What's next for Bob Seger?

So, Bob has finished his final tour. What’s a 74-year-old to do next?

He's notoriously slow on releasing new material. Only 5 new albums since 1991.
Does he finally start servicing his criminally under served catalog?
Release a live CD of the final tour?
Maybe the long-promised live DVD?
He’s one of the few artists without some kind of rarity laden career overview. Not even a ‘Deluxe Edition’ of any album. The big 40th anniversary of ‘Against the Wind’ has been greeted with a blue vinyl release. Sounds kind of underwhelming. Seger has always been one of those artists who seems to disappear when he’s not on tour. Anybody think he just rides off into the sunset and waits for the grandkids to show up?

 

Since Punch has closed own his offices with no forwarding address, one could assume they are negotiating a lucrative "end game" sell off of the publishing, masters and copyrights to the highest bidder.

 

I sincerely hope for some form of dvd/bluray of a classic concert... or concert highlights... it has been a long time coming, and I know that footage and recordings exist.

So far as Bob goes... I hope he enjoys being with his family, or his bikes or whatever it is that he is/does.
I reckon he earned a peaceful retirement...

I wouldn't complain if we got some albums remixed for 5.1 either

 

It really is criminal how neglected Bob Seger's back catalogue is. Just think - we could have had 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe box sets for Beautiful Loser, Live Bullet, Night Moves and Stranger in Town, with SDE's of Against the Wind, Nine Tonight and The Distance.

 

Idk but i deeply hope he gets itchy feet and releases all unleased albums cleaned up. Maybe deluxe versions of his big studio albums 75-86.
A classic concert release on dvd or a video anthology would be heaven.

Please dont go quiet into that good night Bob !!

 

He should play keyboards with a 4-man Pink Floyd, help with the writing and tell Roger to tone it down every now and then.

And oversee a decent collection with good mastering and decent dynamic range of his early material, and his later stuff, for that matter. I can only assume he knows what music is supposed to sound like. It is his legacy and he should protect it.

 

I thought Bob said he's now retired (?)

 

From touring. That leaves lots of open doors still

 

Ah ! Okay , that's good !


Perhaps then, finally , more volumes in the (hinted at) 'Early Seger' series !

 

74? What more could he possibly give? He couldn’t care less about his back catalogue. There will be no Bob Seeger System or Noah reissues. I wish he would, but he’s stayed away from his early releases and he seems the type to stick to his guns. Our only resort is to check out eBay From time to time. Hope I’m proven wrong.

 

Excellent point ! I thought that was a pretty good attempt by bob at giving us a crumb, obviously if we get all the oop albums released we wouldnt need them on a vol 2, but perhaps more unreleased tracks outtakes and maybe rare live cuts ?

Id love a full vintage set from The Bob Seger System !!

 

I hope you're proven wrong too ! You never know, the closer a man gets to the end his perception changes.

 

A massive Bear Family set of all his albums/singles from the very beginning.

 

Ooooh !!

.. heh , if you're gonna dream,
dream BIG !!


Ya know, this just got me thinking ..
.. doesn't music that remains unissued for a certain period of time wind up in Public Domain unless reissued by the copyright holder ? Or is that only after the original owner is deceased ? All of that early Seger System stuff is eventually going to wind up as PD, then, if nothing else, needledrop CDs of the titles Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, Noah, Mongrel, Seven, Brand New Morning, and Back in '72 (did I leave anything out?) will appear in stores as legit releases.

 

He clearly dislikes the early albums. Even so, shouldn't preclude deluxe editions of his classic albums. Too bad.

 

I was recently giving a listen to his 1974 album 'Seven.'...I think this was the first album he did with the Silver Bullet Band...Its one of his lesser known albums, but i regard it as one of his best...

 

He clearly dislikes/disliked touring overseas too...he rarely ventured outside of the States...not sure if he had an aversion to flying or not?

 

He's reportedly sitting on a vault of a couple hundred or so unreleased (and mostly un-bootlegged) studio songs, many of which are supposedly of very high quality. Like Springsteen, he had a habit of writing 2 or 3 albums worth of material for each album he issued going back to his "peak" period in the 1970s ("what to leave in, what to leave out"). In later years, when the 2 years between albums tended to stretch to 5-8 years, he reportedly recorded and binned several albums' worth of songs in between the ones he did put out.

Ideally, he would begin issuing archival releases culling out the best of this material. But I'm not holding out much hope for that when he can't even seem to get several of his actually released albums out to the marketplace.

Chances are it'll be left to his kids to sort through.

 

Man, it would be a shame if none of that sees the light of day. Criminal, even.

 

Most deluxe albums are major disappointments, with very few gems. Usually throwaway demos and uninspired live tracks. Wading through countless scraps is hard listening. Bob knows a good tune when he hears one. I suspect they are in a vault for a reason

 

I tend to feel that the artist is the least qualified judge of the quality of his or her own work. Many of Springsteen's, Dylan's, Neil Young's, etc. greatest songs were initially deemed unsuitable for release by each artist - or at least, a poor fit for the album they were piecing together at the time.

From the reporting I've read of one who has personally heard and taken notes on dozens of the unreleased songs in Seger's vault, there are many gems in there that can easily stand with the best of the stuff he released at the time - the unused title track to Stranger In Town among them. I would suspect that the outtakes from the later period (say, post-1990) aren't generally as strong as the ones from the 1970s and 80s, but I'd sure like to be in the position to make those discoveries and assessments for myself.

 

I tend to disagree. But would like to be presently surprised. Who is your source that claims there are countless gems? Bob is known to keep a tight lid on his recordings, so it would have to be someone in his circle

 

Note: Most artists don’t work alone. They have a production team ( producers, engineers, managers, ) that oversee recording sessions, and evaluate material for subsequent release. Hence most deluxe editions have been previously cherry picked

 

This website, which hasn't been updated in around 7 years, is where I've read most of the details, but it has been backed up by other articles I've seen elsewhere.

The Bob Seger File -- Introduction

If you go down the menu on the left side, you'll find several links to descriptions of maybe 70-80 outtakes that this guy has heard from "collectors" who are apparently able to access these tapes. Details on the access aren't provided. Also, a few of these outtakes were later released on Seger's last two studio albums and I think perhaps one or two on that Early Seger thing; at the time these posts were written, however, they had been recorded but not released.

 

I guess we'll have to disagree on this, but I thought the Eary Years Vol 1 was pretty lame. Not that I have a problem with the material on it, but (1) it was incredibly stingy, (2) some of the vintage tracks featured overdubs, (3) one of the tracks was actually a re-recording of a vintage track and (4) the album included several modern outtakes that had absolutely no business being included on an album etitled "Early Years."

I get it - Bob doesn't care for most of his pre-1975 recorded output. But some of these albums hold their own against Bob's peak output (1975-1986), and even Noah has a few decent songs on it. Personally, I think an early years box set compiling his entire 1968-1974 output would have made far more sense. At the very least, he could have released a single disc Bob Seger System anthology and a 2-CD anthology highlighting the best material from Brand New Morning through Seven (actually, you could probably fit all four albums released between 1971 and 1974 on 2 discs and might still have room left over for a few outtakes).