♫ Bob Seger Week Grand Finale ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history

Well, friends, this is the final day of Bob Seger Week … I’ve had fun with it, and I hope you have too!  As usually happens when I do a weeklong focus on a single artist or band, I have several left over that I wanted to play, so I’m compiling them all into this final post … for the sake of brevity, I won’t be posting lyrics, and only a short snippet of background info on each song.

Like A Rock

Bob Seger always seemed more like a regular guy than a Rock Star, and this moving song about pride and consistency struck a chord with working class Americans who could relate to him. Seger grew up in Michigan, paid his dues with constant touring, and stayed true to his roots.

Seger was 40 years old when this song was released, and there was a wisdom to his words that appealed to his audience. In a 1986 interview with Creem magazine, he said: “It’s a matter of growing up. From the time I was 20 until I was 30, I didn’t sell a whole lot of records, but I was doing a lot of rock ‘n’ roll. That’s the way I felt at the time. Maybe during the period when I was 30 to 40, I was getting more mature, writing about older themes. I’m sure ‘Like A Rock’ doesn’t mean much to someone who’s 20, but I gotta write what I know about.”

Little Drummer Boy

As I keep telling my family, Christmas is OVER!  But … Clive suggested this one anyway, and I must admit it is a great version of the song, and by next December I will have forgotten, so I’m including it in this roundup anyway!  🎄

Bob Seger’s version of The Little Drummer Boy gained widespread popularity when it was included on the 1987 album A Very Special Christmas. The album featured various artists performing holiday classics, and Seger’s heartfelt rendition struck a chord with listeners.

Throughout the song, Seger’s soulful delivery and the haunting melody convey a deep sense of longing and humility. The drummer boy, a humble character from a humble background, represents the importance of pouring one’s heart and soul into whatever gifts we have to offer. This message resonates with listeners across generations, reminding us that even the smallest acts of kindness and love can have a profound impact.

Roll Me Away

According to Seger the song was inspired by a motorcycle trip he took to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Says Seger …

“I wanted to do that for a long time. It was fascinating being out. The first night it was 42 degrees in northern Minnesota; the second it was 106 in South Dakota and all I had on was my shorts, and my feet were up on the handlebars to keep them from boiling on the engine. It was just silence and feeling nature.”

Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh described it as an “anthemic” song and considers it Seger’s best single. Marsh interprets the song as being about “leaving a shattered home for a life that has to be better, though it never quite is.” Marsh elaborates that the narrator of the song has lost his love and so goes off on a cold and lonely journey while he “lets his frustrations and confusion congeal into one sad cry that dissolves his fate into what has happened to the whole crazy mess of a world in which he lives. He sings that he plans to straighten things out for as long as he is searching but at the end he admits that only next time will they be able to get it right.”

Classic Rock History critic Janey Roberts rated it as Seger’s all-time best song, noting some influence from Bruce Springsteen.

Shame on the Moon

This is one of the few that Bob Seger did not write himself.  It was written by Rodney Crowell, who recorded it on his 1981 self-titled album.  Some Eagles are part of this story. Don Henley is the one who turned Seger on to Crowell. When Seger bought Crowell’s album, he loved Shame On The Moon and played it for his band. His producer, Jimmy Iovine, wasn’t sold, but when Seger recorded harmony vocals with his good friend Glenn Frey, he knew they had something special. Seger co-wrote the Eagles song Heartache Tonight with Frey a few years earlier.

In Your Time

I can find absolutely no background information or trivia about this one at all, so just sit back and enjoy the music.

And as they say in the movies …

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48 thoughts on “♫ Bob Seger Week Grand Finale ♫”

  6. Pingback: ♫ Bob Seger Week Grand Finale ♫ | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  7. Another great selection, which shows just how good he is. Though I prefer this video for Drummer Boy – after a minute or so of animation it goes to him in the studio, and you can see that he really is giving it everything!

    Thank you for a very enjoyable week 👍

    Liked by 2 people

      • Easily done! I’m having real trouble with WP at present. Embedding videos is a shambles, so I’m reverting to the Classic Editor instead of the Block version. Hopefully they will fix whatever is causing it!

        This was a very good week, thank you 😊

        Liked by 2 people

          • I think they view it as their purpose in life. It feels like a backward step but it’s the only way I can make it work. It’s affecting every post I’ve ever written with the Block Editor: I can’t go back into them and make any changes, as the videos aren’t visible in the editor. A real pain!

            Liked by 1 person

            • Yes, that sounds like a major pain!!! They keep sending me emails bragging about all the new “themes” they’ve added … might be better if they concentrated on making the program work right before they worried about adding new themes!!!

              Liked by 1 person

              • I get those too but I ignore them. I use one of their free themes which has been discontinued so if I ever change I won’t be able to go back to it. I guess that’s what you get for not paying them anything!

                Liked by 1 person

                • Heck, Clive … I DO pay them and they don’t treat me any better. Remember back when none of my posts were getting on Reader? It took two weeks and I finally had to threaten to cancel my account before they fixed the problem. And the other day I tried to contact them over a minor issue and all I could get was an AI-generated response that made no sense at all. But, it’s where our friends/readers are and I’ve had a couple of friends who left WP for a different platform and never did quite get their blogs off the ground, so I guess I’ll stay here despite it all.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  • I remember that, and I wasn’t impressed with their efforts on your behalf. I’ve known others who have moved elsewhere and regretted it, so I guess for me it’s a case of staying with the devil you know.

                    Liked by 1 person

                    • I forced myself to try it and have actually found it easier until the current problems began. They did originally say that they would be closing the Classic Editor down but I’m hoping they’ve changed their minds about that!

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • Really? Hmmmm … maybe I’ll try it again someday, just so I know how to use it when/if they take away the Classic. Do you write your posts within WP? I write mine … almost always, except for cartoon posts and Jolly Monday, in Word and then copy/paste them into WP.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • I’ve been doing some searching. They introduced the Block Editor in 2019 and said at the time that the Classic Editor would be supported ‘until 2022 or whenever necessary.’ They have since changed that to 2024, but I’m guessing they might extend it again if the Block Editor has problems.

                      I write online in WP – the app is too fussy. I’ve been thinking about using Word but can’t see any real advantage for me at present: the only problem I have is with embedding videos and I’d still need to do that in WP after the copy and paste job anyway.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • I don’t know why they would feel a need to get rid of something that people still use, but WP seems to enjoy making us jump through hoops.

                      I find it’s easier to write in Word … more options for formatting, better grammar checking, autosave, etc., plus less chance of me accidentally hitting the publish now button! 🤣

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • Yes, wouldn’t you think that if they cared about their “valued customers” they would maybe ask us via a poll or some such thing for our opinion? Hah!

                      Good luck … let me know if it works out better for you.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • No, but then … neither are some of the other things they’ve done in the past year. It’s frustrating, for at one time it was a good app with helpful customer service people, but it seems the machines have taken over and the only accounts they truly value are the ones that monetize their blogs, something which I absolutely refuse to do!

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • I’ve never paid WP a penny and don’t intend to. It seems to be a general trend, though. I’ve just about given up calling companies unless I really have to: talking to a programmed bot isn’t much fun, unless I reach the point of swearing at them 🤣

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • I do pay WP for the ‘privilege’ of having no advertising and a few other perks, but I refuse to charge others, which is what WP keeps trying to get me to do. Why on earth would anybody want to PAY to read my drivel? I’m like you … I hate having to contact a company by phone. I’ve been trying for a month now to cancel my subscription to the local newspaper for it is basically useless, but haven’t succeeded yet, so I finally told the bank to decline any payment requests from them!

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • I only do this as a hobby, so charging for my site has never come into the equation for me either.

                      I don’t mind talking to real people, but it’s the interminable waiting through choice menus and then getting a bot that puts me off.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • Agreed. Push this button for that circumstance or another for a different problem, or if you really want to talk to a person, hold for 30 minutes and listen to really crappy elevator music! 🤣

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  8. Jill, thanks for the Bob Seger week. You ended up with a nice assortment. “Like a rock” became such an iconic song for a truck commercial, that it was surprising when you heard the whole song on the radio. “Roll me away” has always been a favorite. Of all my compilation CDs, my Bob Seger greatest hits one got played often, especially on the return segment of business car trips. Keith

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