Encores and Other Choices: Bob Seger, originally featured 10/21/2009 Let’s go local this time…who in our age bracket cannot think of some phase in our lives when a song by Bob Seger was popular? How many of us have some memory of seeing him, either in concert or (betraying your age) playing at some local bar or a Notre Dame dance? I still swear, when seeing him open for Bachman-Turner Overdrive at Cobo Hall in 1974, he missed a beat when Ray Coughlin yelled back at him for a comment he’d made about Grosse Pointe. And, there was a great follow-up email to the original feature from Curt Alden. In 1967, high school sophomore Curt was playing drums for a garage band in GP called “The Underclassmen”. At a “battle of the bands” held at Grosse Pointe South High, they were the last group prior to featured headliners Bob Seger and the Last Heard. When it came time for Seger’s band to take the stage, the drummer was in the lavatory, sick with the flu…so, Bob asked Curt if he could sit in and play “Louie Louie”, Seger’s opening number of the night. By the time the song (and the crowd’s screaming) was over, the drummer had recovered enough to play, leaving Curt to watch the rest of their set from backstage. Skip forward to 2004: Seger and his wife walk into the Naples, Florida Mercedes Benz dealership where Curt is a salesman. Curt introduced himself to Seger, recounted the GPSHS gig story, and sold him a new SUV—in the bargain, Bob autographed the copy of “Live Bullet” Curt keeps in his own car! With Bob releasing a new album this week, and going on tour to support it, I thought it would be an appropriate time to look at his early years in music… Bob Seger was born in 1945 to Stewart and Charlotte Seger of Dearborn, and lived there until age six, when his family moved to Ann Arbor. Seger’s father played several instruments, exposing Bob and his older brother, George, to music at an early age. Frequent and noisy arguments between his parents marked the nights of Seger’s childhood, until 1956 when Stewart Seger abandoned his family and moved to California. The remaining family soon lost their comfortable middle-class status and struggled financially. In his teens, Seger fronted a three-piece band called The Decibels with two friends from high school. The group recorded a demo at Del Shannon’s studio in 1961; the track, titled “The Lonely One”, was Seger’s first original song, and was aired once on an Ann Arbor radio station. After the Decibels disbanded, Seger joined The Town Criers, a four piece band, as their lead vocalist. The group did mostly cover material, buying into the premises of 60s pop and rock radio with its hook-driven songs. It was during this period that Seger met Doug Brown, lead singer of Doug Brown and the Omens. The Omens had a bigger following than the Town Criers, and Seger jumped bands, doing the lead on some covers of R&B songs in the Omens’ act. It was during his tenure with the Omens that Bob would meet Edward “Punch” Andrews, who would become his manager and lifelong friend. Andrews and partner Dave Leone ran the Hideout franchise—two local clubs and a small-scale record label. Seger began writing and producing for other acts that Punch was managing (one being The Mushrooms, which included a young Glenn Frey). Seger and Doug Brown were asked by Hideout to write a song for the Underdogs, who were getting airplay with “Man in the Glass”. The result was Seger’s song “East Side Story”, which went nowhere for the Underdogs. Seger decided to record “East Side Story” himself, and officially left the Omens. With Doug Brown producing, the song was released by Bob Seger and the Last Heard in January of 1966, with the B-side of the single being the instrumental version of the song). The Hideout Records single became a hit in the Detroit market, leading to a contract with Cameo-Parkway Records. Seger followed up with “Sock It to Me, Santa” (emulating a James Brown sound), the Dylan-esque “Persecution Smith”, and, most notably, 1967’s “Heavy Music”. Heavy Music was a Top 100 hit in Canada, and had just reached number 103 in the US when Cameo-Parkway went out of business—pulling the marketing legs out from under the tune. When Cameo-Parkway folded, Seger and Punch began the search for a new label, eventually signing with Capitol Records. Motown had actually offered more money than Capitol, but Seger felt Capitol was more appropriate for his genre. Under the direction of Capitol, the band’s name was changed to The Bob Seger System. Their first release on the new label was the anti-war “2 + 2 = ?”. The single was a hit in Detroit, and went to number one in Buffalo (NY) and Orlando (FL)—but failed to chart nationally. The second single from The Bob Seger System was “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”, which became Seger’s first national hit, peaking at #17 on the charts. Trivia buffs will note that Seger acquaintance Glenn Frey had his first studio gig singing back-up vocals on the track. Seger was unable to follow up the success of “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”. Singer/songwriter Tom Neme joined the System, ultimately taking over the duties of writing and singing for the group. The resulting album, Noah, failed to chart—leading Seger to briefly leave music and attend college. He returned a year later and, without Neme, released what would be the System’s final album, 1970’s Mongrel. A strong album, liked by critics and Detroit audiences, the album failed to do well commercially. The failure of Mongrel led to the dissolving of The System. For a short period, Seger had ambitions of being a one man act; he released an all-acoustic solo album, Brand New Morning. The album was a commercial failure, and led to his departure from Capitol Records. Seger then began playing with the duo Teegarden & Van Winkle, who had a hit single with “God, Love, and Rock & Roll”. Together, they recorded Smokin’ O.P.’s on Punch Andrew’s label, Palladium Records —an album of mostly cover material (the title referring to “smoking other people’s”), and had a minor hit with (Tim Hardin’s) “If I Were a Carpenter”. In 1972, Seger began putting together a new band—referred to as both My Band and the Borneo Band. In 1974, he released the album Back in ’72, recorded partly with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. According to Seger, there was some misunderstanding with the musicians; they offered to record him “for $1500 a side”, which he took to mean $1500 per album side. When he found out they meant $1500 per song, he left after recording three songs. The album included the studio version of “Turn the Page”—later to become a live classic. It also included two of my all-time favorite Seger tracks—the title tune, “Back in ‘72”, and Seger’s homage to CKLW-AM radio’s music director, “Rosalie”. Touring in support of the album, My Band proved to be unreliable (which would lead to Seger taking the steps to form Silver Bullet). I keep changing my mind as to whether to feature the Back in ’72 title track or “Rosalie”--- but, I think I’ll go with the latter. As mentioned in the opening, most of us local Detroiters remember the very early Seger days, so the connection to CKLW seems appropriate. You can come back baby; Rock & Roll never forgets.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 09:47:36 +0000