A Photographic Retrospective By John Robert Rowlands

Bob Seger

 

b. 6 May 1945, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Seger began his long career in the

early 60s as a member of the Decibels. He subsequently joined Doug Brown and the Omens as

organist, but was installed as their vocalist and songwriter when such talents surfaced.

The group made its recording debut as the Beach Bums, with 'The Ballad Of The Yellow Beret',

but this pastiche of the contemporaneous Barry Sadler hit, 'The Ballad Of The Green Beret',

was withdrawn in the face of a threatened lawsuit. The act then became known as Bob Seger and the

Last Heard and as such completed several powerful singles, notably 'East Side Story' (1966) and

'Heavy Music' (1967). Seger was signed by Capitol Records in 1968 and the singer's

new group, the Bob Seger System, enjoyed a US Top 20 hit that year with 'Ramblin' Gamblin' Man'.

Numerous excellent hard-rock releases followed, including the impressive Mongrel album,

but the artist was unable to repeat his early success and disbanded the group in 1971.
Having spent a period studying for a college degree, Seger returned to music with

his own label, Palladium, and three unspectacular albums ensued. He garnered considerable

acclaim for his 1974 single, 'Get Out Of Denver', which has since become a much-covered classic.

However, Seger only achieved deserved commercial success upon returning to Capitol when Beautiful

Loser reached the lower reaches of the US album charts (number 131).

Now fronting the Silver Bullet Band - Drew Abbott (guitar), Robyn Robbins (keyboards),

Alto Reed (saxophone), Chris Campbell (bass) and Charlie Allen Martin (drums) - Seger

reinforced his in-concert popularity with the exciting Live Bullet, which was in turn followed by

Night Moves, his first platinum disc. The title track reached the US Top 5 in 1977, a feat

'Still The Same' repeated the following year. The latter hit was culled from the

triple-platinum album, Stranger In Town, which also included 'Hollywood Nights', 'Old Time Rock 'N' Roll'

and 'We've Got Tonight'. By couching simple sentiments in traditional, R&B-based rock, the set

confirmed Seger's ability to articulate the aspirations of blue-collar America, a feature enhanced

by his punishing tour schedule. Against The Wind also topped the US album charts, while another live set,

Nine Tonight, allowed the artist time to recharge creative energies.
He recruited Jimmy Iovine for The Distance which stalled at number 5. While Seger is rightly seen as a major

artist in the USA he has been unable to appeal to anything more than a cult audience in the UK.

Among his later hit singles were the Rodney Crowell song 'Shame On The Moon' (1983), 'Old Time Rock 'n' Roll'

(from the film Risky Business ), 'Understanding' (from the film Teachers ) and the number

1 hit 'Shakedown', taken from the soundtrack of Beverly Hills Cop II.

Seger released his first studio album for five years in 1991.

Co-produced by Don Was, it was a Top 10 hit in the USA, clearly showing his massive following

had remained in place. A highly successful greatest hits collection issued in 1994

(with copious sleeve notes from Seger)

also demonstrated just what a huge following he still has.

It's A Mystery came after a long gap, presumably buoyed by recent success.

It ploughed typical Seger territory with regular riff rockers such as 'Lock And Load'

alongside acoustic forays such as 'By The River'. The most interesting track on the album

was the title track, a great mantric rocker sounding less like Seger and more like Hüsker Dü.

He followed the success of the album with a box-office record-breaking tour of America in 1996.

Ticketmaster claimed that the concert in his home-town sold 100,000 tickets in 57 minutes.

 

Photography of Bob Seger by John Robert Rowlands