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Sounds
from the Hall
Rounding
third and heading home. Seger, known for his
love of softball, compares the Hall of Fame to
Cooperstown in a story co-bylined by longtime
Seger writer Gary Graff in Billboard.
"I view it
like Cooperstown," an ebullient Seger said. "I
think about [Detroit Tiger right
fielder] Al Kaline in the Hall of Fame. I've
played golf occasionally with Larry Bird, who's
in the Hall of Fame. Now I'm in my Hall of
Fame."
"There wasn't
a Hall of Fame when I started," he added, "but
to be in there with my heroes -- with your
Little Richards, your Elvises, the Beatles, the
Stones, Dylan, is just beyond words. It's
wonderful. To suddenly be in that same pantheon
is pretty heady stuff."
Seger said he
and his Silver Bullet Band will perform at the
March 15 induction ceremony in New York, which
will be taped to air on VH1 later that
week.
Seger said his
first choice for inductors are Glenn Frey or Don
Henley of the Eagles, "because they're my oldest
friends in rock 'n' roll," but he said Kid Rock
has also voiced a desire to do the honors.
Barry A.
Jeckell and Gary Graff, November 21, 2003,
Billboard. "Honorees
React to Rock Hall
Induction."
In other
sports news, Seger got the loudest ovation of
the night at the Pistons v. Hornets game last
week, when he was honored for this election to
the Hall of Fame.
Hammer
Time. Seger told the Ann Arbor news that the
band is stoked at the prospect of performing at
the induction ceremony. "I think they'll be
hammering me pretty hard (to tour)," he said.
Seger hasn't yet decided which songs he'll play.
The article
also includes some memories of earlier days:
"John Carver,
who owned the Second Chance at the time, went to
high school with Seger. 'We weren't like real
buddies, but he was a nice guy - our paths
crossed here and there… (Seger) was kind
enough to play at Second Chance when he was a
bigger star than normally would have played in a
club like that, partly because of our
relationship in high school,"'Carver added."
Roger
Lelievre, November 21, 2003, Ann Arbor News.
"Bob
Seger to join Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame"
Carver also
reminisces about the Roseland Inn, the Jackson,
Michigan strip club where Seger's band, the Town
Criers had a standing gig: "People were trying
to get him off the stage to get the girls back
on."
Never
wanted to be no pop singer: The Hall's
decision -- celebrated in Segerland --
disappointed some fans of John Mellencamp, who
was nominated but not inducted. The Indianapolis
Star's online site (indystar.com) complained
that "long-mothballed Bob Seger got the Hall's
call last week, and Mellencamp remains on the
outside looking in." But Mellencamp set the
record straight in an interview on Indiana
TV.
"Well, you
know," Mellencamp said, "the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame is quite an honor to even be nominated
for it. I don't really anticipate getting in
this year. If I get in before Bob Seger, that's
going to be weird for me, because you know, I
was a freshman in high school when Seger had a
hit called Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, which, ya
know, was probably one of the reasons I wanted
to be a recording artist, because that was a
great song." Eyewitness
News 13, November 21. "The
John Mellencamp
Interview."
Joe
Knows
Uncle Joe
Benson's Off The Record interview with Seger
aired nationally last weekend. The interview,
which was taped before Seger's election to the
Hall of Fame, covered a lot of new information.
Some highlights:
The comedy
of physics. Seger said the neutrinos line in
"Tomorrow" sprang from a comedy routine by
Charles Fleischer.
"He gets up in
front of the audience and says, okay, what
happens if neutrinos have mass? And there's dead
silence. I happen to know the answer because I
read a lot of physics books… I always
remembered that. I said, what a question to
throw at people."
The kicker is
that the comedy show was twelve years ago, which
provides an interesting glimpse into how Seger
writes. Presumably the line stuck in his head or
went into a notebook for more than a decade,
before emerging in "Tomorrow."
Seger adds
that the neutrino theory, in vogue when the song
was written, is now out of date. "It changes so
fast, now that we've got dark matter in the
equation." (Uh…right. I was gonna ding him
on the dark matter thing myself. But management
insists I stay on good behavior until at least
after the new CD.)
(A side note:
Fleischer's Comedy Store routine was remembered
by someone else as well. Director Bob Zemeckis
saw the stand-up act and hired Fleischer eight
years later to be the voice of Roger
Rabbit.)
Interesting
choice of words. During their discussion of
"Tomorrow," Seger says, "If I was forced at
gunpoint to do Letterman tomorrow night, that'd
be the song I play."
The laughter
after the answer is priceless -- the big
infectious Seger laugh that can't be faked. Was
the gunpoint line a reference to
Seger's
ill-starred
history
with Letterman? Or just his reluctance to do TV
in general?
Seger's
Answer to the Tour Question Part I. "I've
basically told the band, probably not," Seger
said, regarding the possibility of a tour.
Uncle Joe then
asked a terrific follow-up question: How 'bout
just showing up with a guitar somewhere for an
impromptu show? Seger's answer:
"It's always
been my opinion that, you know, there's one
thing people want to hear. And if you can't do
it the way you've always done it, it's not fair
to them. I went out and saw Springsteen in the
last two weeks and the Eagles and they both
wanted me to sit in and I won't do it. I hardly
ever do that because I just don't think it's
what people want to hear. They want to hear a
certain thing and I want to be true to that.
When we come out we want to be, three weeks of
rehearsal, you know, to get everybody's touring
muscles back up…"
My question
is, who are these people who want to hear a
certain thing??? I say we roll out the razor
wire and go door to door until we find these
narrow-minded fans. I say 'round 'em up and
bombard them with Live Bullet and Nine Tonight,
since that's what they like hearing. Then maybe
the rest of us can enjoy some impromptu Seger.
Or rather, I would say all this, if I hadn't
promised to be on my best behavior.
More songs
we'd love to hear. Seger said he's written
"about 40" songs for his new CD.
"I've recorded
about 29 of the 40 and I think about 22 of them
are really good. But I would say there's
definitely 11 that would probably be on the new
[CD]…but I just robbed it of two,
so now I've probably got to write five
more.
Overall, Seger
said he's written "over 500" songs. "And I would
say there's probably half of them haven't been
released."
Peter Green
Reference #1. Of "Fire Down Below," Seger
reiterated that he was inspired vocally by
Scottish rocker Frankie Miller but added Peter
Green to the equation.
"[Frankie
Miller and I] are very similar in the way we
approach rock and roll. And I heard the song
called "Ain't Got No Money." And I liked that
swampy middle-rock thing. Vocally, I was
probably inspired by Frankie, but band-wise I
think I was inspired by "The Rattlesnake Shake"
by Fleetwood Mac and you know, Peter Green and
those guys."
(Click here
for a taste of Peter Green's Rattlesnake
Shake.)
All Seger
quotes in this section from "Off The Record with
Uncle Joe Benson," November 23, 2003.
Tour
du Jour
Seger's
Answer to the Tour Question Part II. In a
phone interview with WQUT 101.5 in Tennessee,
Seger's standard answer to the tour question
changed from "probably not" to "we'll play it by
ear."
"In January,"
Seger said, "we'll start rehearsing for the Hall
of Fame event, so the whole band will be back
together. We'll just kind of play it by ear and
see how my voice holds up. It has to hold up for
two hours and I'm 58 and, you know, if I go out
on tour I just want to make sure that I can do
it justice."
Experts in our
Segerology department say this shift in emphasis
portends better chances for a tour than
previously thought. (These same experts insist
that "The poptarts are in the pantry" and "You
will fall in love on Flag Day," so be warned.)
Seger also
retold the story of how the new tracks were
added to GH2.
"[Punch]
actually started setting up press interviews and
everybody who he set up said 'What are the new
songs' and after setting up about eight of them
he called me and said 'We gotta put the two new
songs on there.'"
Seger said the
lyrics and credits for "Satisfied" and
"Tomorrow" won't be on the first 350,000 copies
of the GH2 booklet.
Finally, he
predicted the new album would be released
"around June of 2004." Thanks to Kevin Walsh,
who runs Segerbob.com,
for posting an mp3 of the interview. Click the
Segerbob link to hear it yourself
The
Promise of Promise -- More in
04?
The Boston
Globe has a recent piece with more Hall reaction
from Seger, but the best part of the story
concerns the upcoming CD.
Only three of
the 11 songs planned for that album are ballads,
says Seger. It's tentatively titled "Face the
Promise," and Seger says he'll finish writing it
by March.
In another
quote, Seger says he writes songs "20 to 25
hours a week." And he leaves the door open on
touring.
"I'll
jump off that bridge when I get to it," he
says. "I'm 58 now. Touring is a grueling
thing, and I've got to be away from my kids.
I'll have to see."
There's also a
quote on how long it took for the Hall to induct
Seger.
Seger was
eligible for induction a few years ago but
didn't worry about the delay. "I think it
bothered other people more than me. I didn't
have a clue what the criteria were. I just hoped
it would happen eventually."
"I'm
thrilled because that's great company," Seger
says. "I'm a big fan of Jackson and ZZ Top,
and I used to go see Prince before he made
it."
Steve
Morse, December 5, 2003, Boston Globe.
"Garage-trance
band Laguardia arrives on
time."
Also on the
subject of the new CD, pauseandplay.com
lists "Face the Promise" by Bob Seger for a
summer release. And this time they really mean
it, right? (It's worth noting that pauseandplay
had it right when rumors of GH2 first surfaced
there.)
In
other baseball news...
Why do I get
the feeling that Bob Edwards isn't the only
journalist who might be reading the Seger File?
Check out this piece by Scott Miller, who works
Seger into the Sportsline.com baseball
roundup:
The
recent release of his CD Greatest Hits 2
marks a very welcome return from Bob Seger,
who unfortunately has been semi-retired in
recent years. What does this have to do with
baseball? Not much, but it's a chance to
lobby for the release of what's said to be a
killer cut locked away in the Seger vaults
titled "Can't Hit the Corners No More," an
intriguing song about a struggling, aging
pitcher. No, far as we know, it's not based
on the life and times of Jack Morris or David
Cone. Seger once said he had Catfish Hunter
and Mark Fidrych in mind.
Scott
Miller. December 3, 2003. Sportsline.com.
"Notes:
As credibility takes hit, Brewers rebuild
again."
Are albums
over? I don't think so. When somebody puts
out a collection of songs, that's an album.
Doesn't matter whether it's on vinyl or tape or
disk. An album is something that holds a
collection of things -- pictures, songs,
etc.
Nevertheless,
a USA TODAY article surveys a wide range of
artists, including Seger, on the demise of the
album -- by which they really mean that black
12-inch vinyl thing properly called an LP.
"The album,
music's dominant creative framework for the past
40 years, is dying under the wheels of an
accelerating revolution," the article says. It
was written by Edna Gundersen, (save your
Mongrel jokes for a moment, please) who
interviewed Seger after GH2 was released.
Classic-rock
icon Bob Seger is saddened and mystified by the
album's overthrow.
"It's
a different world now, and I've got to come
to terms with it…I'm just thrilled when
someone like Bruce Springsteen puts out
something like The Rising. That's what I
strive for. We're of an era that still
believes the whole package is important. But
I don't know if it makes sense anymore. I'm
58, and this is all new to me."
Edna
Gundersen, December 4, 2003, USA TODAY.
"Downloading
squeezes the art out of the
album."
Terminology
quibbles aside, it's a worthwhile read. Also
quoted are Keith Richards, David Bowie, Michelle
Shocked, Dave Matthews, Lindsey Buckingham, Ray
Manzarek and several others.
How's
Sarah? In the Nov. 24 Newsweek, Kid Rock was
asked whether he's a Seger fan. (Duh.) The
answer:
"A
hundred percent. He [Seger] wrote
'Hard Night for Sarah' in the 90s and never
used it and you know, offered it to me. He's
never done that for anybody. He really keeps
to himself. I mean, it's just mind-blowing.
It made me feel warm inside and so good and
just like "wow." There's just nothing sweeter
than that, you know."
Lorraine
Ali, November 24, Newsweek. "Does the Kid
Know How to Rock."
Later in the
piece, the interviewer proves that she has no
hemi when she refers to the "Dodge 'Like
A Rock' jingles."
Meanwhile, USA
TODAY's Edna Gundersen says Rock "turns in a
pointless cover" of Sarah, calling it
"regurgitated classic rock." (Okay, now
you can make your Evil Edna jokes.)
The Chicago
Sun Times also slams the three covers on Rock's
CD, calling them awful and boneheaded. The New
York Post goes thumbs up, though, as
follows:
"Rock makes
his top solo on an old, unreleased Bob Seger
song, 'Hard Night for Sarah,' rendering the tune
about betrayal and infidelity with arena power
and compassion. Dan
Aquilante, November 11, 2003. New York Post.
"Kid's
All Right."
Florida
Time
1973 was one
of the years when Seger played nearly 250 gigs.
One of those shows was at the Exposition Center
in Orlando, Florida.
A number of
things went wrong that night, including the fact
that the promoter didn't pay and tried to skip
town. But one thing went right -- the show was
aired by the local FM station, WORJ, which was
pioneering live concert broadcasts in the area.
Even better, they found the tape recently and
posted it on their site.
The show
begins with two radio announcers doing the
following "play-by-play" for the home listener.
"This has been
the second delay of the show. It was supposed to
come off at around 11 o'clock last night but Bob
Seger's bass player and organist got hung up in
Oklahoma City -- they couldn't get plane
reservations to Orlando because of the people
coming in for the moon shot…"
The reference
to Oklahoma City makes me think this is the
Borneo Band. Seger doesn't introduce them, but
there are a couple references to Tom Cartmell
(now Alto Reed).
Once the show
starts, Seger rocks through a 40-minute set,
including Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, Bo Diddley/Who
Do You Love, Higher and Higher (featuring "our
girl singer, Stoney") and a 20-minute medley of
Turn the Page / Heavy Music / Let It Rock /
Heavy Music.
The encore
provides the second Peter Green reference: it's
a cover of Green's "Stop Messing
Around."
At the end,
you can hear the crowd of 500 screaming for more
as the stage announcer shouts above the din:
"I
want you people to realize -- I want you
people to realize that the Bob Seger band has
come all the way down here from
Detroit…they did not get paid for
tonight! They came all the way down here at
their own expense…and they knew before
they went on that they were not getting
paid."
And they're
probably not getting paid for this
"re-broadcast" on the WORJ
website.
The link will take you to WORJ's home page - hit
the Live Concerts link for Seger (as well as a
Poco concert). It's a 30-minute download for us
non-broadband types. The sound is good by 1973
standards, coming from the mixing board, so
enjoy it while you can.
Listening to
the concert reminded me of a couple Seger quotes
from earlier interviews:
"Whenever
we'd play Florida, which was my only decent
market besides Detroit, we'd drive down there
in 24 hours and play without rest."
Timothy
White, November 1977, Crawdaddy. "The
Loneliness of the Long Distance
Rocker"
"Really for
the first 8 years I was more of a driver than
a performer: I spent 8 hours a day driving
and then an hour and a half a day performing.
But that was the price that I paid to do it."
May
1979 radio interview.
Don't
Stop Thinking About "Tomorrow."
Don't get me
wrong: I love all the recent news stories filled
with inside information, details and background.
I eat it up. But ultimately, my interest centers
on the music, not the business. And I'd like to
hear more about the music…particularly the
lyrics.
For example,
"Are you going to tour?" is a business
question. Ditto "When's the new CD coming
out?" "What are you going to play at the
Hall of Fame?" "Will there ever be a box
set?" etc., etc., etc.
All
fascinating questions. But imagine it this way:
if Seger had just come out with a book instead
of a CD, the questions would be about the words:
i.e., What were you trying to say here? and Why
tell this story and not some other story?
Of course, in
some of what Seger writes, the words are just
there to support the beat. I don't really have
any heavy literary-style questions about "Her
Strut," for example. (Although, on the business
side of things, I'm fascinated to learn that
producer Bill Szymczyk threw a slap flange on
Seger's voice to get that gritty vocal -- thanks
to Uncle Joe for that tidbit.)
But with
"Tomorrow," Seger was clearly writing to say
something. Everyone gravitates to the neutrinos
line. But the line that's pure genius, for me,
is "It won't save you from the sky." As the
payoff to the first bridge, it's a beautiful
example of a line that's simple, powerful and
chilling.
From various
interviews, we know that the song came out of a
conversation about asteroids and comets that
Seger had with his son (now 11, but presumable
eight or nine when the song was written). But
there's more I'd like to know.
Yesterday, I
was listening to the song with my son, who's
ten. When we came to the line "No more road
rage," he asked me to hit pause.
"Why No
more road rage?" he asked. "Out of all the
things that won't exist when the sun blows up,
why does he name that? What about some of the
other things we won't have?"
Here in the
Seger File, when someone asks a question that I
can't answer, I generally just make stuff up.
But with Zane, I'm honest.
"That's a good
question," I said. "I don't know."
"I thought you
knew everything about Bob Seger."
"Yeah, well,
no one's asked him that yet."
So
interviewers, hear my plea. Ask about the
lyrics. Seger spends hours, days, months writing
them, and I bet he's got something to say about
them. Find out about the business stuff, but
don't stop thinking about the lyrics --
especially when songs like "Face the Promise,"
"Little Jane" and "Let Me Try" come out,
presumably on next year's CD.
December 1,
2003
Simpson
Slams Seger (or the Limits of Contrarianism in
the Classic Rock Environment)
First the
facts. Last Sunday, Homer Simpson went out of
his way to slam Seger. It was for laughs, of
course, or more like a chuckle, since the
writing wasn't all that clever. Here's the
context: Early in the show, Homer secretly takes
up panhandling and makes a lot of money, which
he spends on gifts for Marge. When she catches
him and tells him to stop, Homer
says:
"But Marge --
that's how I bought you those diamond earrings.
And that Bob Seger boxed set. Which turned out
to only be one disk. But the box was nice."
In other
words, the cardboard box was better than the
Seger music inside. Zing! -- but why? As you
might imagine, I have two theories about
Simpson's slam -- one simple and one
complicated. Guess which one we'll do
first.
Okay, my Big
Idea here is that Seger and Punch Enterprises
employ what I call a contrarian approach to
marketing Bob -- that is, an approach that's
contrary to the conventional wisdom.
The
conventional way, as Don Henley so aptly wrote
on his last album, is called Working It. That
is, work every possible angle for maximum
exposure. Cross promote your CD and your DVD in
magazines and movies and on MTV. Look for
"synergies" to grab as much of the media
spotlight as you can hog. Increase your value by
being everywhere.
The Contrarian
way is more like the JD Salinger method.
Increase your value by being totally
unavailable. Drop mysteriously out of sight for
years. Purposely stay out of the media. So that
when you do finally emerge, it's a big freaking
deal.
And the
contrarian approach works. In fact, it's been
hugely successful for Seger. Look how nuts we
all went when he did a 90-minute radio interview
earlier this month. Keeping the lid on tight
creates massive pent-up demand among Seger fans.
Note that I
said "among Seger fans." Because one thing
keeping the lid on tight doesn't do is expand
Seger's appeal to those who aren't already fans.
So you've got
this big dichotomy, where Seger's reputation and
respectability is sky-high among those of us who
know -- the two or three million of us who send
his albums multi-platinum. And then there's
everybody else. They don't know Seger. Why
should they? He's been practically invisible for
almost a decade.
I ran into one
of these 'don't know/don't care' people a while
ago when I had my iPod on. Hip guy, early
thirties. He asked me what I was listening to.
When I told him it was Seger, he
snorted.
Would he have
snorted if I had said "Tom Petty?" Maybe, but I
tend to think he wouldn't have. He probably
doesn't own any Petty -- he struck me as more of
a White Stripes/Dandy Warhols/Strokes kind of
guy -- but I'm guessing he would have had more
respect for Petty as an artist, just because
he's probably seen Petty more. TP, while not a
media hog, shows up on tribute albums, in
videos, on talk shows. (He even portrayed
himself on The Simpsons a while back.) People
who don't care for his style of music still know
about his reputation. They don't say "Is he
still alive?" as my ex-girlfriend did about
Seger recently.
The irony of
the contrarian approach is that we, the fans,
end up doing a lot of the new customer
recruitment work for Seger. Despite the snort, I
told the hip guy in his thirties that there's
more to Seger than Old Time Rock 'n' Roll and
truck commercials. Maybe after he checks out the
Segerfile, he'll figure it out.
In that sense,
I'm personally thankful for the contrarian
approach, because if Seger were Working It, he'd
have a super deluxe Web site of his own, and no
one would need the Segerfile. (As it is,
fairness compels me to note that Seger's
official site has recently caught and surpassed
the Segerfile in the Alexa traffic rank. I guess
they are Working It a little bit after
all.)
So the bottom
line of Theory Number 1 is that The Simpsons'
writers are just plain ignorant. There's no
Seger Media Plan to tell them what to think and
they haven't bothered to seek out Seger's music
and find out for themselves.
Which brings
me to Theory Number 2, the simple one. The
Simpsons are always including musical guest
stars. Maybe they asked Bob to do a guest shot
and he said no. So they did the boxed set joke
to get a little payback.
Who knows? If
it's any consolation, the very next night on
syndicated reruns, the show included a pro-Seger
joke. Lisa is babysitting for Chief Wiggums. As
he and his wife leave, Lisa calls out "Enjoy the
Bob Sagat show!" The Chief then looks at his
tickets and winces. "Bob Sagat!? I thought it
was Bob Seger! Aw jeez...."
So we know
that Chief Wiggums, at least, is a Bob Seger
fan. Now, for a presumptuous and longwinded
explanation of why The Simpsons would slam Bob
Sagat, you'll have to visit my other site,
www.Sagatfile.com.
February 22,
2004
Live
from New York...
One of the
most fascinating guessing games in Segerland
lately is "which songs will he play at the Hall
of Fame Induction ceremony in New York?" In his
interview on Morning Edition (December 1), Seger
added a few details.
One song will
be "Night Moves," Seger said, since it's already
on the wall in Cleveland as one of the top 500
rock songs. He also mentioned "Turn the Page"
and "Mainstreet" as possibilities. Earlier news
stories have said Seger would play two songs,
but in this interview Seger refers to "a
45-minute set." The more the better.
December 1,
2003
The Wait
is Over -- Seger's In!
For a great
piece on Seger's long overdue induction into the
Hall of Fame, check out Brian
McCollum's
column in the Detroit Free Press, which says
Seger will perform live at the ceremony. (And
thanks to Brian for including the Seger File and
Segernet.com in the story.)
"The
induction gala will be held March 15 before a
tuxedo-and-gown crowd in New York. Seger said
Thursday he'll stick with ceremonial
tradition and perform at the show, which
means attendees and TV viewers will witness
his first live performance in more than eight
years....Seger was home Wednesday night, in
the basement watching the Detroit Pistons on
television, when his family got the call. 'I
heard the family screaming upstairs, and they
came down and just piled on top of me,' he
said." Brian
McCollum, November 21, Detroit Free Press.
"Seger
gets Hall of Fame invite -
finally."
|
An
earlier story in the Freep comes with a
cool vintage photo from 1976.
Check
it
here
or click on the thumbnail. And a
follow-up piece in the Freep puts Seger
right smack on the editorial page. Now
that's my kind of newspaper!
|
|
"OUR
SEGER, FINALLY: The Detroit area, which has
given so much music to the world, is
well-represented in the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame, and deservedly so. But something was
missing from the Motor City contingent until
now, with Bob Seger's membership in the class
of 2004 inductees.
Seger, who
began rocking local audiences in the
mid-'60s, has always been all about the
music, giving it everything he's got, whether
in front of a few hundred people in a club or
many thousands in an arena. As a performer,
songwriter and musician, he's an icon of the
industry. Best of all, he's ours, a
whiskey-voiced, blue-collar rocker who's
still living and working right here, his
music a touchstone for a place and its
people. Like a rock."
November
22, Detroit Free Press. "Issues and
Rockers."
The
Detroit News followed suit with a somewhat
stiffer editorial:
"Bob
Seger finally received the respect he deserves
Thursday when the Rock and Roll Hame
[sic] of Fame announced he would be
inducted next year.
"Seger
had been passed over for 10 years, even though
he was immensely popular during the 1970s and
1980s. He connected with audiences nationwide
and especially in the Midwest, where he played
all sorts of high school gyms, roadhouses and
clubs in the 1960s.
"His
cultural influence hasn't wavered. His "Like a
Rock" remains an advertising anthem for one of
the Big Three automaker's truck lines.
"But
the reason Seger's music resonates is because
it sounds like the wisdom of the heartland.
We're glad the Hall of Fame at last
recognized Seger's mainstreet appeal and gave
him his due." November
24, 2003, The Detroit News.
"Seger
Deserves Induction into Rock Hall of
Fame."
The editorial
is subtitled "Detroiter's music personifies
Midwestern
sensibility," which kind of puzzles me. He uses
music to make the midwestern sensibility more
like a person? That's not exactly how I would
describe what Seger does.
Note
how the Freep ends with a Seger song reference
-- Like A Rock -- while the DetNews slips in
Mainstreet. And what's with the "one of the Big
Three automakers" line? Why not just say Chevy?
And
they almost get it right when they say "the
reason Seger's music resonates is because it
sounds like the wisdom of the heartland."
If
you omit the last syllable, it's absolutely
true. The reason Seger's music resonates is
because of his incredible voice and talent and
his emotionally honesty. That stuff comes from
the heart, not from the heartland.
It's emotion, not geography, that makes Seger
great.
The
DetNews reports on Seger's reaction here:
"Seger
gave eight radio interviews on Thursday to
promote his current "Greatest Hits 2" package
without even mentioning that he'd been
inducted
into the Hall of Fame. That's because Seger
still wasn't quite sure it was true, after
his wife couldn't find mention of it on the
Internet." Susan
Whitall, The Detroit News, November 21, 2003.
"Seger
humbly accepts news of Hall of Fame
induction."
And while
we're at, check out USA Today's profile of
Seger...one day prior
to the announcement.
"Seger,
who volunteers as a football, baseball and
basketball coach, says family life realigned
his values. 'Your heroes change,' he says.
'My new heroes are teachers. I'm knocked out
by what they contribute.'"
Edna
Gundersen, USA TODAY, November 19, 2003.
"Seger
returns to that old-time rock 'n'
roll."
Now
that it's official, I'm finally calling off the
national tourist embargo on Cleveland. Pack your
bags and let's rock.
November
21, 2003
Great week
for Greatest Hits 2
Feel like a
number, or maybe two? Check out this figure:
47,000. That's how many Seger fans bought GH2
since its release one week ago. Which means the
disk debuts at Number 23 on Billboard's Top 200.
(Meanwhile 322,000 addled music fans went home
with Vol. 14 of the Now That's What I Call
Music! rehash. With their blinker lights on
all the way, I'll bet.)
Seger on
the radio. A couple of radio websites have
short phone interviews with Seger. Try
WRIF
in Detroit and WZLX
in Boston.
The WZLX
interview covers a wide range of topics. About
"Tomorrow," Seger says, "Well, it's just a
hammer...It really came from a science
conversation I had with my son about asteroids
and comets coming close to earth." Seger also
talks briefly about outtakes and reissues, and
says that "Fire Lake" is based on Silver Lake
near Dexter, Michigan. Segerbob.com
also gets a good mention.
And in a week
and a half, Uncle
Joe Benson
will air Seger's first national radio interview
in ages. Uncle Joe writes this about
Bob:
"He's
looking great, and is very excited about the
new album coming next spring or fall. Still
too many songs, and he keeps on
writing/recording them.
"The
special Off The Record will air the weekend
of November 23rd. There's a pretty
substantial list of affiliates at
unclejoe.com."
He kids us
not. Kid Rock's new CD not only covers
Seger's unreleased track, "Hard Night for
Sarah." It also begins with Seger's introduction
from Live Bullet, according to a recent Adam
Graham article in the Detroit
News.
"(Seger's)
my king of rock and roll. For me, there's
nothing better," Rock said. "I put him on the
highest plateau, probably, out of anybody I
really enjoy. Everything he stands for, I
just dig.
"You know,
he's just a normal guy, and I think that's a
big thing for someone like me that's coming
up who sees all these other people acting a
certain way. I could use him for my role
model and say, 'No, no, you can still be
normal and rock ... and get crazy and wild
and then come back down to earth with it.' I
think he's been a good example of that."
The respect
is mutual, Seger said. "I see his shows, and
I think his show is great. Every time he's in
town I try to see him."
Adam
Graham, November 7, 2003, The Detroit News.
"Father
role, Mich. life keep rock star
grounded."
Photo
update. Thomas Weschler confirms that the
center photo of Seger on stage in the CD booklet
is from the mid-70s. "Probably in E. Lansing
w/Peter Frampton," he writes. According to TLW,
the photos were selected in October 2002 -- a
year ago -- and then the project got put on
hold.
That would
track with an email I got -- and foolishly
ignored -- from "J.V." on January 16, 2003,
saying GH2 would be released this year, based on
a Gary Graff article in the Oakland
Press.
Got any gum? 47,000 thousand Seger fans
aren't the only ones excited about GH2. This, my
friends in Detroit say, is a photo of Seger
showing a preview copy of the new disk to Joe
Walsh. We shoulda been there but we
weren't.
-
Meanwhile, a
handful of those 47,000 first-week fans wrote
the Segerfile with their own reviews. Check out
the comments of Michael Good, Charlie Keegan,
Paul Dunn, Chip Stewart, Gord Hunter and Bill
Wolski (who explained neutrinos
to us earlier), Marty Carlisle and a few others
here.
"It's like
seeing an old friend after many years apart, "
Chip Stewart writes. And I love Bill's comment
about Satisfied -- "This song would make the
career of virtually anybody else who could have
recorded it, yet it's just Seger doing what he
always does." You'll also want to ponder his
query on the future of the saxophone.
And Gord
Hunter sums up what a great Greatest Hits volume
can do: "I feel like I've found his music again
with all the strength and conviction of my
youth." That link again is here.
November 12,
2003
Let
"Tomorrow" Never End
"Tomorrow" is
here, and I can't stop playing it. This song has
a hold on me like morphine...my family has fled
to the other end of the house because I keep
playing it so loud.
The whole CD
is great -- more on that later -- but as the
final cut, "Tomorrow" makes a huge statement.
Get the CD just for this track alone, if you
must. Then do your life a favor and play it loud
-- louder than you've played anything for a good
long while. Let it thump off your chest. Hear
Seger doing what he does with incredible
power.
As for
"Satisfied" -- get ready to give up some major
brain space. You won't have to open the door for
this song...it floats in by itself. It's gonna
be in my head for a long, long time.
I'm so
slammed, so jazzed about these new tracks, I can
barely pull it together for a quick round-up
slash rip-off of web stories and Segerfile
insights. But here goes.
Apocalyptic
and tense. That's how Mark Brown, writing in
the Rocky Mountain News, describes "Tomorrow."
Some excerpts from Brown's piece.
"My
son and I are very into science. We're always
talking about asteroids hitting the Earth,
science in general, physics, things of that
nature," Seger says. "We don't know what's
going to happen tomorrow, so it's just live
for today and, gosh, enjoy it...The line
about the sun and the road rage - I just
really liked the way the lyric came out."
Mark
Brown, Rocky Mountain News, November 4, 2003.
"Seger
compiles greatest hits (and slips in some new
tunes)"
Brown says
that Seger plays all the guitar solos on
"Tomorrow."
Seger's
next album: Brown quotes Seger as saying, "I
turned in 11 (songs), and I've got another 15
I've been recording since '97."
"Much
of the material was actually rerecorded,"
Brown writes, "after he (Seger) discovered a
new Sony 44-track, 24-bit machine that
sounded better than anything he'd ever
recorded on before."
"'I
recorded a total of 29 songs, but the best
ones - there were 11 of them,' Seger says.
...He plans to write and record five more
songs during the winter and give them to his
old friend Andy Slater, Capitol Records
president, to package and
release."
Seger has also
recorded Come On up to the House, from
Tom Waits' Mule Variations album, Brown
writes.
Cooking the
tapes. The master tapes of the older
material on GH2 were gooey and had to be cooked
in a convection oven to stabilize them,
according to a Rocky Mountain News
sidebar.
"The
problem was remastering them without
destroying the tapes. That was a trip," Seger
says. "We had to be very careful. You bake
them for eight to 10 hours and you run them
through once and put them on hard
disc."
Rocky Mountain News,November 4, 2003.
"Tapes
didn't age well in the
vaults."
Read the
entire Mark
Brown
piece, and
tape sidebar
here.
- No
RGM. Gary Graff, a journalist who has
covered Seger extensively, explains in the
Cleveland Plain Dealer why "Ramblin' Gamblin'
Man" is not on either Greatest Hits album.
- "No
matter how we tried to fit it in, it's
just so mono in the mix that it stood out
like a sore thumb," Seger explains. "It
just didn't sound right."
Gary
Graff, November 4, 2003, The Plain Dealer.
"Something
old, something new by Bob
Seger."
Blue
Ridge? Graff adds a tantalizing note
about a scrapped album.
- "Seger
also notes that improved recording
technology spurred him to scrap an album
he was working on, tentatively titled
'Blue Ridge,' and create a new body of
work. Sailing, including back-to-back
regatta wins in 2001 and 2002, has also
chewed up some time.
"But
mostly, Seger says, it's family that has
commanded the attention he might otherwise
give to the music. 'You know, it's so
soothing, the whole kid thing,' he says.
'I love being around
them.'
Read the
entire Graff
article
here.
The
liner notes. Because "Satisfied" and
"Tomorrow" were added at the eleventh hour,
the first batch of booklets in the CD -- and
the track listing on the CD itself -- don't
include these songs. According to info at
Segernet.com, the first "a couple hundred
thousand" booklets will have the wrong
tracklist.
The
sequencing. It's fantastic. Right off the
top, someone had the genius to put "The Fire
Down Below" after "Understanding." And
"Beautiful Loser" after "Her Strut."
Sometimes on greatest hits collections, the
sequence works against the songs. On this
one, the sequence works perfectly, enhancing
the songs.
Weschler
scores. The booklet inside the CD begins
with Tom Weschler's beautiful back-cover shot
of Seger from Brand New Morning. And the
centerpiece is a terrific Weshler shot of
Seger in concert. I've never seen this one
before. Okay, TLW -- what's the story behind
the photo?
The
Silver Bullet Girls. Naked girls wearing
huge ammo belts, hugging a phallic bullet.
They've never seemed Seger-like to me.
Couldn't they find work as a graphic for say,
a Blue Cheer cutout, or some Led Zep reissue?
Do they seem horribly dated to you, or am I
just getting old? (TLW: what's the story
behind that piece of art?)
Someone
tell Capitol. This is first Seger CD
since 1995, and guess what's on the Capitol
Records home page? Coldplay, Duran Duran,
Yellowcard, various Beatles stuff. Way to
overlook a guy who's sold nearly 50 million
albums.
[Update: Sometime on Nov. 5, Capitol
added Seger to their home
page.]
Someone
tell iTunes. When you search for Seger at
Apple's Music Store, it asks "Did you mean
Bob Siegal?" Uh, no.
The
missing verse. I was three times through
"Satisfied" when I realized it was one verse
short from the version I heard in the Vault.
The missing second verse is a little more
biting. The full lyrics are updated in the
Vault write-up.
BobSeger.com?
When you put the enhanced CD in your hard
drive, you get a menu page where you can
start the Turn The Page video. There's also a
link to www.bobseger.com, which is registered
to Capitol. When you go there, you'll get a
picture of the album cover and a link to
Amazon...in case you want to buy another copy
of the CD maybe. I guess they just couldn't
find any good Seger sites they could link
to...
Alto
wants to tour: Alto Reed posts this
message on his site, AltoReed.com:
"Be sure to tell all your friends and
neighbors to go out and snatch up as many of
the new CD's as possible...and maybe that
will help in convincing Bob that our fans
need us up close and personal...tour wise
that is."
DMC and
Jones. "All I listen to," says DMC of Run
DMC, "is Pink Floyd, Bob Seger, the Rolling
Stones, the Beatles, Creedence Clearwater
Revival, Janis Joplin - I'm like a
classic-rock head." And then there's this
disturbing item from the Nov. 5 Washington
Times: "It wasn't until he sang a techno-y
near-ballad version of Bob Seger's "We've Got
Tonight" that the panties really started
sailing toward Tom Jones, about midway
through his 90-minute steamer at the Lisner
Auditorium Tuesday night."
Okay, those last two bits have nothing to do
with the Greatest Hits 2 CD, but a web
round-up is a web round-up. And it certainly
demonstrates Seger's amazingly wide range of
influence.
Meanwhile,
my ten-year-old son is suggesting that I not
wait for the police to find me and demand
that I turn it down. "Just call up and turn
yourself in now, dad," he says. But
"Tomorrow" stays on at top volume.
I fear I'm
going pay for this night when he's a
teenager. Til then, we rock.
November 5,
2003
DetNews
Covers Seger
Today's
release of Greatest Hits 2 brings the added
bonus of more news coverage. Susan Whitall's
story in the Detroit News makes two stories
in one week, which is two more than we've
seen in the last several years.
Some
excerpts from Whitall's piece:
- The two
new songs were picked "because they
sounded the most done," says Seger. "I've
got some other great stuff, but the vocals
aren't final or whatever."
Susan
Whitall, November 3, 2003, The Detroit
News. "Seger's
back in the
groove."
Whitall
says Seger writes in an upstairs,
guitar-filled studio over a barn, "where he
sits on a leather sofa facing the
woods."
- "I love
being out here. I can just bash away and
nobody comes down that drive, I don't get
any mail. My wife wants me to move closer
to our house, so I don't have to drive so
far, but the lawn mowers! I can't record
with lawn mowers and planes, and trucks
going by."
I like the
fact that Whitall takes the time to describe
Seger's appeal. He has, she writes, "the rare
ability to roar in a rock 'n' roll context,
but a minute later convey heartbreak and
sensitivity." That's a good line. She also
gets points in my book for mentioning his
early stuff, particularly "the anti-war song,
'2 + 2,' and the angry young man rant, 'East
Side Story.'"
On
hitting the high notes:
- "Some
of the real high notes like on 'Katmandu,'
I can't do that anymore. And 'Old Time
Rock 'n' Roll,' that was F sharp, oh boy!
I couldn't do that anymore. I've got to go
two steps down for that. But that's cool
because the guitar sounds better there."
...Joni Mitchell once said to me, 'Let me
tell you, I've been there. You smoke, I
smoke. Those high notes are gone --
they're not coming back. Just ... turn it
down!' "
Punch in
demand. Seger reveals that J. Geils Band
and Diana Ross once asked Punch to manage
them. "He said no, I like your stuff, but my
plate's full."
Read all of
Whitall's piece here.
November 5,
2003
Kid
Rock Covers Seger
As rumored
earlier, Kid Rock's new CD will include an
unreleased Seger track, "Hard Night for
Sarah." Once again, the info comes from
Louisville's Classic Rock station, 107.7SFR
(and the tip comes from Segerfile reader
Richard Petty). The 107.7
site
says:
- Seger
told us that he keeps tabs on what Kid
Rock is up to, though the two don't get
together often: "I obviously know Rock,
but I don't really see Rock much. I don't
want to influence him one way or the other
-- you know, I want him to be his own
person. I don't see him much."
Interestingly,
that's the same reason I don't hang with
Rock.
"Hard Night
for Sarah" was profiled in the original Vault
write-up. "Upbeat and sexy this song is not,"
is how I described it. "Musically, the song
owes a lot to "Mainstreet," the entry
continues, "but in the Release or Don't
Release vote, 'Sarah' got two
'Don'ts.'"
I'd like to
believe Rock is releasing it now just to
prove how dead wrong I was. Read the full
Vault write-up of "Sarah" here.
November 4,
2003.
Carved "In
Stone" -- Seger Says New CD in O4
Seger
talks.
Specifically,
he's talking in the longest and most
interesting Seger article and interview in
over a decade, both written by Brian
McCollum, music writer for the Detroit Free
Press. You'll want to read the
whole
article
and the even more fascinating
interview
yourself, but some excerpts are included
below.
In
addition, one of the most definitive
statements yet appears on the website of
Louisville's Classic Rock station, 107.7SFR.
They quote Seger as saying this about the due
date for his CD of new material:
- "I'm
hoping spring, but it'll probably be more
like summer or fall. But definitely,
I'd say in stone by next fall it'll be
out, 'cause, I mean, it's virtually
done. I got a lot of really good stuff
on it already, and I'd just like to add
some more."
That
tidbit alone is great to hear. But McCollum
really puts the meat on the bones. Some
excerpts:
- Seger:
I'd say (the new album) is 70 percent
done. I was 80 percent done, but I had to
steal ("Satisfied" and "Tomorrow") from
myself. I was gonna write three more
songs; now I've got to write five.
When
that comes out, we might do a small tour.
Everybody says, "Why don't you just play
10 or 12 places?" But the problem is that
you can't get a good crew, and you can't
get a good sound system, and you can't get
a good light system, if you do a "small"
tour. If you want the best, those guys
want a commitment of about 4 to 6 months.
And I'd want the best people and the best
stuff. So that's the problem. And then
there's the issue of when do you do
it?
The kids
really want me to do it. They don't
remember the last one.
McCollum:
But do you feel like you have a debt
to your fans, the people who'd like to see
you get back out again.
Seger:
Well, yeah. But they sure saw me!
(Laughs) I played everywhere on earth for
22 years -- gymnasiums, cafeterias, clubs,
concerts, outdoors, indoors. I played
every kind of venue there was.
I mean,
I know what you're saying. But I guess
it's just the gearing up for it that's
monumental. We've got to practice three
weeks, get the kinks out, then we've got
to practice three weeks with the crew, and
then go out for four months. It's just a
huge chunk of time out of life. It's a
question of do you really want to commit
to that physically...I want to be sure I
can deliver what people expect to hear.
I'd definitely be enthused. I just don't
know if I can physically do it. Or if I
should.
McCollum:
A lot of fans wonder when we're gonna
see compact disc reissues of older albums
like "Noah" and "Back in '72." What's the
status of all that vintage
material?
Seger:
We, in conjunction with Capitol,
bought (the masters). So we -- and Capitol
-- can determine when that stuff is going
to come out...
But I am
considering putting out an album
eventually of all these tracks that you
read about on the Internet, all these
tracks that just missed being on albums --
even outtakes from "Live Bullet" and
things of that nature. Just clearing the
deck. It would be about 30 or 40 songs
that have never been released. Like, "OK,
here they are! Now stop calling
me!"
--
"Interview
with Bob Seger: I'm just trying to keep
things
simple."
by Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press,
October 31, 2003
Seger
doesn't mention where on the Internet
you can read about these unreleased
tracks,
but probably a Google search would turn up
something. McCollum's article says Seger may
call the eventual outtake album "Everything"
-- a truly delicious prospect.
The article
and interview cover all kinds of ground --
what Seger thinks of "It's A Mystery," his
relationship with Capitol and how he divides
his time between songwriting and family, and
much more. It's must-reading for all
Segerphiles.
Thanks to
Bill Cook for the Free Press tip, and to
Richard Petty for the Louisville info, and to
McCollum for the great articles. Best
Halloween treat ever.
October 31,
2003
Great
Hits, Great Pics
With the
release of Greatest Hits 2 just around the
corner, sheet music publisher Hal Leonard is
getting in on the act with the release of
"Bob Seger Anthology," available for
pre-order on Amazon. Check out the fantastic,
hard-rocking cover photo. Previous
sheet-music books, shown below, have used
more familiar graphics -- including the
picture we'll see on GH2 on November 4. And
speaking of great photos, that one of Seger
at the keyboards looks oddly familiar. You
can find the strangest things on e-Bay
sometimes*.
Thanks to
the original Seger DEW liner Jesse for
tipping me off to all of these.
Click to
enlarge.
*Including
repackaged versions of the Retro Rock radio
broadcast, or so it would appear.
October 27,
2003
Another
Reason We Should All Live in Traverse
City
Actually
two good reasons: A chance to see some
terrific rock and roll photos. And a chance
to run into some great musicians, maybe
including Bob Seger.
These two
opportunities come together at an exhibition
called "Knew and Used Photography: The Tom
Wright Collection." It opens at the Dennos
Museum Center in Traverse City on November 14
and runs through February 1.
Wright
photographed groups and musicians including
Led Zeppelin, Cream, Rod Stewart, The Rolling
Stones and The Who. The exhibit and the
premiere are being organized by media
promotor and Seger fan Rick Coates, who will
also host a panel discussion about the
1966-1973 Detroit music scene.
Rumors
are buzzing around TC about the various
rockers who might attend the
opening.
The
Traverse City paper says:
- "It's
the Nov. 13 VIP premiere of the show
that's already generating lots of grist
for the Traverse City rumor mill. There's
talk that any number of rock superstars
may be on hand, either for the opening
itself or for the late-night "Tom Wright
Jam" scheduled afterward at Streeters.
Rumors include anyone from Pete Townshend
(Wright's longtime buddy) to Joe Walsh to
Bob Seger, David Teegarden and Kenny
Olson.
"I know there's a ton of great
performers coming in," said Streeter's owner
Doug Street. "A lot of big national acts have
expressed interest, although I can't say just
who has committed."
--
October 21, 2003, Mike Norton, Traverse City
Record-Eagle. "Rock
photos, maybe some
stars."
Other names
being mentioned for the opening and/or jam
session include Drew Abbott and Ian McLagan.
Tickets are first-come, first-served from the
Dennos Museum Center box office at (231)
995-1553.
October
26, 2003
Hey
First-Dayers -- How's It Sound?
"Satistfied"
-- Seger's first release since 1998 -- is
already getting airplay. And in ten days,
we'll all be able to buy Greatest Hits 2 and
hear the other new track,
"Tomorrow."
If, like
me, you're buying the CD on its release date
-- November 4 -- drop me an email that day or
the next and let me know what you think of
the two songs. Worth the wait? Better than
ever? Or anti-climatic? Did the Vault
write-ups (Read "Satisfied"
here and "Tomorrow"
here) do them justice? Is new Seger a reason
to live, or what?
Write a
short paragraph on each song, shoot it to me
at sparling@segerfile.com
and I'll post your take on it
here.
October 26,
2003
Seger
Delivers!!
Forget what
I wrote below about the track list for
Seger's Greatest Hits Volume 2 being
conservative. That was yesterday. Today, the
track list rocks, thanks to a last minute
change made by Seger and Punch.
The news
simply couldn't be better -- Seger has added
two fantastic unreleased tracks to the
lineup: "Satisfied" and "Tomorrow." I'm
ecstatic about the choices -- these are
tracks I had a chance to hear in the Vault,
and both are Seger at his best. (For the
Vault's write-up of these tracks,
click
here.)
Just like
that, GHV2 just became essential.
Segernet.com
broke the wonderful news this afternoon --
get over there right now (if you haven't just
come from there) and read about Eric's phone
call with Punch Enterprises explaining all
the details behind this last minute switch.
BusinessWire.com
has a release, probably written by Capitol,
which is not as detailed as Eric's version,
but which contains an interesting quote from
Bob.
- "Rock
and roll legend Bob Seger put the brakes
on his upcoming "Greatest Hits 2" CD only
three weeks before its scheduled release
date of November 4th. 'The fans have
waited a long time for this record and I
appreciate that,' said Seger. 'It didn't
seem right to put it out without something
new.' Business
Wire, 10/14/03. "Bob Seger Stops the
Presses and Adds Two New Unreleased
Tracks"
Both
accounts point out that the change is so
last-minute, part of the initial packaging
will be wrong. Also, the video of "Night
Moves" will be removed from the disc to make
room for the two new cuts.
Historians,
please note: In five and a half years, this
is the first time the Seger File has used
exclamation marks in a headline. I'm just
that damn excited. When you hear "Satisfied"
and "Tomorrow," you will be too.
October 14,
2003 -- With another thanks to Segernet for
the scoop.
Get Out of Denver, Like a Truck and
GHV2
That's
right, it's a Web roundup. And in today's
Seger news...
First,
a couple of e-mails and DenverPost.com report
that Springsteen opened his Denver show last
night with "Get Out of Denver."
The e-mail
from Robert D. Quimby said: "Nice rendition -
really slowed it down. Only problem was most
people around me had no idea what the song
was or whose it was." A similar note from
Rick (rickypaddy) confirms that "many who
were at the show and who posted on
Springsteen's forum, wanted to know what song
that was."
Are
Springsteen fans really that unaware? Almost
makes me want to update the Seger-Springsteen
Complexo-Meter.
Second,
this weekend's NYT Magazine has an
interesting piece on the pickup truck and its
place in our culture. There are some good
Seger references, such as:
- ''We
launched 'Like a Rock' when the truckers,
guys who used them for work, were still
the primary market for pickup trucks,''
says Bill Ludwig, chief creative officer
at Campbell-Ewald, which handles
advertising for Chevrolet.
That
changed almost immediately. Suburban car
shoppers started trading in minivans and
station wagons for full-size pickups.
Observing this shift, Chevrolet
commissioned what Ludwig describes as the
first comprehensive anthropological study
of car buyers to determine what accounted
for the change -- and to see if ''Like a
Rock'' had anything to do with it. ''The
economic conditions were much the same as
they are now: huge economic downturn,
people losing white-collar jobs to
downsizing, all manner of economic
instability,'' Ludwig says.
In response
to this insecurity, white-collar consumers
embraced blue-collar "workingman" values,
like pickup trucks:
- It was
just good timing, Ludwig says, that these
workingman virtues were the ones expressed
in the lyrics of ''Like a Rock.'' Better
still, Seger's lyrics could be parceled
out to sell particular trucks to specific
audiences. Television commercials for the
modest S-10, a starter truck, were scored
to reach strivers with a self-described
inner dignity. Ludwig recited, like the
poetry that it is, Seger's second verse to
make his point: ''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.''
Manny Howard, The New York Times Magazine,
9/28/2003. "The Pickup, a Love
Story."
You can
find the full article here.
(Free registration required.)
Third,
Eric Verona, who runs segernet.com has a very
interesting post about GHV2, based on a
conversation with someone at Punch
Enterprises. There's also a cool picture of
Bob and the Boss, which I stole and reprinted
very small. Check out the Segernet
Forum
and find the full-size photo on your
own.
September
27, 2003
Greatest Hits 2 Slithering
Along
- As
reported below, a couple of web sites are
reporting a November release date for
Greatest Hits Vol 2. Matt Rowe, editor of
musictap.net
says the source is straight from EMI/Capitol.
The release date "has slithered off to
November 4," according to the site's update
for August 28.
If true,
that could mean no CD of new material for
another year.
Four
scenarios come to mind. 1) Capitol is driving
this. They don't know if the new material
will ever be ready, and they know a Greatest
Hits package will sell more copies anyway. So
they're moving ahead on their own. 2) Capitol
is bluffing, penciling in a release date for
Volume 2 to make Bob fork over the new stuff.
3) Seger is rewriting, remixing, rethinking
or retiring and won't have the new stuff
ready for at least another year anyway, so
Volume 2 is a stopgap. 4) I'm just making up
stuff as I type.
On the
other hand, the ten unreleased tracks from
2001 that I heard recently in the Vault would
make a perfectly fine new album, as is. Why
they aren't already released is another
mystery. (No Vault update this week, by the
way. I'm off to see Donovan and the Dandy
Warhols. Separately.)
Meanwhile,
Capitol's Seger page is content to report the
old news that GH Vol. 1 has been certified as
6X Platinum by the RIAA (Reality-Impaired
Alien Attorneys.)
Seger
Trivia Extra:
Please note:
The Bob Seger tribute at the Whidbey Island
(Wash.) County Fair begins promptly at 5 this
Sunday. CCR tribute at 3 pm.
August 29,
2003
-
SegerFog
Descends on SegerFile
Greatest
Hits Vol. 2? Rosalie? Apple Music
Store? There's nothing but questions
this time out. (What else is
new?)
Is
Seger's Greatest Hits Volume 2 due
for release on November 18? A couple
web sites (pauseandplay.com and
musictap.net) say it is. Someone at
Punch's office says it isn't.
(Thanks to Daniel Hawks and Mike
Faye for the website info and to
Eric Verona at segernet.com for the
counter-info from HQ.) What's the
real story? As always, those who
know don't say.
Michael
McNamara, who is making a
documentary about CKLW, e-mailed me
recently with this question. Is it
true that "even though "Rosalie"
charted on other Detroit radio
stations, the song was NEVER played
on CKLW."
I
think that statement is true -- that
CK never played it. Anyone know with
certainty? McNamara is also looking
for images of the song on radio
station charts (like Keener, etc.)
If you have any, let me
know.
Finally,
why can't I buy any Seger (except
for Shea) in the Apple Music
Store?
Ponder
these imponderables while you're
checking out the vault, which has
just been updated.
August
24, 2003
|
More
Unreleased Seger -- The Seger File
Returns to the Vault
Last
year, the Seger File was given
limited access to a cache of
unreleased Seger tracks spanning
nearly 30 years. The result was a
10,000-word
essay
describing more than 30 songs -- the
most detailed account of Seger's
unreleased music ever published on
the Web or on paper.
Two
months ago, a friend (known
mysteriously as "Ears Two" or E2)
and I returned to the Vault. This
time a young woman handed us a
jumbo-sized baggie jammed with
nearly 20 cassette tapes. A minute
later she led us to a dubbing tape
deck, gave us some headphones, told
us not to copy the tapes and
disappeared.
For
the next two days, we listened to
Seger cuts from the 1970s, '80s, and
'90s -- and five new tracks recorded
in this century, presumably for
Seger's next CD.
For
a full report -- and to find out why
Seger can't promise you tomorrow or
what happens if neutrinos have mass
-- follow the link and
Return
to the
Vault.
July
19, 2003
Update:
Bill Wolski, a longtime Seger fan,
writes to ask, If neutrinos have
mass, do they take Communion as
well? His note also offers a physics
perspective on Seger's lyrics, as
the Vault grows deeper. Click on the
link above for more.
August
8, 2003
|
A Personal
Note
Last
April -- after five years writing
and editing the Seger File -- I took
a short break from the site...as you
no doubt noticed if you e-mailed me
during that time and got no
response. Now I'm back, and I'll try
to do better.
Of
course, the nice thing about running
a Seger site is that you can fall
asleep for months at a time and not
miss anything. While I was gone, an
inmate somewhere had "You'll
Accomp'ny Me" played during his
execution. A remastered Against the
Wind was released. (Question to
audiophiles out there: How's it
sound? Should I buy it?) Seger
decided not to enter the Port Huron
/ Mackinac yacht race this year, due
to a family reunion. He's still
finishing his next CD. Dee-Pah isn't
real. Never was.
There.
Now you're up to date.
July
19, 2003
|
Just
take those 2003
Updates
off the shelf...
 MainMenu CD
and Tour
News2003
Updates -
- Do
ya 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
|
