Steel2Velvet Posted March 20, 2006 Report Share Posted March 20, 2006 Let's hope you have an epiphany. I just wanted to let Batman (for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect) know that my comment was not an attempt to urge him to accept the credentials of Bob Segar (who I also respect - Katmandu could hold up as a breakout song in any rock era), but instead was a flip rimshot response (ala Groucho Marx) to your statement of being confused juxtaposed with Ken's post defining "epiphany." An epiphany is usually associated with clarification, meaning the end of confusion. Get it? ha ha ha ... um ... yeah ... There I go again, trying to be humorous ... with vacant results. I guess I should just stick to poetry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil Posted March 20, 2006 Report Share Posted March 20, 2006 Here's some quick Seger facts; His father was a bandleader and musician who worked in an auto plant to support his wife and two children. When he was ten, his father left for California, in search of success that he never achieved. The family moved to a one-room apartment. At night, Seger stayed up late listening to a faraway radio station. On a transistor radio and an earplug, he heard James Brown, Garnett Mimms, Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and others. He liked James Brown more than the Beatles. His favorite album was James Brown Live at the Apollo, Volume 1. He was a good student in high school and could run a 5:05 mile -- until he discovered rock and roll. He began staying out all night with his friends, cars circled in a farmer's field, listening to music on the car radios. He formed a band. The applause at the Junior Prom changed his life. In 11th grade he was playing bars three nights a week. The first song he wrote was titled, "The Lonely One." In 1996 he played for nearly a million fans across the country. Dan Honaker, Pep Perine, Bob Seger play the Mt. Holly Ski Lodge north of Pontiac, Michigan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For ten years, he was a regional phenomenon. By 1968, he had five Top Ten singles in the Detroit market. He was unheard of outside Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and a few other Midwest markets -- but in Detroit, his records outsold the Beatles. He was on the verge of breaking the national charts in 1967 when the record company promoting his single went bankrupt. The first major label to offer him a contract was Motown. He broke the Top Forty with a single in 1968, then survived seven years without a successful record. His work ethic became a local legend. He played 260 dates in 1975. In the early '70s, he and his band drove 25 hours to Florida, played three straight nights, and then drove 25 hours back, because they couldn't afford motel rooms. He considered himself more a driver than a singer at the time. His mother taught him never to go into debt. In June 1976, he played in front 50 people in a Chicago bar. Three days later, he played in front of 76,000 devoted fans in the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit. Bob Seger at the Primo Showbar, Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 1973 Photo by Scott Sparling -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For those of us under his spell, he posed the two greatest questions in rock 'n' roll: Doncha ever listen to the radio? and Do ya do ya wanna rock? He wrote the first anti-war rock song of the Vietnam era. He wrote about Lucy Blue, Chicago Green, Already Eddie and other characters long before Springsteen created Crazy Janey and her mission man. His songs, he thinks, reflect a certain morality... "what happens when you do it wrong and when you do it right." The characters in many of his songs don't find the satisfaction or fulfillment that they thought their dreams would hold. They end up "stuck in heaven," listening to the sound of something far away -- a bird on the wing, the sound of thunder. They think back on the promise of younger years, surprised at the passage of time. Only occasionally do they find renewal. More often, they try to make some moment last; they watch it slipping past. The light fades from the screen. They wake up alone. Next time, perhaps, they'll get it right. Somehow, at the same time, his music manages to be incredibly life-affirming, celebratory and uplifting. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He was born lonely down by the riverside. He went cruising on his gray snake till his dying day. He even sang the parts the instruments were playing. He knows the devil is red, but his money is green. His '60 Cadillac went cruising through Nebraska, whining. He woke one night to the sound of thunder. He wishes he didn't know now what he didn't know then. They used to call him reckless, they used to call him fast. After twenty years, he saw himself again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He's recorded 19 albums spanning nearly 40 years. He was greatly influenced by early advice from Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon, who said, "Do your best, 'cause it's only gonna last two or three years." He's a perfectionist who spends months in the studio fixing problems no one else can hear. He's a Taurus and "you can't move him with a crane." Or, he lets people walk all over him. He's had one Number 1 single and one Number 1 album. He admires Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Joni Mitchell. He believes his rock and roll savagery was tempered for many years by the need to produce mainstream records. He has sold nearly 50 million albums. One of his most heartfelt songs became the basis of one of the most successful ad campaigns in recent history. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He has "a voice that inspires trust." He "exudes the brawny vocal friendliness of an American Everyman, but with a deep and special connection to soul music." He "has all the requisites of greatness: the voice, the songwriting, the performance onstage, the vision and the ambition." He recorded ten consecutive million-selling albums between 1975 and 1995. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He's been called the nicest rock star. Sometimes he feels like knocking you down, but he could never pull that scene. In live performances, he displays "an embracing friendliness that transcends the normal barriers between rock performer and audience." He played in front of 923,829 fans in 1996, making him the fourth most popular touring act of the year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He's a father. His kids, he says, "are the best thing that ever happened to me." His father left when he was ten. In "Golden Boy," he sings, "I'll be there for you." He still lives in Michigan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hall-elujah! Always in our hearts, now Seger's in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Doncha ever feel like going insane? It's official. Seger's in. It's for the 250 gigs a year across the midwest. It's for ten straight (soon to be eleven straight) platinum and multiplatinum albums, 19 Top-40 singles, nearly a million ticket sales during the '96 tour and nearly 50 million albums sold worldwide. It's for seven years without a hit but without a hint of giving up. But it's also for that one song that got you through the worst night of your life, or the concert where you just couldn't stop smiling, or the one lyric you are never going to forget. It's for the person you met at the Seger concert, it's for the famous Seger smile and the lonesome highway east of Omaha. It's for the pure raucous joy of it because when Seger is playing the answer to do you do you wanna rock is yes. It's for the music. And, yeah, it's about time. Seger in 1968. He is on the far right. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go to the Seger File Main MenuGo to the Current News and Updates Page Send your fond dreams, lost hopes, bittersweet regrets, half-remembered stories, rejoinders, rebuttals, questions, comments, corrections and contributions to: sparling@segerfile.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonJonSurfer Posted March 20, 2006 Report Share Posted March 20, 2006 Nice Phil....thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted March 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2006 Phil, that was awesome. It was an awesome show. He opened with "American Storm", and closed it off with "Let It Rock". They recorded the live version of CCR's "Fortunate Son" that night. Ken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulGirl Posted March 20, 2006 Report Share Posted March 20, 2006 I like a young filly with spunk!!! No Batman, Gisela!!! i'm glad you cleared that up, diggs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batman Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 I think this entire thread is just full of misunderstandings, but they've been understood now, so everything's good. List of misunderstandings -Ken thought I was bashing Bob -I thought Ken was condescending -We all thought Kid Rock was an unoriginal, artless fool, but now we realize he's one of the most creative and groundbreaking artists of today OK, the last one's a joke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batman Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Hahaha, well, I actually think adults have a kind of disadvantage when it comes to fairly judging music. I mean, some adults I know are just stuck in the past. Teenagers don't have any past to be stuck in! ^not an attempt to bash adults Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batman Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 now to the more important issue. Did I miss something? When did being from Texas become "cool?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanTurtle Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Seger is awesome...and when I saw Kid Rock's rip off of a great album cover...I was outraged...almost as much as I was when I heard Limp Bizkit's slaughter of "Behind Blue Eyes"...but that's a whole other subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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