Page 29 - the NOISE January 2014

It’s hard to not get bogged down with su- perlatives describing an album like this. Most of it sounds like it was recorded in the same dingy sweaty basement that Exile On Main Street would be two years later. It’s rough, but the lo-fi sound suits the band well. Every one of Mongrel’s 21⁄2-minute nuggets goes pound pound pound until you just can’t resist. No wonder it was one of Lester Bangs’ favor- ites.
The first half of the 1970s was an uphill struggle for Bob Seger. Mongrel (and its sin- gle, the fiery “Lucifer”) were dead on arrival, saleswise. Seger disbanded the System. With studio musicians, Bob cut the “Lookin’ Back” 45 in 1971, a fitting coda to his first glory pe- riod. Again, it barely charted.
Partially out of his disgust with the way Capitol was handling Seger’s career, Punch Andrews started a new record label, Palladi- um (Hideout was long defunct), which War- ner Brothers distributed. To fulfill his Capitol contract, Seger gave them the all-acoustic Brand New Morning. It was a complete about face from the previous hard rock, and sort of a dry run for Night Moves a little down the line. It also predates Springsteen’s similar Ne- braska LP by about eleven years. Of course it sold nothing, and after Seger’s defection to Palladium, all four Capitol LPs were allowed to fall out of print.
Bob Seger assembled a new band and went on the road, opening for any takers. They often stole the show from the headlin- ers. Smokin’ OPs, a covers album, came out in
1972. The following year brought Back In ‘72, a strong LP partially recorded with the Mus- cle Shoals rhythm section and Tulsa guitarist J.J. Cale. Back In ‘72 featured “Rosalie,” which the Irish band Thin Lizzy would later make their own, and the road-weary epic “Turn The Page,” the live version of which would become one of Bob’s most beloved songs. Seven, another solid record from 1974, con- tained the lightning-fast Chuck Berry rewrite
“Get Out Of Denver” (a little tune about scor- ing speed), which spawned dozens of cover versions, most notably by Dave Edmunds and Bob Dylan.
Unfortunately none of the Palladium al- bums were hits either. Bob Seger was lured back to Capitol in 1975 with the promise of a bigger promotional push. His first album on return was Beautiful Loser, which sold re-
circa 1988, Capitol press material
spectably. Then in 1976, Seger and his new Silver Bullet Band were recorded at Detroit’s Cobo Hall in front of a crazed hometown au- dience. The resulting 2-LP Live Bullet was his mainstream breakthrough. Later that year, Night Moves catapulted him into the big leagues.
And the rest is history. Almost.
The five Hideout/Cameo singles, the first seven Capitol singles, and the LPs Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man and Mongrel constitute an im- pressive body of work. Bob Seger and com- pany start out at 1000 mph and maintain this standard without faltering (except for the Neme fiasco). The MC5 and The Stooges learned how to do it from these guys. As the 1970s began to provide us with one wimpy singer/songwriter after another, Bob Seger delivered the rock, and it is this he deserves canonization for, not tripe like “Old Time Rock & Roll,” which he didn’t even write.
Those of us rabid fans of Bob Seger’s early career have dedicated ourselves to initiat- ing the uninitiated: to answer the puzzled looks when we say “I’m a big Seger fan” and then barf whenever “Fire Lake” or “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” comes on the radio, to forev- er quell the hipster smirks and snickers when Seger’s name is mentioned in the company of the sacred Stooges and holy MC5.
Unfortunately, the man himself has made this nearly impossible. Excepting 1972’s (mostly covers) Smokin’ OPs, none of Bob Seger’s pre-1975 albums are in print as of 2013.
Of the Hideout/Cameo singles from 1966- 1967, only “Heavy Music” has ever made it onto an official release (it’s at the end of Smokin’ OPs). When Seger re-signed with
Capitol in 1975, the label reissued Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man, Mongrel, Smokin’ OPs, and Sev- en, but not Noah, Brand New Morning, or Back In ‘72. The first four were briefly available on budget-line Capitol CDs in the 1990s before being withdrawn. The latter three have been out of circulation since the early 1970s, and vintage LP copies now command $200-$500 price tags. Years ago, I found a cutout of Back In ‘72 at Goodwill for 33¢ and it was one of the greatest days of my life.
Oddly for a recording artist of Bob Seger’s renown, he has never authorized any box set or anthology collections except for two
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