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

"The Horizontal Bop"


Single by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
from the album Against the Wind
B-side "Her Strut"
Released 1980
Genre Rock
Length 3:20
Label Capitol
Songwriter(s) Bob Seger
Producer(s) Punch Andrews, Bob Seger

Wally's getting' anxious thinkin' 'bout tonight
Bruce is all spiffy lookin' wicked lookin' right
Eddie's getting' spruced
And Donna's getting' loose
They're passin' round the bottle
And they're gettin' good and juiced
B.G.'s winin' dinin' checkin' talent at the club
Skippers hauntin' second lookin' forward to his rub
The busters from the country
And the hitters from the shop
Everybody wants to do the Horizontal Bop

Someone bring the records
Someone get the brew
Someone get a house
Buddy we'll know what to do
Someone tell the ladies
Someone make a deal
If we can't find a house
Then someone better find a field
Grass is good as carpet
Anyplace is fine
Its time to get to rockin'
Babe it's time to make it shine
Tell 'em we'll be dancin'
Dancin' till we drop
It's time to get down and do the Horizontal Bop

They're fillin' up the corners
They're fillin' up the streets
You can feel the tension
You can almost feel the heat
The music's gettin' louder
The beat's gittin' fast
Summers finally made it
Yeah its finally here at last

The pony cars are cruisin' on Woodward Avenue
Go and try to pass'em
They'll smoke you if you do
The whole town's shakin' from the bottom to the top
Everybody wants to do the Horizontal Bop
The busters from the country
And the hitters from the shop
Everybody wants to do the Horizontal Bop
Tell 'em we'll be dancin'
Dancin' till we drop
Everybody wants to do the Horizontal Bop

Songwriters: Bob Seger
The Horizontal Bop lyrics © Gear Publishing Company Inc, Gear Publishing Co., Inc.

I think in reality one can get a little too serious about music, and we can get into the whole idea that this is a silly song that is essentially about having or trying to have sex, but I think that's the point really.

If we look honestly at the world and everything going on in it, no matter what people's preferences, everyone is (at a certain age span) wanting to do the Horizontal Bop. If we deny that, essentially all we are saying is we are getting too old to care, because they are the simple facts.
Men put on a front to seem appealing in some way. Women spend hours and days getting fooffed up to present well, spending lashings of money on make up, skin care products, clothes. Advertising is geared towards selling sexy products, that have nothing to do with sex. the reality is the whole world is somewhat obsessed with sex.
So really this is a very good observational piece of writing, and if any of us remember being young, we see ourselves in one of these characters, whether we want to or not......

So is this song a little silly? In some ways, yea, sure. It is just a lighthearted look at people and the ridiculous lengths they'll go to to get a bit of action.

Even the way the song is laid out musically has a sort of tongue in cheek vibe about it. We have the Chuck Berry variant number 974. We have lots of nice fun little lead breaks from the guitar and the sax .... this is just a fun solid opening to the album.

The lyrics here are purely observational fun, and for all the things I have read that are suggesting there is something wrong with the lyric here, it seems more loaded with some kind of moral guilt or something. Sex is the biggest selling item in the world..... and personally I will take sex over violence any day of the week.

Musically this is a fun rumbling boogie rock type thing. I do think it could have had a more live feel, and really, on this album, that would be my only issue. The live versions of most of the rock songs here are much better live, because that little bit of edge always makes a rock song better.
I love the lead breaks, and I think they work well in the structure of the song. The break at 2:30 is particularly good, as that little pause works beautifully.

Is this the best song Seger ever did? No, not by a long shot. Is it a good opener for this album? Yea. Perhaps there is a better opener, and for me Nine Tonight may have been a better opener, but it was given to the Urban Cowboy Soundtrack. Perhaps it would have been better if this track had been given to the Urban Cowboy project, and Nine Tonight had opened the album .... To be honest I have never heard the studio version of Nine Tonight, and I look forward to hearing it after we have finished this album.

So for me, a solid fun opener that brings us into the album smoothly.
All I would say extra, is that I think Her Strut would have been a better a-side.

 

Horizontal Bop
Reading the lyrics first it reminded me a bit of Wang Dang Doodle with its litany of names prepping for an event. I don't think Seger's vocal is that strong here as I think a lower register would have brought out a gruffness that would have suited the slightly naughty lyric a bit better. Best part of the track for me is the last 40% with some real fun playing by the band after the lyric stops - most notably that real brief false stop pause all take together at 3:40. Fun is the best I can say for this track though. A bit of a surprising choice for a single or lead off track. Agree with Mark that Her Strut is stronger. I certainly heard Strut on the radio a good bit and I never heard this til now. Did this chart?
Rating 6/10

 

Yes, at #42. I'm a bit surprised it got that far given the subject matter and how blatant it is!
I remember seeing this in a "worst rock and roll songs ever" book, but I don't recall the rationale of why it was there. In any event, I've always loved it - one of his better album openers. The lyrics are almost beside the point. It just puts out a really nice groove and gets his biggest album off to a great start. Apparently the line about partying in a field is inspired by some real parties he went to as a teenager where his friends would park their cars in a circle in a vacant field somewhere the grownups weren't watching.

 

The real treat was late fall when Stroh’s put out Ltd release Stroh’s Bock Beer. That stuff was good!

RE: Against The Wind. Hoo boy, this is when we started spinning Live Bullet and talking about the good old days. Being at University of Michigan at the time of release, we kind of felt like Bob had left his state and rocking side behind and was totally cool with becoming “Eagle-ized.”

Horizontal Bop, sorry to say, felt about as lame as The Greeks Don’t Want No Freaks, or Linda Rondstadt’s “Living In The USA”: slick almost-rock. Either way, we were kind of moving on to Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Pretenders, Tom Petty….Bob was starting to feel a little establishment. I know a lot of folks thought Her Strut was Bob’s “new wave” attempt. Lol, that’s how it went down in Ann Arbor.

Side note re: The Wall. Shortly after release, one of the floors in our dorm hosted a “pro-drunk” (different drink offered in each room) with a Wall theme. They dressed up the entire hallway walls with paper and expertly recreated all of the Wall artwork. Was pretty impressive for early 1980.

 

Horizontal Bop: This went right by me. I can imagine myself sitting on my bed in my room, perusing a copy of Creem or Rolling Stone that night they premiered this on FM radio, and not feeling much of anything. It actually sounds good. I'm not outraged by the lyrics, which seem pretty tame in the context of the 70s. Just one of those Seger album tracks that doesn't quite get there for me. Surprised it came out as a single eventually!

Interesting to note the Urban Cowboy soundtrack in all this. That's how this strange, short-lived era feels to me, like that movie and accompanying soundtrack. Mainly think of "Lookin' for Love" by Johnny Lee, a huge hit on all the charts. The big rock song from the soundtrack felt like "All Night Long" by Joe Walsh. It sounded virtually identical to what he was doing with The Eagles, and also a better song than "Heartache Tonight" (although they were very similar)! "Nine Tonight" felt lost in the shuffle - there were a lot of songs on that soundtrack, country and rock. I think Seger would have been better off using "Nine Tonight" on Against the Wind and giving "Horizontal Bop" to Urban Cowboy. But it wouldn't have made a huge difference. As a teenager, I could smell BS trends like this a mile away, trying to kickstart a trend with a flashy movie, much as Robert Stigwood had already done with Saturday Night Fever. I don't think he was quite as successful this time around. (Stigwood also tried the same with "new wave" that very same year with the movie Times Square, starring Tim Curry of Rocky Horror fame. A bit of a dud compared to Urban Cowboy!)

 

"Horizontal Bop" would've fit more snugly on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack IMO, and "Against the Wind" would've been greatly improved if "Nine Tonight" had replaced Bop as the opener. The music of "Horizontal Bop" is like a bad Bill Haley song with cheesy sax and the lyric is intentionally juvenile, don't misunderstand I was in college at the time and I blasted the song but I don't think my heart was in it looking back. It's a mighty fall from the lyricism of "Night Moves" which is probably the best song written about teen sex in the U.S. For what it's worth (not much), the songs Paul Gase references above (The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks and Living in the USA) are each much better than Bop for what they are trying to do. "Greeks" is tightly played and still funny (and true), and "Living in the USA" is lightweight but a Chuck Berry homage is better than Bop. I am OK being in the minority since this song was positioned to be a hit.

 

The ads in Billboard at the time stated that after three ballad singles, the first rock n roll single from Against The Wind was out. Maybe they figured they were losing a bit of their rock base with the three kind of easy-listening singles that preceded this one, and figured they'd better put out one of the rock songs...just guessing.

While I kind of like the song, I agree with what others have said that maybe something like Her Strut should have been the single's A-side instead.

 

According to Bob it was not ready in time for the album.
But in any case I can't see Horizontal Bop with its specific Detroit references in a movie about a country bar in Houston Texas. It just wouldn't work. Nine Tonight worked for a working class rocker. But we will talk about that after the album. By rights it should be a bonus track on ATW.

 

I think we sometimes try to over analyze music. It's just a fun song; nothing more. It's not supposed to stop world hunger.

Don't think he was looking for a Grammy here. Bob loved rock and roll and this is it.

 

Gotta say that after having found Bob Seger for Night Moves and Stranger In Town, Against The Wind was a step down for me. I generally avoided The Eagles so hearing their influence creep in to the mix was a little ominous to me but I probably can appreciate something like "Fire Lake" more now. I never cared for "Horizontal Bop" because it is just a little too obvious to me. That being said, Against The Wind does have a song I particularly like because it showed to me Bob had been listening to more varied music than the Eagles but I will wait until that particularly song comes up to celebrate it.

 

Curious what are the specific Detroit references in the Bop song? Detroit and Houston are both cities known for significant industries (automobiles and oil, respectively) which are both sometimes affected by economic valleys as well as peaks. The sentiments expressed in Horizontal Bop would shine in a movie about a giant nightclub where folks want to ride a mechanical bull and get laid. ;-)

 

Yeah. I don't picture anyone quite making that distinction while watching Debra Winger riding a mechanical bull!

 

Horizontal Bop - Nothing special

 

Ha! I never saw the Urban Cowboy movie but I did pick up the soundtrack and visited Gilley's once shortly after the movie came out to see what the fuss was about. Glad I went but the place was the size of a football field which apparently was part of the appeal. I wonder if I still have the shot glass I pocketed from the bar. Might be a collector's item.

 

Woodward is main drag out of Detroit and north to Birmingham et al. Home of the Woodward Dream Cruise.

 

Well, when I read that line, I think of the Woodward street was have in Austin. A common name. It's the street I take to get to the Continental Club downtown. I doubt anyone would hear that line and think of Detroit UNLESS you live in Detroit or are from there.

 

And we all do that. applying our own experience to a song. Like Tom Petty or Dire Straits mentioning "Telegraph Road". Which is another major drag about a mile from me. Of course since the origin of the name is usually where telegraph lines ran a hundred fifty years ago, almost every geographic location has a "Telegraph Road". We are just wired that way. But its literally what he means. Hot cars on Woodward.

 

Isn't that why we're here? This form was created to discuss music mastering and production I believe but was long ago overtaken by music nerds, shoppers and collectors.

 

In particular it is why we are participating in a discussion devoted to spending a full day discussing each song an artist released over 50+ years in chronological order.

 

Thanks for the laugh Rfreeman!

 

That's a fair call, but this is just a lighthearted moderate rock song. It's certainly not wrong to dislike it, or be underwhelmed by it, but it isn't really trying to be anything it's not. Personally I think that's why we have so many lead breaks in the track, it's just a bit of fun.

 

I don't know. Woodward Avenue in Michigan is legendary:

Detroit's Woodward Avenue is one of America's most iconic roads

The Heirs of Woodward Avenue: Detroit's 1970s Street-Racing Culture – Archived Feature – Car and Driver

Woodward Street Racing: The facts behind the legends

Woodward Avenue History

 

I think you might be doing it wrong...

 

And such is the reason I dislike it as the opening track and lead single. Her Strut got more jukebox plays. And may I say it was huge in the strip clubs(as you can imagine). Nine Tonight should have been the opener IMO. Despite the Day-Twah reference the song just seems silly to my ears.