Don't get me wrong, I like Van Morrison, especially the early stuff. (Much like Woody Allen movies.) "Gloria" is, of course, a genius rock & roll song. "Brown Eyed Girl" was the theme song for my high-school majorette girlfriend (from social pariah to a majorette girlfriend in less than six months time, THAT'S what rock & roll could do for you in 1968 & 1969) and presently for my lovely wife Debbie. The Blowin' Your Mind album (that "Brown Eyed Girl" was taken from), Astral Weeks, and Moondance were all great discs.
But then, as Van the Man started getting all Marin County-ized and laid-back along with the rest of his rock generation circa 1971-1972, he (and they) kinda lost me. Plus, worst of all, Morrison started to drag genuine rockers like Bob Seger along in his back-to-the-country, watered-down wake. It's hard to remember now - after "Beautiful Loser," after "Night Moves," after "The Famous Final Scene," and especially after innumerable plays of "Against The Wind" on TV commercials hawking Chevy pick-up trucks during football games - that Seger was once a rocker at heart. I can remember watching Bob Seger & The Last Heard or The Bob Seger System rockin' little Columbus dive-bars like The Sugar Shack with tunes like "Heavy Music" and "Lucifer" from the mid-60's all through the early 70's.
Bob Seger influenced The MC5, my little rock children, not the other way around.
(Plus it had to be tough for Seger to watch Glenn Frey - a snot-nosed little Detroit high-school kid Bob let hang around the studio while he recorded killer tunes like "2+2+?" and "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" - move to California, form The Eagles, and go right past Seger on the rock & roll success meter until Live Bullet broke big in 1976.)
But I digress.......
Bob Seger was, once upon a time, a rocker. And this is one of his five best songs and one the Four Best Chuck Berry Songs That Chuck Berry Forgot To Write.
inspirational verse; "Up walked a Baptist-preachin' Southern-funky schoolteacher /
She had a line on somethin' heavy but we couldn't reach her /
We told her that we needed somethin' that would get us goin' /
She pulled out all she had and laid it on the counter showin' /
She had a line on somethin' heavy but we couldn't reach her /
We told her that we needed somethin' that would get us goin' /
She pulled out all she had and laid it on the counter showin' /
All I had to do was lay my money down and pick it up /
The cops came bustin' in and man we lit out in a pickup truck" - Bob Seger, 1974
The cops came bustin' in and man we lit out in a pickup truck" - Bob Seger, 1974
© 2013 Ricki C.
Bob Seger is the best singer/songwriter of the last thirty years of the 20th century.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think of Bob Seger as a rocker more than as a singer/songwriter. In that context, I find I have to bring up a singer/songwriter named Bruce Springsteen. Readers, anybody else wanna weigh in on this topic?
DeleteLove this entry. Love Bob Seger. And this happens to be one of my favorite Seger songs also.
ReplyDelete