Bob Seger
Robert Clark Seger (/ˈsiːɡər/ SEE-gər; born May 6, 1945) is a retired American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and the Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, breaking through with his first album, Ramblin' Gamblin' Man (which contained his first national hit of the same name) in 1969. By the early 1970s, he had dropped the 'System' from his recordings and continued to strive for broader success with various other bands. In 1973, he put together the Silver Bullet Band, with a group of Detroit-area musicians, with whom he became most successful on the national level with the album Live Bullet (1976), recorded live with the Silver Bullet Band in 1975 at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan. In 1976, he achieved a national breakout with the studio album Night Moves. On his studio albums, he also worked extensively with the Alabama-based Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, which appeared on several of Seger's best-selling singles and albums.
Bob Seger
Robert Clark Seger
May 6, 1945
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
- Singer
- songwriter
- musician
- Vocals
- guitar
- keyboards
- 1961–2023
A roots rocker with a classic raspy, powerful voice, Seger wrote and recorded songs that dealt with love, women, and blue-collar themes, and is one of the best-known examples of a heartland rock artist. He has recorded many hits, including "Night Moves", "Turn the Page", "Mainstreet", "Still the Same", "Hollywood Nights", "Against the Wind", "You'll Accomp'ny Me", "Shame on the Moon", "Roll Me Away", "Like a Rock", and "Shakedown", the last of which was written for the 1987 film Beverly Hills Cop II and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He also co-wrote the Eagles' number-one hit "Heartache Tonight", and his recording of "Old Time Rock and Roll" was named one of the Songs of the Century in 2001.
With a career spanning six decades, Seger has sold more than 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists of all time.[1] Seger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.[2][3][4][5] Seger was named Billboard's 2015 Legend of Live honoree at the 12th annual Billboard Touring Conference & Awards, held November 18–19 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. His farewell tour took place in 2018 and 2019.[6]
Early years[edit]
Seger was born at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan,[7] the son of Charlotte and Stewart Seger. At age five, he moved with his family to Ann Arbor. He had an older brother, George.[8]
Seger's father, a medical technician for Ford Motor Company, played several instruments and Seger was exposed to music from an early age.[8] Seger was also exposed to frequent arguments between his parents that disturbed the neighborhood at night.[8] In 1956, when Seger was 10 years old, his father abandoned the family and moved to California.[8] The remaining family soon lost their comfortable middle-class status and struggled financially.[8]
Seger attended Tappan Junior High School (now Tappan Middle School) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and graduated in 1963 from Ann Arbor High School, now known as Pioneer High School. He ran track and field in high school. Seger also went to Lincoln Park High School for a time.[9]
Regarding his early musical inspirations, Seger has stated, "Little Richard – he was the first one that really got to me. Little Richard and, of course, Elvis Presley."[10] "Come Go with Me" by The Del-Vikings, a hit in 1957, was the first record he bought.
Regional favorite and first national hit: 1961–1976[edit]
The Decibels and The Town Criers[edit]
Bob Seger arrived on the Detroit music scene in 1961 fronting a three-piece band called the Decibels. The band included Seger on guitar, piano, keyboards, and vocals, Pete Stanger on guitar, and R.B. Hunter on drums. All of the members attended Ann Arbor High. The Decibels recorded an acetate demo of a song called "The Lonely One", at Del Shannon's studio in 1961. As well as being Seger's first original song, "The Lonely One" was Seger's first song to be played on the radio, airing only once on an Ann Arbor radio station.[8][11] In 2021, a recording of "The Lonely One" resurfaced, and was broadcast (with permission from Seger) twice on WCSX-FM in Detroit, on the mornings of March 15 and 16.[12]
After the Decibels disbanded, Seger joined the Town Criers, a four-piece band with Seger on lead vocals, John Flis on bass, Pep Perrine on drums, and Larry Mason on lead guitar. The Town Criers, covering songs like "Louie Louie", began gaining a steady following. Meanwhile, Seger was listening to James Brown and said that, for him and his friends, Live at the Apollo was their favorite record following its release in 1963. Seger was also influenced by the music of The Beatles, once they hit American shores in 1964. In general, he and local musician friends such as Glenn Frey (later a member of the Eagles) bought into the premises of 1960s pop and rock radio, with its hook-driven hits; he later recalled himself and Frey thinking at the time, "You're nobody if you can't get on the radio."[13]
Doug Brown & The Omens[edit]
As the Town Criers began landing more gigs, Seger met a man named Doug Brown, backed by a band called The Omens. Seger joined Doug Brown & The Omens, who had a bigger following than the Town Criers. While Brown was the primary lead vocalist for the group, Seger would take the lead on some songs—covering R&B numbers.[8] With this group, Seger first appeared on an officially released recording: the 1965 single "TGIF" backed with "First Girl", credited to Doug Brown and The Omens. Seger later appeared on Doug Brown and The Omens' parody of Barry Sadler's song "Ballad of the Green Berets" which was re-titled "Ballad of the Yellow Beret" and mocked draft evaders. Soon after its release, Sadler and his record label threatened Brown and his band with a lawsuit, and the recording was withdrawn from the market.[14]
While Seger was a member of The Omens, he met his longtime manager Edward "Punch" Andrews, who at the time was partnered with Dave Leone running the Hideout franchise, which consisted of four club locations from Clawson to Rochester Hills, where local acts would play, and a small-scale record label. Seger began writing and producing for other acts that Punch was managing, such as the Mama Cats and the Mushrooms (with Frey). Seger and Brown were then approached by Punch and Leone to write a song for the Underdogs, another local band who recently had a hit with a song called "Man in the Glass". Seger contributed a song called "East Side Story", which was not successful.[14]
The Last Heard[edit]
Seger decided to record "East Side Story" himself, and officially left the Omens (though he did retain Brown as a producer). As Bob Seger and the Last Heard, Seger released his version of the song with Hideout Records in January 1966, and it became his first big Detroit hit. The single (backed with "East Side Sound", an instrumental version of "East Side Story") sold 50,000 copies, mostly in the Detroit area, and led to a contract with Cameo-Parkway Records. Though the name "The Last Heard" originally referred to the collection of Omens and Town Criers who recorded "East Side Story" with Seger, it soon became the name of Seger's permanent band, which consisted of former Town Crier Pep Perrine on drums, Carl Lagassa on guitar, and Dan Honaker on bass. Following "East Side Story", the group released four more singles: the James Brown-inspired holiday single "Sock It to Me Santa", the Dylan-esque "Persecution Smith", "Vagrant Winter", and perhaps the most notable, "Heavy Music", released in 1967. "Heavy Music", which sold even more copies than "East Side Story", had the potential to break out nationally when Cameo-Parkway suddenly went out of business. It was a top 100 hit in Canada, where it topped out on the national RPM charts at No. 82; in the US, it just missed the Hot 100, peaking on the "bubbling under" chart at No. 103. The song would stay in Seger's live act for many years to come.
The Bob Seger System[edit]
After Cameo-Parkway folded, Seger and Punch began searching for a new label. In the spring of 1968, Bob Seger & the Last Heard signed with major label Capitol Records, turning down Motown Records, who offered more money than Capitol. Seger felt that Capitol was more appropriate for his genre than Motown.[8]
Capitol changed the name of the band to The Bob Seger System. In the transition between labels, guitarist Carl Lagassa left the band and keyboard player Bob Schultz joined. The System's first single with Capitol was the anti-war message song "2 + 2 = ?", which reflected a marked change in Seger's political attitudes from "The Ballad of the Yellow Beret". The single was again a hit in Detroit and hit number 1 on radio stations in Buffalo, New York and Orlando, Florida,[15] but went unnoticed almost everywhere else, and failed to chart nationally in the US. The single did, however, make the Canadian national charts, peaking at No. 79.
The second single from The Bob Seger System was "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". It was a major hit in Michigan, and it also became Seger's first national hit, peaking at No. 17. The song's success led to the release of an album of the same title in 1969. The Ramblin' Gamblin' Man album reached No. 62 on the Billboard pop albums chart. Glenn Frey had his first studio gig singing back-up and playing guitar on "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man".[16]
Seger was unable to follow up on this success. For the next album, singer-songwriter Tom Neme joined The System, ultimately writing and singing the majority of the tunes featured, for which the group was heavily criticized. The album called Noah (1969), failed to chart at all, leading Seger to briefly quit the music industry and attend college. He returned the following year and put out the System's final album, 1970's Mongrel, this time without Neme. Bob Schultz left the band as well, being replaced by Dan Watson. Mongrel, with the powerful single "Lucifer", was considered to be a strong album by many critics and Detroit fans, but failed to do well commercially.
The Bob Seger System was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2006.[17]
Solo[edit]
After Mongrel (1970) failed to live up to the success of Ramblin' Gamblin' Man (1969), The System dissipated. For a short period following the breakup, Seger had ambitions to be a one-man act.[18] In 1971, he released his first solo album, the all-acoustic Brand New Morning. The album was a commercial failure, and led to his departure from Capitol Records.[11][19]
Seger, having regained an eye for bands,[18] began playing with the duo Teegarden & Van Winkle, who in 1970 had a hit single with "God, Love and Rock & Roll". Together they recorded Smokin' O.P.'s (1972), released on Punch Andrews' own Palladium Records. The album mainly consisted of covers, spawning a minor hit with a version of Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" (No. 76 the US), though it did feature "Someday", a new Seger original, and a re-release of "Heavy Music". The album reached 180 on the Billboard 200.
After spending most of 1972 touring with Teegarden & Van Winkle, Seger left the duo to put together a new backing band, referred to as both My Band and the Borneo Band, made up of musicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jamie Oldaker, Dick Sims, and Marcy Levy were all members of My Band before joining Eric Clapton's backing band. In 1973, Seger put out Back in '72, recorded partly with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, a renowned group of session musicians who had recorded with the likes of J. J. Cale and Aretha Franklin.[20] According to Seger, there was a financial 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 that they meant $1500 per song, he left after recording three songs but resolved to work with them in the future.[20] Back in '72 featured the studio version of Seger's later live classic "Turn the Page"; "Rosalie", a song Seger wrote about CKLW music director Rosalie Trombley (and which was later recorded by Thin Lizzy); and "I've Been Working", a song originally by Van Morrison, a strong influence on Seger's musical development.[21] Despite the strength of Seger's backup musicians, the album only reached 188 on the US charts and has since faded into obscurity. Even so, Back in '72 and its supporting tour mark the beginnings of Seger's long-time relationships with future Silver Bullet Band saxophonist Alto Reed, powerhouse female vocalist Shaun Murphy, and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Over the tour, My Band would prove to be unreliable, which frustrated Seger. By the end of 1973, Seger had left My Band in search of a new backing band. Throughout 1974–75, Seger continued to perform in local venues around his hometown while known as the Bob Seger Group including one renowned concert in Davisburg, Michigan, called the "Battle of the Bands".
Personal life[edit]
Seger's first marriage to Renee Andrietti in 1968 lasted for "one day short of a year". He had a long-term relationship with Jan Dinsdale from 1972 until 1983. In 1987, he married actress Annette Sinclair and they divorced one year later. He married Juanita Dorricott in 1993, in a small private setting at The Village Club, in Bloomfield Hills; they have two children.[52]
Politics[edit]
Politically, Seger has characterized himself as a centrist: "[I'm] right down the middle", he remarked. He supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.[53] He tackled antiestablishment themes in early songs such as "2+2=?" (1968) and "U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)" (1974), according to Brian McCollum of the Detroit Free Press. On his 2014 album Ride Out, he addressed topics such as gun violence, and wrote "It's Your World" about climate change. On the subject, he said, "There are a lot of culprits in climate change, and everybody's responsible, myself included. Nobody gets a free pass on this one. We've got to change our ways and change them fast."[54]
He has considered President Barack Obama to be the favorite president of his lifetime; he met him at the 2016 Kennedy Center Honors and thanked Obama for his "wisdom and dignity."[55]
Other sources