“Up with the sun, gone with the wind
She always said I was lazy”
Actually that’s what my mother told me again and again, even after I was out of the house. I had to go to therapy to be set straight, the shrink said I was working ALL THE TIME! It just wasn’t the kind of work my mother respected, of which there were two kinds, that which made a ton of money and that which you did with your hands. Her father came from Russia and worked in a tannery in Peabody, Mass. She’d belittle me to the point where I thought I should be one of those sign-twirlers, in front of a shop on Westwood and Olympic, or step up and work at McDonald’s. Funny how the mores have changed. Today parents say how great their kids are, to not only their friends but to the kids themselves. My parents never bragged on us, they just kept comparing us unfavorably to other kids in the neighborhood.
That could have been a reason I retreated into music. Music used to be a private world. When albums took hold in the late sixties the music set you free, and you went to the concert to have a peak experience hearing the songs you knew by heart. There were no selfies, no way to communicate with others via social media. You were all alone. And honestly, today’s world is so much better, you can find like-minded people, you don’t have to be lonely, but the business isn’t about making and releasing the same kind of music, deep cuts that touched your soul. They didn’t have to be hits, they didn’t have to cross over to Top Forty radio, but we all knew them. Especially as FM rock exploded in the early seventies.
Bob Seger was a journeyman. Detroit was its own scene, kind of like Austin and the Red Dirt circuit in Texas today. Lauded there, oftentimes unknown and not understood elsewhere. Iggy was on TV once in a televised concert in the late summer of 1970, but he was far from an icon. And the MC5 never broke through. And we knew Bob Seger had had regional hits, but they never got to our region.
The first Bob Seger album I bought is unavailable today, “Back in ’72.” It’s really great, it contains the original, studio version of “Turn the Page,” which is now considered a Metallica song. Then again, the original was released fifty years ago. But it had its moment, when it was released in 1976 as part of “‘Live’ Bullet.”
Used to be live albums could break you. Classic case being Peter Frampton, who was known, but unknown. Ditto with Seger. But “‘Live’ Bullet” made him a star, paving the way for the following “Night Moves,” and the subsequent “Hollywood Nights.” Seger was everywhere, to the point where you burned out on him, especially when he moved on to ballads, but once upon a time he was a fighter from outside Hollywood, paving his own way, doing it his own way.
So Bob had shifted from Capitol to Warner Brothers, which released “Back in ’72,” and then back to Capitol. Which was kind of like leaving the Rams to go back to the Jets. From the best to the worst. Then again, RCA was pretty bad too, and MCA was nothing to champion. Capitol had the Beatles, and the Band, and Grand Funk Railroad. But Warner Brothers had Neil Young, James Taylor and everybody else.
So Bob went back to Capitol and released the album “Beautiful Loser” in the spring of ’75, and the title track got airplay, you heard Bob Seger on FM radio, which was a novelty. Not that you heard him frequently, and everywhere, but if you were an FM fan, if you were glued to the rock station, you were aware of “Beautiful Loser.” Which was somehow smoother than what had come before, somehow a part of the rock canon at the time.
But most people didn’t know “Beautiful Loser” until it was paired with “Travelin’ Man” on “‘Live’ Bullet.” That was the album’s highlight. The first side of the two record set began with a cover of “Nutbush City Limits,” and then came “Travelin’ Man,” which was also on the “Beautiful Loser” album, along with the original “Katmandu,” But the studio version of “Travelin’ Man” was made to be listened to in your bedroom, quiet and meaningful, whereas the version on “‘Live’ Bullet” was faster, Seger was not worried about singing it right into the mic in the studio, it was just pure passion, from inside, it was purely him, unfiltered, honest, relatable, hard to resist, especially as it gained momentum, as the rest of the band kicked in and it rollicked down the highway. And “Travelin’ Man” goes on for four minutes and forty seconds, typical length for an album track back then, but instead of ending, it didn’t fade, it continued full bore and then there was a change, quietude returned, there’s an organ and Bob starts to sing…
“He wants to dream like a young man
With the wisdom of an old man
He wants his home and security
He wants to live like a sailor at sea”
All these years later Wikipedia tells us that Seger was inspired by a Leonard Cohen book, but we did not know that back then. We took it at face value. It spoke to us at a moment of transition. The boomers were in their twenties, it was a time of reckoning, how were you gonna make money, how were you gonna live, were you gonna go straight and sell out, or continue on the sixties path.
“A perfect lodger, a perfect guest”
You could no longer couch surf. Your buddies were married, they didn’t want you hanging out, and looked down upon you to boot.
And in truth, many boomers got left behind. Especially when the physical jobs dried up and you couldn’t support your family without a “career.” We didn’t need it all, but in many cases we needed more than we got. Life has become harder than it was in the seventies, rawer, more competitive, you can fall through the cracks easily, the suicide rate is out of control. Especially for boomers with too many health problems and not enough money.
Now back when Seger broke big, rock stars were still rock stars. With all the accoutrements…sex, dope and enough money to live like a king. Doors were open, you had more power than politicians, you were a god, and you went on the road both to experience the perks and reach the audience, getting love from the stage that no one who hasn’t been on the boards can fathom.
And maybe you got married early. But that first marriage went by the wayside when you went on the road.
And many delayed marriage until they’d been with so many women they knew a relationship was more than physical.
But you still went on the road. That was your job. And that’s one thing that’s come back, after the MTV era, after the Spotify breakthrough, there are Top Forty stars, but there are even more journeymen (and women), traveling this great country of ours delivering the music to the fans who need it to survive.
But one thing is for sure, you’re not living the life of an average citizen, you see you’re a travelin’ man. You see people, and you never see them again. Or your good friends are concert promoters, who you see once a year. You’re living in an alternative universe. Don’t confuse this with being on the other side of the music industry fence, being a business person, working at the label, musicians are a separate breed, outside of society, oftentimes a closed society, because the rest of the public doesn’t get it. You work at night, you sleep late. And the cycle is so rough, the tours so long, that you need drugs to cope, and sometimes you take too many and…
And decades later, you look back.
So you can go down the road less taken, but it only works if you never look back, if you throw away the safety net. And your endeavor may not pay off for decades, if at all. And what you end up with is different from your brethren, the people you grew up with, those in your community. You see your life is one of experiences. Those make up your life. It’s your own movie, no one else can really see it, but it’s a blockbuster.
“Sometimes at night, I see their faces
I feel the traces they’ve left on my soul
Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul
Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul”
https://spoti.fi/3raiKjZ
