After ten years when he had frequently been described as ‘the next big thing‘ – only for lesser lights, in many cases, to overtake him on the road to success – Bob Seger finally shook off the tag of being rock’s foremost talent in the wilderness and in 1976 became an overnight sensation.
In previously delivering eight albums worth of highly palatable Chuck Berry/Creedence honed R&B, Seger had been extolled by the music press but stonewalled in the marketplace – his acclaim largely confined to glowing reviews in the New Musical Express (early champions of Seger’s cause) and at exciting live gigs in front of partisan audiences in his native Detroit.
Yet just when it appeared he would forever remain in the shadows, Seger burst into broad daylight with ‘Live Bullet‘ a dynamite double-live set recorded with his road ensemble ‘the Silver Bullet Band.’
Captured in front of an ecstatic and boisterous hometown audience, Seger produced high energy renditions of several stirring songs written at various stages of his career – ‘Live Bullet‘ not only a remarkable record but that rare rock artefact of a truly great live album made while the artist is still on the up.
Rolling Stone magazine describing it as ‘one of the greatest live albums ever made,’ was welcome praise, while word of mouth acclaim amongst record buyers suddenly landed Seger with his first album to reach the US Top 30 (it was later reported of the first 500,000 copies purchased over half were bought in his home state of Michigan).
Nevertheless, it represented a major breakthrough, overdue reward for too long spent in obscurity. But it also left Seger, by now 30, with the question of how to consolidate such gains. Fortunately, up his sleeve were a number of first-rate songs earmarked for the next studio release, none by Seger – or anyone else for that matter – more exemplary than the track that gave ‘NIGHT MOVES‘ (October 1976) its name.
If in the past Seger had cause to lament instances of bad timing that saw him too melodic and literate for turn of the decade heavy metal tastes, while later on too dynamic for country-rock sensibilities, with his star now on the rise he could not have chosen a more opportune moment to produce such an engrossing work – the enormous sales of ‘Night Moves‘ taking Seger from local hero to worldwide recognition almost overnight, or as he put it himself, ‘station wagons to private jets in the wink of an eye.’
Despite being a late arrival at the pantheon of great songwriters, taking his place long after it was deserved, much of the material written for the album finally brought him renown as a songsmith with great sense of narrative and sharp eye for emotional detail. At a stage of life where he could look back at time passed with a smile and a tear, at episodes gone but not forgotten, on the title track in particular Seger captures the notion of innocence giving way to experience better than any writer before or since.
Inspired to write this wistful, majestic piece after watching the 1973 George Lucas film ‘American Graffiti’ depicting small town life in the early-60s, a time when Seger was in his late-teens, with just an acoustic guitar for accompaniment he recalls a ‘black haired beauty with dark brown eyes‘. Joined by piano, bass and drums for the second verse, at this point a location and even greater ambience is added:
‘Out past the cornfields where the woods got heavy/Out in the back of my ’60 Chevy/Workin’ on mysteries without any clues/Workin’ on our night moves.’
In evoking a nostalgic mood Seger is succinct, poignant, but never sentimental (‘We weren’t in love oh no far from it/We weren’t searchin’ for some pie in the sky summit’), the yearning in his words and magnificent vocal performance more for the loss of youthful exuberance than the era itself. Bringing this heartfelt rhapsody to a close, Seger is once again captured alone with his acoustic guitar – and over some gentle strumming contemplates where the rites of passage from youth to man have brought him:
‘I woke last night to the sound of thunder/How far off I sat and wondered/Started humming a song from 1962/Ain’t it funny how the night moves/When you just don’t seem to have as much to lose/Strange how the night moves/With autumn closing in.‘
When the instruments return, they bring with them the blissful crescendo of harmony vocalists Sharon Lee Williams, Rhonda Silver and Laurel Ward, who add a soulful, Motown infused dimension to the final throes. Recorded at Nimbus Nine Studios in Toronto with Silver Bullet band members Charlie Martin (drums), Chris Campbell (bass) and some local session players, producer Jack Richardson (who had worked previously with Alice Cooper and Poco among others), assured Seger he had written a huge hit.
The artist himself remained unsure of its potential as a 45 – his uncertainty dispelled when ‘Night Moves’ reached number four on the US singles charts in April 1977, later being named ‘Single of the Year’ by Rolling Stone.
On the album it follows rousing opener ‘Rock and Roll Never Forgets,’ a high energy cut with witty lyrics in the vein of songs such as ‘Katmandu‘ and ‘Get Out of Denver‘ Seger had written for his two previous studio albums.
Contemplating the female in question maturing with respectability (‘So you’re a little bit older and a lot less bolder than you used to be/So you used to shake ’em down/But now you stop and think about your dignity’), the guitar breaks and lyrical inferences (‘So now sweet sixteen’s turned thirty-one‘) abound with Chuck Berry overtones to the point of name checking the great rock and roll pioneer himself (‘Well all of Chuck’s children are out there playing his licks‘) – the song ultimately about the redemptive power of rock in regard to freedom of spirit no matter age, affluence or the time of day.
Calling upon the Silver Bullet Band – comprising Drew Abbott (guitar), Robyn Robbins (keyboards), Alto Reed (saxophone), Campbell and Martin – and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section for musical support, on acquitting themselves with aplomb on the opening cut, his touring troupe, credited on a Seger studio album for the first time, also do him proud on ‘The Fire Down Below.’
Some of the more provocative lines have a Stones-like antagonism, Seger, over raucous electric guitar work from Abbott, comments on the urge of some men, irrespective of their background to seek out ladies of the night:
‘Here comes the rich man in his big long limousine/Here comes the poor man all you got to have is green/Here comes the banker and lawyer and the cop/One thing for certain it ain’t never gonna stop.‘
He also gives the Silver Bullet Band opportunity to kick up a storm on ‘Mary Lou‘ producing a superb vocal in this high energy rendition of an oft covered 50s hit for Young Jessie – Seger taking part of the title for the formulaic rocker ‘Betty Lou’s Gettin’ Out Tonight‘ he would write for his 1980 ‘Against the Wind‘ set.
Leader and back-up crew are heard to much more restrained effect on ‘Sunburst’, Seger offering a different perspective of life on the road than he had done in ‘Turn the Page‘ originally recorded in 1972, but at its most definitive on the version included on ‘Live Bullet‘.
‘Sunburst‘ has the distinct feel of a Springsteen track of the time – in fact it is not difficult to conjure ‘The Boss’ in what Seger comes up with in verse two:
‘The smoke begins to rise/A sea of staring eyes/Gaze on the sunburst/His weapon at his side/He flashes it with pride.’
The dynamic instrumental passages of electric guitar and drums, followed by a lone piano are reminiscent not only of snatches from Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run‘ of the previous year but also the thrilling sounds created by Bob and his boys on their recent live album – Seger harking back to his opus of four years before when he sings, ‘He makes his great escape/Leaves them in his wake/Without a warning/The ritual is done.’
The Muscle Shoals are utilized for most of side two, kicking off their stint at his side with the whimsical soft rock cut ‘Sunspot Baby’.
Very much an uptempo period piece of the mid-70s, Seger describes how he has been wronged by an opportunistic woman:
‘She packed up her bags and she took off down the road/She left me here stranded with the bills she owed/She gave me a false address/Took off with my American Express/Sunspot baby/She sure had me way outguessed.‘
In many ways the song can be compared to fast-paced Rod Stewart material of the time, which is not surprising as they were both using the same session players. But Seger induces more fire from the Muscle Shoals than Rod, who once stated, ‘They’re great, but can’t play rock and roll.’ More likely he meant they could not play his type of rock and roll, because here the Muscle Shoals sound audacious and assertive.
Indeed, on ‘Come to Poppa‘ their blues/rock chops are given a good workout as Seger sinks his teeth into an Earl Randle/Wille Mitchell composition that had been covered by Ann Peebles (as ‘Come to Momma‘), in 1974. Seger delights in turning the Muscle Shoals loose as a tightly wound funk outfit, guitarist Pete Carr leading the way with a mean and expressive solo.
As the song dictates, they are more reserved on ‘Ship of Fools‘ which lyrically is the most obtuse song on the record, Seger apparently using a voyage as metaphor for a journey being made through life by someone feeling detached from their surroundings, ‘I alone survived the sinking/I alone possess the tools/On that ship of fools.’
Even if a couple of lines are somewhat vague, it is another superbly performed track, the acoustic guitars ring out clear and true, Seger using the same mid-tempo pace on future songs as ‘Till It Shines‘ and ‘No Man’s Land.‘
From a lyrical perspective he is much easier to fathom on the wonderfully atmospheric ‘Main Street‘ – the writer returning to younger days in conjuring images of a ‘long lovely dancer in a little club downtown.’
Carr decorates this resonant rock ballad with a classy electric guitar contribution while Seger creates imagery of great immediacy:
‘In the pool halls, the hustlers and the losers/Used to watch ’em through the glass/Well I’d stand outside at closing time/Just to watch her walk on past/Unlike all the other ladies, she looked so young and sweet/
As she made her way alone down that empty street.’
By the end the past has become somewhere he can return for solace, ‘And sometimes even now, when I’m feeling lonely and beat/I drift back in time and I find my feet/Down on Mainstreet,’ Seger reminiscing not with melancholy as such, more a sense that memories often come from further back in time than we realise.
On release ‘Night Moves‘ rose quickly up the US album charts and in peaking at number eight Seger entered the top ten for the first time, its immediate impact earning him a second gold disc of 1976 in following on from sales of ‘Live Bullet‘ earlier in the year.
Critics also warmed to the record, Rolling Stone stating it was one of the best albums of the year while noted rock scribe Robert Christgau in awarding it an A- on his renowned A-D rating scale was taken by its ‘classic rock and roll riffs‘ and the fact Seger was making rock ‘for people no longer in their teens.’
For his part the artist appeared to take this sudden and massive advance in his stride. Through his career since, perhaps as a consequence of having to wait so long for stardom, Seger has never appeared, in song at least, wearied by success, unlike contemporaries such as Pete Townshend or Neil Young – who were famous long before him, but on occasion have seemed burdened by their fame.
With the album completed, it was not only Richardson to whom Seger expressed doubts in relation to the title track making commercial headway, putting a similar case to respected Capitol Records promotion executive Bruce Wendell. His reported reply was, ‘It’s a masterpiece – you’ll be singing it for the rest of your career.’
For years Bob Seger had been a respected if unsung rock artist, who in the space of twelve months went from the margins to mainstream glory.
Funny how the night moves………..
BOB SEGER and the SILVER BULLET BAND – NIGHT MOVES (Released October 22 1976):
Rock and Roll Never Forgets/Night Moves/The Fire Down Below/ Sunburst/Sunspot Baby/Mainstreet/Come to Poppa/Ship of Fools/Mary Lou;
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