BOB SEGER & THE SILVER BULLET BAND LiveBullet

(Capitol) ,

Bob Seger refuses to say die. I got nothing against him, know him and he's a real good joe, but all there's finally to be said is that if you took the Cameo/Parkway early Sixties singles — "Persecution Smith," "Sock It To Me Santa," "Heavy Music," etc. — and the best of Mongrel and at most two songs, a piece off the debut Capitol album with the babe on the icefloe and Noah, mix that collation up in one snakpak, add the incredible 1971 Single "Looking Back," and you got one of the all-time classic rock albums. Tough. Raw. Crude where and when it really counts.

But 2 + 2 = hot what you think, actually; methinks it equals years of busting your balls playing dumpclub gigs, being a "local legend" (what an insult), "theFogerty of the Midwest" (worse), so you end up making a whole lot of dull albums like Back in "72, the only one I can even remember the title of even though I listened to 'em all when they came out, and just look atthat title, like an acknowledgement of one's own instant anachronism, a has-been that never was.

I recall the first time I saw Bob Seger, on some California dancetime TV show, whamming out the chords on the piano and singing that piston upanddown melody to "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," hair moderate short, eyes shut, desperately earnest. I took one look and thought what a joke, what a cliche, he should at least be droll about it.

Twenty four hours later my brain was addictively recycling the song interior cellular tape loop everywhere I went.

When Mongrel came out I went a little mad, or maybe it was just an excuse — Funhouses didn't come around every day, but me and my crowd had to keep the mania going if it took shooting speed or drinking Jack Daniels till we passed out on your highschool steady's front la'wn puking anywhere but on the record player...we-fed off ranting noise, energy music, raw stungun metal rock, and Mongrel was one of the records, in ipy sector of California at least, that sustained us through the winter of our cultivated praxis-proud discontent.

But it's hard to keep that kind of ' idolatry alive in the presence of things like "Get Out of Denver," the closest thing Seger had to a hit until Beautiful Loser and "Katmandu," which made him a headliner at last after all these years. And, just as a member of the audience, I didn't like those much either. Since moving to Detroit in '71,1 saw Seger live many times; I saw him in top hat w/saxophone and chick backup singers, trying to be Leon Russell in '72; I saw him play gigs aplenty like the nite last year at the Michigan Palace when he had the crowd apeshitting themselves just by crunging out "Let It Rock" but that didn't move me either, not like what I remembered.. You feel glad for the guy, hanging in all these years, and finally getting mass acceptance, but you also/get the feeling that just maybe too many years, too many club gigs and too much unnecessary dues paid have withered his whoop a mite. History should have jumped on his bandwagon when he first prophesied "Heavy Music," you could 1 mean make a case that this man much as anybody else invented heavy metal. "EAST SIDE STORY"!!!

Well, he did finally make it, bigger 1 hope than I know, big enough that Capitol's willing to put out a live double album for all the fans, but still...

Still there is an interior stillness that's the absolute antithesis of the crazed drive of "Persecution Smith." Nobody can clutch kid blast forever, and you gotta respect him, but respect has nothing to do with which records you like to listen to. This album is a pretty good indication of where Seger's been since Mongrel vacillating between factory rockouts a la BTO and pensive ballads that just do not make it unless you nurse a special passion for dogged, plodding, ersatz Bad Company/ Allman Brothers hymns to being "on the road again." Honest, sure, but Seger, mass acceptance or local/ cult hero, is just still too much journeyman and not enough slamdamn visionary. The faithful swear by his live versions of "Heavy Music," "Katmandu" and "Let It Rock" preserved herein. It all sounds like one long obliggato to me.

He's just a good solid workman, and that may fit the times too perfectly, but it ain't what I been waiting for. I'm waiting for the highway child to roar charges ("Too many people lookin' back...!") and shout wild once more, and having waited five years I'm about ready to pack this one in. It's like somebody clubbing you over the head with a dull, blunt rubber bat, hollering "THIS IS AND I AM ROCK 'N' ROLL, OHYEAH DIGIT BROTHERS & SISTERS!" over and over and over again until you end up as numb as he must feel after all those clubs that no one could ever count.

Live Buflet is better than the boogie slop that's making several far less talented' musicians far more money than Bob's ever seen, but it's not neuropsychic defoliation, which was what I always hung around heavy metal for. Maybe you got different standards. I just hope Bob makes a lot of money now. Nobody deserves it more.