The Bob Seger Album By Album Thread

that is such a curious set, and a personal fave. so many local references on it that it makes any local laugh. Belvedere Records? thats hilarious. ive always been curious as to this sets' origins. wazoo had them all the time. ive even seen pirated ones with out stampted serial #s.

the seger tracks on there are core to my collection.

 

Seger old vs. later

"Like most of Seger's early albums, this one took a lot longer to grow on me than his more mainstream later ones."

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On Ramblin' Gamblin' Man there were songs that were more for the young rockers. At that time Bob himself was a young rocker. He said that he had R&B influences and he was the guitarist. You can hear his rock guitar better in Tales of Lucy Blue and Gone, among other songs.

The thing about his mainstream albums (and in comparison to the Ramblin' album) was that his rough edges were smoothed over too much. His Night Moves and Against the Wind albums sounded closer to Jimmy Buffett than too Michigan rock like the MC5 and Stooges. He must have spent more studio time on Night Moves than Steely Dan did on Aja. Night Moves sounds like it was created for 40 year olds and Ramblin' sounds like it was created for young rockers.

Scott

 

Thanks for compiling all this stuff in one place.

Now I know what all the fuss is about.
These old singles are great !

They deserve to be released on one album, albeit a short one, for all of us to enjoy.
Same for all his earlier LPs, including the less popular ones like Noah. Too often the artist doesn't control their material. Here it's the opposite, and still the music sits in limbo.....

 

Anyone else have the lp comp 'Michigan Rocks'? One of the cuts, among the many fine Michigan rock bands is 'Heavy Music.' The lp was released on Seeds and Stems label which was owned by Mitch Ryder. Worth picking up a copy

 

I signed up for the free version of Spotify yesterday and was amused to see that one of only two Bob Seger recording on it is - East Side Story! The other was Roll Me Away from a soundtrack compilation. I wonder how long either of those will stay on Spotify.

I like the first four songs on Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, plus the fabulous 2+2=?, but the rest of it doesn't do much for me. The ping-pong stereo on tracks like White Wall doesn't help. I'll have to give Down Home another try! The album is better than Noah, for sure, but the first Seger album I like all the way through is Mongrel.

- Joe

 

For some reason, some copies of this album have Ramblin, Gamblin Man on it instead on Heavy Music. Mine does though I have seen copies with Heavy Music on it. It is a great album to have. I also have Michigan Rocks II.

 

I own a copy of Ramblin' Gamblin' Man on vinyl (and played that sucker out). One of my biggest regrets as a collector was that I remember being a young adult when the album was released on CD for like 5 minutes in the early 90s. I held a copy in my hands at the record store, only to put it back thinking that "I'll buy it later on", then it was gone. I eventually acquired a digital copy through *cough* less legal means *cough*. I sure wish that I can get an actual legal copy of this on CD.

 

I did the same thing more than once! I even worked at a music store when all the early Seger CDs were in stock. I think we had them for a few months, as none of them ever sold.

 

all 3 of the early CD's were only around for a short while. it's almost like he did it on purpose.

 

It is quite hilarious. There's a phone number listed on the jacket for Belvedere Records. If anyone ever dialed it - it connected to Dial-A-Prayer!

Derek

 

I recall seeing them in Best Buy and thinking I'll get those later. When Later came around they were no where to be found. I ended up finding "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" in a used CD store for $5.99 but that's the only one I ever got. I was just glad I had them on vinyl at least.

 

There wasn't a very large printing of that, if I recall. Maybe 2 numbered printings of 1000 each? It's not only the Seger tracks that make it great. Unrelated Segments, Tim Tam and The Turn Ons, the Rationals, the cover, the liners, the White Panther Party declaration, it's one of my favorite compilations, and it's in mono.

 

Here's the magic number
Keep it by your side
Belvedere construction they are known both far and wide

For the best in home improvement
They're known throughout the state
call Tyler 8-7100 for a home improvement date
(sung kinda to the tune of Puff the magic dragon)

 

I remember hearing this. I just checked the four copies of Michigan Rocks that I have, and all have 'Heavy Music.'

 

Back in 2000, I saw a CD at my local store called "Train Man". It had the complete track list from "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" and it was a European CD from some label I forget the name of. It looked dubious. I passed on it. Good thing I did.
Later on that week, via Napster (remember that....) I found a few tracks. I was horrified. There was bass, drums and guitar overdubs that stuck out like a sore thumb. The overdubs made it hard to hear the original song underneath. Who ever thought to do this and then put it out must have been on crack.
I found a track off this on Youtube. Be afraid....be VERY afraid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OD_9yXLidA

 

What the hell did I just listen to?

 

it was a local number for us since we were in monroe..

 

mine plays super clean after a couple of rounds on the vpi 16.5...very surprised by the quality considering its a vinyl pressing of OOP 7" singles.

jack van impe steals the show

 

The LPs I've seen had Heavy Music and the cassettes had Ramblin Gamblin Man. Not sure if there was an 8 track version. Not sure if thats definitive Though.


Coming up next week NOAH,
Brought to you by the Tom Neme fan club

 

Hoist up your sail
Go kill a whale
Don't look so pale
Noah

Is this the first of Seger's sailing songs?

 

Ought to be a short week, then.

But seriously, the cover of Noah is terrific. I love the pouty look on his face. The songs? Well, "Death Row" is terrific, an early indication of the morbid themes of heavy metal that were then still very much in the future. But it's obviously a holdover from the Ramblin' Gamblin' Man sessions (it is, after all, the B-side of "2+2=?"), and definitely would have been more at home on that album. "Lennie Johnson" and "Innervenous Eyes" aren't bad. I didn't care for the title track the first time I heard it, but I have to admit it's grown on me. It's catchy, and Seger's vocals are great as usual. But still "re-synthesize your own ego"? Really, Bob? Or is it Tom on that one?

The rest is, well, not much. But I can't help being kind of morbidly fascinated with the whole thing. Just how could such a talented guy let someone else come out of nowhere and take over his career like that? Whatever it was, it must be a pretty painful episode for Seger, since he's never talked about it much. (The one quote from him I've always seen is something about "the long gap between albums," but we're talking less than six months since Ramblin' Gamblin' Man!)

I have read a bit about Tom Neme here and there, and he sounds like a decent enough guy. I hear he has never tried to capitalize on his past association with Seger, beyond saying he used to play with him when other people mention him. I'd love to hear his side of the story, actually. But I'd like even more to hear Bob's!

 

While it would still be another few years before Seger would officially give up the lead guitarist role, as a way to focus more on his songwriting, the thought first came to him following the “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” album. But things quickly spiraled out of control, as the label had the bright idea that Seger needed some help and that the “System” could benefit from a two-headed frontman attack. And Seger was not interested enough to fight back.

So we got this guitar player named Tom Neme. And then Neme came up with all these songs that he wanted to do. At that point, I was really tired. I wanted to quit. That was when I enrolled in college...no, I wasn't going to be a criminologist, that was just a joke at the time...and I was goin' to school. I was waiting for them to do this album and then I would quit.

I didn't have anything to do with that album. I wrote “Noah,” the song, and one or two others. “Noah,” the song, is about [my state of mind at the time]: “Lay back, you've had your fun. Let them do it for a while.” That's what the album's about, too. How they blew it.

Following the release of the album (which, bizarrely, featured Seger alone on the cover), Seger reconsidered his career and took back control from the label.
I immediately fired Neme, and I went back to playing guitar. It was a simple loss of confidence, but I came back and stuck with it. But the band [the System] was disintegrating.

Not by design obviously, but the better-forgotten "Noah" debacle DID pay big dividends with the next album, "Mongrel," my personal fav from the pre-"Seven" period. Seger is downright animalistic at times....

 

Couldn’t disagree more—especially putting “Night Moves” and “Against The Wind” in the same bucket, so to speak

And I couldn’t ever see how people can put Seger (at any time in his career) in the same category as the MC5 and the Stooges; other than a geographical one. Even with his very first album, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man,” Seger’s overall sound/style is not in the same arena as those other bands.

“Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” is a classic rocker—more in the vein of CCR-meets-Motown than anything else. “2+2=?” is a blistering anti-war anthem (before that was chic, but far less of a left-wing rant than anything the MC5 was known for), and, personally, I just LOVE “Down Home,” which had me doing 80 on the 405 on the way home from work late last night (what a kick-*** song!).

Elsewhere there’s some weaker psychedelic-rock attempts from the era, and the pre-“Get Together” flower-power hippie attempt of “The Last Song (Love Needs To Be Loved)." But things like “Train Man” give a clear indication that Seger was never some sort of Stooges-styled rock act.

Prior to “Night Moves,” it just happened that his “hits” were the rockers; although those early albums were never filled end-to-end with balls-to-the-wall rockers as might be the retrospective perception.

Not wanting to get into “Night Moves” this early of course, but that album is hardly “Jimmy Buffett” territory. There are only three non-rockers found on that album (the indisputable classic title track, the gorgeous hit “Main Street” and the lyrically powerful “Ship Of Fools”).

Elsewhere, it’s everything from the sizzling sensual grooves of “The Fire Down Below” and “Come To Poppa” to the celebratory “Rock And Roll Never Forgets” (the very first rock song to celebrate the ethos and energy of rock & roll at an age that is in direct defiance of the previous decade’s naïve belief that life and trust somehow end at 30).

Hell, the album closer, “Mary Lou,” features one of Seger’s greatest and most powerful rock vocal performances he has ever put on record.

“Jimmy Buffett”? Really?

Some of what you say will surely be brought up when it comes to the “Against The Wind” album, but, with “Night Moves,” you can still see the dirt under Seger’s fingernails.

 

Very apt description.
'Night Moves' has far more in common with Bob's past, than it does with "Against The Wind", IMHO.

 

It appears on Noah in fake stereo.