A couple of years ago Helen Bach wrote a devastating hit on Bob Seger and we got inundated with hate mail -I think only Kings Of Leon and Leonard Cohen sent us more, and the collective IQ of the responses were the equal of a meth plastic bag in a trailer park. Me? I have no real cross to bear when it comes to Seger though some of my Detroit native pals swear by his early 70s work. It went over my head.
I mean, sure “Against The Wind” and “Old Time Rock And Roll” and maybe “Night Moves” are part of the vernacular but surely the STooges washed him out of the conversation and though simply because I have so many friends who love him, I might have dipped a toe in here and there, he isn’t on Spotify so fuck it, right? 80% of the time, if it sn’t on Spotify I pass, and the number would be much higher (it would be three names: the Beatles and Taylor Swift and the Bootleg Tapes of Dylan) if I was a civilian again.
So I was gonna be a pass on Seger at MSG. I’d missed him last time he played there and
1. Seger’s new album Ride On, is beyond the pale. An atrocity I streamed on Youtube, which makes him lousy and stupid
2. The man is the poster child for self-absorbed nostalgia
But you don’t know till you know, I’ve never seen Seger live and the only way for me to be sure is to take a look at him in concert. I would hope that if you read rock nyc it is for an informed opinion and the only way to have an informed opinion is to do the work, even if it is painful. So, yeah, I am gonna check him out on Friday (another good reason to go) , December 19th, 2014. Hey, he looks like Santa Claus so it all adds up.
PS: I just listened to his Greatest Hits… I dunno about this.
