I have never met a true blue Bob Seger fan.

To be a real fan of any band you have to be able to find some value in the music they released that was certifiably terrible. Every great band or solo artist goes through some dark days-it’s like a rite of passage. Bob Dylan had a gospel phase, Neil Young had a synthesizer phase, the Beatles wrote “Birthday” and Smash Mouth prematurely released a greatest hits album (although it is nice to finally get their singles AND soundtrack cuts on one convenient compact disc). Truly great fans can put mediocrity in perspective and continue to justify their loyalty. That said, the reason no true Bob Seger fans exist is because nobody (and I mean nobody) could ever defend a song like “Katmandu” and expect to maintain any shred of dignity. Plus, he wrote too many songs with the words “Rock and Roll” in the title. Seger’s not about subtlety.

However, I feel like Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band made some pretty great music. True, it’s Butt Rock, which by definition means it holds very little artistic merit. But Seger really knows how to tap into the very core of one’s sentimentality. Clearly, he has known this throughout his entire career because nearly every hit he had was about being young or reminiscing about something or another (card games, wind, old time rock and roll, life on the road, past loves, old cars, etc.).

My theory is that even people who claim to hate Bob Seger will play “Night Moves” on a bar juke box but will only do so after a minimum of four drinks. They might even sing a verse or two. Considering it takes me about 10 drinks to enjoy ‘Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins, that’s not too bad. But I still won’t sing along.

COMMENTS

On Saturday night at the VFW, I did a Night Moves that brought down the house. After returing to my table I was approached by a 47 year old woman who said she never new someone my age could appreciate Seger the way I obviously did because of my performance. She said, "How do you know Bob Seger?" I replied, "He's only the greatest songwriteer of a generation, duh." However, you couldn't catch me ever singing Katmandoo, certainly one of the worsst songs ever recorded. You hit some, you miss some.

Posted by: Erik | August 30, 2005 01:48 PM