Tyler: Travis, last time we raved about a seminal proto-punk album from the early ‘70s, Iggy and the Stooges’ Raw Power. Much enthusiasm from both of us.
We’ve leapt forward, then, to 1978, and a musician a bit removed from Iggy Pop. Bob Seger and his Silver Bullet Band, already a force with hits like “Turn The Page” and “Night Moves,” released in ’78 the LP Stranger In Town. Stranger, as we’ll discuss, includes a few more mainstays.
There’s not much proto about what we’ve got here. It’s American, sigh, “classic rock,” the kind we heard ad nauseum back in days of listening to terrestrial radio. For better or worse, Seger slots into that category. We’ve heard those hits, these mainstays, a hundred thousand times over the years. Do they maintain their force? Well, I suppose we’ve spent some time finding out.
To further kick us off, let’s bring a quote, possibly apocryphal, from Bob Dylan. “People call Bob Seger ‘the poor man’s Bruce Springsteen.’ Well, I think Bruce Springsteen is the rich man’s Bob Seger.”
What say you, my friend?
Travis: I will say starting off that I do not agree with this possibly apocryphal quote. Listening to this album I thought of the current meme format, “Mom, can we go out and get ______?” “No, we have ______ at home.” And whatever the blank is at home, it’s a disappointing substitute. Bob Seger, at least on Stranger in Town, is Springsteen at home.
That’s not to say I disliked this album (at least not as a whole). But from the production to the subject matter to the singing style, this felt like a run at Springsteen-like grandeur without the certain special something that makes Springsteen’s more bombastic material work. I fought liking Springsteen for a long time, loved to say that if he’s the Boss then I quit. But I eventually came around on Bruuuuuce, at least some of his stuff.
I always kinda thought Seger sucked too. I hate “Night Moves” and “Like a Rock” and a song on this one I’m sure we’ll discuss. I’d always read that he came up making hard-edged garage rock and was a killer live performer and then hear one of those songs on the radio and think Seger love was some sort of psyop against me. But then I heard some other songs that I did like and now I am fine with his existence. I am also fine with the existence of this album. It has some highlights. It has some lowlights.
He’s not Springsteen, though. Maybe he’s the rich man’s Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.
I’m not sure where to start with this one but at the beginning. “Hollywood Nights” is great. It has the grandeur, the lovably cheesy lyrics. It’s catchy as hell. I am also a fan of track two, “Still the Same.” His white-guy-busts-a-lung vocals work for both of these tracks. They set the template for the album of up-tempo radio-friendly rager followed by softer ballad-banger right out of the gate. It’s a promising start.
Tyler: If I may hop back for just one moment.
Boo! Hiss! I had a good time with this one. I’m an easy sell for Seger, as I grew up on his tunes here and there, but I’m gonna give this one more validity than you. Springsteenian heights are hard to reach. Even if Stranger In Town doesn’t hit the notes nailed by, say, Born To Run, it’s still got bangers and it feels genuine. Seger has empathy for his characters and narrators. That goes a long way.
Anyway. I’m with you on the first two tracks. Terrific.
Travis: Then we come to track three.
Tyler: Yeah, man, there’s no way this can be heard with fresh ears. That’s strike one.
Travis: Yeah, just hearing the beginning of “Old Time Rock & Roll” makes me laugh. The life that the song has taken on is probably not Seger’s fault. But I straight up cannot listen to it. Its sentiment is also either really stupid or self-fulfilling: declaring that today’s music ain’t got the same soul on the most soulless piece of pandering trash in recorded music history.
Tyler: Blessedly, thankfully, Seger didn’t write it.
Travis: It’s also really the first sore-thumb appearance on the album of my least favorite sonic element, giant fucking plornking piano.
For me, piano in rock music has to be done perfectly or it has to be eliminated. And there is prominent piano sprayed all the fuck over this album.
Could also be the way the piano is produced and sounds in this particularly shiny era of AOR. Like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Tyler: Woof. Your ears have my sympathies. We’re on opposite ends here, though, because I dig the hell out of it. Not on “Old Time,” mind you—that song is bad—but frequently throughout the rest of the album. It’s a pretty important part of the Silver Bullet sound, as we’ve learned, and I’m happy when it pops up. Generally, too, I’m pleased that Seger brings a proper piano, not some synth or electronic twist.
It ain’t, like, full of character like Elton John or Dr. John. Maybe if Billy Joel joined the Friday night barroom band at your favorite large dive.
Travis: That sounds like my own personal hell.
You are probably right about it being better with piano than some of-the-time chintzy synth. But give me a Hammond organ or something like that for texture anytime over the way the piano sounds on this. I think “Feel Like a Number” could be a rad working-class anthem if it were either allowed to be a little more garage-raw, or even more bombastic in a Born to Run kind of way. It feels stuck in the middle between two possibilities, though, and just winds up middle of the road. To my ears anyway.
I think the Springsteen comparison comes out best on “Brave Strangers”. It has epic closer vibes. It goes way over the top but it works. Maybe Seger isn’t any kind of person’s Springsteen after all, but a straight American’s Freddie Mercury.
My other highlight was “Still it Shines.” Nothing too much to say about it. I like it. It’s lovely.
Tyler: I love “Feel Like A Number,” which has a full-throated Seger belting throughout.
“Ain’t Got No Money” isn’t quite as fun, though its sexual strut is more palatable than the carnal pleas of “We’ve Got Tonight,” a song I can’t really defend.
“Still It Shines,” agreed. It’s just a good song. Doesn’t overreach, exists to accomplish what it does. And, “Brave Strangers”: yes.
Thoughts on the album’s somber encore, “The Famous Final Scene?”
Travis: “The Famous Final Scene” did not really do it for me. My notes read “this feels like the love theme from the worst action movie of 1981.”
Probably some slow-mo lovemaking. A closeup of clasped hands gripping a bedsheet together.
Tyler: Sex: a thing in mainstream movies once.
I’m not big on “Famous Final Scene” either. I’d like to be, because it’s really trying, but it kinda bores me.
Travis: I too didn’t really care for “Ain’t Got No Money” or “We’ve Got Tonight.” “We’ve Got Tonight” didn’t grab me. “Ain’t Got No Money” gave me flashbacks to being in the un-airconditioned backroom of the grocery store cutting plastic off of pallets while KSHE 95 blared in the background.
Just: this is classic rock that kinda sucks, this is your life right now.
All that said, I guess I’d give this album a 2.5 or 3 out of 5 stars. Probably bump it up to 3 just for giving us the first two tracks. Bob Seger’s Stranger in Town: it’s pretty good! If it were less than ten bucks at a record store I’d totally pick it up. More than 10, I’d have to think about it.
Do you have any further thoughts?
Tyler: Only that my affection for the good stuff on this album made me curious about the record-nerd-heralded Bob Seger System LPs from the early ‘70s. Could be worth a dive.
Writers' Loom 