Bob Seger has long embodied the American spirit of success.
\nDespite many releases in his early days as an artist that didn’t
\nsell well, he continued plugging along until his “last gasp”
\neffort,
\nBeautiful Loser<\/i>, hit the big time. His music has always
\nappealed to the blue-collar worker, probably because Seger was one
\nof them.<\/p>\n
In 1981, Seger was quite possibly riding the peak of his
\nsuccess, coming off his album
\nAgainst The Wind<\/i> and the hits it contained. The time seemed
\nright to follow up his original live effort,
\nLive Bullet<\/i>, with a recording of the early ’80s Silver
\nBullet Band preserved for time. That album was
\nNine Tonight<\/i>, an album that contains many songs that please,
\nbut like many live albums, it fails to convey all of the energy the
\nactual live show probably had.<\/p>\n
Recorded over several dates in Boston and Detroit, Seger and
\ncrew tear through some of their best-known songs of this time, as
\nwell as through some surprises. After a solid opening with the
\ntitle track, Seger and crew kick into a cover of “Tryin’ To Live My
\nLife Without You,” and doing a pretty good job with it. One can
\nimagine Seger strutting the stage during this and many other cuts
\non this set that do their best to turn the energy of a live show in
\nto an audio recording.<\/p>\n
However, this has always been the most difficult challenge for
\nany artist who records a live set for mass consumption. And while
\nSeger and crew often sound like they’re giving it 110 percent
\nonstage, it’s not as convincing without being able to see them in
\naction. For example, his massive hit “Night Moves” occasionally
\nsounds like Seger is going through the motions on this one, and
\nwould much rather be singing something else.<\/p>\n
Some of the songs don’t translate as well to the stage from the
\nstudio. “Old Time Rock And Roll” suffers without that familiar
\npiano opening, while “Against The Wind” and “Fire Lake” really do
\nlack something without Seger’s friends from the Eagles assisting
\nwith background vocals.<\/p>\n
This, fortunately, is not the case with all the songs on
\nNine Tonight<\/i>. “Rock And Roll Never Forgets,” “Her Strut” and
\n“Hollywood Nights” all rock with great ferociousness, and even the
\nballad “We’ve Got Tonight” holds up well, especially with the
\npassage of some 17 years since this set was released.<\/p>\n
The Silver Bullet Band is especially tight in this inception,
\nwhich included ex-Grand Funk keyboardist Craig Frost. Whatever you
\nthink of Seger, you do have to admit he’s always surrounded himself
\nwith top-notch musicians.<\/p>\n
One word of warning: If you buy the CD instead of the cassette
\nor even the ancient vinyl, you will get a shortened version of the
\nalbum’s closer “Let It Rock”. (It would be nice to see Capitol
\nre-release this title with a restored version of “Let It Rock”. If
\nMetallica can go past the 74-minute limit of a CD and put out such
\ndrivel as
\nLoad<\/i>, then Seger should be given his due.)<\/p>\n
\nLive Bullet<\/i>, in the end, is still an enjoyable listen, and
\ncould be Seger’s best live release. But no matter how good this one
\nis, it definitely isn’t meant to be a substitute for the real thing
\non a concert stage near you.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5789],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38962","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bob-seger-the-silver-bullet-band","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38962","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=38962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38962"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}