This Is Not What I Meant

It has been the official position of this blog for a long damn time that there’s no artist of major reputation who needs the comprehensive box-set treatment more than Bob Seger. Six of his first seven albums are out of print (all except Smokin’ O.P’s, released in 1972). Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man, Mongrel, and Seven got a brief CD release in the early 90s before slipping back out of print; as far as I know, Noah, Brand New Morning, and Back in ’72 have never been released on CD. Even his most famous early single, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man,” is out of print.

Seger has released two best-of collections. Taken together, they’re an adequate overview of his work from 1975 to 1988, but only just. Greatest Hits Volume 1 featured the singles you’d expect from Night Moves on; Greatest Hits Volume 2 picked up the missing singles from Volume 1, 80s movie-soundtrack singles, plus some 70s album cuts that had become FM radio staples. Both volumes included some previously unreleased material, but Seger has so much previously-released-but-unavailable material out there that the new stuff was almost a waste of effort.

So when I first read about an album called Early Seger Volume 1, I thought—finally. Except it ain’t what it could be. It contains two songs from Smokin’ O.P’s, which are already available. It contains three songs from Seven, although one of them, “Long Song Comin’,” is a new version recorded last year, and “Get Out of Denver” features a new guitar solo also recorded in 2009. It contains a single song from Back in ’72, a live recording of the Allman Brothers’s “Midnight Rider.” The remainder of the album is made up of either new recordings of old songs or session outtakes, one from 1985, which doesn’t strike me as particularly “early.” Given that the original plan was to release material exclusively from Smokin’ O.P’s, Back in ’72, and Seven, the fact that Seger decided midway through the project—which includes only 10 songs to begin with—to include unreleased, reworked, and later material feels like a cheat.

Early Seger Volume 1 got its first release last November as an exclusive for Meijer, a big-box chain based in Michigan, and is also available at Seger’s website and Amazon.com. Last week, Walmart began selling it, so it’s out there if you want it. Allmusic.com gives the album a kindly review, and I’ve got no reason to doubt that some of it sounds pretty good, Bob Seger being Bob Seger and all. (I haven’t heard any of it.) But that doesn’t change the staggering disappointment of it. Given that its likely audience is hardcore fans, is this scattershot compilation really going to sell better than re-releases of Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man, Noah, or Mongrel might?

A few tracks from those albums, as well as some other early Seger rarities, are available at YouTube, such as “Noah” (which is absolutely terrific), the antiwar single “2+2 =?, the non-album single “Looking Back,”  the title track from Back in ’72, and “Heavy Music,” which most people know in the version from Live Bullet. Maybe some of these will eventually surface on later volumes of Early Seger. We’ll be waiting.

Thank goodness for the Internet—through the efforts of various music bloggers, I’ve been able to acquire Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man, Noah, and Mongrel. On the latter, Seger recorded the ass-kickin’est version of “River Deep, Mountain High” imaginable, 7:24 of extreme rock and roll that makes you wonder why he wouldn’t want the whole world to hear it. Now, at least you can.

“River Deep, Mountain High”/Bob Seger (out of print)

Off-Topic Tuesday: Hold the Mayo for Jesus

It’s seven years now since I first started blogging. My first site was a mostly political blog called the Daily Aneurysm. Practically nobody read it, but I remain proud of some of the writing there. In honor of the anniversary, and until I get sick of doing it, I’m going to feature some of my favorite posts here on what I’m calling “Off-Topic Tuesdays.” These reruns will almost never have anything to do with our usual subject matter, so you can skip them if you want. Here’s another travel piece, from March 31, 2005:

I am on the road again, in the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis, as the area gears up for college basketball’s Final Four this weekend. The Edward Jones Dome, hard by I-70 right downtown, is fully festooned, and the airport was full of tall people already yesterday, even though the teams didn’t arrive until today.

As it was, I nearly didn’t arrive until today. For the second time in my last three business trips by air, I spent a significant chunk of the day stranded in the airport, and missed some of my scheduled meetings. Yesterday it was weather and an unlikely daily double of two different Northwest planes, both bound for St. Louis, both suffering mechanical troubles.

I have decided that the best way to be a happy airplane passenger is to consider yourself in a state of helplessness. Once you walk into the airport, there’s not a damn thing you can do about anything that really matters. You’re a sheep, and you’re waiting for somebody to herd you from one pen to another. So when the airline announces that your flight has been delayed, or that you have to walk to the opposite end of the airport for a gate change (which happened to me yesterday), you don’t concern yourself about it any more than a sheep would concern itself with walking to a different pen. Better to take it that way then to blow a gasket at the gate agent—because gate agents are, in the end, as helpless as the passengers. If they could get you on the damn airplane any faster, they certainly would, only to get you and your long sheep’s face out of their sight. To think that they have some sort of evil agenda—that they got out of bed that morning for the express purpose of screwing you personally, as some passengers seem to suspect—gives them more credit for efficacy than they can possibly possess. . . .

I’m a Fool to Care

To celebrate going over 300,000 hits at this blog since January 2007, I decided to put up some paneling in here, give the place that 1970s basement feel. Let me know what you think in the comments.

I wasn’t gonna do it at first, but I went ahead and did it anyhow: Checked the Billboard Hot 100 for one-hit wonders that peaked at Number 94, to continue our series. There’s something north of 30 of them—I lost count. Here’s the first installment, featuring a singing actor, a group that took a mysterious second name, and the most successful act to come out of Rockford, Illinois, before Cheap Trick.

“I Can’t Sit Down”/Marie and Rex (3/16/59, one week on chart). Marie Knight, who died just last September at age 89, was a gospel singer who toured and recorded with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who had discovered her singing in a gospel show. They recorded together in the 1940s and scored a number of hits on the R&B charts. Knight’s obituary describes “I Can’t Sit Down” as “an animated, very Rosetta-like performance.” (It also incorrectly names her partner “Rex Marvin” instead of Rex Garvin.) Knight also recorded a version of “Cry Me a River” that hit the R&B charts in 1965.

“A Teenager Feels It Too”/Denny Reed (9/12/60, three weeks). This was originally on the Trey label, the one Lester Sill ran right before founding Philles with Phil Spector. Denny Reed says that the record was cut in Phoenix at Ramsey’s Audio Recorders, a studio whose echo chamber was a giant empty propane tank that sat outside the building. I don’t hear chirping birds or anything on “A Teenager Feels It Too”—just a sweet little teen pop record that was good enough to get Reed on American Bandstand.

“I’m a Fool to Care”/Oscar Black (4/24/61, one week). Les Paul and Mary Ford had a Top-Ten hit with “I’m a Fool to Care” in 1954. It would also be recorded by Fats Domino, Jim Reeves, Rick Nelson, Gene Pitney, and much later, Ringo Starr. Although Black’s version lasted but a week, Joe Barry’s version, which first charted the same week, would eventually rise to Number 24 on a 12-week run. Ray Charles would hit the Hot 100 with it in 1965. Most of these versions are at YouTube; Black’s is not—whoever he was.

“Oh Mein Papa”/Dick Lee (3/13/61, one week). A version of the song Eddie Fisher took to Number One in 1954 under the title “Oh! My Papa,” and which was recorded by approximately a gazillion other people more famous than Dick Lee, both in English and the original German.

Top 5: Making It

To celebrate going over 300,000 hits at this blog since January 2007, I decided to put up some paneling in here, give the place that 1970s basement feel. Readers have made several suggestions for additional decorative elements. What do you think?

We now join our regularly scheduled program, already in progress.

If you could see my office, you’d see how clutter tends to accumulate until I can’t stand it anymore, then I’ve got to reorganize it. So it is with some of the recent notes I’ve been meaning to blog about—enough’s enough and I gotta get ‘em outta here. Let’s call ‘em this week’s Top 5.

—During his reign as the king of Chicago jocks, Larry Lujack (who was a country fan at heart) would occasionally introduce a particularly hard-rockin’ record by playing a clip of Linda Ronstadt singing “We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus (and a Lot Less Rock and Roll)” to hilarious effect. The song was written by Wayne Raney, a country singer from Arkansas who first gained fame singing on a border blaster in the mid 1930s at age 13. His song “Why Don’t You Haul Off and Love Me” was a hit in several versions; Raney’s own version topped the Billboard country charts in the fall of 1949, tucked between two more famous hits, Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” and “Slippin’ Around” by Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely. In 1960, Raney wrote “We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus,” which was covered by a number of artists over the years, both famous and not. WFMU’s Beware of the Blog has collected 11 versions, including Raney’s original and Ronstadt’s.

—Also at Beware of the Blog, you can read a lengthy-but-fascinating piece by Kliph Nesteroff of Classic Television Showbiz about the early career of David Letterman: disc jockey, TV weatherman, standup comic, variety show ensemble player, and game-show contestant. It’s a graphic indication of just how deceptive showbiz success can look from the outside—Letterman was visible throughout the 1970s, working constantly, without ever “making it.”

—Media-watcher Robert Feder reports that on April 10, Columbia College in Chicago will host “Inside the Radio Studio: 100 Years on the Air with Dick Biondi & Herb Kent,” a discussion featuring the two legends of Chicago radio, moderated by a third one, Bob Sirott. Sounds like a good excuse for a road trip.

—Feder also noted a modest proposal by Mike James, editor of Newsblues.com—a 12-step program for reestablishing public control of the airwaves and improving the quality of local and national news. Some are serious: “Outlaw multiple station ownership. Eliminate groups. Encourage newspapers to own and operate local TV and radio outlets as news cooperatives.” Some are more frivolous, but still a good idea: “Impose staggering financial penalties against any news organization using the phrase EXCLUSIVE. Similar fines will be levied against anyone using the term BREAKING NEWS more than three hours after the initial report.” If James would also consent to penalties for stations who use the phrase “stranger danger” to refer to cases of potential child enticement, I’ll be 100 percent on board with him.

—And finally: This blog has occasionally mentioned 1960s parody singer/songwriter Allan Sherman. Not long ago, I got a note from Mark Cohen, who wrote the liner notes for My Son, the Box, the Rhino set of Sherman’s works released in 2005. Apparently there was more to say than a mere set of notes could hold. Cohen is now researching what will be the first full biography of Sherman. “I’ve got a ton of stuff,’ he says. For now, Sherman fans can see some of what Cohen’s uncovered here.

The Wet Bar Goes In Tomorrow

To celebrate going over 300,000 hits at this blog since January 2007, I decided to put up some paneling in here, give the place that 1970s basement feel. What do you think? What else would it need to give it that lived-in look?

Off-Topic Tuesday: Divine Sparks

It’s seven years now since I first started blogging. My first site was a mostly political blog called the Daily Aneurysm. Practically nobody read it, but I remain proud of some of the writing there. In honor of the anniversary, and until I get sick of doing it, I’m going to feature some of my favorite posts here on what I’m calling “Off-Topic Tuesdays.” (These reruns will almost never have anything to do with our usual subject matter—if it’s that you’re looking for, check my latest post at WNEW.com.) On Saturday, when Northern Iowa stunned Kansas in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and my Facebook page blew up with celebrating Iowans, it reminded me of this piece, which originally appeared on December 29, 2003.

Yes, the sky seems a little brighter and the world much more benign on a day such as this. Strangers speak to each other in coffee shops and convenience stores where on other days, they’d keep their eyes straight ahead and their minds on their own business. Hangover from the Christmas season? Nope. This is how it feels up here in Wisconsin this morning, to be a football fan, to bask in the the Green Bay Packers’ improbable capture of an NFL playoff berth yesterday.

The 16-game NFL regular season is such that every game matters, unlike the NBA and NHL, whose bloated playoffs render their regular seasons almost entirely meaningless, and even major-league baseball, where there’s always another game tomorrow. The rhythms of the football season—a game every Sunday, post-game autopsy Monday, looking forward to the next one starting Tuesday—are as comfortable as an old sweater. Beyond that, the NFL has cunningly constructed its playoff system so that several teams have something significant to play for right down to the last game. So it was with the Packers yesterday, needing a win over Denver and a Minnesota loss to Arizona to qualify for the playoffs. Leading up to the late-afternoon kickoffs of both games, the math looked grim. Even if the Packers beat Denver, which had already secured a playoff berth and looked great doing it, they had to depend on Arizona, one of the four worst teams in the league, to pull an upset. What gave Packer fans hope was Minnesota’s dismal performance in the last two-thirds of the season—after starting with six straight wins, the Vikings had lost seven of their next nine. The Packers were taking care of their business, rolling to an easy win. But when the Vikings took a 17-6 lead with two minutes to go in their game, Packer fans began contemplating the end. . . .