Like Prince, AC/DC, The Beatles, Def Leppard and Peter Gabriel, Bob Seger was one of the last remaining major recording artists who'd held out from streaming services for years, and finally relented last year. But even what was put on Spotify is a woefully incomplete selection of his catalog; 2017's I Knew You When was his 18th studio album, and only 9 of them are available to stream now, along with his two very popular live albums and a few compilations. That's enough to cover his most popular albums, but I think it's a shame if Seger or anyone at his labels think it's alright for simply the more famous half of his discography to be readily available.

I think of Bob Seger kind of part of this moment in the '70s when the artists who most seemed like true believers in the power of a rock band were, oddly, solo artists whose backing bands got secondary billing, alongside Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. And while I and lots of people I know of my generation have come around to loving Springsteen and Petty, Seger never really got rehabilitated as much, he's kind of remained this stodgy voice who lives on in Chevy commercials and Tom Cruise movies and endless classic rock spins. Maybe it was just too on the nose to have multiple hits with "rock and roll" in the title. But less overplayed hits like "Hollywood Nights" and "Her Strut" warmed me up to him a lot over the years, and I found a lot to love in songs on this playlist. Occasionally I see this viral tweet about a fictional Seger deep cut and think, hey, that's kind of funny, but there's nothing wrong with actually digging into his real album tracks.

Bob Seger deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Chain Smokin'
2. Down Home
3. Tales of Lucy Blue
4. Jody Girl
5. Travelin' Man
6. I've Been Workin'
7. U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)
8. Get Out of Denver
9. Mary Lou
10. Come To Poppa
11. Sunburst
12. Feel Like A Number
13. Till It Shines
14. Brave Strangers
15. Betty Lou's Gettin' Out Tonight
16. Nine Tonight
17. Comin' Home
18. Sometimes
19. Blind Love
20. Gracile

Tracks 2 and 3 from Ramblin' Gamblin' Man (1969)
Tracks 4 and 5 from Beautiful Loser (1975)
Tracks 6, 7 and 8 from 'Live' Bullet (1976)
Tracks 9, 10 and 11 from Night Moves (1976)
Tracks 12, 13 and 14 from Stranger In Town (1978)
Track 15 from Against The Wind (1980)
Track 16 from Nine Tonight (1981)
Track 17 from The Distance (1982)
Track 18 from Like A Rock (1986)
Track 19 from The Fire Inside (1991)
Track 20 from I Knew You When (2017)
Track 1 from Heavy Music: The Complete Cameo Recordings 1966-1967 (2018)

The holes in Spotify's selection of Seger's discography include 6 albums he made in the late '60s and '70s before he hit it big, and 3/4ths of the albums he's made in the last 25 years. But of course, I was able to include the more famous live versions of some of those songs from 'Live' Bullet, one of the many double live albums in the '70s that broke an artist through to the mainstream. Seger's cover of Van Morrison's "I've Been Working" first appeared on 1973's Back In '72 (which also featured the first recording of the iconic 'Live' Bullet hit "Turn the Page"). And "Get Out of Denver" and "U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)" were originally on 1974's Seven.

I was also able to fill in the blanks a little in Seger's early years with the recent Heavy Music compilation that collects the earliest singles from Bob Seger & The Last Heard. After those singles, the stage was set for The Bob Seger System, which I believe was some sort of hovercraft. Then Seger released a few solo albums, and starting with 'Live' Bullet, every album he released for the next 20 years was credited to Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. The name on the sleeve is a little deceptive, though, because many of those albums had a few tracks with Seger's touring backing band and a few with the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. So you've got Alabama session musician vets like Roger Hawkins and David Hood on hits like "Old Time Rock and Roll," "Fire Lake," "Mainstreet," and "We've Got Tonite," as well as the songs on this playlist "Travelin' Man," "Come To Poppa," "Till It Shines," and "Comin' Home."

The Silver Bullet Band's second wildly successful live album, Nine Tonight, was named for the song of the same name that debuted a year earlier on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack, while the fantastic Stranger In Town cut "Feel Like A Number" was featured in another hit movie, Body Heat. At the height of Seger's popularity, he was able to convince his label to release Against The Wind on 8-track tape as the format was being phased out, because so many of his fans were truckers that bought his music on that format. And while I'm never sure if Prince was being respectful or snarky when he wrote "Purple Rain" as a deliberate bid to make the kind of power ballads that got Seger into the arenas that Prince wanted to headline, it's still kind of an interesting compliment.

Seger's output gets less interesting to me after the '70s, but there's still some gems (The Distance was supposedly inspired by Annie Hall, although it's hard to really sense that in the resulting album). And he seemed to really want to align himself some more eccentric and respected songwriters than the 'heartland rock' he became known for. He recorded no less than 4 Tom Waits covers in the late '80s and '90s, including "Blind Love" and, most famously, a "Downtown Train" cover that he shelved for 20 years because he mentioned recording the song to Rod Stewart, who then recorded his own version that was a massive hit. And Seger's latest album, I Knew You When, featured covers of both Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen.

Previous playlists in the Deep Album Cuts series:
Vol. 1: Brandy
Vol. 2: Whitney Houston
Vol. 3: Madonna
Vol. 4: My Chemical Romance
Vol. 5: Brad Paisley
Vol. 6: George Jones
Vol. 7: The Doors
Vol. 8: Jay-Z
Vol. 9: Robin Thicke
Vol. 10: R. Kelly
Vol. 11: Fall Out Boy
Vol. 12: TLC
Vol. 13: Pink
Vol. 14: Queen
Vol. 15: Steely Dan
Vol. 16: Trick Daddy
Vol. 17: Paramore
Vol. 18: Elton John
Vol. 19: Missy Elliott
Vol. 20: Mariah Carey
Vol. 21: The Pretenders
Vol. 22: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Vol. 23: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Vol. 24: Foo Fighters
Vol. 25: Counting Crows
Vol. 26: T.I.
Vol. 27: Jackson Browne
Vol. 28: Usher
Vol. 29: Mary J. Blige
Vol. 30: The Black Crowes
Vol. 31: Ne-Yo
Vol. 32: Blink-182
Vol. 33: One Direction
Vol. 34: Kelly Clarkson
Vol. 35: The B-52's
Vol. 36: Ludacris
Vol. 37: They Might Be Giants
Vol. 38: T-Pain
Vol. 39: Snoop Dogg
Vol. 40: Ciara
Vol. 41: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Vol. 42: Dwight Yoakam
Vol. 43: Demi Lovato
Vol. 44: Prince
Vol. 45: Duran Duran
Vol. 46: Rihanna
Vol. 47: Janet Jackson
Vol. 48: Sara Bareilles
Vol. 49: Motley Crue
Vol. 50: The Who
Vol. 51: Coldplay
Vol. 52: Alicia Keys
Vol. 53: Stone Temple Pilots
Vol. 54: David Bowie
Vol. 55: The Eagles
Vol. 56: The Beatles
Vol. 57: Beyonce
Vol. 58: Beanie Sigel
Vol. 59: A Tribe Called Quest
Vol. 60: Cheap Trick
Vol. 61: Guns N' Roses
Vol. 62: The Posies
Vol. 63: The Time
Vol. 64: Gucci Mane
Vol. 65: Violent Femmes
Vol. 66: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Vol. 67: Maxwell
Vol. 68: Parliament-Funkadelic
Vol. 69: Chevelle
Vol. 70: Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio
Vol. 71: Fantasia
Vol. 72: Heart
Vol. 73: Pitbull
Vol. 74: Nas
Vol. 75: Monica
Vol. 76: The Cars
Vol. 77: 112
Vol. 78: 2Pac
Vol. 79: Nelly
Vol. 80: Meat Loaf
Vol. 81: AC/DC
Vol. 82: Bruce Springsteen
Vol. 83: Pearl Jam
Vol. 84: Green Day
Vol. 85: George Michael and Wham!
Vol. 86: New Edition
Vol. 87: Chuck Berry
Vol. 88: Electric Light Orchestra
Vol. 89: Chic
Vol. 90: Journey
Vol. 91: Yes
Vol. 92: Soundgarden
Vol. 93: The Allman Brothers Band
Vol. 94: Mobb Deep
Vol. 95: Linkin Park
Vol. 96: Shania Twain
Vol. 97: Squeeze
Vol. 98: Taylor Swift
Vol. 99: INXS
Vol. 100: Stevie Wonder
Vol. 101: The Cranberries
Vol. 102: Def Leppard
Vol. 103: Bon Jovi
Vol. 104: Dire Straits
Vol. 105: The Police
Vol. 106: Sloan
Vol. 107: Peter Gabriel
Vol. 108: Led Zeppelin
Vol. 109: Dave Matthews Band
Vol. 110: Nine Inch Nails
Vol. 111: Talking Heads
Vol. 112: Smashing Pumpkins
Vol. 113: System Of A Down
Vol. 114: Aretha Franklin
Vol. 115: Michael Jackson
Vol. 116: Alice In Chains
Vol. 117: Paul Simon
Vol. 118: Lil Wayne
Vol. 119: Nirvana
Vol. 120: Kix
Vol. 121: Phil Collins
Vol. 122: Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Vol. 123: Sonic Youth

This entry was posted on Friday, November 09, 2018 at 10:22 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.