Music - Bob Seger and the Heart of Rock'n'Roll

Later this year, in the California desert, there’ll be a three-day concert of rock music greats, including Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Neil Young. I’ve seen ‘em all before. The show I’m longing to see, though, would be Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.

​I’m influenced partially because I was able to witness Bob’s overdue emergence as a national star in 1976 up close, but also because, in the many years since then, I’ve never failed to be moved when I hear his music.

Bob was and is a Detroit son. He heard early rock’n’roll and its root influences, rhythm’n’blues and country music, in a working class environment. He left his job on an auto assembly line and started performing in 1960. In those days, you could become a regional star over time and not be known elsewhere. And that’s what happened to Bob. Bear in mind that, up to this point, the media out of New York was enamored with English rockers; the Beatles were still releasing solo albums, the Stones and Pink Floyd were really just getting going, and new artists like David Bowie, Jethro Tull and Elton John were getting all the attention.  

Fifteen long years later, Bob debuted his excellent new group, the Silver Bullet Band, in front of 40,000 fans at Detroit’s Cobo Hall. It was  strictly a local phenomenon. His manager and co-producer, Punch Andrews, arranged for it be recorded. At Capitol Records, where Bob had just returned after a string of albums that failed to break, I had the good fortune to have just been given the job of running a new Rock Promotion department. (We called it “AOR”, reflecting the name for what had been progressive FM radio but was now being formatted, consulted and growing with the influence of the music revolution of the time.) Punch had the idea of editing two of Bob’s regional hits together into one killer medley: “Travelin’ Man/Beautiful Loser” was the first 12-inch, 33-1/3rpm single released to Rock radio, and it spread the airplay. In St. Louis, the radio station KSHE and the concert promotion company were connected, and they saw the value in trying to duplicate what happened in Detroit; it worked. The midwest embraced the success; “Live Bullet” went gold, Bob’s first. The word spread.

Bob and Punch were quick to capitalize on the buzz; “Night Moves” was released in ‘76. It was a golden year for rock music, with Bruce Springsteen also bringing his New Jersey version of “street” on “Born in the USA”. Both Bruce and Bob proved to be consummate road warriors, and their bands were tight and soulful. The “Night Moves” single was Bob’s first national hit; the album sold four million in its first year, and continues to be regarded as a classic. After that, it was an unbroken series of hits for Bob. Everyone at the label loved him; interestingly, Capitol at the time reflected a blue-collar, heartland mentality more than other labels.

I was delighted when Bob was made a member of the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, and he continues to record and tour and win accolades. It’s easy to imagine the discouragement he must’ve felt in those first fifteen years, and I’m happy that he’s so honored now. But, perhaps it’s because of that struggle that his songwriting, even in the mid-’70’s, had such maturity, melancholy and wisdom. How did he know, as in “Against the Wind”, to write, “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then” …? Or, in “Like a Rock”, the nostalgia we’d feel for our youthful vitality…? If anything, Bob’s songs mean more to me now than they did when I had the privilege to promote them 40 years ago. And in terms of raw talent, I believe Bob Seger’s voice to be the very heart and soul of rock’n’roll, the one voice I find to be indispensable.