Bob Seger - The Albums and the career, song by song thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Mar 20, 2021.

  1. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Blind Love: By the time Tom Waits got to Raindogs, he was up for anything. The only real country song before this was early on his career, "Looks Like I'm Up S**t Creek Again." Every now and then, he'll pull one out, and it's always a good to great song. "Blind Love" is brilliant. Waits' version had Keith Richards on it (you can hear him on background vocals), but I think the real musical secret to the song is that guitar tone added by Robert Quine, which he played on so many key 80s Lou Reed tracks. Not straight country - up to then, you would never hear guitar like that on a country song. But it really worked here - never mind a perfect set of lyrics. It was songs like this (and of course stuff like "Dead Flowers" by The Stones) that would slowly guide me towards real country, which really wouldn't happen for me until the 90s, when I got older and could relate more to the lyrics and the natural aging process allowed and encouraged with country music stars).

    Seger's version does a wonderful job of adding fiddle, something he's never done before.* Again, for his Waits covers, he dropped all the early 90s studio gimmicks, sang straight without any effects, and no monkeying with the instrumentation. He did a great job. Tongue in cheek? Huh? I was hoping Seger would think the dated, crappy, then-current production tricks he used on so many tracks were tongue in cheek, and this was the real thing. When I think of Seger feeling a kinship towards Waits, I don't hear it at all in lyrics or even vocals - Waits' gruff tone makes Seger sound as smooth as opera singer. But I can hear it in the ballads, especially early Waits when he leaned much more in that direction. It bears repeating: Seger missed a window by not doing a straight country album.

    * Before this album, given "Sightseeing" has it, too
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2021
  2. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Blind Love
    Agree the sound is better on the 2 Waits covers than on the rest of the album. It's a good song, nicely arranged and played and well sung. Among the better things on this album but not one of the very best it has to offer. Enjoyable for sure but not incredibly memorable.
    Rating 7/10
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2021
  3. Davido

    Davido ...assign someone to butter your muffin?

    Location:
    Austin
    The Waits covers are the best songs on "The Fire Inside" - not just because it's interesting to hear one great songwriter cover another great songwriter - but because of the unguarded production. Love the saloon piano and fiddle on "Blind Love" which make perhaps for the most old-time country song Seger ever recorded. And: It's not that Seger needed to record a Waits song or amp up the country elements but it's great because he chose to do so. "Sightseeing" would be my pick for the best original on the album, which is not only strong lyrically but features unusual instrumentation for Seger with accordion and more fiddle. This sort of thing allows me to imagine the Detroit rocker covering a song like "Blue Eyes Cryin' In The Rain"... (not necessary but he could pull it off!).
     
  4. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Honestly I can hear him doing it and how he would.
     
  5. tenor1

    tenor1 Forum Resident

    Blind Love is another of the keepers from The Fire Inside. Seger sings Waits is a winner for me, and we'll have more on the next studio album.
     
  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    She Can't Do Anything Wrong.

    Sixteen years and she lets 'em show
    Little bitty queen dancin' on the floor
    High heeled shoes keep her right on time
    Body makes a little boy lose his mind
    And she knows
    She Can't Do Anything Wrong

    Music's hot and the night is loud
    Rhythm from the band burnin' through the crowd
    Little sixteen she's goin' strong
    She loves to rock and roll it all night long
    And she knows
    She Can't Do Anything Wrong

    Every daddy's son wants a closer look
    Every boy want to try to set his hook
    She likes playin' numbers if it takes all night
    If she goes home alone it'll be alright

    Workin' hard tryin' to make it last
    She's too young to even have a past
    The only child of a mother who prayed
    That her daughter wouldn't never turn out this way
    And she knows
    She Can't Do Anything Wrong

    Every daddy's son wants a closer look
    Every boy want to try to set his hook
    She likes playin' numbers if it takes all night
    If she goes home alone it'll be alright

    Sixteen years and she lets 'em show
    Little bitty queen dancin' on the floor
    She knows She Can't Do Anything Wrong

    This track was written by Bill Davis of Dash Rip Rock, with Walt Richmond. I'm not sure whether they recorded this or not, as I can't find the information. Davis was Louisiana born and formed Dash Rip Rock in 1984, and they became reasonably famous for there rockabilly, cowpunk tracks by around the early nineties. They even had a minor radio hit in Australia with a pastiche of Let's Go To The Hop called Lets Go Smoke Some Pot.

    This track is a pretty straight forward rock and roll song that follows the old rock and roll story of young girl gone wild.
    It seems a little unusual for Bob to cover this at this stage of his career, but the song itself comes across pretty well.
    We have some good piano and slide guitar. The music seems at a better balance with the drums in this song and it isn't going to set the world on fire, but it's a pretty decent closer to the album.


     
  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    So Fire Inside ends up being one of Bob's lesser albums for me. As we have spoken about, a lot of that is due to the production and sound, which I think hampers this album quite a bit.

    There are some very good songs, but most seem to be slightly hobbled by the way they have arranged and produced the album.
     
  8. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    She Can't Do Anything Wrong
    Nice overall sound here apart from the inevitable 80s snare, lyric made me smile, and it does harken back to earlier Seger - but unfortunately doesnt all add up and rings a bit hollow. A bit of a paint by numbers attempt to recapture past glories.
    Rating 5/10
     
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  9. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    As an overall album The Fire Inside to me is about on the same level as each of the other albums Seger has released subsequent to the amazing six album run that culminated in Nine Tonight (which remains to me his finest moment). Each of these albums have had a couple truly great moments (here, Always In My Heart and Fire Inside); a couple other very worthy tracks (including the Waits covers here); and a bunch of filler I will never come back to.

    But I think you could compile a truly great album from the best of these three. And had he at this point in his career decided to put out another live album - including the best of the last three plus Shakedown, and with more of a live band sound - that could have been even better.
     
  10. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    It becomes trite. Nine Tonight was far too soon after Bullet. How many live albums are too many?
     
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  11. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Not saying it would have been the best career move
     
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  12. Davido

    Davido ...assign someone to butter your muffin?

    Location:
    Austin
    Very cool that someone brought Seger an unrecorded Dash Rip Rock song to cover but a shame that it's a generic song hampered by the poor production which all but ruins this album. Dash Rip Rock rode the wave for several years and I remember they always played the early SxSW festivals and put on a good show. This song would seem a good fit and might've come off better with a more stripped down rocknroll feel that didn't sound like a Glenn Frey soundtrack song.
     
  13. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    She Can't Do Anything Wrong: The album ends on a bland note. Compare and contrast to "Get Out of Denver" in terms of Chuck Berry tributes. I don't know. At some point it gets weird when grown men sing about 16-year-old girls. If it's not a father/daughter theme, it just feels a bit off kilter. (I always thought The Big Bopper was a middle-aged man. He was 28 when he died in that plane crash with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens.) Admittedly, I don't know what guys in their 40s and beyond should do in terms of straight rock songs, without feeling like they're rocking out in a tux. Maybe move beyond straight rock songs while still acknowledging the greater ones they've done in their concert set list?

    The Fire Inside was a perplexing album. In terms of songs, not bad by any means. I'd also like to hear what he left behind, but come on, now, it's a miracle this hasn't been deleted from history, too. But what he put forth would have sounded a whole lot better with a cleaner production style, possibly live in studio, basic band of musicians he felt comfortable with. Instead, like so many aging rock artists, he felt the need to indulge in studio gimmicks of that time period and left the album feeling dated as a result. It was strange to think that so many of these guys believed that to move forward and somehow stay relevant, they had to cater to the times. In the recent past, they made the times with their influence and should have recognized their trademark sound. Even Neil Young was doing some weird stuff throughout the 80s and sometimes losing his way, but at least I sensed with him he was all in on his experimentation. This production just feels like someone doing what he's told by people who think they know better. I'm picturing a bunch of guys in mirror shades, sitting at the mixing board, nodding their heads and grinning while "She Can't Do Anything Wrong" blasts from the studio monitors. And no one has balls enough to say this ain't cutting it!
     
  14. tenor1

    tenor1 Forum Resident

    She Can't Do Anything Wrong is a real letdown as a closer. It's one thing for 20-something guys to sing about their lust for 16 year olds but it's quite another for 40-somethings. Plus it's a wholly unoriginal song. I recall that Seger got a lot of similar feedback about this song when the album came out. In any event, we don't have any more songs like this appearing in his catalog from now on.
     
  15. Davido

    Davido ...assign someone to butter your muffin?

    Location:
    Austin
    Good summation of "The Fire Inside" with that post. Hard to argue with this specific point too on the age difference - especially given the current culture - though I'd also think it's a fine line that may not always be obvious. In this song, Seger is singing as an observer of the teenage girl instead of as someone with a personal interest in the girl. But I see where that would still be weird for some - perhaps the girl's parents, the girl herself? I mainly wish it was a better song because it's hard to contrast this with a Seger original like "Get Out of Denver" though that song seems as much about a car chase as anything else. Totally agree with you that Seger let Don Was and others make critical decisions regarding production in the hope of making a real comeback. I can't blame him for that really but it resulted in a disaster for the most part.
     
  16. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    She Can't Do Anything Wrong
    Kind of an odd closer. It feels anachronistic to hear him doing a 70's-style rocker with 90's production at this point in his career, and the age difference between the singer and the girl in the song is a bad fit too.

    The Fire Inside is a fine album. The production doesn't bug me as much as others, but I agree it comes off dry both in the drums, the guitars and the overall mix. It peters out somewhat in the 2nd half, but the overall mix of songs is fine and the last one is the only real skipper for me. I might not always be in the mood for "The Mountain" too, but it's "okay". Realistically, I think this album is about as good as Like A Rock: one stone-cold classic (the title track in each case), a few other strong songs, and then some filler on which your mileage may vary. "Sightseeing" is a great tune, and sounds not much at all like typical Seger. Oddly, this album is long enough that it's tempting to cut it down a bit and blame it on "CD bloat". The funny thing is that Seger has such a wealth of unreleased material he could have bloated out pretty much any album he wanted and without relying on Tom Waits covers. I can't fault the Waits covers here though, because they are good versions of good songs. On the plus side, except for the production we do see a bit of Seger stretching out and trying some different things on this album.
     
  17. RC1

    RC1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tulsa, OK
    The Bill Davis here is the Tulsa singer, Bill Davis, written with Tulsa keyboardist Walt Richmond. David Teegarden pitched this song to Seger, Clapton & others along with several others from the Davis/Richmond writing team. I'd love to hear Bob cut a Dash Rip Rock tune - love that band!

    ill Davis • 1937-2018
    Tulsa Sound singer Bill Davis, Tulsa's 'blue-eyed soul' king, dies at 80
    Jun 20, 2018
    1 of 3
    [​IMG]

    Tulsa Sound singer Bill Davis during a performance at the Sunset Grill. Courtesy of Steve Todoroff

    As an up-and-coming crooner, Bill Davis’ dream was to be the next Bobby Darin and sing ballads like “Mack the Knife.”

    But that all changed one night in 1962.

    “It was so powerful, because I’d never seen it before, and it blew me away,” Davis said once of experiencing soul legend James Brown live at the Tulsa Civic Center.

    Davis didn’t know it then, but he had started on a journey. From there, he was drawn naturally to other R&B artists of the era.

    As he put it later, “I got my baptism, and it took.”

    What he was hearing, he added, “gave me goose bumps. And I thought that’s exactly where I belong.”


    Tulsa Sound singer Bill Davis, considered by many to be Tulsa’s unrivaled king of “blue-eyed soul,” died Friday, June 15.

    He was 80.


    A service is set for 11 a.m. Friday, June 22, at Leonard & Marker Funeral Home in Bixby. A visitation will be held there from 6-8 p.m. Thursday.


    Davis was inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame in 2009.

    Unlike Leon Russell and other artists of the Tulsa Sound — a laid-back form of R&B-influenced rock ‘n’ roll associated with Tulsa — Davis never strayed far from his hometown.


    But the small market didn’t keep him from building a full-time career in music. Davis sang professionally for more than 45 years and was arguably the best known of Tulsa’s night club singers for much of that time.



    He was also a regular performer at the annual Leon Russell Birthday Bash concert, which started in 1986.

    Music historian Steve Todoroff, who produced the Russell birthday shows for years, said he hired Davis as the opening act for the very first show and couldn’t have found a better one.

    “Bill was the real deal, and when he was in his prime I don’t think there was another soul singer in town that could touch him,” he said.

    Not many beyond Tulsa, either. In the words of legendary Texas blues rocker Delbert McClinton, Davis was “the best undiscovered blue-eyed soul singer in the world,” Todoroff added.



    A 1956 graduate of Tulsa’s Central High School, Davis sang publicly for the first time at age 17 at a local Pentecostal church. He formed a group and played at various churches, as he put it, riding to engagements “in the Holy Spirit and a Buick.”

    After serving in the Air Force, Davis began singing in clubs, eventually donning the trademark Panama hat his fans would come to know and love.

    He also played events and was a regular face over the years at the Tulsa State Fair.


    Besides his live shows — where he was backed by such musicians as David Teegarden and Tommy Tripplehorn — Davis would also release a few albums, starting with “The Bill Davis Album” in 1986.


    Whether originals or covers, in his songs Davis paid tribute to his inspirations.

    “Everything that I have done is from the black genre — black entertainers were my idols,” he told the Tulsa World once, pointing to Brown, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett as his biggest influences.


    Davis’ version of Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” became his signature song, in fact.

    “I’ve made more money off that song than Wilson Pickett ever did, in increments of 50-cent and dollar tips,” Davis observed with a laugh.

    Davis is survived by his wife, Francine; three children, Shannon Davis, Greg Davis and Kelly Armstrong; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
     
  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Cheers mate.
    Appreciate the correction.
    I couldn't find much about the song, and all I could find was the other Bill.
    Thank you
     
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  19. RC1

    RC1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tulsa, OK
    Probably 10,000 or more Bill Davis' out there, certainly a reasonable deduction.

    Thanks for your work on this - lots of fun and informative!
     
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  20. tenor1

    tenor1 Forum Resident

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  21. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Greatest Hits
    [​IMG]
    Greatest hits album by
    Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
    Released
    October 25, 1994
    Recorded 1972–1994
    Genre Rock
    Length 61:54
    Label Capitol
    Producer Various

    Greatest Hits is a compilation album by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, released in 1994. Certified Diamond by the RIAA, it is Seger's most successful album to date. In December 2009, Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan confirmed that with nearly nine million copies sold. Bob Seger's Greatest Hits was the decade's best-selling catalog album in the United States, even out-selling The Beatles' 1 and Michael Jackson's Number Ones. By September 2011, the album had sold a total of 9,062,000 copies in the United States.


    1. "Roll Me Away" The Distance 4:36
    2. "Night Moves" Night Moves 5:25
    • Chris Campbell – bass guitar
    • Charlie Allen Martin – drums
    • Joe Miquelon – electric guitar
    • Doug Riley – piano, organ
    • Bob Seger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
    • Rhonda Silver – background vocals
    • Laurel Ward – background vocals
    • Sharon Lee Williams – background vocals
    3. "Turn the Page (Live)" Live Bullet 5:03
    4. "You'll Accomp'ny Me" Against the Wind 3:59
    5. "Hollywood Nights" Stranger in Town 4:59
    • Chris Campbell – bass guitar
    • Bill Payne – piano, organ
    • Bob Seger – lead vocals, guitar
    • David Teegarden – drums, percussion
    • Julie Waters, Luther Waters, Maxine Waters, Oren Waters – background vocals
    6. "Still the Same" Stranger in Town 3:19
    • Chris Campbell – bass guitar
    • Venetta Fields – background vocals
    • Clydie King – background vocals
    • Sherlie Matthews – background vocals
    • Robyn Robbins – organ
    • Bob Seger – lead vocals, piano, acoustic guitar
    • David Teegarden – drums, percussion
    7. "Old Time Rock and Roll" (George Jackson, Thomas Earl Jones III) Stranger in Town 3:12
    • Ken Bell – guitar
    • Stanley Carter – background vocals
    • James Lavell Easley – background vocals
    • Roger Hawkins – drums, percussion
    • David Hood – bass guitar
    • George Jackson – background vocals
    • Randy McCormick – piano
    • Howie McDonald – guitar solo
    • Alto Reed – saxophone
    • Bob Seger – lead vocals
    8. "We've Got Tonite" Stranger in Town 4:38
    • Barry Beckett – keyboards
    • Pete Carr – lead guitar
    • Venetta Fields – background vocals
    • Roger Hawkins – drums, percussion
    • David Hood – bass guitar
    • Jimmy Johnson – rhythm guitar
    • Clydie King – background vocals
    • Sherlie Matthews – background vocals
    • Bob Seger – lead vocals
    Strings conducted and arranged by Jim Ed Norman.

    9. "Against the Wind" Against the Wind 5:32
    • Drew Abbott – electric guitar
    • Chris Campbell – bass guitar
    • Glenn Frey – background vocals
    • Paul Harris – piano, organ
    • Bob Seger – lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar
    • David Teegarden – drums
    10. "Mainstreet" Night Moves 3:42
    • Barry Beckett – keyboards
    • Pete Carr – lead guitar, acoustic guitar
    • Roger Hawkins – drums, percussion
    • David Hood – bass guitar
    • Jimmy Johnson – rhythm guitar
    • Bob Seger – lead vocals
    11. "The Fire Inside" The Fire Inside 5:53
    • Roy Bittan – piano
    • Bob Glaub – bass guitar
    • Russ Kunkel – drums
    • Steve Lukather – acoustic guitar
    • Bob Seger – lead vocals
    • Jai Winding – organ
    12. "Like a Rock" Like a Rock 5:53
    13. "C'est la Vie" (Chuck Berry) previously unreleased 2:58
    • Chris Campbell – bass guitar
    • Craig Frost – piano
    • Alto Reed – saxophone
    • Jimmy Romeo – saxophone
    • Bob Seger – vocals, guitar
    • Crystal Taliefero – saxophone
    • Tomo Thomas – saxophone
    • David Teegarden – drums
    14. "In Your Time" previously unreleased 3:05
    • Rosemary Butler – background vocals
    • Chris Campbell – bass guitar
    • Laura Creamer – background vocals
    • Donny Gerard – background vocals
    • Russ Kunkel – drums, percussion
    • Tim Mitchell – electric guitar
    • Shaun Murphy – background vocals
    • Alto Reed – saxophone
    • Bob Seger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, synthesizer

    Weekly charts
    Chart (1994) Peak
    position

    Canadian Albums (RPM)[6] 5
    German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[7] 49
    New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[8] 4
    Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[9] 46
    US Billboard 200[10] 8
    Chart (1995) Peak
    position

    Australian Albums (ARIA)[11] 5
    UK Albums (OCC)[12] 6
    Chart (2003) Peak
    position

    US Top Catalog Albums (Billboard)[13] 1
    Chart (2019) Peak
    position

    US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[14] 13

    Year-end charts

    Chart (1995) Position
    US Billboard 200[15]
    22

    Chart (1996)
    Position
    US Billboard 200[16]
    94

    Chart (2018)
    Position
    US Billboard 200[17]
    138
    US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[18] 22

    Chart (2019)
    Position
    US Billboard 200[19]
    121
    US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[20] 20

    Chart (2020)
    Position
    US Billboard 200[21]
    138
    US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[22] 14
    ---------------------------------------------------------wikipedia--------------------------------------------------------

    In 2017 Bob Seger's Greatest Hits was certified Diamond, that is over ten million copies sold. That puts the album in an elite group of albums in the modern rock music history. It is a well deserved feat, and shows that Bob is one of the special artists in the rock music business.

    It also probably reflects that to some degree the majority of the music buying public probably consider Seger to be more of a singles artists, I guess?
    Personally I think we have seen quite clearly that up to at least Fire Inside we saw a very consistent and solid series of albums. I think there are several of the pre-fame albums that are very solid albums and deserve more exposure, and should really be in print.
    The Live Bullet album and onward are all pretty much classic, rock albums. For me the run of Albums from Beautiful Loser through to The Distance are fantastic, and the Distance is the jewel in the crown. Although I see that I am walking a lonely road on that perspective.

    It was inevitable at some point that Seger would get a greatest hits album, or two, and This album exploded, and no matter what else, it somewhat solidifies his music for the ages, putting it in a category with the greatest of all time.

    To some degree it is disappointing that the album didn't reach back before Live Bullet, because personally I see several songs from before there as being very worthy of being on this compilation. In fact I would say they are essential, but that isn't how this one went.

    We get two new songs, as seemed to be the popular choice in the nineties, and they close out the album.
     
  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    C'est La Vie.

    Quite fittingly Bob chose this Chuck Berry nugget as one of the extra tracks on the Greatest Hits album, and we get a very good version, that is pretty faithfully rendered here.

     
  23. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    C'est La Vie - He does a decent job with it, but it's just one of those songs where the original was so wonderful there's just no point. Having said that, I can't really fault anything with the performance here.

    She Can't Do Anything Wrong - I liked the hook on the title line, but never really paid any attention to the lyrics before. Reading them now...yeah, he was definitely too old to be singing this!
     
  24. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    You Never Can Tell
    (Sorry Bob, that's the title of the song).
    Bob's recording is a decent rocker that at least has a better sound than most of his last couple albums - and the piano playing rocks. But unfortunately, along with changing the title, he also jettisons the whole winking knowing swagger that is totally what makes the song in either Berry's version or any decent cover of it (I like what Emmylou Harris did with it and it was also a fun part of many Garcia shows).
    Rating 4/19
     
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  25. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Odd rating system, but OK.....
     

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