Tours/Concerts
Early Shows
Mike Parshall, who owns
New Moon Records and Tapes in Mount Pleasant, was Seger's
road manager until 1969. (Thomas Weschler took over as road
manager in the spring of '69.)
Parshall was working for
Punch when Doug Brown introduced Punch and Seger..while
Seger was playing at a place called the Red Carpet.
Teresa Fowler, January
1996, Traverse City Record-Eagle. "TC man remembers Seger's
early days."
Parshall: "He'd be big in
Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas and then in Arizona they'd
never heard of him...Some concert promoters who had only
heard Seger's growly yowl on demo tapes were surprised when
a white guy showed up." Teresa
Fowler, January 1996, Traverse City Record-Eagle. "TC man
remembers Seger's early days."
Seger played 20 times or
more at the Tanz House in Acme. Seger sold out 4,150 seats
at the Glacier Dome -- a one time ice-skating rink on South
Cass -- on July 24, 1976 just days after playing the Pontiac
Silverdome. Seger played in Traverse City a few days later.
Parshall said the Traverse City show was better than the
Silverdome show. Teresa
Fowler, January 1996, Traverse City Record-Eagle. "TC man
remembers Seger's early days."
In the early days "we
didn't play bars -- there was no booze, just cokes,
teenagers and a couple dollars admission. There were
probably 30 or 40 of these joints around the state, places
like the Mt. Holly Ski Lodge, The Riviera, clubs in Saginaw
and Caseville, and we played them all. No one ever got paid
more than a couple hundred
bucks." Patrick
Goldstein, Rolling Stone, July 29, 1976
 The
Oakland Mall
Seger: "I'll never forget
this gig we did at Oakland Mall. We'd been making records
for about three years and had about seven Top Ten singles,
and we went out and did about half an hour at this shopping
mall in front of 20,000, the biggest crowd we'd ever played
for. The Rationals were there, Ted Nugent was there, but we
closed the show. We did all our hit songs, that's all we
did. Scott Morgan [of the Rationals] came up to me
and said, 'I can't believe it.' And Glenn Frey said the same
thing. 'You just played hit after hit. I can't believe it.'
This is 1968, right?" Dave
Marsh, Rolling Stone, June 16, 1978.
The legendary Oakland Mall
concert must have been an amazing scene. People of my
generation talk about 'being at Woodstock' as kind of the
end-all be-all of concerts -- but I what I would give to
have stood with the crowd that day in Oakland.
Longtime Seger fan Rob
Maisch adds this info about the concert:
"The guy who gave
me my first job in the Shopping Center Industry was the
Marketing Director of Oakland Mall's Grand Opening. His
name was Bob Jones and knowing of my interest in Bob
Seger, he told me the story of how he had included that
parking lot concert as a part of Oakland Mall's
Grand Opening Events ...and that it almost cost
him his job!
As I recall, he had
figured the concert would be a sure-fire way to generate
enormous Grand-Opening traffic and free publicity for the
mall. He especially wanted to make a huge splash against
existing competitor Northland Mall and more specifically
his semi-friend/arch-rival Stan Eichelbaum who was then
acting as Northland's Marketing
Director.
What he hadn't reckoned
on, he told me in retrospect, was that the concert almost
totally negated ANY "regular shoppers" from visiting the
Mall or shopping in the brand new stores because of the
wall-to-wall cars coming off of the 14 Mile Road
Exit from I-75 in both directions, as well as the
major traffic snarls throughout the local streets
surrounding the mall trying to get into the mall for the
concert!
Concert-goers had
sucked up ALL of the available parking spaces in the
Mall's parking lot and numerous spaces had already been
surrendered to accommodate staging and the concert
area in front of Hudsons Department Store!
The only retail
activity this afforded to the mall during that Grand
Opening Day was kids running in and out for Cokes and
snacks from the fast food vendors and long lines forming
at the mall's small community restrooms!
Needless to say, the
Mall merchants who had spent months building, decorating,
stocking and getting their stores ready for the
"magic day" of Grand Opening were left with no REAL
customers to speak of and ample time to organize a lynch
mob to go looking for Mr. Jones!
He laughed about it
from the distance of about five years in his rearview
mirror, but said he caught holy hell from just about
everybody from the Detroit news media, to Troy and the
surrounding suburbs police, due to the horrible driving
and parking conditions it created in the area that
day.
Bob passed away about a
dozen years ago, a true pioneer in the shopping center
marketing field and there still is a monthly industry
newsletter that bears his name. I have many fond memories
of him as a friend and as a mentor in my earliest days in
that business. He did teach me that malls and rock
& roll never, EVER mix!!! Not even when it's Rock
& Roll of the magnitude of Bob Seger's! Thought you'd
enjoy this ancillary tale of that long ago
concert.
Best Regards,
Rob Maisch"
Bill Cook, another
longtime Seger fan, was lucky enough to be in the crowd that
day. And he also had the great fortune of sharing the
experience with one of his closest friends. He e-mailed me
to say that reading about Seger "reminded me of my youth and
the return to musical roots through friendship."
He titled his e-mail
The Seger Circle. I love his story, because
it illustrates so well how Seger's music is a uniting force
-- something that brings friends together, again and again.
Here it is:
"The start of the
circle...
Back in '68, my best
friend Bill Johnson and I went to the Oakland Mall in
Troy, Michigan to see a rock and roll show. This had been
promoted for weeks. We were going to see the Rationals,
The Amboy Dukes and The Bob Seger System.
This was going to be
our first chance to hear the live music which had been
dominating the Detroit airwaves. I couldn't wait to hear
Journey To The Center Of The Mind and Seger's string of
hits...East Side Story, Persecution Smith, Heavy Music
and Ramblin' Gamblin' Man.
When we approached the
mall from I-75, the crowd was overwhelming. The entire
Southwest corner of the mall parking area was jammed with
people. The parking lots, streets and every conceivable
parking spot was taken. We took advantage of an I-75 ramp
and parked our car on the shoulder and jumped
out.
What a scene! We sat on
the side of the elevated ramp looking down at the stage
in front of Hudson's department store and thousands
(later reported to be 20,000) of people digging Michigan
rock and roll. This was an incredible turnout to see
"local" rock acts. Maybe we knew something the rest of
the world would later know.
The show went on all
afternoon. I wish I could remember all of the bands. We
kept waiting for Seger.
At one point, my buddy,
who was dressed in the current fashion of the times --
shirt, jeans and barefoot -- stepped on a tin can and cut
his foot really bad. It was decision time. Should we get
out of there and head home to treat the cut? He says 'no
way' and wraps his foot in a handkerchief. We wanted to
see Seger.
Needless to say, about
an hour later, Bob took the stage as the closing act that
afternoon. To this day, when I drive past that mall
(twice daily), I can still see that parking lot full of
people jumping to their feet at the first notes/drums of
Heavy Music and Ramblin' Gamblin' Man. Bob blew 'em
away.
Completing the
circle...
In 1995, I relocated
from Philadelphia back to my hometown of Detroit. Can you
imagine the adrenaline rush when I learned that Bob was
going to perform in the spring of 1996 at the Palace of
Auburn Hills (two and a half miles from my home in
Rochester Hills)?
Since '68, I had seen
Bob in bars with less than 100 people (Milwaukee '73) and
in arenas during the 80's with 15,000 or more. Knowing
that it had been 9 years since Bob performed in Michigan,
I knew it would be a tough ticket. The first show sold
out in 11 minutes and they kept adding dates.
Little did I know that
they would sell a week's worth of shows. The ticket sales
story just added to Seger legend -- 100,000 seats were
sold in less than an hour. Fortunately, I had an
excellent ticket connection (excellent seats/face value)
for the opening night show. I should add that I would
have gone every night, but was not willing to pay $200
and up for good seats.
We ended up with 12
tickets and I put together a 6 hour pre-concert party at
my house. I know you can guess who bought 2 airline
tickets and flew back "home" from Chicago, with his wife,
to see the show? Of course, it was my best friend Bill
Johnson from the Oakland Mall gig.
When Bob took the
stage, I swear it was louder than when the Pistons were
winning championships. We were on our feet (with shoes
on) singing all night.What a show! Just like in '68, Bob
blew us away. The only "things" missing that night were
Heavy Music and Ramblin' Gamblin' Man.
Maybe
someday...."
- Bill Cook
- mustang@tir.com
- Rochester Hills,
Michigan
A classic story..the
detail of the cut foot captures it all. And it reminds me of
my close friend Jesse's experience, the first time he tried
to hear Seger. He went with a woman he really wanted to get
to know...but as sometime happens, he said something wrong,
and then she wanted to leave before Bob even took the stage.
They were miles from home, but she said she'd hitchhike
home. At that point, as Bill says, it was Decision Time for
Jesse: stay with the woman -- or stay for Seger?...well,
maybe he'll tell that story someday.
Jackson
"I joined a band called
the Town Criers and we played outside of Ann Arbor, in these
large clubs and bars in Pontiac and Jackson. One of 'em, the
Roseland Inn in Jackson, had strippers -- quite a treat.
Believe me, it was the last stop for any stripper...one had
this big snake in her act and another had a horse. My
favorite wore a half-ape half-female costume and she did her
act under a black light. They're turn the house lights off
and it'd look like a gorilla was raping her onstage! While
we played 'Caravan'!"
Timothy White, November 1977, Crawdaddy. "The Loneliness of
the Long Distance Rocker"
On the Road
Seger gets low billing at
the Black Magic & Rock 'n Roll Show. His name is at the
bottom left...below Teegarden and VanWinkle and many
others.
The
Primo Showbar, The Rock and Roll Farm, The Suds Factory and
The Chances Are
For me, these are the
places where die was cast, where the bond was formed. They
are all Ann Arbor- and Ypsilanti-area bars.
The Primo Showbar wasn't
the first place I heard Seger, but it was the place I heard
him most, in the early days, and it was by far the best. For
one thing, it was low-key -- no stage at all, just some
risers near the back. If you got there a bit early, you
could get a table ten feet away, in a crowd of 250 or so,
and just let the music and the crowd noise and the beer pour
down. This was in the mid '70s, around the time of Back In
'72. The Silver Bullet Band was newly formed and hot, hot,
hot. Seger was playing a set list that included cuts from
'72 as well as most of the songs that would end up on Seven.
He was playing "Get Out of Denver" live to a roaring Ann
Arbor bar crowd, and there was basically no stage, just
little 2-foot risers. He'd play two or three sets each
night, with no opening act, and the last set always ended
with "Let It Rock." Essentially, it was Live Bullet in a bar
three nights a week.
Once, we snuck a tape
recorder in, but the batteries failed.
Another night, we
discussed walking down to the Primo to see Seger, and
decided not to. (Oh, the missed chances. We were young,
see...and we thought we were living in a garden where the
fruit would always hang low for the picking...and there
would always be time to pick more. We didn't think we would
ever not be young. We had absolutely no concept of time,
none at all.)
Usually, we'd see Punch,
some of the roadies, and their various women at a nearby
table. It was here at the Primo that Jesse conducted his
men's room interview with Punch.
Several weeks prior to
this particular night, Jesse had written Punch about East
Side Story, hoping possibly to buy a copy through the mail.
Back then, it was impossible to find. Jesse got no reply to
his letter, but when he saw Punch in the men's room, between
sets, he asked about it. I'm not sure exactly what Jesse
said -- you might remember me, I sent you a letter a while
ago about East Side Story -- but I know exactly what Punch
replied. "Burkit? Are you Burkit? I think you are!" (Jesse's
last name is Burkhardt, not Burkit...but to this day T.L.
and I still drag the line out at opportune times. Are you
Burkit? I think you are!)
As for the record, Punch
said he wasn't sure he had a copy of East Side Story, but
he'd try to find us one. It never happened.
The Primo is also where,
one night between sets, I gave Seger a 9 x 12 envelope with
a photo I had taken...a close-up of Seger at the electric
keyboard, taken at the Primo a few months earlier. I recall
that particular concert well, because by then I had moved
from Ann Arbor to Yellow Springs, Ohio, five hour's drive to
the south. I was back at college, I had just met the woman
who sixteen years later would become my wife, and I had this
picture I wanted to give Seger. So I made the five hour
drive in my '61 Valiant, singing "Do ya, do ya wanna rock!"
all the way, and gave Seger the envelope, which he carried
away with him. A few months later, it turned up as the back
cover of Seven.
The Primo is gone now. For
the record, it was on Ashley between Washington and Liberty,
but for the past decade or so, it's appeared to be
abandoned, though there's a unchanging sign in the otherwise
empty window that reads Hi-Fi Studio. For me, the memory of
the Primo is best recaptured at another bar, 200 miles to
the north: the Union Street in Traverse City. Walk in to the
Union Street at any time of day and you're greeted by a
friendly bartender, good beer, and a terrific line-up of
rock posters. They were in the basement of Union Street when
Mike, the current owner, bought the place. Go all the way to
the back, and there's the Primo Showbar poster, complete
with a mustachioed, Crumb-like hipster. The crown of his
skull has kind of exploded off his head, exposing his brain,
and around him is the slogan: Dis Place Is Smokin'.
Unexplainably, there's a cactus in the background. The
incongruity, suffice it to say, was never an issue at the
time. We were young, and we were smokin'.
The Rock and Roll Farm and
the Suds Factory were great places also. I remember Seger
belting out an unforgettable version of J. J. Cale's
"Bringing It Back from Mexico" at the Suds Factory, and I
remember Jesse banging his beer mug on the table so loud
that nearby longhairs complained. The Rock and Roll Farm was
a smaller place, as I recall, and was where we stole the
Back In 72 posters from the wall.
Chances Are, by all
reports, was the best of all in terms of space and set-up
and so on. I don't know, because I was never inside Chances
Are. It opened after I had moved down to Yellow Springs for
college.
After hearing Jesse rave
about it, I decided to drive up -- I was making that 10-hour
round trip a lot those days -- and we agreed to meet at the
Chances Are to hear Seger. Jesse promised to get me a
ticket. I reminded him that I was driving an older
car...and, further, I was bringing a woman who was less than
enthusiastic...and together these factors indicated the
possibility of a late arrival. But late or not, I would be
there I said, so hang on to my ticket.
And indeed, I was late.
The reliable slant-six ran fine; the woman, on the other
hand, said she felt ill and had to be dropped off at my
parents' house, necessitating a forty mile detour. For
reasons unrelated to this, we later broke up.
So I showed up at a sold
out Chances Are ten minutes before show time...only to find
that Jesse had sold my ticket. No amount of talking could
get me past the bouncer. It was September or October, and
the weather was cold, but I heard the muted, muffled concert
from the alley beside the bar -- along with several others
who couldn't get in. Thus did Chances Are become The Concert
I Didn't See, Part I. And Jesse, despite this, remained and
remains a close friend.
There's an odd coda to the
story: Twenty-three years later, I was once again in Ann
Arbor for an evening, seeking Seger. This time I was hoping
I might find a rare recording at Schoolkids Records. The
intervening twenty-three years had brought their full load
of changes...I was a father now, and living in Oregon, and I
had flown back to Michigan on short notice to spend two
weeks with my mom in a stroke rehab unit. I spent the days
tagging along with the physical and speech therapists,
providing company to my mom and helping with her recovery in
what ways I could.
One night, after she went
to sleep, I left the hospital and headed off toward Ann
Arbor and our old stomping grounds. I drove past the
apartment where Jesse, T.L. and I lived; I walked past the
Primo, which for years has been an electronics repair shop.
Since I was nearby, I decided to check out Schoolkids
Records, one of the country's best record stores. They had a
good selection of Seger, as I expected, but nothing too
unusual.
Afterwards, ready for
dinner, or at least a drink, I walked down the block and
came to a bar advertising Disco Night. I had no interest in
disco, but since it was barely six, I went in for a
drink.
The place was deceptively
big; inside there was a large dance floor with a mirrored
disco ball, and two large areas, upstairs and downstairs,
for drinking. This spaciousness was occupied by me, the
young, hip female bartenders, and two college kids in retro
disco garb. I was embarrassed to be there. The mirrored ball
ran streaks of light over everything; disco blasted across
the empty tables and vacant dance floor. My bad luck to show
up on a Wednesday; only three nights earlier the same bar
had hosted some type of S/M fetish event, according to the
bartender, and apparently on weekends they had real rock and
roll. I had a beer anyway and wondered around drinking
it.
Upstairs, I came to a
wall-size collage covered with plexiglass, composed of
artifacts of Ann Arbor's hippie days. I searched and found a
few old Seger posters, and then, to my amusement, noticed
that one was advertising a show at the old defunct Chances
Are -- the supposed great bar where I'd never managed to get
past the bouncer. The next thing I noticed was that all the
posters were from the same place, and as I read the address
on the posters, it slowly dawned on me that I was finally
standing inside the Chances Are.
This bar, this empty dance
floor, was where it had all happened, way back when. As the
disco music played, as my mother slept in her hospital rehab
unit, as my wife and son slept half a continent away in
Oregon, as I remembered my father who had passed away the
year before, as I looked down on the two disco-dressed
college kids who maybe hadn't been born back when I listened
to Seger from that alley...as I took it all in, you were
suddenly there too, dad, right beside me, or maybe it was
you, Jesse, or you, mom, standing there beside me, and we
couldn't help asking, twenty years now, where'd they
go...
Like always, we try to
make some moment last...but maybe it was all just One Night
Only.
- Seger at
the Chances Are, circa 1973/74
- Poster and
photo from the incomparable collection of D. C. Jesse
Burkhardt.
The Agora
In the early '70s, the
Agora was one of the main rock spots in Columbus, Ohio. In
April 1974, Seger played there with Ted Nugent as the
opening act. Here's how one person who was there (i.e., me)
described it in a letter to a friend, (Jesse), who dutifully
saved for 23 years, and then returned it so I could read it
again and compile this list:
"Great setting for Seger,
extremely large place, hundreds of people there. Once again
I was in the front, taking pictures."
Here's the annotated set
list:
- All Your Love ("That's
from my new album, now here's a song from our last
album.")
- Back in '72 ("Tricky
Dick, he played it sick -- someday he'll wish he was Back
in '72")
- Don't Burn the Bridge
Behind You (You just might want to come back) (During the
instrumental break Seger sings "ohh, freight train coming
now...here comes that train.")
- Turn the Page (w/o
Cartmell)
- Lucifer ("I try to be
good")
- Song to Rufus ("This
is for Mongrel, this is from Mongrel")
- I Feel Like Breaking
Up Somebody's Home ("We've probably all felt that way
sometime. We've probably all done it
sometime.")
- Ramblin' Gamblin' Man
("Back to 1968 now.")
- Bo Diddly/Who Do You
Love (During the long instrumental break in "Who do you
love," Seger went off stage and smoked a cigarette. I
said hello to him, we talked for about a minute, then he
went back and sang the rest of the song.)
- Stealer
- If I Was A
Carpenter
- School Teacher (last
song)
- Let It Rock
(encore)
What a great set, and a
great time to see Seger...back when I couldn't even buy a
beer. Below, the contact sheet of some photos I took during
the show.
On the Road
Beautiful Loser was
promoted with a full page ad in Rolling Stone. At the bottom
of the ad was a list of tour dates -- 11 shows in 11 days
including:
- Madison,
Wisconsin
- St Cloud,
Minnesota
- Chicago
- St. Paul
- Milwaukee
- Des Moines
- Lincoln
- Laramie
- Wichita
- Tulsa
- Oklahoma
City
Jackson County
Fair
Live Bullet hit in summer
'76, transforming Seger from a regional act to a national
star. But some smaller tour dates had been scheduled before
Live Bullet hit, and Seger honored most of them. One was in
Jackson, my hometown (birthplace of the Republican Party and
cold-bed of conservatism. The official motto as it appears
on the city limits signs is a touch defensive: "Jackson: We
like it here!")
Seger was booked to
headline the Jackson County Fair on August 14, 1976.
According to the papers, Punch tried to cancel the show,
since Seger could now command much larger venues, but the
manager of the county fair-- a local old-timer and
curmudgeon named Herman Gumper -- held Punch to the
contract.
I happened to be hanging
around the house, having graduated from college earlier in
the summer, and it marks the only time I saw Seger play my
hometown -- the town where he got his start at the Roseland
Inn, playing for strippers and salesmen.
Seger was in top form at
the County Fair, playing Live Bullet caliber music on an
outdoor stage in front of about 500 rabid fans on a cold,
rainy night. He opened with Rosalie and followed with Back
in '72, Travelin' Man, Beautiful Loser, Heavy Metal,
Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, Nutbush City Limits, Katmandu, Let It
Rock, Lookin' Back, Get Out of Denver and Mary Lou, among
others.
But the high point was the
encore and the screw-up with the lights. As the first encore
ended, the house lights came up and the crowd turned for the
exits. Only a few of us -- the really obsessed -- went the
other way, loving Seger so much that we preferred to stay in
the cold rain and watch roadies pack his amps. Yet no
roadies appeared...and as I reached the edge of the stage,
Seger's voice came booming over the PA as big as the voice
of God: "Turn those house lights OFF!" Incredibly, the
lights went dark, the crowd surged back, and the band burst
on stage, breaking into "Whole Lotta Love."
The next day's paper
reported that Seger had a bad cold, was coughing up blood
during the show, leaving him unable to speak afterward. But
at the moment when his voice came booming out, unseen -- and
all through the encore -- he was radiating 100 percent rock
and roll energy. It was one of those rare times when the
performer brought the crowd back for more, instead of the
other way around.
Another odd memory I have
from the show was his mention of my hometown. Halfway
through the set, he called out, "I love Jackson!" Those are
three words that are rarely spoken, I would guess. Among
other things, Jackson is known for the state prison (the
inmates motto is not "We Like It Here," I'll bet) and for
being rated the worst place in the country by Money
Magazine, a thrice-won distinction.
The review in the Jackson
Citizen Patriot by Scott Pohl (8-16-76) concluded "Michigan
can be proud of Bob Seger. The rest of the country will know
him soon enough."
As it happened, Seger did
cancel his next show on the tour, which was to have been El
Paso, Texas. (Yep, the old Jackson, Michigan to El Paso,
Texas concert circuit. Not exactly Point A to Point
B.)
Pontiac, the
Michigan Jam and Other Victories
Seger's Pontiac Silverdome
concert was the biggest of his career at that point (June
1976.) He played in front of 76,000 and received a $100,000
minimum -- compared to the usual $3,500-$5,000 the band was
making as an opening act. Patrick Goldstein, Rolling Stone,
July 29, 1976
Success "doesn't mean as
much as the little victories you really savor" like playing
in Pontiac. "I said to myself, 'they'll never be able to
take this away from me.'" Timothy White, May 1, 1980,
Rolling Stone. "The Fire This Time"
What I remember most about
the Pontiac concert is that 1) Seger played "East Side
Story" -- the only time I've ever heard him play it live --
and 2) someone stole our cooler (Jesse, T.L. and I were
there together) and 3) Alto Reed did his solo in "Let It
Rock" from atop a huge stack of amps.
The live shows of that era
always featured Alto Reed in some surprising way on "Let It
Rock." He'd sneak off stage and reappear atop a huge tower
of amps...or the spot would swing up to the upper deck, or
down in the crowd and there he'd be. Jesse and I learned to
keep an eye on Alto, and we'd often nudge each other during
"Let It Rock" when he slyly left the stage. For a number of
shows, they rigged up a harness and he did his solo
suspended over the fans. I never saw that. But the topper
was at a show I did see -- The Michigan Jam, an outdoor
concert in the summer of 1976 at Martin,
Michigan.
Once again, T.L., Jesse
and I were there together. Heart played a killer warm-up
set, and then Seger and the Silver Bullet Band burned up the
stage, doing a terrific set. Seger did an amazing version of
"Ship of Fools," a song that never shined much for me as an
album cut. "Mainstreet" took on a country flavor and came
across re-energized. As the band swung into Let It Rock, a
full-size hot air balloon started to grow from behind the
stage,
When it came time for
Reed's solo, sure enough, the spotlight swung up...and there
he was, high in the cupola, rocking out for all he was
worth, sending the crowd into ecstasy. What a sight it
was...and what a night. I remember The Michigan Jam as one
of Seger's best shows...whereas, truth be told, the
Silverdome show wasn't that hot. Largely because of the
sound system, the music didn't seem to have as much bite
that night.
Seger on the pre-arena
days: "The band was so close together in those days, because
the stages were so small. Everybody would play just loud
enough so they could still hear the drums. It was really a
lot more fun. We played off each other more. You could say
to a guy, 'Hey, I really liked that lick you played on
such-and-such a song.' In places like Cobo Hall, I haven't
the faintest idea what people are playing."
Gary Graff, August 28,
1986, Detroit Free Press. "Bob Seger storms home
tonight."
Cobo Hall
Seger in the
Arena
Reviews from 1977 in
Houston...
"It's extremely
difficult not to like Bob Seger. In fact, it's almost
impossible not to feel respect, and -- even more
important -- genuine affection for the guy, simply
because, after more than a decade of ups and downs,
(while all of rock sometimes seemed to be going berserk
around him), he has endured and prevailed..
"He did a frantic,
exciting set that simply never sagged, not for one
moment..." Bob
Claypool, April 10, 1977, The Houston Post. "Music: Bob
Seger."
And New York...
Seger "is also a
fine songwriter, one whose themes celebrate the humor,
vitality and sensualness that has characterized the best
rock over the years....There is such drive to his music
that even ballads like 'Beautiful Loser' have a sense of
combustion." Robert
Hilburn, May 3, 1977, Los Angeles Times. "Bob Seger
Enhances Rock's Power and Glory," reviewing Seger's show
at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion.
After Live Bullet, Seger began headlining arena shows. When
he came to Minneapolis in early 1978, I was working as a
writer for a local entertainment weekly. Based on my Seven
album photo, I convinced the editor to let me photograph the
concert for the paper. They gave me a pass that got me
through the front gate, but after that it was up to me to
talk my way inside the secure area immediately in front of
the stage. I managed to get in and shot a roll or two before
getting kicked out.
Since I had no real
ticket, I had to go scrounge a seat somewhere, and I ended
up way in the back. Actually, it was okay. I preferred just
listening and relaxing to dealing with the photo assignment.
And I'd seen Seger up close so many times, it was nice to
take in the panorama.
One of my favorite Seger
moments happened while I was sitting back there. Stranger in
Town hadn't yet been released, but Seger played a track off
it -- "The Famous Final Scene." It was just a stunning
moment. The quiet energy of this new song soared through the
place -- Seger seemed to have everyone in the arena right
with him on every note.
I was blown away,
convinced this mysterious new song would be his next single,
but it never was -- though it has certainly gotten a lot of
radio airplay over the years. Anyway, this was back when you
could go to a Seger concert and hold out hope for hearing
something new...before things got as scripted as they now
seem to be.
All in all, it was a great
night. But when the paper I worked for saw my photographs,
they decided to publish the stock publicity shot instead.
Too bad -- my photo caught the energy better, even if the
angle is a bit off-kilter. But that's what makes it
authentic. See for yourself.
Note how Seger's eyes are
closed. It's not unusual...if you've seen him up close, you
may have noticed that his eyes are often closed while he's
really singing full out...I wonder if he does it on purpose,
or if it's just a reaction, a sign of concentration. My
photo of Seger on the back of Seven, for example, also shows
him with his eyes closed.
Seger on playing in
arenas: "It takes a long time to learn how to play them.
Even the 3,000 to 7000 seat theaters are good to you
acoustically, but the prefab stages you have to carry with
you for really big shows are another thing entirely. You
lose the ambience of theaters completely and there's usually
a real heavy low frequency roll happening onstage. It's a
little like flying blind, and you have to accept that you're
not going to hear every instrument."
Chris Cioe, Musician.
"Bob Seger: Hymns from the heartland."
The set list for Seger's show at the Capitol Center in
Maryland, 1980:
- Nine
Tonight
- You'll Accompany
Me
- Still the
Same
- Mainstreet
- Old Time Rock &
Roll
- Against the
Wind
- Her Strut
- Horizontal
Bop
- Fire Lake
- Betty Lou's Getting
Out Tonight
- We've Got
Tonite
- Turn the
Page
- Fire Down
Below
- Ramblin' Gamblin'
Man
- Katmandu
-
- Encore
-
- Night
Moves
- Hollywood
Nights
- Rock & Roll Never
Forgets
- Let It
Rock
After so many years as a regional artist, the relatively
sudden transition to full-fledged rock star made for some
strange contrasts, as illustrated by writer and Seger DEW
Liner Randy Cepuch:
Cepuch: "In late 1975, I
worked booking acts at Antioch College in Yellow Springs,
Ohio, and at one point had worked out a concert there with
Seger for $400 or so..but the college wouldn't approve it as
nobody'd ever heard of Seger." At that time, writes Cepuch,
Seger "was still contending with writers who insisted on
putting two 'e's after the 'S' in his name," as well as with
people "who picked up his albums by mistake when looking for
folkie Pete Seeger." Randy
Cepuch, The Capitol Entertainer, Oct/Nov 1978. "Bob Seger:
Very little is "Still the Same."
By 1978, of course, Seger
was headlining the Capitol Centre in D.C. And contending
with writers who create their own contractions by using
"nobody'd" for the phrase "nobody had." (Just a little
inside writing humor there. FYI, Cepuch's contributions to
the Springsteen mag "Backstreets" landed his byline in the
Backstreets compilation book, which in turn landed in the
Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. And now that same
byline is also in the Seger File, which means you've really
hit the big time.)
Seger embarked on his
first European Tour in 1980, playing in 13 countries
including North America.
A Billboard Magazine ad
announcing Seger's European tour.
Seger in
Germany
On November 1, 1977, Seger
played Offenbach, Germany. Photos by Dan
Warfeld, Stars and Stripes.
And finally, according to People Magazine: "Girls have been
known to strip to catch his eye during concerts."
Jim Jerome, July 24,
1978, People.
[Well, if it's in
People Magazine, it must be true. Or at least not a legally
provable lie.]
The 1983
Tour
The 1983 tour consisted of
76 shows. The tour ended in July 1983 at the Toledo
Speedway. Here's my only review fragment, torn from an issue
of Playboy, with no date or author on the remaining
fragment: Seger is "at his best not in a studio but in front
of a live audience...so long has he been on the road, and
such are his instincts, that his band has cleaned rock down
to its shining bone essentials...the ghost of Otis Redding
still lurks in his voice."
The '83 tour came to
Seattle (where I was living at the time) on a day when I
happened to be in Hawai. By 1983 I had my first
"professional" job, and it was the first time in my life
that I had ever taken a vacation that involved an airplane.
My heart sank when I learned I would miss the chance to see
Seger...but then I managed to get a ticket to the Portland,
Oregon concert a few days later. It merely required that I
leave work early and make a three-hour drive each
way.
When I got to Portland
that night around 7:00, the arena parking lot was empty. A
lone security man told me the concert had been postponed one
night -- Seger had a sore throat. The following night,
however, I had a commitment involving a project I had worked
for months to set up -- a committee meeting involving
electric rates. So I was forced to choose between the
responsible thing, and seeing Seger. And, like a fool --
like an utter, unforgiveable fool -- I chose responsibility
over the best music on earth.
I still hadn't learned
what I know now...that life would fill up with
responsibility and that the moments of pure release would be
harder and harder to find. But I was young then...still
relatively young...and I still have the ticket for The
Concert I Didn't See, Part II.
Seger in Houston in
1983. Photo by Steve Vanghel.
The set list from Seger's
1983 show at Nassau Coliseum in New York:
- Feel Like A
Number
- Tryin' to Live My Life
Without You
- Roll Me
Away
- Old Time Rock &
Roll
- Makin'
Thunderbirds
- Shame on the
Moon
- House Behind A
House
- Even Now
- Against the
Wind
- Her Strut
- Horizontal
Bop
- Betty Lou
- Love's the Last to
Know
- Turn the
Page
- Ramblin' Gamblin'
Man
- Katmandu
- Night
Moves
- Hollywood
Nights
- Fortunate
Son
-
 Writing MainMenu86Tour -
Do ya do ya
wanna rock? Send your fond dreams, lost hopes,
bittersweet regrets, half-remembered stories, rejoinders,
rebuttals, questions, comments, corrections and
contributions to:
 sparling@segerfile.com
|
