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

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

  1. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  2. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    By The River.

    "My ecology song -- about trying to keep things permanent. I've had this cabin for 19 years and I'm looking out at a lighthouse that's been here all that time and it's beautiful. Of course, nearby is the oldest nuclear plant in the country and if it blows, I'm the first to go."
    Capital "Leaning Tower" Internet Pages

    I was walkin' by the river
    I held my hand out to feel the rain

    Just a light rain
    Almost a sun shower
    Makin'all things shine again

    And I felt like I belonged
    I felt so strong
    As I walked on

    There was rhythm
    And there was order
    There was a balance
    There was a flow

    There was patience
    Indulgence
    There was a power
    I could not know

    And I felt it all made sense
    The innocence
    The permanence

    I took my young son to the river
    I held his hand out to feel the rain

    Songwriters: Bob Seger
    By the River lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

    I like this song quite a bit. It isn't particularly a fancy song, or a song that moves the musical map in new directions, it's just a straight earthy track that says what it needed to say in a concise and enjoyable manner.

    We open with an acoustic guitar and a kick drum and Bob comes in with the vocal.
    Lyrically this song is about those moments when we are connected to the natural world. It's a powerful feeling and it can be quite therapeutic.
    Bob doesn't to bother going into some big detailed story, because the topic doesn't require that. What he does do here is he speaks his peace, and then we get a very enjoyable instrumental section, as the song swells with power, like the feeling the song is about, and then we conclude by a Father sharing this experience with his Son. That's about as poignant as it gets really.

    The music has a sort of country type feel, and the ever growing musical backdrop works very well too.
    The drums raise up to a rimshot, then when the instrumental starts they move up to a full snare strike.... perhaps the snare is slightly loud, but not too bad.
    The female backing vocals work well as a wall of melody and harmony.
    We get a nice sax lead break, that is introduced by a nice flowing piano section.

    I like this song quite a lot actually, and so far for me this album comes off three for three.


     
  3. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    By the River - I remember being unimpressed with this when the album was new, but I like it a lot better now. Interesting that this was his take on the issue of ecology, which he has since addressed much more directly. Either way, it's a nice change of pace after the last song (which I love, but still it's pretty intense).
     
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  4. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    By the River: This is good. We'd be considering this in much higher regard had it been one of the more famous 80s albums. Maybe a follow up to "Big River"? In any event, surely deserves to be heard, can't picture any long-term Seger fan being disappointed in a track like this. Unfortunately, Seger/Andrews have decided that we don't need to "officially" hear this, and the last vestiges of the track will fade like the used CD copies being slowly sold off on Amazon. What a shame. If the album keeps at this level, I'm going to be one of those Amazon used customers!
     
  5. By the River is very much one of my favourite songs on this album, has been from first listen. Always loved the way he brings it to a close.
     
  6. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Beautiful song and track. This is IMO how a statement should be made in a song, with enough subtlety that the listener feels like the importance of ecological conservation is an idea they had themselves after listening to a song, not something the lyricist was telling them to think. Love the use of a very brief and touching lyric after the instrumental. Lyrics feel like a series of haiku though they do not all fit the exact requirements of that genre.

    Rating 10/10
     
  7. Davido

    Davido ...assign someone to butter your muffin?

    Location:
    Austin
    Simple and uplifting. Could be reworked as a gospel song. Certainly works as an effective palette cleanser after the opening pair of songs.
     
  8. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Glad to see there continues to be at least one truly memorable song on each Seger album we go through. Makes it worth continuing this journey with you all.
     
  9. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Obviously is depends on perspective, but I think particularly on his return albums, after his family break, there are some excellent tracks
     
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  10. tenor1

    tenor1 Forum Resident

    When It's a Mystery came out, several writers highlighted By the River as a highlight. It's cool to see a similar reaction here! Personally though I don't care much for it, and that's more musical than lyrical - it just doesn't click with me for whatever reason.
     
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  11. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    I knew about the pre Beautiful Loser LPs being removed from the marketplace but had no idea that Bob and Punch did the same thing to the ones from this end of his career. What the hell kind of business model is that?!?
     
  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Manhattan.

    Shakey Davey's got a twelve gauge in his hand
    It's sawed off to the limit
    He's got a vague plan
    There's this liquor store on Madison
    There's another one down on Washington square
    He's pretty sure no one's ever seen him
    Down around there

    The first one's birdshot the next four are double aught buck
    The last one's a slug just for good luck
    He's got his works in his pocket
    He wants to score as soon as he's done
    He can't wait to get straight to get long gone

    He puts on his long coat scribbles off a short note
    Sits himself down and waits for the sun to go down

    It's right around midnight and there's still too damn many people on this street
    He's walked all the way from Battery Park he's got sweaty hands and burnin' feet
    He's desperate for a fix
    His body's screamin' "Get me high"
    He bursts through the door and lets one fly

    Sunrise in the park and Davey's cold as stone
    He got some bad merchandise and he was all alone
    Two more unsolved mysteries a lot of paper pushed around
    Most folks are just wakin' up in this great big town

    From Seger File
    I admire Seger when he's taking chances so I salute this. Jesse said he cried when he heard it. Said Randy, another Seger DEW-liner: "If I wanted to hear songs about liquor stores getting knocked off, I'd buy a rap record."

    I get the impression that this song is likely to get a wide spread of opinions. It is a very different type of track for Seger, both lyrically and in the musical arrangement.

    Personally I love this. Certainly there are all kinds of ways that Seger could have chosen to present this, but I like the way he did it here.
    We get some light ambient noise and then a drum track that just keeps moving forward. Then we get an instrumental introduction, and that marks one of the slightly different approaches Seger takes with the song.
    The song has no chorus, what we have is this instrumental section working as an instrumental refrain of sorts, and for me it works well.
    As for the instrumental section itself, well it sort of has a Jim Steinman feel about it, but I like Steinman so I'm not perturbed about that.
    Then we get the next little change of direction.
    Seger doesn't really sing this song, he somewhat narrates it, but he narrates it with nice vocal delivery style. I actually find the way he did this to be quite compelling.

    The instrumental sections have a lot of sonic development. the chord pattern and the pianos melodic structure stay pretty much the same, but for me the little bits and pieces going on in there work well. We get some howling guitar and other little bits and pieces and I like the way it gives the track some dynamic shift, and it has a nice texture that appeals to me.

    Lyrically this is like a focus in from the American Storm perspective. American Storm was addressing the drug problem brewing in the US, and this song focuses in on one of the side effects of that.
    We're introduced to Shakey Davey straight away, and it appears that he is planning to rob a liquor store. There are some of the terminologies that are somewhat foreign to me, but it seems like he owes his dealer some money, and he also wants some more product, and then it seems like he wants to leave town?

    We get a good short bridge that breaks things up nicely, and rolls right round to the next verse.

    In the second last verse we have Davey on the cusp of hitting the store, waiting for the moment. He is driven by his addiction and it is effecting his rational decision making. So he bursts in and fires off a shot. I assume the shot is to get the person behind the counter's attention.

    We come to the last verse and some time has passed. The sun is rising, and Davey is dead in the park. Davey some some bad product, and it took his life, but it is a case of his life was lost when the addiction took hold and the rational human disappeared.
    Seger uses an excellent technique here, he pulls the focus back from our subject to the broader community. We have two more unsolved mysteries , I assume speaks to the liquor store robbery, and the dead body in the park. To me these kinds of things will always raise the question why, because it all seems so unnecessary.
    Then we pull back even further and end the song with the statement that most folks are just waking up in this great big town. The implication being that most will have no idea any of this has happened and they will go about their day to day lives completely oblivious to the things that have been going on, and how it is impacting their society.

    I really like this track, and it shows yet again that Bob is still exploring the possibilities with his writing.
    For me this works really well, and I'll be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.




     
  13. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Manhattan: I like the musical background on this song, but the lyrics feel silly to me, especially living here (and at that time). The geographical references are screwy and seem to be thrown in just to prove he knows what he's singing about. Walking all the way from Battery Park? Not sure what a junkie intent on robbing a liquor store was doing down there, unless he was taking a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty before going on his rampage. I can't tell whether he was using Don Henley's "New York Minute" as a reference point, or doing his best Lou Reed. I would lean in the Reed direction as he's talk-singing the same way Reed did on so many songs. But this song has none of the knowing, loose vibe of so many Reed songs about the city. This feels like a bad episode of Kojack! He'd have been much better off writing something equally as gritty about Detroit, which I'm sure would have been a place and set of lyrics he could have inhabited more comfortably.
     
  14. tenor1

    tenor1 Forum Resident

    I like it when Seger moves out of his comfort zone so it's fun to hear Manhattan on this album. He clearly still liked it years later as it got put on Greatest Hits 2. It's not my preferred style though, so I admire it more than love it. When it comes to Seger's Lou Reed influences, I prefer his cover of Busload of Faith.

    I'm not from New York so the geographical references don't bother me, but thinking about it now I can see what @fspringer means. Springsteen had a similarly poor sense of Michigan geography in Highway Patrolman which bugs me the same way when I hear that song.
     
  15. Davido

    Davido ...assign someone to butter your muffin?

    Location:
    Austin
    Like a Hollywood movie, Seger inserts some musical tricks such as wailing guitar solos and thundering piano keys to make “Manhattan” a dramatic junkie tale and it mostly works despite any local geographic concerns. The song doesn’t have the magical realism of the best Lou Reed songs on “New York” or the epic qualities of Bruce Springsteen’s mini operas on “Born to Run” but I bet it was an engaging exercise for Seger. The production works on this song which counts for something.
     
  16. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I Wonder.

    My old friend Sirius is riding high tonight
    Shinin' down so bright on the harbor lights
    I wonder I wonder

    Who are these strangers on the street
    Seekin' out the heat with their eyes cast down millin' around
    I wonder I wonder
    I wonder sometimes I wonder

    There's a last boat comin' in ghosting on the wind
    The moon across the bay lighting his way
    I wonder It makes me wonder

    What's it like out there tonight far from the city lights
    Are your dreams the same
    I wonder it makes me wonder
    I wonder it makes me wonder

    Seger File
    "Sitting in my apartment in Naples, Florida, watching the boats sail by. Five years ago, I took up sailing. My one hobby now is sailing my 45-footer single-handed."
    Capital "Leaning Tower" Internet Pages

    Here we have a song that to me at least sounds to be another very different type of track for Bob, and again I think it is really very successful and I like it.

    This has a dreamy, relaxed, summer evening at the beach kind of feel about it.
    We open with a nice chorused electric guitar, and it is joined by an unobtrusive keyboard humming a gentle chord pattern underneath. The drums just gently shuffle along, and the feel is set up immediately. The lead guitar the introduces the song, is relaxed and relaxing, and really nice playing to go with that.

    Lyrically we pretty much reflect the title of the song. Bob is obviously sitting out on the balcony of his apartment watching the world go by, and the lyrics are pretty much a diary of an evening or something along those lines.

    Bob sings this with a really nice relaxed vocal, and I think it highlights how well Bob could sing a song like this.

    For me this is a really good inclusion on the album, and I think it fits the flow of the album really well. The diversity we're getting here, for me at least, really adds to the quality of this album, and the fact that so many songs are just a little different for Bob, yet feel so natural, amplifies my enjoyment of it.


     
  17. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    Manhattan - This might have worked a decade earlier, when New York was known for its crime. By 1995 and even moreso since then, it's a bit hard to swallow.

    I Wonder - This one is beautiful. Always liked it.
     
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  18. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    I Wonder: I'm thinking there's probably a sub-category for songs about rock stars wealthy enough to have sailboats*, and the calming songs they record as a result: "Sailing" by Supertramp, "Southern Cross" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, "Cool Change" by The Little River Band, any number of country music odes to beach life, etc. A really odd song by Seger, but not necessarily bad. The odd part for me is I can ponder writing a mellow song like this about sailing in the waters around NYC, while also imagining a junkie robbing a liquor store in Naples, Florida. But this was how the geography worked for Seger. It surely stands apart from anything else he's recorded! No sax solo on a song like this? Alto Reed must have been shaking his head.

    * In my mind, not the same as Yacht Rock, which feels more specifically mid 70s to early 80s in sound and instrumentation. "I Wonder" has the same spirit but doesn't sound this way to me.
     
  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I'm still a bit lost on the whole Yacht Rock thing.... but for some reason this song made me think of Jimmy Buffett
     
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  20. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    My take on Yacht Rock: what songs would you want to listen to if you were having a relaxing soirée one Caribbean night on your yacht? I always envision electric piano, maracas, smooth bass, sax solo's, Michael McDonald, guys in ship captain hats with blue blazers, ascots and white pants, colorful tropical drinks with mini-umbrellas. My prototypical Yacht Rock song would be "Moonlight Feels Right" by Starbuck. I know there's been a massive thread about this topic with all sorts of takes. It's about a musical vibe more than anything. I don't think "I Wonder" is quite there: too much electric guitar and missing an essential sax solo.
     
  21. tenor1

    tenor1 Forum Resident

    I don't know what it is, but for me I just don't like the ballads on this album as much as the rockers. That goes for I Wonder. I guess I find the melody and lyrics less compelling than past Seger ballads. For the melody it's more the refrain as the opening line of each verse has a nice arc to it.
     
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  22. Davido

    Davido ...assign someone to butter your muffin?

    Location:
    Austin
    With "I Wonder" we go from Lou Reed to Boz Scaggs!

    The soothing, almost lazy-sounding instrumental section that opens the song (nearly a minute!) must be unusual in Seger's canon and sets the mood for "I Wonder" - I like the change of pace honestly. But isn't this somewhat abrupt after the drama of "Manhattan"?
     
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  23. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Manhattan
    A very cool departure from Seger's usual style that works well. Tells a story very economically with powerful musical setting. Don't know that I will go back to it much, but glad to have checked it out.
    Rating 7/10
     
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  24. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    I Wonder
    Wow it is hard to believe this track and Mamhattan are by the same artist. Can't say I care for this one at all. Such a clichéd super soft rock sound, so languid, repetitive melodically and lyrically without anything that really grabs me.
    Rating 2/10
     
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  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It's A Mystery.

    It's A Mystery
    How the heart beats
    How the sun shines
    How our eyes meet

    It's A Mystery
    lt's a wonder
    How we keep from
    Sinking under

    It's A Mystery

    All the nonsense
    Set before us
    Supposed to shock us
    But it bores us

    All the ennui
    All the replays
    All the rewrites
    All the "can't says"

    It's A Mystery

    Electron guns fire images
    They end in interstellar space
    Within the year
    And through it all
    We dance and starve and
    Burn and clear

    It's A Mystery
    How they con us
    How they sneak til
    They're upon us

    All the anchors
    With their helmets
    Getting ratings
    With their zealots

    All the pundits
    All the salesmen
    Setting snake oil
    To the nation

    All the specials
    Every rerun
    All the penguins
    Getting well-done

    It's A Mystery

    It's A Mystery
    How the heart beats
    How the sun shines
    How our eyes meet

    It's A Mystery
    It's a wonder
    How we ever
    Find each other

    It's A Mystery

    Songwriters: Bob Seger
    It’s a Mystery lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

    From Seger File
    The first song written for the album. An indictment of the sensational and superficial tendencies of the news media, among other things. "It sort of set the tone for the whole thing," Seger said.
    Gary Graff, October 19, 1995, Reuters

    This is another song that seems very different for Bob. We come in with a fast tempo and what sounds like a kind of blues type guitar riff with a bending G on the low E string, that works with a hammer on technique. This is accented by a solid keyboard underneath. The drum track is a really good relentless forward thrust, that pushes us headlong through the song.

    With the lyrics and vocals here, we have a deliberately kind of monotonous set up. This reflects the subject matter very well. This is directed at the news media, and their perpetual lies and misrepresentations in order to manipulate the people of this country. This song is probably even more relevant these days, where the narrative has become so at odds with the truth that it's like watching a poorly made tv series.

    The verses essentially work like lists, and set up the idea very well.
    We get a bridge of sorts that changes up the feel of the song nicely and delivers us a nice aural change up. This is followed by scorching lead guitar that really gets the attention.

    Personally I really like this track. It is Bob hitting on a very serious topic, and I think handling it in such a way that if you want to take in the information you can, but if you don't , then you just have an excellent thrusting, ripping rock song that is just tearing it up. In many ways this is the most aggressive track Bob has done for a long time, and I think is works really well.


    The track starts at about 26:28, for some reason the individual track wouldn't play.
     

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