Thank you,
Shaun Murphy
shaunmurphyband.com
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In 1972 when I was in the band Spirit, Bob opened shows for us. Although "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" had already done well, he was still traveling in a camper van. After a gig in Florida, we all plied in his van and hit a couple of bars. What a great friendly guy grinding it out on the road. Bob Seeger is a guy you're happy to see have the kind of success he had in the 70's and 80's that allows him to go on the road when he wants to. I was told that when "Like a Rock" became a year after year commercial for Chevrolet, the road was no longer a necessity. If so, good for him. He deserved it.
Al Staehely
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Bob, your summary about Seger and your mom jumbled this memory loose in my head:
I once had a free tickets to see Seger at the Palace of Auburn Hills about 5 or 10 years ago. I called my mom, asked her if she wanted to go. She declined. "I already saw him." What? When!
She replied, with no hint of irony, "He played at my eighth grade graduation in the school gym."
Leave it to moms…
Mike Vial
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Bob Seger was the first person I saw live on stage. December 9, 1974, my first rock concert at the Capital Centre in Largo, MD in the DC suburbs: Bachman-Turner Overdrive was the headliner, with Blue Oyster Cult as the middle act. The opener? Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. I didn't know any of his music except for Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, but I remembered the name and when Live Bullet came out in Spring 1976 I bought it as well as the follow-up Night Moves in Fall 1976. I have been a fan ever since. I have Live Bullet on my Sonos system now; it's still one of the best live albums!
Carl Nelson
Columbia (moved from Ellicott City), MD
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Rambling Gamblin Man: my fave in 5th grade.
- Bruce Gow
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The idea to meld Travelling Man and Beautiful Loser in live shows was his drummer's, Charlie Martin. They fit like a glove!
Great read.
- Dante Canil, Victoria, Canada
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Great take on this, Bob. I sub for the regular guitarist in a Creedence/Seger tribute band occasionally and Travelin' Man/ Beautiful Loser is my favorite part of the show. All these years later, it still fires up an audience.
Michael Gregory
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Hey Bob, I was in a band named Medusa that played a lot of clubs in Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit in the late 60's. We opened for Bob Seger Friday nights at the Sugar Shack in Columbus. It was Bob Seger and the Last Heard and they had a 45 single which was really popular on the OSU campus. You can hear the lyrical and delivery influences of Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, with a Bo Diddley beat and a Ted Nugent/ Amboy Dukes pschedelic lead guitar. This song made me a Seger fan. XO, Shy Hood
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEu5kTAvuFI
John Gunn
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I was never a huge fan, but give me Seger over Bruce for "heartland rock" anytime. Even "Like A Rock" is a pretty good song, even though the commercial killed it. P.S. Fun fact – Seger played percussion on the last track of the last MC5 album, High Time!
Jeremy Shatan
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Yes, the early seventies was a lonely time for those of us who were rabid fans of groups like Raspberries. Loved them even when I knew no one else except my siblings who felt the same way. Saw them with 150 others in August of '74 at the Municipal auditorium in Atlanta, a few months before they broke up. Didn't think to talk with those sitting around us about the group, they were strangers and really, there was no real opportunity to do so. Fast forward to their reunion tour 30 years later. We fans met online, became friends and by the time the concert series started, we entered the venues as validated co-fans. We validated each other - the loneliness was gone. A totally different experience.
David Thomson
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Thank you for writing about Bob Seger, one of the great bar-band rock-&-rollers of all time. Some people did know about Leonard Cohen's book, "Beautiful Losers" when Seger's song came out. The book had been out for a decade, and another piece of music that arose from that book was Buffy Sainte-Marie's "God is alive, Magic is Afoot," on her 1969 Illuminations album, which I still have. That song was one of the most haunting of the late sixties, and takes its lyric from the final stream of consciousness chapter in "Beautiful Losers." Great artistic contributions, the songs and the book. Artists were artists in those days, and Leonard one of the greatest, inspiring so many others.
Rex Weyler
Mansons Landing, BC, Canada
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I am a musician from Michigan and was there with the Seger/Stooges/MC-5's earliest beginnings. "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" opened with the coolest drum groove yet, and came out when the group was still called The Bob Seger System. I met and talked to Bob in a music store in Ann Arbor when I was 13 years old. I was so nervous. Then when we saw the MC-5 and the Stooges live, everything changed. In five years we went from "I Want To Hold Your Hand to "I Wanna Be Your Dog". And that MC-5 debut album is still at the top of the list for the best and most aggressive, raw energy live albums of all time. Growing up in that Detroit rock scene was amazing. Come on! "Let me be who I am... And let me kick out the jams".
Rich Nisbet
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Bob: Sad that "Back in '72" LP by Bob Seger remains unavailable. Apparently, Bo and Punch Andrews were unhappy about its recording in Muscle Shoals. That there's a buzz on the LP which I never have been able to find. I still have my worn beat-up vinyl version. Seger played away from Detroit often early U.S. touring with Bachman-Turner Overdrive but I saw him earlier opening for Dr. Hook in London, Ontario and he was a known mythical figure to music fans in Ontario. He already had had a regional major hit with "Noah" in Toronto and Hamilton. And betcha didn't know that "Night Moves" was recorded in Toronto at Nimbus 9 Studio with mostly Toronto musicians and produced by the Guess Who's producer Jack Richardson. Bob Seger, a Toronto boy. Oh hell yes. Larry LeBlanc
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Thanks for writing about Bob. I love that man… a great person, authentic and generally under-rated (he's an anti-hero). Bob was the first artist I dug my teeth into when I appointed head of publicity at Capitol just prior to Live Bullet.
I was so taken by him and the music that I begged him to 'just give me the next year of your life'. He did and I wrote my first impassioned Dear Journalist letter to the entire mailing list telling his story and casting him as America's All-American Rock Hero. Well it worked thanks to partnering on the quest with Ray Tusken who was the head of AOR promotion.
A year later Newsweek did a two page double truck centerfold feature on Bob using that same phrase. The photo was of Bob seated on an old couch with his dog Boris. I sent a mailgram addressed to Boris Seger that read, 'Dear Boris, good to see your picture in Newsweek. One question, who is the guy with the guitar?
Bob has held a well deserved place in my heart since then, wrote me into two songs on Stranger In Town and even dedicated a song to me in front of a sold-out arena crowd. Rock n Roll never forgets and Bob doesn't either
Bruce Garfield
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Bob is a national treasure.
Joe Walsh
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