{"id":3472,"date":"2025-03-21T15:56:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3472"},"modified":"2025-03-21T15:59:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:59:29","slug":"ftv-bob-seger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3472","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Bob Seger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Michigan has been the home of numerous rock stars.\u00a0 Near the top, if not on the top, of that list would have to be Bob Seger.\u00a0 Detroit born, Ann Arbor raised, Seger went from the barrooms to arenas before he retired from touring in 2019 (at the conclusion of his <\/span>Travelin\u2019 Man Tour<\/span><\/i>), but his was no overnight success story.\u00a0 When he sat down with <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine\u2019s <\/span><\/i>Gary Graff in 2013 (prior to hitting the road on his <\/span>Rock and Roll Never Forgets <\/span><\/i>tour), he filled in some of the missing pieces of the ups and downs of his decades long career.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Born at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit on May 6, 1945, Robert Clark Seger joined his older brother and parents Charlotte and Stewart.\u00a0 The family moved to Ann Arbor when he was five\u00a0 years old and it was here young Bob\u2019s public school and musical education would take place.\u00a0 His father, a medical technician for Ford Motor Company, was the first to make a big deal about five year old Bob singing in the back seat of their car.\u00a0 Stewart may have planted the seed but he abandoned the family and bolted for California when Seger was ten.\u00a0 What remained of the Seger family\u2019s comfortable middle-class life took a drastic downturn when his father left and they struggled financially.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Growing up in the 1950s, Bob\u2019s early interest in music was spurred by the likes of Little Richard, The Del Vikings, and (of course) Elvis.\u00a0 His first band was a trio he formed in 1961.\u00a0 The Decibels were still in high school when they recorded an acetate demo of a song called <\/span>The Lonely One<\/span><\/i> at Del Shannon\u2019s studio.\u00a0 The song was Seger\u2019s first original composition and the first of his tunes to be played on the radio (but only once on an Ann Arbor radio station).\u00a0 When The Decibels had run their course, he joined a four-piece band called the Town Criers.\u00a0 With Seger on lead vocals, the Criers covered radio favorites like <\/span>Louie Louie<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 James Brown\u2019s <\/span>Live at the Apollo<\/span><\/i> was a major influence at the time it was released in 1963 and just before The Beatles came to America in 1964.\u00a0 Bob, like everyone else on these shores, sat up and took notice of this new development in the musical landscape.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seger\u2019s musical friends learned all they needed from pop and rock radio in the 1960\u2019s.\u00a0 One of these musical friends was future Eagles member Glenn Frey and Bob remembers them thinking, \u201cYou\u2019re nobody if you can\u2019t get on the radio.\u201d\u00a0 When he left the Town Criers to join Doug Brown & the Omens, Bob found himself taking the lead vocals on more of the R&B tinged songs.\u00a0 The Omens also marked Seger\u2019s first appearance on an officially released recording, the 1965 single <\/span>TGIF <\/span><\/i>backed with <\/span>First Girl<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Seger\u2019s one misstep at the time was his participation in The Omen\u2019s parody of Barry Sadler\u2019s <\/span>Ballad of the Green Berets.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The Omens\u2019 retitled it <\/span>The Ballad of the Yellow Beret <\/span><\/i>and the lyrics mocked draft evaders.\u00a0 It got some local airplay until the threat of a lawsuit by Sadler\u2019s label saw the song pulled off record store shelves. \u00a0 I am pretty sure Bob was fine with people forgetting about this episode from early in his career when he himself took more of an anti-war stance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While he was still with The Omens, Seger met Edward \u2018Punch\u2019 Andrews who at the time was in a partnership that ran four clubs between Clawson and Rochester Hills.\u00a0 The Hideout Clubs employed local bands and also had a small-scale record label.\u00a0 Bob began writing for and producing some of the acts Punch managed.\u00a0 A song he wrote for The Underdogs called <\/span>East Side Story<\/span><\/i> didn\u2019t go very far so Bob decided to record it himself.\u00a0 Former members of The Omens and the Town Criers were employed to do the sessions and the single (now attributed to The Last Heard) sold 50,000 copies, mostly around Detroit.\u00a0 The band released a couple of more forgettable disks but 1967\u2019s <\/span>Heavy Music<\/span><\/i> sold more copies than <\/span>East Side Story<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 <\/span>Heavy Music <\/span><\/i>looked like it would break out nationwide but the label it was on, Cameo-Parkway Records,\u00a0 suddenly went bust.\u00a0 It stalled just out of the <\/span>Hot 100 <\/span><\/i>at No. 103.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Punch and Seger began the search for a new label.\u00a0 Motown offered them more money than Capitol Records, but they still signed with Capitol feeling it was more in line with his type of music.\u00a0 The label changed the band\u2019s name to The Bob Seger System and their first single, an anti-war song <\/span>2+2=? <\/span><\/i>(180 degrees away from the Omens\u2019 <\/span>Yellow Beret<\/span><\/i> track).\u00a0 <\/span>2+2=? <\/span><\/i>became a number 1 hit in a few markets like Detroit, Buffalo, New York, and Orlando, Florida.\u00a0 Bob would finally get his first national hit with the second single released, <\/span>Ramblin\u2019 Gamblin\u2019 Man<\/span><\/i> (it reached No. 17 on the charts and the album of the same name would come in at No. 62 on the <\/span>Billboard Pop Albums <\/span><\/i>chart).\u00a0 <\/span>Ramblin\u2019 <\/span><\/i>would also mark Glenn Frey\u2019s first studio work playing guitar and singing back-up vocals on the track.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There was something there that got everyone\u2019s attention.\u00a0 Grand Funk Railroad drummer Don Brewer (who would go on to drum with Seger\u2019s Silver Bullet Band) said, \u201cI\u2019ll never forget hearing <\/span>Ramblin\u2019 Gamblin\u2019 Man <\/span><\/i>for the first time.\u201d\u00a0 GFR were just about to break out of Flint, Michigan when Seger\u2019s song was all over the radio:\u00a0 \u201cI was saying, \u2018Man, listen to this.\u00a0 Listen to that B3 organ,\u2019 because we were totally R&B guys.\u00a0 \u2018Listen to that – the whole song is [Hammond] B3!\u00a0 That is so cool!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Seger added, \u201cWe\u2019ve had a few records that were popular around town and you\u2019d hear them on the radio a lot, but yeah, that was a little different.\u00a0 That was a hit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Ramblin\u2019<\/span><\/i> would be his only hit record for the next eight years.\u00a0 Seger told Graff, \u201cI wasn\u2019t the greatest songwriter back then.\u00a0 Bob Dylan and Van Morrison were important influences to me but I was too focused on playing the guitar and singing.\u00a0 That craft was something that developed slowly.\u201d\u00a0 The second Capitol album (<\/span>Noah <\/span><\/i>(1969)) stiffed.\u00a0 He considered quitting the business and going to college.\u00a0 A fan favorite track <\/span>Lucifer <\/span><\/i>did emerge from the 1970 album <\/span>Mongrel<\/span><\/i>, but even appearances at the fabled Goose Lake International Festival (1970) and opening for John Lennon and Yoko Ono (at a John Sinclair rally in Ann Arbor) in 1971, didn\u2019t light the fuse for him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seger decided to try going solo and recorded an acoustic album (<\/span>Brand New Morning<\/span><\/i>) which he now describes as \u2018mostly crap\u2019.\u00a0 It marked the end of his Capitol contract.\u00a0 His former road manager Tom Weschler said, \u201cPeople loved Bob that way [solo], but to me it was a mixed blessing.\u00a0 He was doing Simon and Garfunkel, without Garfunkel – and it worked.\u00a0 He was good, but it wasn\u2019t as good as the full on [band] thing.\u00a0 Fortunately, he quickly rekindled his appetite for a band.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The band he hooked up with was rather unconventional.\u00a0 Organist Skip Knape and drummer Dave Teegarden had a minor hit in 1970 with <\/span>God, Love, and Rock & Roll.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>I saw them at NMU\u2019s Hedgecock Fieldhouse performing as the STK trio.\u00a0 Seger opened by doing a solo acoustic set.\u00a0 Even though he had to sing the lyrics from a sheet of notebook paper (he said he had scribbled them on the way north on I-75), this was the first version I had heard of Lennon\u2019s <\/span>Imagine.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Teegarden and Van Winkle (Knape\u2019s stage name) played the second set and then Seger joined them playing a Gibson Les Paul for the third set.\u00a0 Their 1972 album <\/span>Smokin\u2019 O.P.s <\/span><\/i>is a pretty good snapshot of what they were playing then, including the minor hit they had with <\/span>If I Were a Carpenter.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The album was out in 1972 but found a larger audience when Capitol re-released it in 2005.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was during this phase that Seger penned his much beloved \u2018next hit\u2019 <\/span>Turn the Page<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Though the song describes them being \u2018<\/span>somewhere east of Omaha<\/span><\/i>, the event chronicled in <\/span>Turn the Page<\/span><\/i> actually happened somewhere on the road in Wisconsin.\u00a0 Seger\u2019s account of the band getting hassled for their long hair at a roadside diner struck a chord with his fans.\u00a0 He later said that the incident got Teegarden \u2018a little feisty\u2019 but the lyrics didn\u2019t tell exactly the whole story.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bob told Graff, \u201cIt was us and two hulking motorcycle guys who travelled with us and they used to set up the equipment.\u00a0 We were on our way from Madison, Wisconsin or some place and stopped to have something to eat.\u00a0 The big guys were sleeping and the skinny little rock guys went into this roadside place by ourselves.\u00a0 Comments were made about our hair (<\/span>Is that a woman or a man?<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 Next to guitarist Monk Bruce (who had now joined the band), Teegarden was the smallest, and here he was mouthing off to these dudes.\u00a0 We had to drag him out of there [Seger laughs] and it is a good thing they didn\u2019t follow us out there.\u00a0 Little did they know what was waiting for them in the truck.\u00a0 Those guys were huge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By 1973, Seger had put together the line up called The Silver Bullet Band.\u00a0 The personnel changed as did the name (My Band and The Borneo Band were working titles) with several of the original members later going on to work with Eric Clapton.\u00a0 By the time <\/span>Seven<\/span><\/i> came out on the Warner Bros. imprint, Seger had amassed enough songs for the <\/span>Beautiful Loser<\/span><\/i> album.\u00a0 That LP marked his return to Capitol Records and they hit the road to gain fans the old fashioned way.\u00a0 \u201cIn that period, even though we were playing, like, 250 nights a year,\u201d he told Graff, \u201cI could tell we had something because the audiences wanted me back.\u00a0 And we killed every night.\u00a0 So I knew I had something.\u201d\u00a0 Paul Stanley from KISS recalls having Seger and the SBB open for them in 1975:\u00a0 \u201cThey were just a great, great rock and roll band, 110 percent.\u00a0 They used to get encores – the opening act getting encores.\u00a0 And we let them because they were that good.\u00a0 They deserved it.\u201d\u00a0 Dan Hicks signed them to open for his Hot Licks band but ended up putting his band on before the Silver Bullet Band:\u00a0 \u201cAfter hearing their soundcheck, if we would have tried to follow them, we would have died.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Working at the Huron Mountain Club in the early 1970s, one of my co-workers in the club kitchen was from Blissfield, Michigan.\u00a0 She kept singing parts of the same song over and over, so I finally asked her the title.\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>Beautiful Loser <\/span><\/i>by Bob Seger – it is a great album.\u201d\u00a0 I told her about seeing Seger with Teegarden and Van Winkle earlier in the decade and she didn\u2019t quite believe me.\u00a0 She claimed that <\/span>Beautiful Loser<\/span><\/i> was his first album and he was a brand new, up and coming artist.\u00a0 I had to break the news that she was wrong on both accounts.\u00a0 I told her, \u201cWhen you get back to civilization (the club was twenty miles from the nearest telephone and public electricity), find <\/span>Ramblin\u2019 Gamblin\u2019 Man<\/span><\/i> – Bob has been around longer than you think.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She didn\u2019t return to the HMC the next summer and I never ran into her on campus, so I can\u2019t say whether or not she rediscovered Seger\u2019s history.\u00a0 If she did, she would have\u00a0 found out the <\/span>Beautiful Loser <\/span><\/i>album was actually his eight (which makes sense as it followed his previous LP <\/span>Seven<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 Still, she clued me into what he was up to after the eight year lull between hit records.\u00a0 It may have only peaked at No. 131 on the charts, but <\/span>Loser<\/span><\/i> was the start of his climb to the top.\u00a0 The songs took on a life of their own when they were unleashed to adoring audiences across the country.\u00a0 Record sales followed as they toured non-stop and began getting more radio play.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many artists will fill their record company contractual obligations by releasing either a greatest hits disc or a live album.\u00a0 Though he was working on a fresh contract with Capitol Records and didn\u2019t need a contract filler, Seger combined the two ideas and released a live double album that contained his own hit list from the past decade.\u00a0 Hot on the heels of <\/span>Beautiful Loser<\/span><\/i> and before 1976\u2019s <\/span>Night Moves<\/span><\/i>, Seger and The Silver Bullet Band recorded <\/span>Live Bullet <\/span><\/i>at Detroit\u2019s Cobo Hall in September of 1975.\u00a0 Radio took to the live tracks and their cover of Ike and Tina Turner\u2019s <\/span>Nutbush City Limits <\/span><\/i>even found a spot on the record charts.\u00a0 Bassist Chris Campbell explained how they managed to put on such dynamic shows:\u00a0 \u201cWe played a lot – a lot!\u00a0 We did so many shows you could not be tight.\u00a0 Practice makes perfect – and we were kind of beyond practice in a way.\u201d\u00a0 After <\/span>Night Moves, <\/span><\/i>Seger polished off the 1970s with two more mega-selling LPs (<\/span>Stranger in Town <\/span><\/i>(1978) and <\/span>Against the Wind<\/span><\/i> (1980)).\u00a0 By the time a second double-live-greatest hits album was released (1981\u2019s <\/span>Nine Tonight<\/span><\/i>), one couldn\u2019t escape Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band on the radio, TV, or in movies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Silver Bullet band had a few changes in their ranks during this period.\u00a0 Founding drummer Charlie Allen Martin was struck from behind while walking to get gas on a highway service road.\u00a0 Paralyzed from the waist down he had to step away from the band.\u00a0 His\u00a0 powerhouse drumming on the live <\/span>Who Do You Love<\/span><\/i> section of <\/span>Live Bullet<\/span><\/i> show why he was an integral part of the SBB.\u00a0 He was succeeded by Dave Teegarden who had previously played with Seger in the <\/span>Smokin\u2019 O.P.s <\/span><\/i>phase prior to the formation of the SBB.\u00a0 Teegarden appeared on the albums <\/span>Nine Tonight, Stranger in Town, <\/span><\/i>and<\/span> The Fire Inside.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 He currently runs Teegarden Studios in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was replaced in the SBB by Grand Funk Railroad drummer Don Brewer in 1983.\u00a0 Brewer has been in and out of the lineup, notably touring with Seger in 2006-2007, 2011, and on the 2014-2015 <\/span>Ride Out <\/span><\/i>tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bob Seger\u2019s family life and hobbies were up front when he took a ten year sabbatical from touring.\u00a0 He spent time with his wife and two young children.\u00a0 In 2001 and 2002, he won the Port Huron to Mackinac Island Boat Race aboard his 52-foot sailboat <\/span>Lightning.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm declared March 15, 2004 to be <\/span>Bob Seger Day<\/span><\/i> in honor of his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.\u00a0 Bob and the Silver Bullet Band were further honored in 2005 when they entered the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.\u00a0 <\/span>Rolling Stone Magazine<\/span><\/i> put him at 181 on its 2023 list of <\/span>The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time<\/span><\/i> though I would say in terms of his live shows, he would place higher if the list was dedicated to <\/span>Rock & Roll Performers.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seger celebrated his fifty years in music with his final outing, the 2018-19 <\/span>Travelin\u2019 Man<\/span><\/i> tour.\u00a0 The final show was held in Philadelphia in November of 2019.\u00a0 After retiring from the road, he made a surprise live appearance in 2023 to honor country music legend Patty Loveless when she was inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Seger moved to Los Angeles, some felt he had abandoned his Michigan roots, but he spent enough time back in his home state to dispel any notion that he had gone Hollywood.\u00a0 Writing <\/span>Shakedown<\/span><\/i> for the film <\/span>Beverly Hills Cop II <\/span><\/i>(1987) put his name on the top of the music charts again.\u00a0 Ads for Chevy Trucks featuring <\/span>Like a Rock<\/span><\/i> were in vogue for a long time.\u00a0 All in all, a sixty year career that saw him tour the world and sell 75 million records is nothing to sneeze at.\u00a0 The numbers put him near the top, if not at the top, of the list of \u2018best selling artists of all time\u2019.\u00a0 Come May 6, we can all wish Bob Seger a very happy 79th birthday.\u00a0 We will feature Seger extensively on <\/span>www.woas-fm.org<\/span><\/a> next week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 A younger Bob singing with the passion that made him a concert draw favorite!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Michigan has been the home of numerous rock stars.\u00a0 Near the top, if not on the top, of that list would have to be Bob Seger.\u00a0 Detroit born, Ann Arbor raised, Seger went from the barrooms to arenas before he retired from touring in 2019 (at the conclusion of his Travelin\u2019 Man Tour), but his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3472"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3475,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions\/3475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}