Tuesday, March 6, 2012: The "Bob Seger Will Be Around Longer Than Bruce Springsteen" Edition

When I was growing up in the 1970's & 1980's, I was all about Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger.

This was weird considering I grew up in suburban Southern California. Being a fan of two rockers who spoke more to the sensibilities of the Mid-West rust belt and East Coast hustlers just didn't fit the scene.

Most of my friends were into New Wave, New Romantics, Punk, Rap, Heavy Metal, 70's Soul and just about everything else. None of them wanted to listen to songs about how working in a factory stole your life and soul, or how you used to work on an assembly line making Thunderbirds. There were no factories where I was from. Only malls.

There are many other rockers who fit into the working man's middle America rock category, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp also come to mind. But for me, it really came down to Bruce and Bob.

There is a truth within Bob Seger songs that just isn't present in Springsteen's. When I say truth, I mean honesty. Bruce was always more about imagery and poetry. Bruce's debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ really was trying to match Bob Dylan's verbosity through the prism of mescaline and speed.

Early Bob Seger just wanted to Get Out Of Denver.

The characters in Springsteen's songs were larger than life. Well, that is before he wrote Tunnel Of Love. Then, like his personal life, it all came crashing down. Bruce has gone back to painting with that large, romanticized brush since The Rising, however. Bob? He's sold one of his top 5 best songs ever to a large auto maker and has just kept rocking.

And that's sort of the most basic appeal Bob Seger has for me. Bob Seger had a record deal and a hit on the charts four years before Springsteen released his first record. And while Springsteen has flirted with folk music and some other career variations, Bob Seger still writes songs for those guys and gals who worked on the long vanished factory assembly lines.

And 100 years down the road, when it's all said and done and history has gone through it's first draft and is in the process of the early revisions, Bob Seger's songs will come out on top. Just listen to Against The Wind. From 1980's album of the same name, I dare you, I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU to find any other song released in 1980 that sounds as fresh, clean, clear and relevant than Against The Wind. This is a song for the ages, with Seger's powerful voice (he was always a better vocalist than Springsteen) cutting through that lament of loss, regret and dreams unrealized. Or, take Hollywood Nights, the vibrant excitement of those anything-can-happen nights, with those Hollywood hills the perfect poetic representation of the ups and downs, cliffs and valleys of a life lived to the full.

These are songs that still sound outstanding today. They don't sounds stuffy or dated, or "classic" or whatever. Kids, adults, people of all types still experience these emotions, and will continue to do so for as long as guys and girls get together, then drift apart.

Bob Seger is an American vocalist and songwriter for the ages, along with Bob Dylan and Woodie Gutherie. And wherever the human race stands in 100 years, there will always be those who are listening to Bob Seger.  When all the factories are gone, when all the Thunderbirds are in museums, there will still be Bob Seger.  And Bob, like the rock that his is, will be reminding them that while time changes everything, while sweet 16 will always become 31, Rock and Roll Never Forgets.