The Bob Seger Album By Album Thread

Live Bullet

From Wikipedia

‘Live’ Bullet is a live album by American rock band Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, released in April 1976. It was recorded at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan, during the heyday of that arena's time as an important rock concert venue.

'Live' Bullet became a staple of FM rock radio in Detroit. Classics such as the live version of "Nutbush City Limits" and the connected song rendition of "Travelin' Man" and "Beautiful Loser" were among the most widely played live tracks on Detroit stations such as WWWW, WRIF, and WABX. Other tracks such as "Let It Rock", "Turn the Page", and "Get Out of Denver" also received wide airplay in Detroit.

The success of Seger's music at this time, however, was highly regional, with Seger still remaining quite unknown even in adjacent media markets such as Chicago. In June 1976, for example, Seger played the Pontiac Silverdome in metropolitan Detroit at a historic concert that also included Point Blank, Elvin Bishop, and Todd Rundgren. 78,000 people were in attendance and the concert lasted until nearly 1:30 a.m. The next night, Seger played before less than a thousand people in Chicago.

However, it was only in the following winter that the release of his next recording, Night Moves, launched Seger into more national markets. Over time, the life-on-the-road tale "Turn the Page" would become the most nationally played song from 'Live' Bullet, and a perennial favorite on album-oriented rock and classic rock stations.

For Detroit fans, however, the entire 'Live' Bullet recording captured a Detroit artist at the height of his energy and creativity, in front of a highly appreciative hometown crowd. 'Live' Bullet also captured the wild and free spirit of rock concerts in the seventies, and has great historic value in that regard. Critic Dave Marsh called it "one of the best live albums ever made."

The 8-track tape version of this album has the distinction of being one of the few 8-tracks that is arranged exactly like the album, with no song breaks.

Track listing
All songs written and composed by Bob Seger, except as indicated.

Side One
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Nutbush City Limits" Tina Turner 4:37
2. "Travelin' Man" 4:53
3. "Beautiful Loser" 4:00
4. "Jody Girl" 4:28

Side Two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "I've Been Working" Van Morrison 4:35
2. "Turn the Page" 5:05
3. "U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)" 3:17
4. "Bo Diddley" Bo Diddley 5:40

Side Three
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" 3:01
2. "Heavy Music" 8:14
3. "Katmandu" 6:23

Side Four
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Lookin' Back" 2:36
2. "Get out of Denver" 5:21
3. "Let It Rock" Chuck Berry 8:30

The live version of the song "Katmandu" was also featured as the sole Bob Seger track as part of a promotional-only compilation album issued by Capitol records entitled The Greatest Music Ever Sold, which was distributed to record stores during the 1976 holiday season as part of Capitol's "Greatest Music Ever Sold" campaign, promoting 15 "best of" albums released by the record label. 'Live' Bullet is a live album and not a "best of" compilation, though several tracks were major regional hits ("Lookin' Back" #2 in Detroit, etc.).

Many songs from the album such as "Nutbush City Limits", "Lookin' Back", and "Turn the Page" became hit singles off the album, whereas their original studio versions were overlooked. "Lookin Back" was released as a single in 1971, but had very short lived success as it was not on an actual Seger album. It was originally performed by Seger's first band, The Bob Seger System, whereas the Live Bullet version featured The Silver Bullet Band.

Silver Bullet Band
Bob Seger – lead vocals, guitar, piano
Drew Abbott – lead guitar, background vocals
Alto Reed - tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, percussion, background vocals
Robyn Robins – organ, clavinet, mellotron, piano on "Katmandu"
Chris Campbell – bass guitar, background vocals
Charlie Allen Martin – drums, background vocals, answer vocals on "Heavy Music", harmony vocals on "Jody Girl" and "Get Out of Denver"

Charts
Album

Year Chart Position
1976 Billboard Pop Albums 34
1986 Billboard 200 135

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1976 "Nutbush City Limits" Billboard Pop Singles 69

CertificationsOrganization Level Date
RIAA – U.S. Gold December 12, 1976
RIAA – U.S. Platinum December 16, 1977
CRIA – Canada Gold December 1, 1979
CRIA – Canada Platinum December 1, 1979
CRIA – Canada Double Platinum December 1, 1983
RIAA – U.S. 4× Platinum June 6, 1991
RIAA – U.S. 5× Platinum September 22, 2003
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From The Seger Files
Live Bullet reached 34 on the Billboard Top 200 and was on the album chart for 168 weeks. It is now quintuple platinum. Reportedly, 300,000 of first 500,000 copies of the album were sold in Detroit. (The album was sold for a special low price for a double album.)

The album was recorded in front of 24,000 fans. Only two concerts were taped to make Live Bullet. Seger:"Another of my snap decisions. It only happened two nights beforehand. We decided not to play to the tapes but to the audience -- and it worked." Patrick Goldstein, July 29, 1976, Rolling Stone. "Bob Seger. A Star in His Own State."

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Background

According to Punch, Live Bullet was originally rejected by Capitol as being too similar to Frampton Comes Alive.

Seger agreed to let Live Bullet be released only because he couldn't finish writing the verses to "Night Moves," the title song of the album he wanted to release. In that respect, "Night Moves" served him doubly well. It not only became the defining song of his career, but it forced him to put out the live album-- which got him the national attention he had deserved and missed for so long.

It was probably frustrating, not being able to finish the lyrics...but if he had, and if Night Moves (the album) had come out on the heels of Beautiful Loser, with no Live Bullet to focus the spotlight on him, well, what then? Would "Night Moves" have been another Michigan-only hit? More than an interesting "what-if," it's a good example of a bad thing -- not being able to finish a song -- turning into a very good thing.
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Seger: "We were supposed to deliver a new product (album) in January, but by April I still wasn't ready. We just couldn't wait any longer or we'd lose all the momentum from Beautiful Loser. We weren't even getting gigs 'cause we were so cold." Patrick Goldstein, July 29, 1976, Rolling Stone. "Bob Seger. A Star in His Own State."

Seger: "I didn't want to release a live album because I thought it was getting to be a camp thing. The performances were above-average nights, but not the peak of what the band can do. Technically, it's far from perfect. But the next studio album wasn't finished, and I decided we had to get something out. The funny thing is, Punch had called me last January and said, 'I'll buy you a new Cadillac Seville if you let me put this out right now.' I said no. I said no, like an ******e." Lowell Cauffiel, August 1976, Creem Magazine. "Bob Seger, Overnight Success...Finally!"

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Live Bullet was definitely not a planned element in Seger's career. In fact, after Beautiful Loser came out, Seger told a radio interviewer that the next album would be a studio album with a 'live' feel.

Seger and the band had recorded "Nutbush City Limits" in one take for Beautiful Loser, and at the time of the interview, Seger seemed to want to take that approach for his next album.

Seger: "We're planning on doing an album here pretty soon, with the band...we're working up some new stuff, after we play it maybe 2 or 3 months, we want to run into the studio and get an outside producer, and by that time we ought to know the songs really well." Spring 1975 radio interview.

Reviews (of the album)
"Live Bullet is one of the best live albums ever made." Dave Marsh, 1983, The New Rolling Stone Record Guide.

Marsh also reviewed Live Bullet for Rolling Stone on June 17, 1976. "Most of these songs are better recorded elsewhere: Heavy Music and Let it Rock are particularly disappointing. But...because of the devotion of the crowd and the desperation of Seger's approach (this is something like his last chance to make it to the top, and he knows it) the album transcends its limitations...He works his heart out and perhaps tells us something special about what it means to be the average guy, with or without guitar...Better than anyone before him, Seger knows the problems of partial success...Live Bullet is a small triumph, but in its way, a magnificent one..."

Since it turned around his whole career, you'd have to call it more than a "small triumph." And the idea that the studio versions of Heavy Music and Let it Rock are better than the album versions could only be true in the Bizzaro World where everything is backwards. (It's so much fun to review the review, twenty years later: take that! And that!) But fair's fair: Marsh is absolutely dead-on in capturing Seger's character and personality.

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Reviews (of the concerts)
"It could have been that it was a homecoming for Bob Seger that made his two-night sellout performance at Detroit's Cobo Hall so triumphant this week." Cathy McMahon, Sept 8, 1975, The Detroit News. "Seger Rocks 'n' Rolls, thrills fans at Cobo."

"It should be noted that another reason for Seger's brilliant performance was the fact that the concert was being recorded for a possible live album. Video cameras on hand were also an indication that a video-disc could be in the works." Cathy McMahon, Sept 8, 1975, The Detroit News. "Seger Rocks 'n' Rolls, thrills fans at Cobo."

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Seger opened this famous concert with "Nutbush City Limits." The set also included: Back in '72, Rosalie, I've Been Working, Bo Diddley, Jody Girl. Christine Brown , August 6, 1975, Detroit Free Press. "Seger is Always Heavy in Detroit."

"It may be, as he sings in his hot single, 'Katmandu,' that no one loves Bob Seger on the West Coast or in the South. But he's got to admit after two sold-out concerts at Cobo Arena Thursday and Friday that there's one place this side of Nepal that can't get enough of his heavy music....

"He is perhaps the nicest -- and that's the right word -- rock star around." Christine Brown, August 6, 1975, Detroit Free Press. "Seger is Always Heavy in Detroit."

The opening acts for Seger were Spirit and a band called LTD.

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"It was hard to tell who had a better time -- the audience that packed Cobo Arena or Seger himself...As the audience roared in triumph, the city's most durable 'heavy music' man kept breaking into grins so wide with content that they'd consume a Cheshire cat.

"Seger could do no wrong (although the lighting men could, and did). For an hour and a half he owned the stage. I've never seen him and the Silver Bullet Band in such complete possession." John Laycock, September 5, 1975, The Windsor Star. "Detroit acclaims Seger (and none too soon!)

 

Interesting discussion above about the history of "Live Bullet". There are many artists who have experienced unexpected success when veering away from their original plan. As for this album, many great tracks but I think "Turn The Page" was the turning point laying the foundation for what was to come.

 

The best live album of the rock era, bar none. I'll never get tired of it.

 

One thing about the album, Punch and Bob potted the crowd down big time. That was the loudest sing a long I've ever been in. On Heavy Music he says to us "your turn" as we sang the chorus the way it was on the 45, but you can barely hear the crowd on Live Bullet.
Bottom line, the greatest concert I was ever at became the greatest live album I've ever owned.

5/5

 

That's exactly what my mother and my aunt have said, "where's the crowd on the record? It was so LOUD there that night!" They were both at one of the shows, not sure which one (September 4th or 5th of 1975).

Easy 5/5. I was raised on Live Bullet and still love it.

 

Next up we will go on to Night Moves.
By the way if you feel moved to comment on any album thus far, feel free.

 

Does anyone think that the new bonus tracks on the live albums seem out of place at the end? Shouldve placed them somewhere else in the track listing....

 

Loved the Live DoLP immediately when it came out over here around late 1976/early77. I think for whatever reason this stinks on CD. . The way the sides are sequenced work perfectly to highlight another aspect of Bob Seger's music, you got the ecstatic openers, then comes the more introspective slower songs , that get more and more melodic and touching with Travellin' Man (crowd and me already singing along) followed by the excelentl Beautiful Loser and Jody Gir. When you flip sides over you're already warmed up inside and the fun continues Been Working, Been A Working so Hard" you believe every word he sings from now on... the next song Tune ( Turn The Page ) reminds me of Little Feat's Willin' when the announcer says "Mr Bill Payne" after the keyboard solo ends on on Waiting for Columbus . That is the other great Rock Live double album of the later 70ies. . ..
Two of Rock's most perfect ballads and best Live songs ! Now he got the crowd and the listener hooked : time for some entertainment with U.M.C and the first of the long hard rocking sing-a-long tunes Bo Diddlley...
Can't wait putting on LP 2 and the joyride continues till the end - he can't do no wrong ...After you heard the first LP you get the type of music that suits Bob just fine Everybody is in a party mood to Ramblin' Gamblin' Man & Heavy Music and esp." K.K.K.Kat-Man-Du" I really, really wanna go with you to Kat Man Du - WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The show could end here; but as an encore we get some more with Lookin' Back, the fine Get Out Of Denve (even if I like the Studio LP version better) before Let It Rock ends this fine ride; but tbh Side 4 is just okay 3.5 stars, Side One gets 4 stars- Sides B + C get the full 5 star award from me..So when I bought the CD it could notre create the same level of excitement I was used to with the Live Vinyl, So i had to get me another Live bullet DoLP.

YMMV

 

As Jamie and others say, this is one of the best live albums ever made. The intensity of the concert experience and performance really comes through here. It's my favorite of all his albums.

This album was a great source of Detroit pride when it came out, listening to the band introductions including everybody's hometown.

- Joe

 

This is one of the greatest live albums ever! When it came out, my sister was turned onto it from her friends, then me, then my mom! She would come home after work with her 8-Track BLASTING this album. I probably know every single word, grunt and solo by heart! Never fails to get me going!

Aside:
I heard 'Frampton Comes Alive' after I was familiar with 'Live Bullet', and I was disappointed. There didn't seem to me to a big deal. It was good, but PALE compared to the energy of 'Live Bulle't. I could never understand why FCA was so HUGE!

 

Night Moves

From Wiki

Night Moves is the ninth studio album by American rock singer Bob Seger, and his first with the Silver Bullet Band. It was released in October 1976. Although the front cover only credits backing by the Silver Bullet Band, 4 of the 9 songs on the album feature backing by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

The album was well received by critics and gave Bob Seger nation-wide success. Three singles were released from the album, with two of them making the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album became Bob Segers second to become certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and was his first to be certified platinum by the same association.

Popular music critic Robert Christgau feels that the riffs on Night Moves are classic rock and roll riffs, like those performed by Chuck Berry or the Rolling Stones, and feels that the album is about rock and roll for those who are no longer in their teens, like the song "Rock and Roll Never Forgets". The Rolling Stone review of the album by Kit Rachlis stated that the album is one of the best to come out of 1976-77, that Seger sounds like Rod Stewart and writes lyrics like Bruce Springsteen, and that album is classic rock and roll. The only problem that Rachlis had with the album was the production not being strong enough. A later review of the album by Stephen Thomas Erlewine for Allmusic says that the album was very similar to Beautiful Loser, but Night Moves is harder than Beautiful Loser. Erlewine also feels that the album has a wide-range of styles and has not lost any of its influence years later.

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

Side One
No. Title Length
1. "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" 3:52
2. "Night Moves" 5:25
3. "The Fire Down Below" 4:28
4. "Sunburst" 5:13

Side Two
No. Title Length
5. "Sunspot Baby" 4:38
6. "Mainstreet" 3:43
7. "Come to Poppa" (Earl Randle, Willie Mitchell) 3:11
8. "Ship of Fools" 3:24
9. "Mary Lou" (Young Jessie, Sam Ling) 2:56

Tracks 1, 3, 4 and 9 were recorded by the Silver Bullet Band in Detroit.

Track 2 was recorded in Toronto.

Tracks 5 – 8 were recorded by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Personnel
Musicians All tracks
Bob Seger – vocals, guitar

The Silver Bullet Band
Drew Abbott – guitar, background vocals on "Mary Lou"
Robyn Robbins – piano, organ, except on "Night Moves"
Alto Reed – tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute
Chris Campbell – bass, background vocals on "Mary Lou"
Charlie Allen Martin – drums, tambourine, maracas, background vocals on "Mary Lou"
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
Pete Carr – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar
Jimmy Johnson – rhythm guitar
Barry Beckett – piano, organ, ARP synthesizer, clavinet, melodica
David Hood – bass
Roger Hawkins – drums, tambourine, maracas, congas, tympani drums
Additional musicians
Drew Abbott – guitar on "Ship of Fools"
Jerry Luck – accordion on "Ship of Fools"
Joe Miquelon – guitar on "Night Moves"
Doug Riley – piano, organ on "Night Moves"
Sharon Dee Williams – backing vocals on "Night Moves"
Rhonda Silver – backing vocals on "Night Moves"
Laurel Ward – backing vocals on "Night Moves"

Production
Producers: Punch Andrews, Muscle Shoals Horns, Jack Richardson, Bob Seger
Engineers: Jim Bruzzese, Brian Christian, Jerry Masters, Steve Melton,Greg Miller
Mixing: Jim Bruzzese
Mastering: Wally Traugott
Photography: Tom Bert
Charts
AlbumChart (1977) Peak
position
US Billboard 200 8
Canada RPM Top Albums 12
New Zealand (Top 50 Albums) 18

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year Single Chart Position
1977 "Night Moves" Pop Singles 4
1977 "Mainstreet" Pop Singles 24
1977 "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" Pop Singles 41
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From The Seger File

Released October 1976. Reached #8 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart.
"Night Moves," the single, was named Rolling Stone's Best Single of the Year for 1977. The song was inspired by the film American Graffiti.

According to Punch, Night Moves was originally rejected by Capitol because it was not as exciting as Live Bullet.

"We were in the studio probably more than the last five albums combined. And we just learned so much -- about the way people work, about how to work with other people. And those things weren't available to us, because we didn't have the money to fly back and forth until Night Moves." Dave Marsh, June 15, 1978, Rolling Stone. "Bob Seger: Not A Stranger Anymore."

"We almost called the Night Moves album Rock and Roll Never Forgets...the original title was Night Moves and then everybody was getting really nervous...saying 'I don't know if you should title your album after a ballad'...but in the final analysis I felt that Night Moves was a far better title, it has a lot more wide ranging meaning...and then I started thinking I should save 'Rock and Roll Never Forgets,' because that could be a real cool album, too....but I've always been one to try to use all the best I've got at the moment. I don't like to hold anything out." Late1981 radio interview.

The Making of Moves, Part 1

Seger: "In Toronto, it's 2 in the morning. We recorded three other songs that never saw the light of day. We were with a producer named Jack Richardson who had done Alice Cooper...and we were trying to simply come up with one that might sound like a single. That's why we hired the producer and were paying him points and stuff like that...

"I pulled out this song called Night Moves. Two of the guys had already gone home. Alto was sitting around but I said 'Don't play sax on it yet," and ultimately he never played sax on it. It was me, Chris and Charlie. And the three of us recorded it.

I sang it, played acoustic, Chris played bass, Charlie played drums, and then about ten minutes later, after we picked out the take, I played a second acoustic, you know, to balance out the sides.

"The producer, I gotta admit -- I think Jack will bear me out -- I mean Jack did not hear this song. He didn't hear it -- he said 'eh, it's a nice little ballad...I don't hear it...'

"Then we added this Canadian piano player, Doug Riley, and he lifted it up to a next thing, then Alto played a great maraca thing on it, then we added these four lady singers from Montreal, then I got a local guitar player, because Drew was out of town, to play the little guitar licks on it. And then we mixed it, and I think it was a couple days later, Punch and I started calling each other. We had five mixes of it, we said, 'it doesn't matter how much you listen to it, you don't get tired of it and it sounds great every time.' And we knew we had something. And we took it to Capitol and they said, 'First single.' Which is great, when you've got an album and a single that have the same name.

For producer Jack Richardson's memories on the making of Night Moves, check out a web site uncovered by Seger fan Michael Funk called Digital Pro Sound. An article on the site tells the story of "Night Moves" from Richardson's point of view, with a view discrepancies (like the claim that Punch was in The Decibels, which, if true, is news to me, and the claim -- contrary to Seger's quote above -- that Richardson recognized "Night Moves" as an obvious single).

Below is the story on the site, which originally appeared in Mix Magazine, April 2001:

"Night Moves" was largely spontaneous -- the result of the last-minute need for one more song while fate or the A-R department is breathing down the artists' necks -- and it nearly didn't happen at all, with luck and circumstance having as much influence as talent and persistence...
Jack Richardson was a Toronto native whose career had interesting parallels to Seger's; he, too, pursued a career as a musician in his youth, only to move into advertising in his thirties to support a family. He took a flyer on a Canadian rock band called the Guess Who, mortgaging his house to pay for their first major label record, which he produced. With hits like "These Eyes" and "American Woman" under his belt -- records by a Canadian band, which, ironically, presaged the Americana music movement that Seger would champion -- Richardson quickly attracted other production clients, including Poco, Alice Cooper and Manowar.

In early 1976, Richardson was approached by Eddie "Punch" Andrews, Seger's manager and former bandmate in the Detroit trio The Decibels [Note: ??] about producing four sides for his client. Richardson thought the talks had been vague; Andrews apparently felt otherwise. "I came home from off a long date in L.A., and my wife says to me, 'Punch called and says you're supposed to be in Memphis with him and Bob Seger,'" Richardson recalls. "I said, no way, not on that short notice. So we talked again, and again it seemed to go nowhere. On four occasions, I was booked to meet with [Seger], and each time it got put off, once when I was already at the airport. Then I get a call one day telling me they're coming to Toronto. That wasn't the way I liked to do things. But I went ahead and called [engineer] Brian Christian, who had worked with me on the Guess Who and other records, to come in from L.A."

Seger and Richardson met at Soundstage, the producer's studio within the production complex Nimbus 9 that Richardson and three former advertising business colleagues had formed in the late 1960s in Toronto to pursue music and commercial projects. Seger and Richardson sat in his office, and the artist played a couple of songs that Richardson recalls as being "not that great, quite honestly. Then I suggested that we also do the old Supremes song 'My World Is Empty Without You, Babe.' So that was three songs. And Bob had been noodling around on the piano in my office, and I told him I thought he had the makings of a good song there, though he didn't feel the same way at the time."

The sessions were scheduled for three days, with members of the Silver Bullet Band having flown in, and the first three songs went down quickly, though without much passion. In fact, finding the fourth song had become such an apparent lost cause that Richardson sent the band's guitar and keyboard players back to Detroit.

As it turned out, however, Seger's noodling had evolved into a song, and with Richardson's prompting, he and Seger cobbled an arrangement to it in the studio, where the remaining musicians -- including Silver Bullet drummer Charlie Allen Martin and bassist Chris Campbell -- had been quickly complemented with two last-minute local players, Doug Riley on organ and Joe Miquelon on electric guitar.

"The whole arrangement came together in the studio," Richardson recalls. There, Richardson sat in the middle of the studio with Seger and the band, running the newly minted "Night Moves" down, making decisions such as the addition of an acoustic guitar-and-vocal breakdown in the middle of the song, while Christian -- assisted in part by Richardson's son Garth, who has gone on to rack up his own significant engineering credits for Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers -- ran the custom Audiotronics console and 3M 79 16-track 1-inch multitrack deck running Ampex 456. Monitoring was through a pair of Super Big Reds loaded with Altec speakers and a Mastering Lab crossover, driven by 60-watt stereo Citation amps, which Richardson admits were pretty underpowered but he felt sounded best with the speakers and room.

The track is sparse -- bass, drums, acoustic and electric guitars, piano and a Hammond C-3 with a Leslie speaker cabinet. The drum kit was miked using a Shure SM57 on the snare and a pair of Neumann U67 tube microphones as overheads. The guitar amp had an SM57 close in on the speaker cone, a Sennheiser 421 near the outer edge; the acoustic guitar, which Seger played as an overdub after playing the acoustic piano on the basic track, was recorded with one of the six KM84 microphones that Richardson personally owned. The piano was miked with a pair of U67s in an overhead-V configuration; the Leslie cabinet had a Sennheiser 421 on the bottom rotor and two U67s on the top rotor. When the "record" lights went red, Richardson was in the control room tapping a pencil on an SM53 as a metronome. "It was sparse, but I looked at Bob as a kind of a street singer," Richardson says. "The delivery of the whole track needed to be kind of raw. It wasn't a matter of reflecting the needs of this one song; it was about reflecting the way Bob comes across."

As good as "Night Moves" was -- and Richardson thought it was an obvious single -- the song still had to contend with the fickleness of fate. After Seger and crew left, Punch Andrews called to say that he was less than pleased with the mixes, and then phoned again weeks later to say the record company felt the same way. Richardson recalls being annoyed by the comments. Three months later, John Carter, an A&R person for Capitol in Canada, stopped by the studio. Richardson asked him how he had liked the Seger mixes. "He ducked the issue a little, but then said he thought that both tracks were pretty good -- for B sides," Richardson remembers. "And I said to him, 'Both tracks? There were four songs! Would you like to hear the others?' So I played him 'Night Moves,' and he really liked it. I made some suggestions for editing it down for a single." The original mix had come in at over five minutes long; the single, after mastering and editing by Wally Traugott at Capitol, is three-and-change and radio-friendly, as they used to say.

Weeks later, on a break for a session producing the Brecker Brothers in New York, Richardson opened Billboard and saw "Night Moves" hit the charts at 95. He also noticed that the credits read it had been produced by Punch Andrews. He made a call to Capitol, but the next week, as the song began to rocket up the charts, the credit remained unchanged. The normally avuncular Richardson went ballistic. "I called John Carter and told him you've got 24 hours to get the credits right," says Richardson. The next issue, it read "Producers: Jack Richardson and Punch Andrews." "Punch wasn't even at the sessions," Richardson adds with a chuckle.

"Night Moves" hit the Top 10 (making it to Number 4) and remained there for several weeks. "Like all records, it's a concoction of how people were feeling and thinking at a moment in time," Richardson sums up. "And like a lot of hit records, it came together fast -- the song and the record. There wasn't a lot of time to spend screwing it up."
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Tight Pants, Points

One reference in "Night Moves" is widely misunderstood. I'm fairly certain that everyone under 40 thinks that in "tight pants points hardly renowned," Seger is referring to his crotch. (After all, "points all her own" clearly refers to the woman's nipples, or at least breasts.)

But the first "points" reference isn't anatomical. He's singing "Tight pants, points, hardly renowned" -- meaning, his tight pants are hardly renowned, and his points are hardly renowned. What are points? Little metal things worn on your shoes by high school rebels in the late 50s and early 60s.

Mainstreet

"Mainstreet" charted at #24.

Seger: "Again, that's going right back to the 'Night Moves' situation where I was writing about my high school years in Ann Arbor and what it was like -- the discovery, the total naivete and fresh-faced openness that I went through. It was sort of an entire awakening of my life; before that, I was kind of a quiet, lonesome kid." Gary Graff, October 1994, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger Tells The Stories Behind The Hits."


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Sunburst

Ten years later, Seger was uncomfortable with some of the cuts on Night Moves. He was playing the cassette of the album so the band could learn "Come to Poppa." Seger: "I was cringing, listening to -- what was that song? -- 'Sunburst.' Oh, where was I when I wrote that! It's baad poetry. And it never goes away, it will always be there." Richard Harrington, August 17, 1986, Washington Post. "Bob Seger: Rocking On, With the Voice of Experience."


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The Fire Down Below

The only Seger song I know that was once badmouthed by Ann Landers for glorifying sex. Ann's mission was later carried on by the Tipper Gore crowd, who chastised Bob for "The Horizontal Bop." Ann, Tipper -- you're a little late, don't you think? Where were you for Heavy Music?


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Rock and Roll Never Forgets

Seger: "I wanted to just write an honest appraisal of where I was at that moment in time. I was 31 years old and I was damn glad to be here...and it was sort of like a thank you to the fans who didn't forget us, whose good will carried us over the top, and a thank you to radio..." Radio Interview: In the Studio with Redbeard for Against the Wind.

Seger: "As for 'Rock and Roll Never Forgets,' I got the idea from a reunion that I didn't go to, but a close friend of mine did. And he said I wouldn't have believed those people. They all weighed 500 pounds and they were all straight as hell. The same guys I used to hang out with! And I started thinking, whenever we go to a concert, we see mostly young people. When we headline we get a little better cross-section, but lately we've been playing a lot of dates with Kiss and Aerosmith, things like that. I wanted to bring back people my own age, write a song for them. In Detroit we get a crowd mixed with young and old, and I wanted to see that everywhere." John Morthland, July 1977, Creem. "Bob Seger Conquers the World (And About Time!)"


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Ship of Fools

"I've seen a lot of my friends lose their passion and end up in a rut, afraid to take a chance. 'Night Moves' is about romantic passion, but 'Ship of Fools' from the album is about passion for life. Maybe a guy's working a job he doesn't like and he sees an ad about the Alaska pipeline or something that excites him. But there are problems. His wife says it's too cold in Alaska or whatever. So he passes it up and just keeps on with something he hates." Robert Hilburn, May 22, 1977, Los Angeles Times. "Bob Seger, Rock's Prodigal Son."


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Review

Night Moves was reviewed by Kit Rachlis in Rolling Stone. "If there is any grace in heaven," Rachlis wrote, "'Night Moves' will give Bob Seger the national following which has long eluded him. It is simply one of the best albums of the year."

There is grace in heaven, apparently.

 

I'm almost afraid to ask but, what is the "disco mix" of "Mainstreet"?....

 

Good question. Funny it is actually two seconds shorter than the album version. Usually dance mixes are extended. It probably just has a backbeat under the regular version.

Obviously, this is the breakthrough album. I guess "Night Moves" is the song people remember the most. But, since most concerts end with "Rock And Roll Never Forgets" then maybe that is actually the one with the most staying power. I'm surprised that one peaked just outside the Top 40. I know, third single and all but still...

 

Seger's national singles success came with mediums and ballads, not the rockers.

I'm grateful for this album for giving Bob the success he had so long ago deserved, but it's never been a favorite of mine as an album. The three singles are all wonderful, but I enjoy the album as a whole much less that its studio predecessor Beautiful Loser or its successor Stranger In Town. Obviously mine is a minority opinion though!

This is the only Seger album that Steve has mastered. Hearing his version of Night Moves sure makes me wish he could work his magic with other of Bob's albums!

- Joe

 

Night Moves is just flat out an excellent album. Hugging Live Bullet along with Beautiful Loser, it makes a great 3 album run that finally broke Bob big time.
After Bullet I saw Bob again at the kind of gig Bob would not be doing much longer, at the Jackson County Fair(and petunia festival....no lie). The only new song he did was Mary Lou. The show was at the grandstand and I had a general admission ticket, I started off at the back in front of the packed stands and worked my way forward til I was at the the foot of the stage in front of the PA on the left of the stage and watched Seger up close and personal. On my feet for two hours and my ears rang for a week but it was worth it. I remember that when we called him back out for a second encore he said "C'mon people, your gonna make us miss Mary Hartman!".

And I LIKE Sunburst! Bob really is not the best judge of his own material.

Night Moves was also featured in the movie and soundtrack album of FM.

4/5

 

Next week we continue with Stranger In Town!

 

I'm going to have to agree with Seger's assessment of "Sunburst". "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" hasn't aged very well either, in my opinion. Maybe it's the unintentionally comical aspect of a rocker feeling over the hill at 31 when nowadays plenty of over-60 rockers (including Seger himself) are still at it, or maybe it's just the line "Check the local newspapers/chances are you won't have to go too far". Poetry it ain't.

Other than that, though, it's a five-star album. I'll never get tired of the rest!

 

Seger's "Talking Book" whilst "Stranger" was his "Innervisions". The former arguably having the stronger songs and the latter being a better listen as a whole cohesive album.

 

Stranger in Town

From Wiki:
Stranger in Town is the tenth studio album by American rock singer Bob Seger and his second with the Silver Bullet Band, released by Capitol Records in May 1978 (see 1978 in music). Like it predecessor, the Silver Bullet Band backed Seger on about half of the songs and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section backed Seger on the other half.

The album became an instant success in the United States, being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America less than a month after the album's release. The album was eventually certified 6x multi-platinum Track listing
All songs written and composed by Bob Seger, except where noted.

Side One
No. Title Length
1. "Hollywood Nights" 4:59
2. "Still the Same" 3:18
3. "Old Time Rock and Roll" (George Jackson, Thomas Jones, Bob Seger (uncredited)) 3:14
4. "Till It Shines" 3:50
5. "Feel Like a Number" 3:42

Side Two
No. Title Length
1. "Ain't Got No Money" (Frankie Miller) 4:11
2. "We've Got Tonight" 4:38
3. "Brave Strangers" 6:20
4. "The Famous Final Scene" 5:09

The Silver Bullet Band plays on side one tracks 1, 2 & 5 and on side two track 3

The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section plays on side one tracks 3 & 4 and on side two tracks 1, 2 & 4

Personnel
The Silver Bullet Band
Bob Seger - guitar, vocals
Drew Abbott - guitar
Robyn Robbins - keyboard
Alto Reed - alto saxophone
Chris Campbell - bass
David Teegarden - percussion, drums
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
Barry Beckett - keyboard
Pete Carr - guitar
Jimmy Johnson - guitar
David Hood - bass
Roger Hawkins - percussion, drums
Additional Musicians
Glenn Frey - guitar solo on "Till It Shines"
Don Felder - guitar solo on "Ain't Got No Money"
Bill Payne - organ, synthesizer, piano, keyboards on "Hollywood Nights"
Doug Riley - piano, keyboard on "Feel Like a Number" and "Brave Strangers"
Background Singers
"We've Got Tonight" and "Still the Same"
Venetta Fields - vocals, background vocals
Clydie King - vocals, background vocals
Sherlie Matthews - vocals, background vocals
"Hollywood Nights"
Julia Waters - background vocals
Luther Waters - vocals, background vocals
Maxine Waters - background vocals
Oren Waters - vocals, background vocals
"Still the Same" and "Brave Strangers"
Brandye - vocals, background vocals
"Old Time Rock"
James Lavell Easley - background vocals
Stanley Carter - background vocals
George Jackson - vocals, background vocals
Jim Ed Norman - strings arranged and conducted by

Production
Producers: Punch Andrews, Bob Seger
Engineers: John Arrias, Mark Calice, David Cole, Hugh Davies, Gregg Hamm, Steve Melton, George Tutko
Mixing: Punch Andrews, John Arrias, Bob Seger
Mastering: Wally Traugott
Remastering: Robert Vosgien
String arrangements: Jim Ed Norman
Art direction: Roy Kohara
Design: Ken Anderson
Photography: Terrence Bert, Bob Siedemann

Year Single Chart Position
1978 "Still The Same" Billboard Hot 100 4
1978 "Hollywood Nights" Billboard Hot 100 12
1978 "We've Got Tonight" Billboard Hot 100 13
1979 "Old Time Rock and Roll" Billboard Hot 100 28
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From the Seger Files

Reached 4 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart.

The album took a year and was second only to Some Girls for most national FM airplay in 1978. Chris Cioe, Musician. "Bob Seger: Hymns from the heartland."

It was the most difficult to record and most expensive album to date.

Stranger in Town is also the title of an old Del Shannon hit.

Reviews
Stranger in Town was called "a perfect balance of high energy rock and moving, personal ballads" by Dave Marsh in Rolling Stone, June 15, 1978.

Random Quote
Kevin Sorbo, TV's Herules: "Stranger in Town got me through high school and college, I think. I've always been sort of in touch with that desire to understand everything about everything [Huh?] Whether it's relationships or why we're here. Bob Seger...it was just a wonderful album in terms of touching on those issues." [Hear, hear. Spoken with the clarity and insight only a TV muscleman could provide.]
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Hollywood Nights
Charted at #12.

"I had to stay in LA for 2 and 1/2 months [while recording the album]. I rented a house for the second month and a half...it was up in the Hollywood Hills and every night when we'd get back from the studio.

"I would look out and there would be all the lights of the city. I was just sitting there one night with an electric guitar, and I started bashing it out. And there it was." Late 1981 radio interview.

Seger: "The chorus just came into my head; I was driving around in the Hollywood Hills, and I started singing 'Hollywood nights/Hollywood hills/Above all the lights/Hollywood nights.' I went back to my rented house, and there was a Time magazine with Cheryl Tiegs on the cover...I said 'Let's write a song about a guy from the Midwest who runs into someone like this and gets caught up in the whole bizarro thing.'" Gary Graff, October 1994, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger Tells The Stories Behind The Hits.
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Still the Same
Charted at #4.

Seger: "It's an amalgamation of characters I met when I first went to Hollywood. All Type A personalities...It was another great reason to base out of Michigan." Gary Graff, October 1994, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger Tells The Stories Behind The Hits."

Seger describes "Still the Same" as "a good song, but so medium." Seger says Capitol picked it as the single, Capitol says Bob and Punch picked it. Author? August 1978. Magazine?

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We've Got Tonight
Charted at #13.

Seger: "I had written a song called 'This Old House,' with the exact same chords and a slightly different melody...Then I went to see 'The Sting,' and there's a line in it that struck me, when he said to the waitress 'It's 4 in the morning, and I don't know anybody.' That just hit me real hard. The next day I wrote 'We've Got Tonight,' this song about two people who say 'I'm tired. It's late at night. I know you don't really dig me, and I don't really dig you, but this is all we've got, so let's do it.' (laughs) The sexual revolution was still going strong then." Gary Graff, October 1994, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger Tells The Stories Behind The Hits."
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Old Time Rock & Roll
Charted at #28. The song was later was designated as the most played jukebox song by a male artist in history by the Amusement Operators of America.

Seger: "The band hated it...I remember we went to Europe right after we finished 'Stranger in Town.' They were just complaining about the song being on the record, that it didn't sound Silver Bullety.

"I said 'Let's play it tonight'; we were in Belgium or something. And the crowd went nuts. Then we played it in four or five different places in Germany and got the same reaction every single time. The band started becoming quieter about it." Gary Graff, October 1994, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger Tells The Stories Behind The Hits."

Seger reportedly rewrote some of the verses of the song before recording it, but took no writing credit -- a costly decision considering the amount of airplay and jukebox play the song has had.

Since he's not officially one of the authors, Seger presumably has no control over other uses of the song -- for example, the horrendous Fiskies cat food commercial of the mid-1980s which urged consumers to"just take the Friskies off the shelf, your cat can eat them all by himself." If only Bob had taken a songwriting credit, maybe he could have vetoed the spot, saving a great rock song from a great indignity.
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Famous Final Scene
"One that I did write particularly for the stage -- and nobody believes it -- was 'Famous Final Scene.' I wanted to write a song that would stop the show dead with its sensitivity. There's always the exuberance of rock and roll throughout a good concert, but I wanted to write a magical, dramatic moment into the show. I got the idea from Henley's 'Wasted Time,' although his song was mainly about being stoned and wasted all the time. But I heard it in the concept of the whole relationship being wasted. I decided to attempt to crystalize that instant in a failed relationship when two people realize 'Hey, this is it for us. So now how do we get out of this room?' And I had to put myself in that mental hole for a month. Oh God, it was horrible." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken. "

"When I wrote 'Famous Final Scene', everybody thought I broke up with Jan, but the song had nothing to do with me." Roy Trakin, 1987?, Creem.
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Brave Strangers
The title was shortened from "Lovers and Brave Strangers."

Seger: "'Brave Strangers' was mixed something like 500 times...You want it so right that you overdo it. We cut 'We've Got Tonight' in three different studios. But you've got to trust your instincts. We always ended up going back to one of the first takes." [Need citation]
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Feel Like a Number
"For a lot of years I wrote too high...literally, I wrote too high for myself. We didn't have monitors when we first started. In order to hear myself sing onstage, I would have to write in a very high key...would have to just sing way, way high.

"Now, with the advent of good technology, I can write things that are more in key and I can use more of my range. Although some songs still are really high. 'Feel Like a Number,' that's about as high as I can go. That's really pushing. You can only do about 4 or 5 of those songs a night..." Late 1981 radio interview.
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Till It Shines
Seger wrote the song while on vacation Barbados. "I was so bored after five days I wrote "Till It Shines.'" May 1979 radio interview.

Presumably, that explains the line: "I've been too long on these islands."

Knowing where it was written makes me wonder about another line, though: Who is the rich man lost and lonely, testing all the wines? Are we supposed to pity him?

 

The first Seger album I bought was "Against the Wind" in Sept 1980. That's still one of my favorite albums to this day, and in my opinion, Seger's best. I also bought "The Distance" and "The Fire Inside" - all on vinyl. In the early '90s I went back and bought "Stranger in Town" (oddly enough, the vinyl still in print from Capitol at that time), and "Night Moves" (at a record show).

I'd rate "Stranger in Town" second behind "Against the Wind", and "Night Moves" third. I think this is one of the best three-album runs by any artist. I also think "The Distance" is a good album too - the singles are pretty strong - bit I'd probably rank it a bit below the others mentioned. Technically it probably shouldn't be included in the streak because the live album "Nine Tonight" came between them, and a top 10 single released from it.

 

"Hollywood Nights" is right at the top for me as to best Bob Seger song. I love the story Bob Seger tells in his Greatest Hits album about giving a tape of the song to Billy Payne of Little Feat and how he had no idea he was driving 100 mph down the highway while listening to it! That song charges me up the same way. I can listen to it over and over and never get tired of it.

 

This is definitely one of my favorite Seger albums ever, and my clear favorite among the studio albums he made at the height of his popularity (which I'll count as the albums from Night Moves to Like A Rock). Hollywood Nights, Feel Like a Number, and The Famous Final Scene are particular highlights for me.

I had a sax-playing friend who was really disappointed when the album came out because Alto Reed's sax is so much less prominent before. I think Alto's only solo on the album is on Old Time Rock 'N' Roll.

- Joe

 

My favorite Seger album, hands down. Never get sick of it. "Still The Same" is my 2nd favorite Seger song (after "Understanding"). So much emotion on that album.

 

Man, I remember 'Stranger In Town' hitting the scene like a nuclear bomb! It was BAM!, right out of the gate. At least here in the greater L.A. region, 'Stranger In Town' got a solid year, or more, of what seemed like, non-stop, radio air play. And I must add, deservedly so.

 

One of the first I bought (I think the first was Night Moves, next was either Against the Wind or this), and while I haven't listened to it in years, just looking at the track list is a pleasant memory of how much I loved this album.

"Still the Same" is one of his very best. "Till it Shines" is one of those songs you hear about being used as wedding songs, and while not as inappropriate as "Every Breath You Take", it does make you wonder if they've listened to the lyrics. Still a stunningly accomplished look at isolation and alienation, though. "Hollywood Nights" never gets old for me either. "Feel Like a Number" loses me a bit, because really, Bob, who the heck doesn't get docked when they show up late? "Old Time Rock and Roll" hasn't aged terribly well either, but it has stood up better than most similarly themed songs. Terrific album overall, though.