The Long-Awaited Return of Bob Seger
[From September 2006]
Bob Seger’s new CD, “Face The Promise,” is his first studio album in 11 years and marks a new chapter in the career of one of America’s most beloved rockers.
The single “Wait For Me” features the classic Seger sound, with a voice that is a touch deeper than the one we heard on 1995’s CD “It’s A Mystery.” Seger has been idle since that body of work was recorded, although a second edition of his greatest hits issued in 2003 contained two previously unreleased songs.
A grassroots cry from Seger’s adoring public clinched his 2004 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he seems to be thanking his faithful fans with the new CD.
While Seger’s manager, Punch Andrews, has said that Bob might tour in support of the new disc, rumors abound that Seger has put together a version of the Silver Bullet Band and is rehearsing for a stint on the road. One report speculated that a tour would include no more than 21 cities.
Seger, who produced the new album, spent many months working on “Face The Promise.” According to Billboard, Seger took his time deciding on the songs and their sequence on the CD. “You’ve got to get a standard bearer, something you want the album to stand up to,” Seger said in an interview.
The story of Seger’s career would make a great Hollywood movie script. It would tell the story of a musician whose father was a big band leader in the 1940s and left his family when Bob was only 10 years old. The tale would show how a teenager started out playing in garage bands in the early 1960s and displayed enormous patience and work ethic on his climb to stardom until his name became a household word in 1977.
Robert Clark Seger was born May 6, 1945, in Detroit, Mich., and his career bears a great similarity to that of New Jersey’s Bruce Springsteen. Both paid their dues in the rock music industry by starting small, honing their skills as singer-songwriters and slowly building a fan base with extensive touring and gigs in small clubs. Their songs spun tales of blue collar folk, and decades later both still live in their respective home states.
Raised in the music-rich Detroit area, Seger joined his first band, the Decibels, at age 16. He subsequently played with the Town Criers and the Omen before fronting the Last Heard, which was renamed the Bob Seger System. Signed to Capitol Records, they had national success with “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” in 1969.
That was to be Seger’s only top 40 hit for the next eight years. In fact, he was so unsure of his musical future that he quit the business to attend college near the end of ’69.
In the early 1970s Seger was back on stage and issued a few albums that got little national attention. Undaunted, he remained a tireless touring act, playing 267 concerts in 1974 alone. About that time he made a decision about the band he would front that changed the course of his career.
“In all the early bands, it had always been a democratic thing,” Seger told Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times. “They carried my name, but I’d have to give this away to get that. This time I wanted to choose all the songs and call all the shots on stage. I also wanted to reserve the right to record with studio musicians if the band’s versions didn’t turn out right.”
Enter the Silver Bullet Band in 1974. The original members were Drew Abbott on guitar, Chris Campbell on bass, Robyn Robbins on keyboards, Charlie Martin on drums and Alto Reed on saxophone. Over the years the members included back-up singers Shaun Murphy and Laura Creamer, drummer Dave Teegarden and two former members of Grand Funk Railroad – keyboardist Craig Frost and drummer Don Brewer.
The new band recorded the album “Beautiful Loser” in 1975 and issued “Live Bullet,” which was derived from a concert in Detroit the next year.
Then came the 1976 album “Night Moves” and the title track that moved Seger’s career into overdrive.
Seger, who wrote the song with inspiration from the movie American Graffiti, recorded it in Toronto under the guidance of Canadian producer Jack Richardson.
Seger hadn’t been satisfied with the way rehearsals sounded. So, on the night he recorded “Night Moves,” he sent home most of the Silver Bullet members after their parts were complete. He kept Campbell and Martin, played acoustic guitar himself and added Canadian pianist Doug Riley, guitarist Joe Miquelon and three female singers from Montreal. At 2:30 a.m. they laid down the track that would vault Seger into mainstream rock stardom.
After “Night Moves” became a platinum album, the band followed with “Stranger In Town” in 1978. “Stranger” contained the rock anthem “Old Time Rock & Roll,” which was written by George Jackson and Thomas Earl Jones. Reportedly, Seger rewrote some of the song before he recorded it but took no writing credit. That decision cost him dearly in royalties because of extensive airplay, jukebox play and the song’s inclusion in the movie Risky Business.
In 1980 Seger released “Against The Wind,” which landed atop the album charts. Another live album, “Nine Tonight,” kept his momentum going, but his sales began to level off on the albums “The Distance,” “Like A Rock” and “The Fire Inside.”
“Shakedown” became his only No. 1 single in 1987.
As Seger pushed the pause button on his career to raise a family in the 1990s, his album sales were nearing 50 million. Including greatest hits packages, he had issued 19 albums leading up to “Face The Promise.”
Much of his music is graced by the simplicity of acoustic guitar and piano and just the right amount of backing vocals. His throaty voice has delivered working class numbers like “Makin’ Thunderbirds” and touching ballads like “We’ve Got Tonite.”
Looking at Seger’s lyrics, one can only guess how much autobiographical information he has tucked into his stories. For example:
From “Turn The page:” Most times you can’t hear ‘em talk, other times you can. All the same old clichés – is that a woman or a man? And you always seem outnumbered, you don’t dare make a stand.
From “Hollywood Nights:” Night after night, day after day it went on and on. Then came that morning he woke up alone. He spent all night staring down at the lights of L.A., wondering if he could ever go home.
From “Like A Rock:” I was 18, didn’t have a care. Working for peanuts, not a dime to spare. But I was lean and solid everywhere – like a rock.
From “Main Street:” I remember standing on the corner at midnight, tryin’ to get my courage up. There was this long, lovely dancer in a little club downtown. I loved to watch her do her stuff.
From “Against The Wind:” It seems like yesterday, but it was long ago. Janey was lovely, she was the queen of my nights there in the darkness with the radio playing low.
And has it ever occurred to you that nearly every line in “Fire Lake” is in the form of a question?
Seger’s latest album may turn out to be little more than a victory lap in the career of a rock and roll winner, but it gives us an opportunity to celebrate his success at least one more time.
