Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

Let me start off by saying I feel so extremely honored to have seen Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in 1983 and 1986. The first show was the better show. In a 17,000 venue instead of a 40,000 venue. Which makes all the difference. Granted that was not the only difference .

The 1983 show was right before the Tom Cruise vehicle Risky Business came out. The one scene everybody remembers from that movie is Joel celebrating his new found kingdom. With the infamous descending piano intro of Old Time Rock and Roll. You see? In 1986 they took out the rollicking extended intro of Old Time and Roll to appease the idiots who defined their love of Bob Seger by some stupid white pimp movie. Some other Seger songs made it to movies like Beverly Hills Cop 2 and About Last Night. Songs that were never in any albums I bought. Listen to this live version of Old Time Rock and Roll, preferably with friends at a party. I really dare you not to move. Not to boogie. Not to groove with the Silver Bullet Band.

I will switch gears with the second choice. Another misunderstood song. Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton covered this song. Quite horribly I might add. It's a beautiful, sad ballad about an imminent goodbye and making the best of the moment. A song about a love that has to end for some reason. It's not a plea to keep going but to value the present. And like I have said many many times. A song means so much more when it's sung by the person who wrote it and not because the singer is being paid to sing it.

Deep in my soul, Ive been so lonely
All of my hopes, fading away
Ive longed for love, like everyone else does
I know Ill keep searching, after today
So there it is girl, Ive got it all now
And here we are babe, what do you say?
We've got tonight, who needs tomorrow?
We've got tonight babe

I will upload more Silver Bullet songs into a play list and hopefully talk a little about each song. Below is a recent write up of Live Bullet by Bob Lefsetz. Like I told my best friend, if a Martian came down and wanted to know what rock and roll was. You could not go far wrong giving him / her the two Bob Seger in concert cds. ENJOY!!!

Music link:


http://cornholiogogs.multiply.com/music

Ed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Seger

Bob Seger left moribund Capitol for the hippest record company in the world and still didn't have a hit. "Back In '72" garnered some good reviews, but despite containing the original version of "Turn The Page" and a great cover of Free's "Stealer", the album sank like a stone and with his tail between his legs, Bob left Reprise's San Fernando Valley headquarters and got off the 101 at Vine and returned to the Tower, Capitol Records that is. And still remained an acquired taste, a virtual unknown in the now dominant AOR world. A king in Detroit, no one cared about "Seven" when it was released.

But then came "Beautiful Loser"...

"He wants to dream like a young man

With the wisdom of an old man

He wants his home and security

He wants to live like a sailor at sea"

Can you get off the dime? Can you get out of your head and out the front door? Can you try to live out your fantasies?

Most people can't. They talk big, but they leave no physical evidence. Because they're afraid they're just not good enough, that they might fail. Give the celebs credit, they took the risk. Of not only failing, but abuse. For once you rise above the fray, all those who were too scared to try come after you, try to drag you down into the hole they're in. Seger was trying, and finally he got a modicum of airplay. "Beautiful Loser" got spun here and there. But to say there was a breakthrough would be beyond charitable, it would be an outright lie, except for dedicated rock fans, no one had any idea who Seger was, never mind having never heard his music.

But that was about to change the following year, with the release of "Live Bullet".

They say you've got to hear a band live. That that's the only place you can understand it, the only place you can get it. That's rare today, with all the studio trickery. Seemingly anybody can make a slick recorded product, but play live? That separates the men from the boys, almost everybody's a disappointment live. But after almost ten years in the trenches, Seger was road-honed, his band was firing on all Mopar cylinders, he cut a double live album and EXPLODED!

All those tracks that had been ignored on previous albums became radio staples. Not only the haunting aforementioned "Turn The Page", but the incredible combo of "Travelin' Man" and "Beautiful Loser", segueing into a nine minute masterpiece, a seventies rock anthem.

"Sometimes at night, I see their faces

I feel the traces they've left on my soul

Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul

Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul"

Seger was singing about the women, those who'd abandoned him, those who'd tried to corner him. But these lines from "Travelin' Man" were also a metaphor for his career. He hadn't wanted to be tied down, he didn't want to make any commitments, other than to his music, he didn't want to give up, he needed to MAKE IT!

And make it he did, becoming one of the biggest arena acts of the era. Hell, he can still tour arenas today! And those memories, of his tunes pouring out of the Camaro's dash, at the backyard pool party, have been imprinted upon our DNA, they're the story of our lives, they've made us wealthy souls.

Sure, Kid Rock's gone country a bit. But when he e-mailed me yesterday that he'd known that country fans were the best in the world for ten years, he wasn't only making a declaratory sentence, he was making a reference, to Bob Seger's "Silver Bullet" double album. For deep in the grooves are these unforgettable lines:

"I read somewhere, I think it was in Rolling Stone, that Detroit audiences are the finest rock and roll audiences in the world.

"Shoot, I've known that for 10 years!"

We are not owned by the record companies, or the TV stations. We're owned by the records. When done right, they penetrate us, they're unforgettable.

Kid Rock has not forgotten. And based on the response, it turns out many in my audience have not either.

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