May 6: Happy Birthday Bob Seger

 

Mediocrity’s easy, the good things take time, the great need commitment.
~Bob Seger, Lock And Loaded

That’s a good way to live, go against the wind.
~Bob Seger

Combining the driving charge of Ryder’s Detroit Wheels with Stonesy garage rock and devotion to hard-edged soul and R&B, he crafted a distinctively American sound.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

Kid Rock inducts Bob Seger Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 2004:

Aside from “Night Moves”, “Turn The Page” is Bob Seger’s finest song. It’s slow like a bus going down route 66, which is slow no matter what the speedometer says – despite it’s famous exciting song – route 66 may be the most boring highway in the U.S.A. The way Seger sings his song, every word seems to question, to undercut, every other. The song is all weariness, a story about the need to get up for the next show, which doesn’t turn out well enough to justify the effort.
~Greil Marcus (Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968-2010)

Turn The Page (1973):

Wikipedia:

Birth name	Robert Clark Seger
Born	May 6, 1945 (age 72) Lincoln Park, Michigan
Genres	Rock, heartland rock, roots rock,pop rock, piano rock, country rock, Southern rock
Occupations	musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1961–present
Labels	Hideout, Cameo, Capitol, Palladium
Associated acts	Glenn Frey, The Eagles, Frankie Miller, Shaun Murphy, Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Little Feat, Kid Rock, Grand Funk Railroad, 3 Doors Down, Rod Stewart
Website	BobSeger.com

Bob Seger is an American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s. By the early 1970s, he had dropped the “System” from his recordings and continued to strive for broader success with other various bands. In 1973, he put together The Silver Bullet Band, a group of Detroit-area musicians, with whom he became most successful on the national level with the album Live Bullet, recorded live with the Silver Bullet Band in 1975 at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan. In 1976, he achieved a national breakout with the studio album Night Moves. On his studio albums, he also worked extensively with the Alabama-based Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, which appeared on several of Seger’s best-selling singles and albums.

A roots rocker with a classic raspy, shouting voice, Seger wrote and recorded songs that dealt with love, women, blue-collar themes and was an exemplar of heartland rock. Seger has recorded many hits, including “Night Moves”, “Turn the Page”, “We’ve Got Tonight”, “Against the Wind”, and “Shakedown” that was written for Beverly Hills Cop II and “Like a Rock”, and also co-wrote the Eagles’ number-one hit “Heartache Tonight”. His iconic recording of “Old Time Rock and Roll” was named one of the Songs of the Century in 2001.

With a career spanning five decades, Seger continues to perform and record today. Seger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.

Against The Wind

Check out:

• Top 10 Bob Seger songs (Ultimate Classic Rock)

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Night Moves

Greatest Hits (Full Album) @ youtube:

Tracks:

1. Roll Me Away
2. Night Moves
3. Turn The Page
4. You’ll Accomp’ny Me
5. Hollywood Nights
6. Still The Same
7. Old Time Rock & Roll
8. We’ve Got Tonight
9. Against The Wind
10. Mainstreet
11. The Fire Inside
12. Like A Rock
13. C’est La Vie
14. In Your Time

-Egil