The Bob Seger Album By Album Thread

Strange that this album reached my remote hometown already shortly after it's release. For whatever reasons Bob Seger was probably more popular in germany than outside of Detroit, michigan it seems..LOl
Be that is it is; I was pretty shocked at the the SPEED of thaat first side !!! Really blow your heas off kinda tempos, the words come out of his mouth in AK 47 speed and really ring !
The maddest part is that the songs seem to get fster the longer the LP side runs - what a difference vs about anything that was popular around that time from Prog Rock to Psyxhedlic or even Hard Rock, mainly played at half time, the days of SPEED KING by Deep Purple were long gone. No time to breathe or sit back and relax, till the last few chords on the last Tune of Side A - On a Cross Of gold. reminds me of these ultra heavy side closers on Night Moves - All songs are really short, since so much is happening in such a short time, the exception being Long song comin', which adds a lot to the Über drive that is inherent in the music - Don't know if or what drugs were used, but it sounds like being on a fresh heavy amphetamine kick with some top peruvian flake on top; but since BOB is drug free it must be in his blood.
Anyway
Side B is the perfect contrast program, Great songs with a lot going on UMC is just great lyrics, performance delivery production - all good - the best song is probably the next one - when he shouts NOT TONIGHT .. Don't wanna Know about your Friends - he is in a serious need for delivery kinda mood and expects no accepts no small talk, but serious TLC. Who wouldn't like that song as a male ? 20 Years from NOW is a nice end for the greatness that came before; but sadly Seven looses it's potential as a KILLER LP from then on. The final track is just so mediocre, that I don't even remember how it goes.....Been years since I played the LP for the last time.
A Classic heavy US album in the vein of Tim Buckley at his best ( Greetings From LA / Look At The Fool) and of course VAN the Man.. Other singer/songwriters with serious Rock backings; well Bob Seger being the most traditional of the bunch..
Amazing 4 and a half stars from 5 in the Bob Seger category - Close to his very best, Tracks 1 to 7 are among his best; he just added another aspect later on, that made him a million seller.

 

Seven

I remember hearing some of these songs on the radio. Get Out of Denver seemed to get the most airplay from this album, not a big hit but it did get played.

Seven is a pretty consistent and enjoyable album. It would appeal to anyone who liked his more well known albums like Night Moves and Against the Wind. It is rather commercial and middle of the road in some ways. Nothing to heavy but enough guitar, bass and drums for rock listeners. If this album had been promoted and played more (by radio stations) then Bob Seger might have become a big name performer earlier.

Scott

 

It's been a long time, probably not long after he was let go from WOMC in 2004 that I have talked to him. We weren't close friends per se, but he knew me from my stint at WPON and as a regular at Melodies and Memories.

A lot of the things that Tom played (and I also have) were from John Freist's collection.

 

Not among my favorites, but for completeness' sake, don't forget "This Old House," the B-side of the "UMC" single and arguably the last of Seger's early rarities:

Hear it here (embedding didn't work...sorry, I didn't know if it was against forum rules.)

 

I admit that growing up in the 60s and 70s in Detroit my view of Bob Seger is skewed. But my question is "why"? He made great records that flew out the doors here and blasted out of every radio in town. But elsewhere? Nada.
Every single and album, no matter how great, was ignored. The best he could pull was maybe in the seventies on the charts. Classic records.
So who was to blame for this? Capitol and Reprise promo people weren't motivated to push Seger? Radio programmers had a problem with him and his music personally? Bob himself?
It is the great unexplained mystery. Why did it take Live Bullet to finally break Bob out of this great ignoring?
I would love to hear any thoughts from our great community here.
When did you first hear Bob Seger on your local radio regularly, what record was it, and what market were you in?

I'll chime in with my take on Seven tomorrow.

 

In the late 60's/very early 70's I remember reading about Seger more than I was hearing him. I had Mongrel (thanks to CREEM), but that was it. Here in NYC there was, for a brief time, a DJ named Detroit Annie who played the MC5, Stooges, and Seger. That was how I heard "Heavy Music" and some album tracks. I saw him at the New Fillmore East late 1973 or early 1974, and he just burned the house down. He obviously had East Coast fans, but it remains a mystery as to why he didn't break until Live Bullet. I think it was just a lack of promotion/record company lethargy regarding what they thought was simply a local act that couldn't break nationally. Shame. But good on Bob for proving them all wrong.

 

Also, maybe the Stooges/MC5 not breaking nationally had something to do with it. The record company just figured if you couldn't break bands that were getting a lot of press, how do you break someone like Seger whose press was mostly local. He just got tied in as another Detroit act they couldn't do anything with.

 

I was born in 1973, so I can't really speak from experience on this. That said, it does occur to me that his early work came at the tail end of the era when most rock stars still sold more singles than albums. Jimi Hendrix is the only exception I can think of offhand - even most other acts of the era whom we now think of as "album acts" did have at least one big hit single. And that single often came from their first album or not long afterward, so you could argue that it served as a "gateway" for them to respectability with the album-buying crowd of the time.

Of course, Seger did have a decent-sized national hit from his first major label album. After "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" came and went, a couple of things occur to me:

1. His output was prolific but uneven for several years afterwards. Noah not only wasn't very good, it came out just a few months after RGM and it didn't have a radio friendly single. Mongrel was excellent, but awfully heavy for AM radio. For comparison's sake, Black Sabbath were a big hit out of the box at around the same time, but they never came anywhere near the top 40 on the singles charts. Next came Brand New Morning (too mellow for rock and too rough around the edges for the burgeoning singer-songwriter scene of the time) and Smokin' OPs (all-covers albums are often hard sells). By that time he'd been out of the top 40 for three years, and mellow was in style.

2. His early work was mostly straight-up rock and roll, rather than pop-rock, which has always been more commercially viable. Think of the fifties - we may worship Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly and guys like that today, but most of them only had one or two hits at the time while the likes of Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell were burning up the charts. A decade and change later, just change the names to Bob Seger and the Osmonds, and it's the same story. Note that when Seger started mellowing out and heading in a more mainstream pop direction, he broke through almost immediately. Even then, when he did turn the volume back up, sales were often mediocre. "Old Time Rock and Roll" barely cracked the top 30, and that was at the height of his fame!

3. I have indeed heard that Capitol and Reprise were subpar in their marketing efforts. Make of that what you will.

 

Never heard this before. The beginning sounds like an early version of "We've Got Tonight".

 

Side 1 of Seven is one of my favorite album sides ever. Non-stop energy and great songs! UMC is another favorite, though I hate the mix on it. The rest of Side 2 doesn't do much for me, and I played it again recently just to be sure about that.

I grew up in Detroit but didn't really get into rock music until the mid 70s, so Beautiful Loser was when I first started listening to Bob's music. As mentioned, the quality of the Capitol albums was awfully inconsistent. The Warner's albums were better, especially the last two, so promotion may have been a factor. When he came back to Capitol he had the Kiss tour behind him which was a big help, and it was Beautiful Loser that really started selling outside of Detroit. Live Bullet built on that and then Night Moves put him over the top.

- Joe

 

Seven is above all the perfect lead in to the next phase of Segers career.
Four solid classics as judged by Bob's peers(Detroit fans) including Get Out Of Denver, Need Ya, Cross Of Gold, and UMC. One step behind are Long Song Comin', School Teacher, and All Your Love. Even the last are not bad at all(Seen A Lot Of Floors and 20 Years from Now). As the review says perhaps a perfect Seger album with the only complaint is once again the mix and mastering. A excellent lead in to Beautiful Loser(Which will be on the docket next).

4.5/5

Below: A promotional sticker given out by Palladium Records to promote Seven(And my Icon on this board off and on for the last couple years)

 

Funny thing, I like Seven a lot but I don't have a whole lot to say about it. Except that singing "Get Out of Denver" live must be a heck of an achievement. I can't begin to imagine how he does it.

 

It's a patter song, so you have to practice it a lot so that your tongue doesn't trip and get you off track, and your brain doesn't trip and skip a verse. Vocally, though, such songs can be easier to sing than ballads, especially when the breaths are well-placed as they are here.

- Joe

 

Coming tomorrow, Beautiful Loser!

 

Beautiful Loser

From Wiki;

Beautiful Loser is the eighth album by American rock singer/songwriter Bob Seger, released in 1975.

The album relied mostly on session musicians from the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, but the Silver Bullet Band members were used separately on some songs and together on "Nutbush City Limits," a cover song of the hit by Ike & Tina Turner.

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

Side One
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Beautiful Loser" 3:29
2. "Black Night" 3:24
3. "Katmandu" 6:09
4. "Jody Girl" 3:41
Side Two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Travelin' Man" 2:41
2. "Momma" 3:22
3. "Nutbush City Limits" Tina Turner 3:57
4. "Sailing Nights" 3:18
5. "Fine Memory" 2:56

The liner notes credit Nutbush City Limits to the Silver Bullet Band, while the album as a whole is simply credited to only Bob Seger.
Credits
Bob Seger - acoustic guitar, guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals, slide guitar
Drew Abbott - guitar
Tom Cartmell (Later known as Alto Reed) - saxophone
Barry Beckett - organ, synthesizer, piano, keyboard, electric piano, grand piano
Ken Bell - guitar
Harrison Calloway - trumpet
Chris Campbell - bass
Pete Carr - acoustic guitar, guitar
Ronnie Eades - baritone saxophone
Roger Hawkins - percussion, drums
David Hood - bass
Jimmy Johnson - rhythm guitar
Paul Kingery - guitar
Charlie Martin - drums
Muscle Shoals Horns - horn
Spooner Oldham - organ, electric piano
Robin Robbins - organ, keyboard, mellophonium, mellotron
Rocky Fannit - background vocals
Charles Rose - trombone, baritone saxophone
Stoney Murphy - vocals, background vocals
Harvey Thompson - tenor saxophone
Production
Producers: Punch Andrews, Barry Beckett, Pete Carr, Roger Hawkins, David Hood, Jimmy Johnson, Spooner Oldham, Bob Seger
Engineers: Jim Bruzzese, Jerry Masters, Steve Melton, Greg Miller, Greg Smith
Mixing: Punch Andrews, Bob Seger
Mastering: Wally Traugott
Art direction: Roy Kohara
Photography: Tom Bert
Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)
Year Chart Position
1975 Pop Albums 131

Singles - Billboard (North America)
Year Single Chart Position
1975 "Katmandu" Pop Singles 43
1975 "Beautiful Loser" Pop Singles 103
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From The Seger Files;

The album was originally rejected by Warner Brothers, according to Punch, who has said he had to borrow $1,000 to remix the tape before playing it for Capitol.

Beautiful Loser
Seger on the title cut: "The song was a long time coming. The original concept came from Leonard Cohen's line, 'He's reaching for the sky just to surrender' -- you know, people who set their goals so low that they'll never be disappointed.

"It took over a year to put it together. I wrote five different 'Beautiful Loser's' before I settled on one for the record. There was a ballad, a blues...I couldn't find the right tone. So I played it for Glenn Frey, an old friend, to get some advice. He was the first person to ever hear it. And he loved it, so I stuck with the song until it all got pieced together." Patrick Goldstein, July 29, 1976, Rolling Stone.



"The immediate image that you would conjure up is that I'm the Beautiful Loser, but it's really not...you have to hear the song to understand it." Early 1975 radio interview.



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Jody Girl
Seger: "Probably the quietest thing I ever did...I recorded all the instruments except the Mellotron." Early 1975 radio interview.

Give Seger credit for being one of the first rockers to write about the disillusionment that can follow when the exhileration of young love wears off. In 1975, not many songwriters were interested in, or attempted that subject.

Fast forward to Sheryl Crow's 1997 album, and the spirit of Jody Girl lives on. Listen to Crow's beautiful song, titled 'Home':

"I woke up this morning, now I understand,
What it means to give your life to just one man.
Afraid of feeling nothing. No bees or butterflies.
My head is full of voices and my house is full of lies.
I found you standing there when I was seventeen.
Now I'm thirty-two and I can't remember what I seen in you.
I made a promise, said it everyday.
Now I'm reading romance novels and dreaming of yesterday."
That's Jody Girl talking. Crow's song is every bit as original and heartfelt as Seger's, and being in the first person, it's also edgier. I remember hearing listening to "Home" and thinking: 'I've met this woman somewhere.' Only now it's the '90s, and Jody definitely wants out.



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Nutbush
Recorded in the studio in one take.

"The pocket, the groove of the song, the syncopation is different. It's like a 2/4 feel....and it's just a nice respite from the straight ahead quarter note rock and roll, and 16th note rock and roll ,and 8th note rock and roll, which is the basis of what we do...

"[Tina Turner's version] was a hit of a degree in the United States. I think it made to 23 or something...it was a big soul hit, and white audiences hadn't been turned onto to it, so we took and we grabbed it.

"Tina's always been one of my favorite singers...she lays right in that pocket of power singing..." Early 1975 radio interview.



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Katmandu
"Katmandu was a song about getting completely out of the country because nobody cares. 'I'm tired of this, I'm getting out of here.'

"It was written sort of tongue in cheek, to the industry. That song was written kind of autobiographically, but it was supposed to be humorous...you know, if you'd gone through what I've gone through, you'd want to go to Katmandu, too. You'd just want to disappear...if you can dig that." May 1979 radio interview.



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Fine Memory
"Fine Memory" is an interesting member of the family of Seger songs that look back on memories. It's also interesting in the way the last line is left unspoken..."such a fine memory, such a fine memory"...and then you wait for Seger to deliver the last line -- I think I'm gonna take it with me. But he leaves it unsung, just as he leaves the last line in "Turn the Page" unsung, ending it with "here I am, here I am." In songwriting, as in fiction and poetry, what you don't write is so often as important as what you do. In "Turn the Page" it was a brilliant stroke not to write the last line, but to let it echo plaintively in our heads instead. The loneliness is communicated far better by its absence and the lack of completion it creates. How Seger had the insight and genius to leave it out always just stuns me. Here, in "Fine Memories" the same technique also works...but because the song is significantly less powerful overall, the technique isn't nearly as meaningful.

Promotion
Beautiful Loser was promoted with a full page ad in Rolling Stone, which included quote from "Katmandu."

The Capitol PR department also brimmed with enthusiasm, issuing a press kit about Seger's return to Capitol built around the theme: "It's about to happen all over again!" What happened before, of course, was that Seger got very little promotion from Capitol and was eventually left without a label. Presumably, that was not what was about to happen again. Actually, there had been a changing of the guard at Capitol, and the young rockers in Seger's camp now had gained much control.



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Reviews
Reviewed in Rolling Stone on June 5, 1975 by Ken Barnes. As a prelude, Barnes proclaims that "East Side Story," "Lookin' Back," and "the most passionate, personalized anti-war song of the Sixties, '2+2,' should have been part of everyone's radio heritage."

Then, amazingly off-base, he describes the album as "lacking a classic" to rank with Seger's past 45 greats, but calls it "his most consistent effort, a deft balance of chugging rockers and striking, reflective numbers...With this fine LP, he deserves his long delayed recognition -- now." Lacking a classic? Hey, how about the title cut, "Travellin' Man," "Katmandu," "Jody Girl," or "Nutbush." Take your pick.

 

Even having grown up in Detroit, I was surprised when a friend picked up Beautiful Loser during a trip to Dearborn Music back when I was 18. While I had heard Bob on the radio many times, it hadn't been enough to really grab my attention. No more than Mitch Ryder anyway. Beautiful Loser was the beginning for me. Then the older stuff came to my attention later. More than likely because radio picked up his back catalog hits and had started playing them again.

 

Make of this what you will: Beautiful Loser is the only Seger album I haven't gotten around to buying. (Well, I don't own a copy of Noah either, but one doesn't "get around" to buying that!) Why not? Partly I've simply been waiting to stumble upon an original copy in sufficiently excellent condition, but also because I've heard the title track, "Travelin' Man" and "Jody Girl" and, while not bad, they pale in comparison to the versions on Live Bullet. I do like what I've heard of the other songs, especially "Fine Memory," so I do intend to get a copy sooner or later. But to me, it comes across as a decent album that had the bad luck to come out just before a spectacular album.

Incidentally, the four albums from Seven through Night Moves do hold a special place for me because they feature Charlie Allen Martin on drums. He's one of rock's most tragic stories (paralyzed in a car accident in February '77, just as his boss was finally becoming a superstar and the future should have been immensely bright for him), yet everything I've heard about him since then indicates that he has weathered his misfortune with grace and humor. He later formed his own band, with him on keyboards, and I've heard he still occasionally sits in with Seger. Truly one of my heroes.

 

The album was, as you can imagine, DOMINATING Detroit FM rock radio. With six tracks in heavy rotation(Beautiful Loser, Black Night, Katmandu, Jody Girl, Traveling Man, and Nutbush City Limits), and having some cash I decided to see the big concert that had been announced for September 5th at Cobo. No joy. It sold out almost immediately. They quickly announced a second concert and this time I snagged a pair of tickets for me and my bud Jim. I bought Beautiful Loser so I would know the new stuff. As it turned out, our show was on Thursday the 4th so WE got the big debut. Spirit was set to open and I wanted to see them, but I didn't know much beyond Dr. Sardonicus. They were .....Awful. LOUD! No balance or anything just hurt my ears. Maybe they didn't do a sound check for the room, I don't know.

They literally rolled out the red carpet and Bob hit the stage. Simply put, Seger was BRILLIANT! Played all the best cuts from Loser, and nearly every classic going back to Heavy Music. I never danced at a concert so much in my life(our seats were with our backs to the aisle). He said they were running the tape machine, and less than a year later(as he took time to finish Night Moves) the rest of the country joined us in Cobo Hall for Bob's big "homecoming". Live Bullet.
But these songs will always stand on their own as studio recordings. OP's, 72, Seven, and Beautiful Loser stand together and alone.

4/5

 

Oh and one last time,

Album - Billboard (North America)
Year Chart Position
1975 Pop Albums 131

Singles - Billboard (North America)
Year Single Chart Position
1975 "Katmandu" Pop Singles 43
1975 "Beautiful Loser" Pop Singles 103

 

I recently picked up a Beautiful Loser cd at Walmart for 4 bucks. What a great album. Like most people outside of the Detroit area, I first heard the song "Beautiful Loser" on Live Bullet coupled with "Travelling Man". I think the studio version is nice too, it may become my go-to version of the song. "Black Night" is my favorite deep cut on this album...I love it.

 

This was the first Seger album that I bought when it was new. I remember hearing it for the first time at a friend's place in Ann Arbor shortly after it came out.

Sentimental attachments aside, you can really hear why this album started Seger's launch to popularity. It may not have charted very high, but it sold more nationwide than any other Seger album to date. Seger's mediums would prove to be his ticket to #1, and this album has a bunch of great ones, plus excellent rockers like Katmandu and Nutbush City Limits.

Sure, the songs in common generally have more fire on Live Bullet with the Silver Bullet Band. But the performances on Beautiful Loser are still very fine, and there are several excellent songs that didn't make it onto Live Bullet. There's not a weak cut on this album.

Hey Vinyl Man, you can get Beautiful Loser for $6 at Amazon US; even with shipping it doesn't seem like it would be hugely expensive. I wouldn't dawdle - it's a magnificent album, even if lower key than Live Bullet, and who knows how long it will stay in print?

- Joe

 

Surprised by the lack of comment for Beautiful Loser. But next up, to quote Bil O Reilly "We'll do it live!" Live Bullet.......

 

I don't own "Beautiful Loser" but the classic rock station in Knoxville WIMZ must play "Katmandu" more than any other song. So much so that I really don't like it anymore. Anyway, JamieC, great job with the thread and you are about to enter Bob Seger territory that I'm highly familar with so I look forward to posting more then. And I'm also mulling a trip to Greenville, SC in November to see the current tour since Knoxville seems to be out this time.

 

I have Beautiful Loser on CD and I used to have the LP. The LP sounded so much better than the CD but I ditched it because it had a skip on Side 1. Must have been a bad pressing because the LP looked Excellent. Anyway, I really like this album. Not crazy about "Nutbush City Limits", not sure why though.

Pat

 

I love Beautiful Loser as this was my introduction to Bob plus it was right around the time I started listening to FM radio in Detroit so I heard quite a few of these songs on the radio. I've always liked the studio version of the title song better than the Live Bullet version even though it doesn't go into Travelin Man. I just picked up a nice green label Capitol re-issue which is a Wally cut and it sounds very good.