Somehow, this has turned into a Seger Sunday.
Yesterday, while continuing my never ending project of
uploading music to the cloud, I came across Bob Seger’s Beautiful Loser album.
Two albums later would come Seger’s massive
breakthrough with Night Moves, but you can see where this album had the signs
of something big coming.
I played it through twice (last night and this morning), am on my third spin, and it really is an amazing album.
In his Amazon review, Stephen T. McCarthy refers to Beautiful
Loser as a “lost classic,” and I think that term captures the album perfectly.
It is a
great album that, for some reason, did not get the exposure that “Night Moves”
did, although the title track still gets radio play some forty years on.
This album certainly set the stage for Seger’s massive
success, and is paced well, with driving rock anthems, bluesy rock cuts and the
obligatory ballads.
Speaking of ballads, why a song like “Jody Girl” was
overlooked by radio is beyond me.
Again I’ll quote McCarthy-this “is not just
one of the most tender ballads ever written, it's one of the saddest.”
“Katmandu” and “Travelin’ Man” were Philly radio staples (in
addition to the title track), but only after the success of “Night Moves,”
although Katmandu did just miss the top 40 (#43) and received strong airplay in
markets other than Seger’s home town of Detroit.
As I type this, I am finishing my third listening, with the
closing notes of “Fine Memory” accentuating these keystrokes. And while this
album brings back a lot of memories, it still stands up.
If you don’t own this one, and you like rock and roll, you
should grab it while it’s still in print.
I have more Seger to talk about, but I think I'll save it for tomorrow and give you all time to listen to these cuts.
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ReplyDeleteBob Seger's very best album, in my opinion.
'NIGHT MOVES' was great too, but if I could own only one of Seger's albums, I would unquestionably select 'BEAUTIFUL LOSER'.
He had a number of good album's, but by the time he got to some of his biggest hits like 'Hollywood Nights' and 'Old Time Rock And Roll' he had become a bit too slick for my tastes.
There were still some good songs on 'Stranger In Town' and 'Against The Wind', but I felt those albums were a bit more commercial and a bit more uneven.
But 'BEAUTIFUL LOSER' and 'NIGHT MOVES', too, are both Rock-Solid all the way through with lots of sand and grit and rough edges. True Classic Rock from the "Classic Rock" era.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Bob Seger's very best album, in my opinion
ReplyDeleteWow...I am stunned!
Not really-when looking for the album cover art, I came across your Amazon review.
I had forgotten how much I love the final song...I'd almost forgotten the song until I saw it in your review title..
If by "slick," you mean over-produced, I agree. I also think the album tracks (non-singles) started to get a little formulaic, and by Against The Wind, even the singles did (Horizontal Bop? really?)-although I love the song "Against The Wind."
I'll be curious (a) if you've heard of the album I post tomorrow, and (b) what you think of it.
Yeah, that's exactly what I meant by "slick".
ReplyDeleteI was wondering how you were able to quote my BigBitch.com review. I thought maybe I had posted it on one of my blogs at some point and you had remembered it (even though I didn't remember having brought it to a blog).
If the album is 'Smokin' OPs', I've heard of it.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Nope..not Smokin' Op's
DeleteBeautiful Loser was his eighth...which means it took ten albums for him to break...