04/12/2025
ON THIS DATE (49 YEARS AGO)
April 12, 1976 – Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band: 'Live' Bullet is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 5/5
# allmusic 5/5
# Rolling Stone (see original review below)
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‘Live’ Bullet is a live album by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, released on April 12, 1976. It was recorded live at Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan on September 4 & 5, 1975, in front of 24,000 fans. It reached #34 on the Billboard Top 200 LP's chart during its 168-week stay.
By the mid-'70s, Detroit rocker Bob Seger had built a solid fanbase with non-stop touring, but had yet to score that final breakthrough hit that would shoot through to the mainstream. Like so many other rock acts of that decade (Kiss, Peter Frampton, Cheap Trick), Bob Seger used the live album format to serve as his much sought-after commercial breakthrough, 1976's 'Live Bullet'. Having released a total of eight studio albums between 1968 and 1975, Seger had quite a bit of material to chose from for this live set, and only the best tracks were included. Highlights include the uptempo rocker "Katmandu," the working musician's touring tale of "On the Road Again" (a song that Metallica would make a hit in the late '90s), and "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man." After 'Live Bullet', Seger duly issued a string of best-selling albums did a series of sold-out arena tours.
Seger: "Another of my snap decisions. It only happened two nights beforehand. We decided not to play to the tapes but to the audience -- and it worked." ~ Patrick Goldstein, July 29, 1976, Rolling Stone. "Bob Seger. A Star in His Own State."
Seger: "I didn't want to release a live album because I thought it was getting to be a camp thing. The performances were above-average nights, but not the peak of what the band can do. Technically, it's far from perfect. But the next studio album wasn't finished, and I decided we had to get something out. The funny thing is, Punch had called me last January and said, 'I'll buy you a new Cadillac Seville if you let me put this out right now.' I said no. I said no, like an as***le." ~ Lowell Cauffiel, August 1976, Creem Magazine. "Bob Seger, Overnight Success...Finally!"
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RECORD WORLD, April 24, 1976
LIVE BULLET BOB SEGER & THE SILVER BULLET BAND-Capitol SYBB-11523 (7.98) One of Detroit's favorite hard rockers is captured on home territory before what must have been an ecstatic fanship. Live versions of "Beautiful Loser," "Travelin' Man," "Bo Diddley" and "Katmandu," show Seger and band at their best-basic rock full of frenzied energy.
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ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW
I've been listening to Bob Seger since 1966's "East Side Story," an odd, "Gloria"-like single with a theme that predates "Jungleland" by nine years. In Detroit, and much of the Midwest, Seger was (and is) a major star, good for a hard-rock hit every year, ranging from the antiwar diatribe "2+2=?" and the anthemic "Heavy Music" of 1967 to 1973's "Rosalie," a tribute to CKLW music director Rosalie Trombley. But because of poor recording, lack of record company support and what has at times seemed like willful career mismanagement, Seger has had only one national hit, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" in 1968. Though he's discovered a pair of stars -- the Eagles' Glenn Frey counts his first major achievement playing on "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," and Eric Clapton's backing singer Marcy Levy made her debut on "Rosalie" -- Seger remains anonymous. For a man whose best work combines John Fogerty's energy and commitment with the subtle elegance of Van Morrison, the frustrations must be immense.
Seger's obscurity is more inexplicable because he is in so many ways the model of the mainstream rock singer. He has a big, R&B-derived vocal style, an intuitive instinct for classy guitar riffs, writes wonderful melodies. His songs tell their stories with with, economy and passion -- more importantly, he always has stories to tell. His most topical songs are naive (so are many of Fogerty's) but the better ones seem to sum up the mid-American rock experience. "U.M.C.," included here, is merely sanctimonious (the initials stand for "upper middle class") but "Lookin' Back" is the real thing, just what happened to rocking kids in the late Sixties:
You hit the streets
You feel 'em starin'
You know they hate ya
You can feel their eyes a-glarin'
Seger's other theme really amounts to an unshakable faith in the power of rock & roll to change a life -- his own, if no one else's. The versions here of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock" and "Bo Diddley" are wonderful tributes to the masters who shaped Seger's music and his writing. In "Heavy Music" he manages to capture it all in a single line: "Doncha ever listen to the radio when that big bad beat comes on?"
Most of these songs are better recorded elsewhere; "Heavy Music" and "Let It Rock" are particularly disappointing. But the songs from last year's Beautiful Loser are much superior to these versions. If Live Bullet adds little new material to the Seger oeuvre, and if he has still not been properly produced, it has the advantage of offering a fairly extensive overview of his history. And because of the devotion of the crowd and the desperation of Seger's approach (this is something like his last chance to make it to the top, and he knows it), the album transcends its limitations.
Live Bullet doesn't have the feeling of triumph heard in the two greatest live rock records, the Who's Live at Leeds and the Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, nor does it own the sense of discovery found in Otis Redding's Live in Europe or the recent Nils Lofgren bootleg. This is a man who hasn't got it made, but who has already reckoned with his weaknesses and strengths. He works his heart out and perhaps tells us something special about what it means to be the average guy, with or without guitar.
In a way, the concert becomes a meditation on failure, from "Travelin' Man" to the mournful "Turn the Page," an exegesis of the space between total stardom and final burnout, affectionately reminiscing about the lovely times, excoriating the bad ones. In "Katmandu," the regional hit that earned him the two sold-out nights in Cobo Hall, where this record was made, he thinks of giving it all up, but the strength of his music belies the idea. Better than anyone before him, Seger knows the problems of partial success, and maybe what is so compelling about this record is that he seems so resigned to remaining that kind of star.
Seger's most deeply felt moments come when he moves beyond his personal tragedy into everyone's. "Jody Girl," the wonderful Morrison-style ballad that closes the first side, is a striking characterization of a woman with great potential who's sacrificed a brilliant future for not very much. In the album's best song, "Beautiful Lose," he describes a guy who is "always willing to be second best," who "always asks, always say(s) please," and never quite has the drive to break past his limitations. If I'm a loser, he seems to say, then I'll speak for every loser, but he does it without bitterness, anger or blame. And he's never only resigned. Seger cares for these characters (and in "Jody," I think, he has done something really rare -- created a plausible woman in song). Only once, finally, does he seem to address his own situation specifically:
Beautiful loser, never take it all
'Cause it's easier, and faster, when you fall
You just don't need it at all
Yet like John Lennon's, Seger's loser is not what he appears to be. There is resilience and success in the sound, if nowhere else. Live Bullet is a small triumph but, in its way, a magnificent one, capable of speaking without bathos for failures everywhere. With those songs, and this album, he has convinced me that I'll be listening to him for another nine years. And this time, I have a hunch, with a lot more company.
~ Dave Marsh (June 17, 1976)
TRACKS:
All songs written and composed by Bob Seger, except as indicated.
Side One
1 Nutbush City Limits (Tina Turner) - 4:37
2 Travelin' Man - 4:53
3 Beautiful Loser - 4:00
4 Jody Girl - 4:28
Side Two
1 I've Been Working (Van Morrison) - 4:35
2 Turn the Page - 5:05
3 U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class) - 3:17
4 Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley) - 5:40
Side Three
1 Ramblin' Gamblin' Man - 3:01
2 Heavy Music - 8:14
3 Katmandu - 6:23
Side Four
1 Lookin' Back - 2:36
2 Get out of Denver - 5:21
3 Let It Rock (Chuck Berry) - 8:30
