Friday, November 5, 2010

Here I go - playing star again (Bob Seger)

Nearly finished the trawl through my greatest hits collections - into the Ss and Bob Seger is delivering.

Time to celebrate a semi-forgotten hero.

The set was put out in 1994 and includes: 8 songs from the 70s; 4 songs from the 80s; and 2 specially done in 1994 for this set. If it was updated in 2010 it would include nothing from the last 16 years!!

What the hell happened to Bob? Maybe he retired into family life (I didn't think musicians did that)? Maybe he had nothing left to say? Maybe he put out more product with ever diminishing returns? Is he still alive?

Well yes - he is, and doing pretty well it seems. The reason for the disappearance from the music radar was a ten year absence to spend time with the family (well and truly beats Lennon's five years). He still releases albums but the market has changed. Classic hit radio formats (and this Greatest Hits collection) prolong the image of Seger as a performer anchored in a heyday.

The general vibe around Bob was that (like the J Geils Band) he'd been performing for years without any mass success - then in the seventies he could do no wrong and his brilliant live album Live Bullet displays his power with some killer songs. No live footage but here are the soundtracks to my two fav tracks. Must be played LOUD and you MUST dance and play air guitar!!!

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