Bob Seger’s career has normally been based on the strength of
\nsingles, not albums. His works would feature one or two great
\ntracks, topped off with about twelve pounds of filler.<\/p>\n
However, his 1980 release
\nAgainst The Wind<\/i> (jeez, has it been that long?) is probably
\nhis most cohesive effort he ever released. Over half the album gets
\nregular airplay, and it has, for the most part, aged quite
\ngracefully. Would that this were the case with most pop music.<\/p>\n
For some stupid reason, I ended up buying this one at a used
\nrecord store on tape – a copy from England, no less – and my liner
\nnotes are, well… they ain’t there, kids. I know that Don Henley
\nand Glenn Frey of the Eagles provide some backup vocals here (and I
\ncan guess which tracks those are), and CD Now reports that Dr. John
\nprovided some keyboard work. I’ll take their word for it.<\/p>\n
The title track was a successful enough single, but was brought
\nback to people’s attention courtesy of 1994’s
\nForrest Gump<\/i>, a song which was perfectly suited for the
\nscene it was used in. In fact, when I was listening to this tape in
\nmy car, it just so happened there were people jogging when this one
\ncame on. The song is a poignant look back at a loss of youth and
\ninnocence, as well as the struggles that accompany us on our life’s
\njourneys. It’s quite simply, in my opinion, Seger’s most
\ndistinguishing moment of his career.<\/p>\n
If this were the only good track on the album,
\nAgainst The Wind<\/i> would have a place in history. Thankfully,
\nit doesn’t stop there. “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” is a decent enough
\nballad which still gets some airplay on AOR and classic rock
\nstations. “Her Strut” has a guitar riff from hell, one which you’ll
\nfind yourself playing air guitar to no matter where you are. “Fire
\nLake” was another successful single – I didn’t even know it had
\nbeen released that way – which features the harmonizing of at least
\none of the aforementioned Eagles. (If anyone has the full liner
\nnotes, can you e-mail me to let me know if both Frey and Henley
\nsang backup here? I think it’s Henley.)<\/p>\n
Even the double entendre of “The Horizontal Bop” – more classic
\nrock than cock-rock – is friendly enough. It seems, for a while,
\nthat Seger can do no wrong on this album.<\/p>\n
In fact, the mistakes are few on this one. “Long Twin Silver
\nLine” is probably the only real throwaway on the entire album – it
\nsounds like Seger is forcing the issue on this one, and it just
\ncomes off as a weak effort. “Good For Me” takes a little time to
\nwarm up to, but by the second listen, it sounds like a natural
\nprogression.<\/p>\n
I don’t think that Seger ever topped this one in terms of the
\nquality of the whole picture. He would still have a few hits left
\nin him, but
\nAgainst The Wind<\/i> is an album that, with rare exceptions,
\nscreams quality from all ends of the tape… even if some releases
\nleave me dangling in the wind with no liner notes. Hey, I don’t
\nclaim to know
\neverything<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5789],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-35680","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bob-seger-the-silver-bullet-band","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35680"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35680"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}