Mary Lou reminds me of SEVEN, The Silver Bullet Band flexes their muscles and manage to transform that mediocre composition into a little gem. 3.5 for the song and 1 for tightness of the band - 4.5/5
So we have 2 ballads the second Track on each side, 2 Proto Metal Trax (No 3 and 9), 3 standard Rock'n Rollers (1, 3 & 5) and 2 odd songs (4 & 8), one I love (4) and one I start to dig (8) - still the good stuff on the album is soooo good that Night Moves remains one of the best american Rock LP's, maybe not as good as Springsteen or Bob Dylan's best works, but at times on the same level - with his own style. Although technically more a 4 than a 5star collection of songs the effort and tightness of playing along with the fact it is more than the sum of the 9 songs I think it deserves a 5 star rating.

 

I was definitely not a fan of Against the Wind when it came out - too medium and mellow for me, and the rockers were less intense. But now I see how it's a reflection both of Bob's big change in life status (I've made it, I don't have to be quite so driven all the time), plus his ambition to go for the brass ring of a #1 album while he had the chance. It's still not my favorite but I enjoy it much more now.

I always have loved the title track though - one of Bob's best.

Earlier in the thread we discussed the rarity of 12-bar blues in Bob's songs. Well, this album finally has one in Betty Lou's Gettin' Out Tonight!

- Joe

 

I listened to both Stranger In Town and against The wind LP's after this thread and must say they are better than I remembered them to be. Something about the music and the song writing makes these timeless and they fit better to my mindstate now than when they came out.. The only real low points is that one songs sounds exactly like - Fire Down Below - just with different words.. Forgot the title; but you will know which one I mean when you hear the song (and know how The Fire down Below sounds..I think there is even one more example - Rock'n Roll Never Forgets I think it was - Old Records Never die ?
Talking bout bad poetry...

 

I think it's Ain't Got No Money - my least favorite track on Stranger In Town - that you're thinking of as similar to Fire Down Below. Brave Strangers was an attempt to repeat Night Moves, but it's different enough musically to be more enjoyable.

- Joe

 

I would say the "Against The Wind" album is just a notch below the last one. I don't think I have ever heard "Fire Lake" in my life and I read here it went to #6 and had backing vocals from The Eagles. They also did backing vocals on the 1980 Elton John "21 At 33" album so they were busy contributing to others before their long breakup.

 

While it would not be entirely unfair to call Against the Wind crassly commercial, it has enough terrific songs that I really don't care. Nor do I blame Seger for such a blatant grab at a #1 album. If ever there were an artist who had earned that right...

Now, the songs:
"The Horizontal Bop" I actually saw this once in one of those "worst rock and roll songs ever" books, but for the life of me I can't recall what the reasoning behind that was. The lyrics are a bit goofy, but with such a catchy tune I find they're a bit of an afterthought anyway. Apparently the bit about having parties in a field somewhere was a true practice from his salad days. I love the way Seger always tosses little things like that into his songs.


"You'll Accomp'ny Me" - One of the first Seger songs I ever came to love, when I was in high school. I still love it, even though life has since taught me that what he's up to in the song is a great way to get your heart destroyed. Right or wrong, it's still a beautiful song.

"Her Strut" - Definitely a dud in my book. Seger is one of the very, very few rockers of his generation who almost never came across as chauvinistic. I guess if you listen closely, this could be seen as an anti-sexist song rather than a sexist one (they love to watch her strut, but they do respect her, only he had to switch that around to make it rhyme). Still, I get the impression in listening to it that even Seger himself isn't buying his argument here.

"No Man's Land" - Bar none, my favorite Seger song. Poetic and abstract without being indecipherable by any means, it's a brilliant look at alienation and isolation, worthy of Hemingway. Love it, love it, love it.

"Long Twin Silver Line" - Nice tune, but the lyrics must be among the most trite of his career. Trains don't "hang a big left" (or right) anywhere, a blowing whistle is often a sign that the engineer is anything but happy, and I'll refrain from commenting on the plausibility of a train being right on time.

"Against the Wind" - A blatant rewrite of "Night Moves," but that's perfectly acceptable when you do such a good job of it.

"Good for Me" - Liked it in high school, but it hasn't aged well for me. Trite and unconvincing, and it sounds dangerously like he's putting her on a pedestal.

"Betty Lou's Gettin' Out Tonight" - Good for a laugh. What do I think of that, boys? Well, I think it's a nice recovery from that last song!

"Fire Lake" - Always evokes rural Pennsylvania for me (I had family there when I was younger), in a good way - but also makes me glad I escaped that life.

"Shinin' Brightly" - I can take it or leave it.

 

Fantastic work on Hammond organ by the royal Billy Payne on "You'll Accomp'ny Me" , if my memory serves me well.

 

With our OP unfortunately having to deal with some sad family issues, we are on a bit of hiatus, so I thought I'd post some excerpts from my two interviews with Mr. Seger (1991 and 1994).

Hopefully this will help to pass the time and maybe some will find some points of interest here. I especially enjoyed discussing Bob's songwriting craft with some specific examples.

Anyhow.....hope you enjoy some of this

It’s been quite a while since your last album. You’ve never taken so much time between albums, so what was going on?
BS: There were just a lot of strange personal things that happened to me over the past five years. I tried to live in California for a couple of years but that experiment failed. I had a marriage that went bad, and my mother got sick and died. I finally got my legs back in August of ’89 and that’s when I started writing again. I think I’m over the hump now.

I really do like this album [“The Fire Inside”]. I think I like everything on it and that’s more than I can say for anything since “Night Moves.” There’s a nice balance of stuff and there’s a lot of things that aren’t typical Seger songs.”

Back in the early days, you and the band didn’t take much time off. You guys sure made the road your home….
BS: I got together with the Silver Bullet Band in October of ’73 and we played 265 nights in ’74. You had six guys living like road rats for years. We were more like station wagon drivers than musicians. We used to drive to Florida and play, turn around and drive home because we couldn’t afford to stay there. We used to call it “soul-driving.” I set the record when I drove from Miami to Detroit; twenty-five-and-a-half hours non-stop [laughs].

That dedication to the road and those years onstage certainly were perfectly showcased on “Live Bullet”….
BS: Yeah, I absolutely love that record. I have to give credit to Punch because it was his idea to record those shows. Our show was becoming so popular and the band was becoming so ferocious onstage that we just wanted to capture all of that.

I think we were hungry, even desperate [laughs], and I think all of that shows through on that album. We were a rock & roll band to be reckoned with, that’s for sure.

While “Against The Wind” remains your only album to ever top the charts, you did get a bit of backlash from some of your longtime fans who felt that you lost your edge. What are your thoughts on that album now?
BS: I think I was a little tired at that point and we made a couple of mistakes. Now I really do like that album, but you’re right the edge is gone and it’s pretty mellow. I had some other rock stuff but those just didn’t measure up to the ones on that album. Maybe there’s a little Eagles’ influence in there also, because I was hanging out with those guys a lot at that time.

Right after that album, you released your second live album, “Nine Tonight,” but I have to say that it really paled in comparison to “Live Bullet.”
BS: Yeah, I wish that I had never put that record out. We had begun playing too literally, playing the hits like they sounded on the radio. There are a few flourishes on there, but, you’re right, it’s not nearly as exciting as “Live Bullet.”

I wish we could get some of the intensity back, but it’s not that easy. I miss Charlie [Charlie Allen Martin, the Silver Bullet Band’s original drummer who was paralyzed in a car accident following “Night Moves”]. He was really a tremendous driving force in the Silver Bullet Band. I’d love to recapture the “Live Bullet” days, but I don’t know if I’m young enough to endure that again [laughs]. To be honest, touring is not quite as much fun for me anymore, because I basically know what the audience wants, so there’s not much challenge to it.

You bounced back in a big way with “The Distance”…..
BS: Well, that was a conscious attempt to make a real hard record. I mostly write rock songs with guitar, so I was doing almost all of the writing for that album with my guitar. I go on a writing jag. I really found that the best way to be creative is to have large chunks of time and you have to block out the time to do it. My friends and loved ones have to understand that because I can’t write in a hit-and-miss way, I have to have a lot of concentration.

You're one of rock's most respected songwriters, so I'd really like to discuss that aspect of your career. What techniques do you employ when it comes time to write?
BS: There really isn't any set way I write songs. They come all different kinds of ways. I would say that 60 percent of the time, I'll sit down at a keyboard or pick up a guitar and play for a while, or sometimes I'll even work out a drum pattern on a drum machine.

Then what I do is, I'll just sing stuff off the top of my head and then walk away and have a cup of coffee. After fifteen minutes or so, I'll go back and listen to those two or three things that I did, and if I don't hear a germ or a flare of an idea, I'll just keep plugging away.

What about from a lyrical standpoint?
BS: Lyrically, what I'll do a lot of the time is, I'll try to come up with the refrain or the title section and then back up and write the story through the verses. A lot of the time, the mood of the music that I'm playing – whether it's high-energy, medium tempo or dead slow – will determine the direction. If it comes together with a lyric line or a chorus line, then I'll kind of know where I'm going with it.

There have also been times where I've written a bunch of verses before I even know what the title is. That's what happened with 'Like A Rock'. I wrote the first three verses of that song before I even knew where I was going. Then, one day, I just fell into the "like a rock" thing, and I thought it worked.

It comes all different ways; there's no set method I use. Mostly, it's kind of like work, but it's cool work because it's so exciting.

Do you ever give up on a song if you feel that it's going nowhere?
BS: Not really. I try to be a "finisher." I probably finish way too many songs, because I've found that when I don't finish them, that's when I lock up. I keep getting all these "starts" piled up, and then I get paranoid and I can't even start a new song. I'll finish songs even though I know they're barely above-average.

Have you ever taken lines or verses from some of those "below-average" songs and incorporated them into better songs?
BS: Absolutely. You can come up with what my friend Don Henley calls a "rhyme with dignity." You want to try to hang on to those phrases. Don does that by writing them in books. I'll go see him, and he'll have books and scraps of paper piled up on a table, and he uses those as a resource for ideas.

I don't do that. If I can remember something in my head for five or six days, then I'll know that there's something there. More often than not, it's usually "close but no cigar." Otherwise, we'd all write hits every single time [laughs]. What usually happens is that I'll walk away from a batch of songs, and usually the one that keeps creeping into my head after I walk away is the song I'll pursue.

Do you write continually, or do you set specific time aside for composing?
BS: I'll write in streaks. I'll do three or four weeks where I'll try to come up with four or five songs and then I'll give it a rest. It is hard writing the lyrics, and it's my experience that only two out of five songs I write are going to make the cut. But you try just as hard with every single one, and you fall in love with all of them, but ultimately three out of five songs will disappoint me for a variety of reasons.

Do you bounce songs off other people when you're not sure of things?
BS: I used to bounce my songs off Glenn [Frey] and Don [Henley] a lot, but now I'm 49 years old, so I'm a little more content to lay my reputation on the line and follow my own instincts. This time I'm going to wait until the whole thing's done, and I'll probably play it for Glenn and Don, and if they hate anything, I might do something about it [laughs]. That's usually how we predicate everything that we play for each other: "Do you hate anything?"

One of your most memorable lyrical lines is "wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then," from 'Against The Wind'. But I recall you saying that line really bothered you when you first wrote it...
BS: Oh, yeah, it did [laughs]. Actually, the only thing that bothered me about that phrase was the grammar. It sounded grammatically funny to me. I kept asking myself, "Is that correct grammar?"

I liked the line, and everybody I played it for – like Glenn and Don – were saying, "That's the best line in the song," but I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't right. But I slowly came around [laughs].

You have to understand that songwriters can't punctuate anything they write. I work in such a narrow medium that I tend to second-guess things like that. As a matter of fact, I've seen that line in a few other songs since I came up with it, so I guess it was okay after all.

What do you feel are your strengths as a songwriter – melody or lyrics?
BS: I think my lyrics are stronger than my melodies. I wish I was as strong a melodist as Paul Simon; I think he's remarkable. I'm not a bad melody guy, but I'm not as good as others.

I'm also not as good lyrically as people like Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits or Don Henley. I don’t think I’m quite as poetic and graceful as they are. They think poetically, and Paul Simon thinks poetically. I think I’m more of a nuts-and-bolts kind of writer.

I come up with some good phrases and stuff, but not on a consistent level like they do. When Don was making his last record I would watch him write lyrics in the studio. I tinker with my stuff two weeks before I even set foot in the studio; songwriting just comes easier to other people than it does to me.

There's also a lot of great cats out there like Tom Petty and Jackson Browne. I think I'm just in-between somewhere. Some of my melodies are good, and some of them aren't so good. But I think I've been blessed with a voice that can put across certain things when I get into trouble.

You definitely have an identifiable voice. Have you ever had problems with it?
BS: No, I've never really had any problems with it. As a matter of fact, I did this thing about three years ago where they put this camera down your throat and look at your vocal chords, which are only like six centimeters long. They look like little railroad tracks. Knowing my history and after listening to a few of my records, the doctors were very surprised to discover that I've still got the vocal chords of an eighteen-year-old [laughs].

I think I was just very gifted in that I have been able to sing real hard and not damage them. But you've also got to understand that I've always taken really good care of my voice, too. I don't party at all on the road. The vocalist in a band can never do that. You can't stay out. You've got to get a lot of rest and drink a lot of water.

You don't tend to collaborate with other writers when it comes to songwriting, but you did co-write the Eagles' Number One hit, 'Heartache Tonight'. Why don't you choose to collaborate more often?
BS: If I felt that I needed to pursue that avenue I would, but I've never really felt that need. Although I have been writing a little bit with my keyboard player, Craig Frost, and a guitar player named Tim Mitchell. What they do is write these big powerhouse rock grooves and they send them to me. We all get together and put chords to those grooves and come up with a song. We've done about five things for the next record, and probably one or two will make the album. It's a fun thing to do because they write grooves that I wouldn't write. But I still find that I write better stuff working alone.

Writing a few hits in a few years is one thing, but doing it for 30 years is another thing entirely. What would you say are the most important elements to sustaining a songwriting career?
BS: Effort is important, and consistency is important as well, because if you don't write, you start thinking that you'll never write again. I guess it's like being an actor, where if you stop acting, you start thinking that you'll never work again.

In terms of writing with both guitar and piano, you mentioned that you usually write rockers with guitar, so does that mean you only write ballads on piano?
BS: Not all of the time. 'The Fire Inside' was written on piano. 'Brave Strangers' and 'The Fire Down Below' were also written on piano. But, yeah, more often than not, the ballads will come from the piano, and more of a rock thing will come from the guitar.

Earlier you mentioned that you feel your biggest strength as a songwriter is as a lyricist. How do you go about composing them; do you ever engage in the Bernie Taupin/Elton John school where you write out the full lyrics and then put music to them?
BS: I've never written the lyrics and tried to build the music around that. It's usually a feel or a verse or a chorus, and the lyrics will come after I've decided that a certain pattern or groove or rhythm is cool. Then I'll start singing gibberish over that and just find a lyrical idea that fits the ideas that I started out with.

Other times I'll just sit down and say, "I wanna write a song called this." That's how 'Beautiful Loser' happened. I just loved the title, which I got from a book of poetry from Leonard Cohen called Beautiful Losers, with an 's', and I thought it was a really cool title.

Actually, I wrote three or four songs called 'Beautiful Loser' until I came up with the one that worked. But that's a pretty rare thing.

Using 'Beautiful Loser' as an example, many people thought you were writing about yourself in that song. Are your songs autobiographical?
BS: No, I write about things I see – observations of what's happening around me. Early on in my career, I found that if I tried to write something very personal, it seemed to me that it became overwrought and melodramatic. So I try to transpose those feelings on a situation and make it a more universal thing.

That was the case of 'Beautiful Loser'. It was not an autobiographical song. I was trying to write about a state of mind that I had seen or read about other people being in.

I read a lot. In fact, I wrote a song for the next album called 'Crossfire', which came completely from an article I read in the New York Times.
It's funny, I remember that when I wrote 'The Famous Final Scene' (the final song on the multi-platinum Stranger In Town album), all my friends asked me if I was breaking up with my girlfriend. I wasn't. It just seemed like a rich and dramatic topic, and I just tried to imagine what it would be like when a relationship is really over and how terrible that must feel. I find that when I use my imagination, I don't get as melodramatic.

Are you the type of lyricist who will go over and over your lyrics during the writing process. How much of your time do you spend on that fine-tuning aspect?
BS: 'The Fire Inside' is a perfect example of that. I thought the second verse about the club scenes was a killer, and the last verse worked, but I started to realize that the original first verse of that song was not nearly as strong as the others. So I wracked my brain for a long time on that song. It's like you'll work and work and work, and then three weeks later, the answer will just pop into your head.

It's funny, I've learned to sometimes let my subconscious do the work. I mean you can beat your head against the wall and just come up with nothing. I've found that that's a good way to do it. You just have to be patient. You have to learn to put it aside and work on something else when you hit a brick wall.

For all your early work, you didn't really start garnering critical respect as a songwriter until the Beautiful Loser album in 1975, which was your eighth album. What do you think happened to help turn the tide?
BS: Confidence and also taking more time were big factors in the improvement of my songwriting. We used to play 250 to 275 nights a year, so there really wasn't much time for songwriting. So, when we trimmed that down to 100 to 125 shows a year, I suddenly had the time to do it right.
It also had to do with the example that Glenn and Don set when they hit big with the Eagles. Glenn came to me when I had finished the Beautiful Loser album and said, "Now you've got it, now you're getting it."

Yeah, that’s the first album where I started writing fairly good songs on a consistent basis. But, like I said, in those early days, we put our emphasis on being a touring act for many years and that has slowly started to balance out, to where I tour and write about the equal amount of time now.

Prior to that, for the first ten years of your career, you were also working as the lead guitarist, lead vocalist and chief songwriter in your various bands. Did you make a conscious decision to stop spreading yourself so thin, in order to concentrate more on developing your songwriting skills?
BS: Yeah, I did. Dropping the lead guitarist role was a major factor in my career, because I was a real prisoner. It took away from my voice, and it took away from my songwriting, too.

I wanted to write everything like Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page, you know, everything with great riffs. But to me, that was somewhat of a cop-out because I was building songs around a riff, and that's all there was.
It was much more difficult for me to write songs that had melody and chordal structure and interesting structures. I began to really work on the craft of songwriting. I couldn't really do that and also be a player.

I've never really been a great player of anything. I play well enough to write songs. That's one thing I've been a little sad about, because I do love playing, but I've accepted my role in life. However, I still love to play guitar and piano onstage, and I've still got a Neanderthal rip-and-tear approach that I like to show off every once in a while [laughs].

We’ve talked about touring and all those years on the road. Did you find it difficult to write on the road?
BS: I hardly ever wrote on the road. I was more of a field general, and there wasn't a lot of time for writing on the road back then. The only two songs that I can think of that I wrote on the road are 'Turn The Page' and 'Night Moves', but those were basically cases of getting an outline of verses over three-hour periods. The songs weren't totally finished until I had a week or two off the road to really knuckle down on them.

It's been seven long years since you last toured, which is an all-time record for you and the band. Why did you give up touring for such a long period of time?
BS: It's really been a series of personal things that have kept me off the road. After the Like A Rock Tour in '87, my mother was ill for a couple of years and I took care of her. When she died in '89, I took a little break, because it was a sad time. My marriage broke up, then I got married again and my son was born after The Fire Inside album was released in '91.
At that point, I was going through a little period of soul-searching and building a new base. Plus, throughout that period, the guys in the band were raising kids, so things were just not right for any type of touring plans. But I must admit that I'm starting to feel the itch again.

Did you ever imagine that you would still be doing this as you creep up on your 50th birthday next year?
BS: Absolutely not! [laughs]. When Night Moves came out in '76, I was 31 years old, which was considered ancient at that time! After we first hit big in '76, with both Live Bullet and Night Moves, it was really a full-force gale until 1983.

We were thinking to ourselves throughout that time, "How far can we take this, people aren't gonna like us anymore because we're getting older." We felt that we had to get it in while we could, so we worked like crazy people for eight straight years. The guys in the band started having kids in '85, and since then, it's been more like "can we rest for a minute?"

Other than taking a break from touring for a while, how has fatherhood affected your career?
BS: It's really been a shocker for me. I'm the late bloomer in the band. Alto [Reed] had his kids during our last tour, Chris [Campbell] had one after the tour, and Craig [Frost] had one in the oven during the last tour.
I hate to use it as an excuse, but when my kid came along, it was like, "Wow, what an eye-opener."

At first, you're a little resentful because you start thinking, "Hey, I can't do all my work," but then you realize that this is better than your work. This is my reward for doing all that work all those years. Sure, there’s a lot of things that I wish I’d have done differently, but I have maintained my sanity and kept some sort of humanity in my life at the same time.
It's definitely been a period of adjustment, but I think that next year is going to be quite a big year for Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band.


Cheers to all you Seger fans!

 

Just a bump to revive the thread. Waiting for "The Distance".