- Once
More Into the Vault
-
- Last
May, I paid a second visit to the Seger Vault.
With me once again was my friend (and retired
Capital VP) who I call Ears Two -- E2 for short.
As it was last year, E2's rock and roll acumen
was invaluable as we sifted through a
jumbo-sized Ziploc bag containing nearly 20
tapes. In the coming weeks, I'll report on
unreleased Seger tracks from the past three
decades. And, like last year, we'll start with
one of the very best.
-
- [Note:
"Tomorrow" was an unreleased track at the time
of my vault visit. It is now included on
Greatest Hits 2. Here's my write-up before the
song was released -- SS.]
-
- Tomorrow
-
- Some songs
establish themselves instantly. Play the first
two seconds and the landscape of the song is all
around you. "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man' works that
way with its opening drum figure. A lot of rock
songs use power chords for the same effect:
think of "Communication Breakdown" by Led
Zeppelin. When "Tomorrow" eventually gets
released, you'll think of it exactly the same
way.
-
- Three
identical power chords blast "Tomorrow" out of
the starting gate. The tape wasn't on very long
when E2 turned to me and said, "AC/DC." Not to
say that the song is derivative. Far from it --
it's one of the most original rock songs I've
heard in a long while.
-
- Here's how
"Tomorrow" looks when a sophisticated music
writer like me captures its subtle nuances. This
is a sneak peak showing the exact notation in my
secret Seger notebook, so stand
back:
-
- "Boom Boom
Boooom. (boomba boomba boom.)"
-
- The booms are
the power chords. The boomba thing is a
descending guitar figure. In other words, these
are chops that are gonna get into your head and
stay there a long, long time. I can hear them
like thunder right now, and it's been two
months.
-
- In interviews
two years ago, Seger referred to "Tomorrow" as
the title track. I hope it is, because it
immediately says Against the Wind was then, and
this is now. (Not that I don't love Against the
Wind.)
-
- And then
there's the lyrics.
-
- They say
the sun
- Is gonna
grow some day.
- It's gonna
get real close
- And burn
us all up.
-
- Put that on
top of the three power chords and you start to
feel the power of the vocal: Grow. Some. Day.
boomba boomba boom. Get. Real. Close. boomba
boomba boom. And so on. This is not the music of
someone who's mellowed out. This is a song with
all the fight of the hardest Seger stuff. E2
called it one of the high points of everything
we heard.
-
- Lyrically,
you'd have to say the song is apocalyptical.
"You can beg and steal and borrow," Seger sings
in the bridge. "It won't save you from the
sky."
-
- There seems
to be a single back-up singer during this
section, but she's not there to smooth things
over -- she wails. The effect is perfect. It
reminds me of Mary Clayton backing up Jagger on
Gimmie Shelter.
-
- Maybe there's
a Tom Waits influence here, or maybe what we're
getting is a side of Seger that's always been
there and is now set free by what Waits has
done. Either way, the lyrics are definitely not
linear -- yet they connect. Try
this:
-
- I want to
see a show of hands
- Tell me
the truth now
- What
happens if
- Neutrinos
have mass.
-
- For a power
chord rock song, that's either a bizarre line or
a brilliant line, or maybe, like Waits, it's
bizarrely brilliant. If you're looking for a
put-down, you could say it's an example of what
happens when guys in their fifties write rock
songs. (If Seger were 20, the line would be
about Latinos and ass.) Personally, I like it.
It takes me somewhere completely unexpected, and
in this era of packaged entertainment, I'm
definitely ready to follow Seger into some
weirdness.
-
- And I love
how he brings it back at the ending. In the
closing verse, the apocalyptic song becomes a
song celebrating little pleasures, even as the
sky grows dark.
-
- Here's to
the little things.
- The sports
section.
- The
Weather Channel.
- A good
battery. (boomba boomba boom.)
-
- The version I
heard was recorded in late 2000 or early 2001,
so it's been on the shelf (or on the remix deck)
for a couple of years. "I can't promise you
tomorrow," says Seger, but I can promise you
that this one is worth waiting for.
-
Update:
-
- Longtime
Seger File reader Bill Wolski has been quoted on
these pages before. Recently, he sent me a quick
note to shed some light on the subject of
neutrinos:
-
- Seger, as
you know, is an avid astronomy buff, and
apparently, he's well-read on the subject.
Recently, the idea has been put forth that
neutrinos -- subatomic particles that were
once thought to be utterly massless -- may
indeed possess some minute quantity of
mass.
-
- Given that
they exist in greater amounts than atoms and
may very well be the most common particle in
the universe, their tiny masses combined may
add enough to the overall amount present in
our universe to give it enough gravity to
bring its expansion to a screeching halt one
day and actually reverse it in a hypothetical
event known as the Big Crunch.
-
- This idea
raises a plethora of further questions,
ultimately leading to the implication that
history may repeat itself, over and over and
over, with the same universe being born and
reborn the same exact way, and all of us
living the exact same lives once every 50
billion years or so, again and again for all
eternity.
-
- Wish you
didn't know now what you didn't know then?
:)
- -- Bill
Wolski
-
Northern
Lights
-
- Ears Two got
to this one first and then handed me the tape:
"There's something really derivative about this
one," he said, "but it works."
-
- He was
absolutely right. "Northern Lights" doesn't take
us to new territory. Rather, it takes us to a
territory that's already been staked out by
Creedence Clearwater (think of the feel and
energy of "Old Man Down the Road," or "Green
River") and T-Rex (think of the chord changes in
"Bang A Gong").
- And you know
what? It doesn't matter one bit. Because when
you're there with Seger, you're there with a
master. You got handclaps, you got big guitar,
you got everybody in the arena on their feet, if
he were to play it live.
-
- This ain't
art here, this is feel-good foot-stomping rock,
and in this realm Seger is no pretender or
copycat -- he owns this song from the first
exuberant line. "Went out after midnight /
looked up high / saw a hundred million / shinin'
in the sky."
-
- "Northern
Lights" was recorded in 1989 and perhaps it
didn't sound "modern" enough to include on The
Fire Inside. Still, in my opinion, it would have
improved that album tremendously if "Northern
Lights" had replaced the pro forma "She Can't Do
Anything Wrong." (In my demented imagination
"She Can't Do Anything Wrong" was included
solely so they'd have a rave-up, show-closer in
case they decided to tour. I can't back that up
with anything, though.)
-
- At the very
least, "Northern Lights" should have been the
bonus track on the CD, the way "Fortunate Son"
was on Like A Rock. (But of course, Seger
doesn't put bonus tracks on his CDs anymore.
See, a bonus track would take more time to
listen to, and time is money, so he's really
just saving us…okay, I'll stop
here.)
-
- Gimme old
dirt roads
- Country
air
- Clean and
rugged
- Honest and
fair
- You got
your big oak trees
- Great big
fields
- I'm gonna
raise the dirt up
- Under my
wheels
-
- There's
nothing too fancy about a line like "great big
fields" but the best rock and roll isn't fancy.
That's the beauty of it.
-
- E2's notes
for "Northern Lights" sum it up perfectly:
"Among the best of the day." Rock
on.
-
Love Will Find A
Way
-
- E2's gonna
kill me for this, but in "Love Will Find A Way"
I thought I heard something like -- I'm almost
afraid to say it -- well, something almost
McCartney-esque in here.
-
- Okay, let me
back up. First of all, "Love Will Find A Way"
was a hard song to get. What I mean by that is
this:
-
- When someone
writes a song, it's with the hope that it will
slip into your head unbidden and take root
there. I can't wait for that process to happen
in the vault. I've got two days and 19 new songs
that I can't record. So I try to jam them into
my head. The word I use is "imprint." I listen
to the song five or six times. I sing along. I
make crazy notes to show where the beat
falls.
-
- At the end of
the day I go back to the hotel to see which
songs I've imprinted. The ones I can't remember
get special attention the next day.
-
- "Love Will
Find A Way" required a lot of effort on both
days. I listened and listened and listened. And
at the end of two days, I had nothing. No
melody, no memory of the song at all. It just
wouldn't imprint.
-
- Maybe that's
because, as E2 writes, "Love Will Find A Way" is
"dental-work slow."
-
- But two days
after leaving the vault, the song blossomed for
me. I was in the shower in a Holiday Inn in
Tennessee and I found myself humming the song.
That's when I decided it might be
McCartney-esque.
-
- Here, a
disclaimer: Nobody I know appreciates Macca more
than Ears Two. And after comparing "Love Will
Find A Way" to dental work, E2 notes that the
song "peters out almost altogether in the
middle." The lyrics, he says, are sub-standard.
So I'm all alone on this one.
-
- Or maybe not.
Because by McCartney-esque, I don't mean this
outtake approaches Sir Paul quality. Part of
McCartney's songwriting genius lies in his
ability to fashion melody lines that are utterly
charming in their simplicity. Unassuming, yet
unforgettable. I'm thinking of songs like "My
Love" and "Let 'Em In." Whether you're a
McCartney fan or not, I bet you can hum those
songs. They imprint.
-
- This song
falls far short of that. But I wonder if Seger
might have been aiming for that style when he
wrote "Love Will Find A Way." The chorus, with
it's final "To you" reminds me especially of
McCartney's phrasing in the line "only my love
does it good…to me."
-
- Love will
find a way,
- I hear
someone say
- Love will
find a way
- To
you.
-
- Seger touches
the words lightly, not pushing anything at us.
The instrumentation is equally simple in the
track we heard: spare chords with a hi-hat
keeping time.
-
- There is, I
assert, something charming about the simple
melody of this song. But simple is a tough thing
to pull off. It has to work all the way, and
when it does, it's timeless, as fans of
McCartney know so well. When it doesn't
work…well, I admit my notes for "Love Will
Find A Way" include the summation "good vocals,
but dirge-like."
-
- "Love Will
Find A Way" was recorded in 1988, about the same
time Seger recorded the original version of "The
Fire Inside." My guess is that "Always In My
Heart" easily bumped LWFAW off the track list
for that album. There's a seed of something
here, but only that. My sense is that "Love Will
Find A Way" is a simple, summery melody that
didn't quite find a home.
-
Melting
Pot
-
- At that same
time Seger recorded LWFAW, he also recorded
"Melting Pot" -- hands down the most amazing
unreleased Seger song I've ever heard. Could
this possibly be the same artist in both songs?
From McCartney to Lou Reed, from lilting to
howling.
-
- Start with
this, Seger fans: we've been blessed by the
wealth of material Seger has released over three
decades. And -- we've been outrageously cheated
by the fact that this song remains in the vault.
It didn't take long to imprint this one, but
it'll take a long, long time to forget
it.
-
- "Melting Pot"
is a dark, moody, angry song about the inner
city. There's a gorgeously sinuous repeating
cello line throughout, possibly a descendant of
something born in "I Am the Walrus." There's an
unhurried baseline that might put you in mind of
"Walk on Wild Side." But references aside,
everything's original here. You can see the
buildings and smell the city here in a way
that's completely Seger's.
-
- The first
verses are not sung but spoken. Seger begins in
the same deep voice that later appears on
"Manhattan," but at times (as in the second line
about the rain) he lets the words take flight
just a little -- not really singing, but a kind
of preliminary. Then the dead-flat knowing voice
returns for the rest:
-
- Steam
rising off these inner city
streets
- After a
midnight rain.
- The
hooker's heels click hard and grind against
the pavement.
- Some
things never change.
-
- A dealer
leans against a lightpost
- Waiting
for a rich kid slumming for a
score
- A young
couple shouting and arguing
- Start
their baby crying
- Behind
some bolted door.
-
- After setting
you up with this, Seger suddenly tips his head
back and gives it to you full throttle. The
effect is amazing:
-
- The
dispossessed lie prone along the
alleyways
- Talking to
themselves.
- A reckless
cop comes racing by
- No one
looks you in the eye.
-
- The narrative
of the song concerns a young woman in the inner
city, wondering how she'll survive or if she'll
ever escape from "the hottest spot in the
melting pot."
- After hitting
you with his howl, Seger takes the vocal down to
a whisper for a verse about politicians. You
know the howl is coming back for the final
verse, and when it does, it stuns.
-
- Politicians
come 'round near election day,
- Promise
things will change.
- Most don't
pay them any mind.
- They
leave, and everything just remains the
same.
-
- This
neighborhood's unlivable,
- Full of
racial tension, drugs and crime.
- Everyone
would like to leave,
- Find a
place where they could breathe.
-
- This song is
good. Amazingly good. The message is bleak --
and maybe that's why the track is unreleased --
but it's true. And it's Seger showing his true
vocal genius.
-
Runaway
Train
-
- I was looking
forward to "Runaway Train," based on the name
alone. I thought it might be a song with a lot
of headstrong energy. I wasn't
disappointed.
-
- "Runaway
Train" is a high-energy, uptempo rocker. It was
written by Seger, Craig Frost and Tim Mitchell
-- the same three who wrote "Lock and Load,"
"Revisionism Street," and "Hands in the Air."
(Seger alone writes the words, while all three
contribute to the music.) All four songs were
written for It's A Mystery, apparently, but
"Runaway Train" didn't make the cut.
-
- Too bad. It's
the fastest song of the bunch, the beat is more
fluid and the words come at you like freight
cars zipping through the night. I'm the first to
admit I don't know my chords, but my uneducated
guess is that there's some kind of minor chord
thing going on in the chorus to subtly suggest
the lonesome train whistle. The chords sound a
little dark to me, is all I'm
saying.
-
- If your threw
"Get Out of Denver" and "Aftermath" in the dryer
together, you might have something like "Runaway
Train." Or stretch your imagination around this:
"Fire Down Below" at twice its normal tempo.
Instead of a funky thing, it becomes a
full-speed synthy thing.
-
- And the words
are weird. Weird good or weird bad, you ask.
Weird good. Wonderfully good, in my
opinion.
-
- "Sometimes
I stumble, sometimes I fall
- The angels
of my nature won't accept last
call.
- I stop
thinking, I just react.
- Before I
know it everything turns black
- I'm on a
highway, utterly juiced
- Out of
control and impossibly loose.
- Uncomprehending,
without a clue
- I don't
know where I'm going, I don't know what I'm
gonna do.
-
- I'm like a
runaway train,
- Screaming
through the back ten
- Running
through the rain
- Like a
runaway train."
-
- In the middle
of this high-energy romp, Seger practically
speaks, rather than sings, the third verse. I
love it.
-
- "I can't
explain the unexplainable.
- It's like,
where's the electron gonna be
next?
- Do we
really die for love and glory
- Or only
for wealth and sex?
- Is there a
reason why I'm on this road?
- Is it
random or ordained?
- Is
everyone in the world dead
tonight?
- Am I the
only one that's sane?"
-
- Vocally, that
last couplet ("Is everyone in the world dead
tonight?") has the same oomph and intonation of
"Presto! Payday!" from "Revisionism Street." And
it gets even better. By the last verse, Seger's
back into full astrophysics mode.
-
- "We
approach the speed of light, we approach
infinite mass
- We can't
cross over or the future becomes the
past.
- It's nice
to know there's limits, nice to know there's
walls
- But when
you're on a bender you don't believe that at
all
- There's
only moving forward, picking up
speed
- Motion
feels like freedom, sometimes that's all you
need,
- There's
the wind in you hair, the cold on your
brow
- Nothing
else matters, you're alive right
now."
-
- That line,
"There's only moving forward, picking up speed,"
is where you most hear "Fire Down Below" -- in
phrasing and feel it's a lot like "Here comes
hot Nancy, she's stepping right on
time."
-
- As far as I'm
concerned, we need rock songs that ask "Where's
the electron gonna be next" and remind us that
"Motion feels like freedom, sometimes that's all
you need."
-
- But the
obvious question is this: Should "Runaway Train"
have pushed out "Hands In the Air," "Lock and
Load" or "Revisionism Street" for a spot on It's
A Mystery?
-
- The answer is
probably no. For all its good points, "Runaway
Train" doesn't rise to the level of those other
three songs. Maybe it's the arrangement, or the
subject matter, but it's just not as joyous or
as fun. It's got all kinds of forward motion,
but not as much kick.
-
- Ears Two
summed it up pretty concisely: "All in all, a
throwaway song with a nice AC/DC crunch riff." I
wouldn't go that far, but "Runaway Train"
definitely shows the idiosyncratic side of
Seger. And of course, It's A Mystery was already
too idiosyncratic (read: weird) for many fans.
Not for me, but for many.
-
Satisfied
-
- "Satisfied"
was an unreleased track when I heard it in the
Vault. Then, at the last minute, Seger added it
as a new track to his Greatest Hits 2 CD.
-
- The song,
originally intended for his upcoming CD of new
material, is the very definition of easygoing.
It's a big, comfortable, laid-back shuffle, and
Seger pulls it off to a T.
-
- Slip Randy
Newman's masterpiece "Bad Love" into your hard
drive right now and taste a little of track 12,
"I Want Everyone to Like Me." Seger's shuffle on
"Satisfied" is like that, only slower and
bigger.
-
- (Anyone who
doesn't own "Bad Love" yet has permission to
leave for Amazon immediately. Otherwise, you're
just going to have to imagine Newman's "I Love
to See You Smile," which isn't as similar, but
does have the same general beat.)
-
- The trick
with a good shuffle is to keep it simple, and
Seger does that beautifully.
-
- The track
starts with a luscious drum roll, taking us into
a keyboard thing that might be just a bit too
restrained.
-
- The lyrics do
an interesting thing. Metaphorically, the lyrics
operate like a curveball. You're pretty sure
they're gonna miss the target, maybe go all the
way to the backstop. Then they end up right over
the plate and you're left there wondering how
they did that.
-
- It's the
beginning that seems slightly off to me:
-
- "I need
some wisdom
- I need
some truth
- I need
some beauty
- I need
some proof…"
-
- That seemed
too generic for me. But it turns out it's just
the setup for the killer hook.
-
- "…and in
the meantime, I need a place to
hide.
- If I had you,
babe, I'd be satisfied."
-
- That
line slays me. It's got the simplicity of some
of Dylan's sweet love songs. Lyrically, it's
easy to be clever, and much harder (but much
more powerful) to be simple and true. That's
what this line is.
-
- There's a
second verse on the Vault version that does not
appear on the Greatest Hits version:
-
- "I went to
the city
- Walked
down the street
- Saw
wealthy faces
- Filled
with conceit
- They
looked so ancient
- Almost
petrified.
- If I had
you, babe, I'd be satisfied."
-
- The lyrics in
the bridge are pretty cool too.
-
- "Who's
gonna believe me
- I'm a
broken down dog
- But I can
still snarl with the best.
- The train
is leaving
- We can
catch it if we run
- We can
leave it all behind
- This utter
emptiness."
-
- But it's the
infectiousness and simple truth of that final
line (which Seger uses to close every verse)
that makes this song a winner. Now that it's
released, "Satisfied" is going to be in my head
for a long, long time.
-
- Updated
November 4, 2003
-
Kuwait
-
- "Kuwait" was
written in 1976. Jesse and I heard about it that
same year and we've wanted to hear it ever
since.
-
- Twenty-seven
years is a long time to wait. Was it worth it?
Oh yeah. (For me, anyway. Jesse is not Ears Two,
so for him the wait continues.)
-
- "Kuwait" was
written shortly after "Katmandu," so we thought
it might be in the same mode. Wrong. E2 sums up
"Kuwait" as "arguably the brightest (and
strangest) track of the day."
-
- No argument
from me there. The track starts out with one and
half minutes of extremely moody, extremely dark
piano. (E2 played me the intro to Styx' "Suite
Madame Blue" later that day, and there was
definitely a similar feel.)
-
- The piano
rumbles through dark emotions and seems to go on
much longer than 90 seconds. Then it
stops.
-
- After that,
it's all rollicking and happy. "The sky is bluer
than the sea, blue as it can be," Seger sings.
Later, sifting through E2's amazing CD library,
we played "Still the One," by The Orleans and
agreed that the energy and beat was pretty
similar. ("Sail On," an unrecorded Seger song
available on some bootlegs is also similar in
its uptempo, happy beat.)
-
- "This time
we've really made it," Seger
sings,
- "All the
way.
- This time
we've got it made…"
-
- There's a
foot-tappingly good sax solo in the middle, and
then more of the same lyrically:
-
- "This time
we're really done it,
- Made the
grade.
- This time
we've pulled it off
- And we've
got it made.
- Kuwait."
-
- Other than a
reference to "the sandy wind," there's not a
clue as to why this song is called "Kuwait." It
just is.
-
- "At the end,"
E2 writes, "there are a few piano crashes ala
The Rascals' "See.'" And then the stormy piano
from the opening returns.
-
- Ultimately,
neither of us understood the point of "Kuwait."
But we both liked it. What else can you
want?
-
Cold Dark
Night
-
- I thought
"Cold Dark Night" might be one of Seger's
soul-searching songs. Not by a long shot. E2
describes it, if I may paraphrase, as Chuck
Berry meets Albert Einstein.
-
- Take the
rhythm of "Little Queenie" from the middle of
"Let It Rock," blend in some darker chords, pick
up the tempo and you've got the general feel.
The Einstein part is in the lyrics: some of
Chuck's children grew up and became physicists.
Seger is clearly very interested in the subject,
and this is another song that reflects
it.
-
- From a
photon sphere
- An
elliptical dream
- cascades
from the heavens
- to my TV
screen
-
- See the
back of my head
- reach
infinite mass
- I become
somebody
- I know at
last...
-
- As time
slows down
- as the
light curves in
- I can't
escape
- from the
person I've been.
-
- When the
question's wrong
- but the
answer's right
- I reign in
the middle
- of the
cold dark night.
-
- Each verse is
its own little entity. We hear about orbits and
chaos, points and waves, and other terms that
relate to relativity. Some of the verses become
little lists:
-
- I'm
ethics, I'm norms
- I'm
theory, I'm truth
- I'm lies,
deception
- I'm
ultimate proof
-
- I'm too
much knowledge
- I'm not
enough love
- I burn
below
- I shimmer
above.
-
- The music
never lets up and there are some great howling
guitar solos here -- "I could hear Led Zeppelin
doing this song," E2 wrote.
-
- The tempo is
almost breakneck speed and Seger bombards us
with lyrics. Each little bit is intriguing,
though I'm hard put to say what it adds up to.
"I'm reason to live," Seger sings, "I'm reason
for flight, out here to the middle of the cold
dark night."
-
- Of course,
it's possible -- as with everything I heard in
the vault -- that these are songs-in-progress,
and that a more finished version would have been
less mysterious. On the other hand, "Cold Dark
Night" was recorded in 1992 for It's A Mystery,
so maybe not.
-
- I'm not sure
the track I heard would have necessarily
improved that album, but the bottom line is that
it's Seger doing a Chuck Berry variation, and
you can't go too far wrong with that. "Cold Dark
Night" might not be an A side, but it sure was
fun to hear.
-
- Let
Me Try
-
- I've written
at various times about polish -- some Seger
songs have too much of it, I think. I like the
tracks that sound more raw. "Let Me Try"
certainly qualifies -- although perhaps what i
heard was an early demo, and not the finished
track. All it was was acoustic guitar, some
simple drums, a little bit of piano, and a very
subdued and deep-voiced Seger.
-
- "Let Me Try"
was recorded in 2001, and as with some of the
other material from this era, I heard a slight
Wilco feel in it, both in the simplicity and in
the seriousness of the vocal delivery. In terms
of comparisons, I suppose you could say that
this descends from Jody Girl, but it is more
somber and so in some ways more
emotional.
-
- Thematically,
it's a love song that recognizes the darkness
and corrosion of the world in which love has to
operate -- it offers a measure of hope without
making promises. The world is dark, and love
offers only a hope of redemption, not a
certainty.
-
- "There are
days that come
- It just
shows up
- When the
wheels come off
- and it
gets too rough...
-
- When
you're near the end
- and it all
feels wrong
- and you're
giving in
- and your
hope is gone.
- Let me
try. [pause] Let me try.
[pause] Let me
try."
-
- It's slow and
somber. But after you let it in -- after you
slow down to its speed -- it's quite
moving.
-
- August 24,
2003, revised November 13, 2005
-
Got No
Shadow
-
- "Got No
Shadow" is what you might call a dark rocker.
Maybe just a little bit plodding, my notes say.
Not an "A" side. But -- and this almost redeems
it -- it's also a pretty good vehicle for the
Seger snarl. Musically, "Shadow" is in the
Wilson-Pickett-meets-hard-Detroit-rock vein,
with a couple of great Seger wails.
-
- The song was
written in 1984, when Seger was somewhat past
his snarling stage. The energy of the song is
similar to "Tightrope," and the two tracks were
probably duking it out for a spot on Like A
Rock. The songs seem pretty equal to me, but I
think I'd give "Shadow" the edge for its Wilson
Pickett factor. "Tightrope" was arguably more
"modern" at the time, though its synthy sound
now dates the track terribly.
-
- Having
previously heard (and loved) "Carfax Abbey," I
wondered if "Got No Shadow" was another vampire
song. Answer: not really. If the vampire
metaphor is at work here, it's way down in the
subtext. "Shadow" seems to be mainly a song
about a woman who slips away. Whether she slips
away simply because she's elusive, or because
she's a phony, is hard to know -- the lyrics
don't tell us.
-
- "I can
almost see her
- Walking
through the mist of a moonlit
night
- I can
almost hear her
- Calling my
name and it sounds so right.
-
- I can
almost feel her
- Holding me
warm against the cold cold wind
- I can
almost touch her
- I reach
for her and she's gone again.
-
- I can tell
when she's near
- Then it
gets so darn clear
- I'm not
sure she's what she seems
- I can feel
her so close
- Then she
moves like a ghost
- And she
passes through me like a dream."
-
- Ears Two
didn't have much to say about this track.
There's some big guitar in this track which he
thought evoked AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds." And he
heard traces of Free's "Wishing Well" in the
intro. I heard a Motown thing going on in some
of the chord changes, but I can't tell you where
it comes from. Stop by some time and I'll hum it
for you.
-
- In the end,
Seger's vocals kept me listening, but the music
and the lyrics didn't quite make the grade. So
should "Shadow" be released? Tough question --
I'm on the fence on that one. Or maybe the
tightrope.
-
- Hollow
Man
-
- The first
entry in my notebook for this track is
"relentlessly synthy, but not in a bad way."
Which seems like a contradiction in terms. As
you might guess from that, "Hollow Man" was
written by Seger and Craig Frost. It's one of
three songs Seger and Frost co-wrote in 1990,
none of which have been released.
-
- Musically,
this track is kind of a cross between the two
Seger-Frost compositions on Like A Rock -- it
isn't as dark as "Tightrope" and not as uptempo
as "The Aftermath." It's got one great hook --
the title line, "Beware, beware the hollow man,"
on which Seger really wails. That line sent the
meters up to ten, for me. The rest, I thought,
was somewhat forgettable. This Hollow-Man guy
would be a perfect match for the Got-No-Shadow
woman, because neither of them are really
there.
-
- "There'll
be pain and disappointment
- You'll try
and try and try
- And he'll
lead you down a one-way street
- And he'll
lose you by and by
- Beware,
beware, the hollow man."
-
- That melody
and delivery of "You'll try and try and try"
took me to a strange place -- the second line of
the second to last verse of Sunburst. There's a
place I haven't visited in a while. ("He makes
his great escape / leaves them in his
wake"….)
-
- "Plenty of
energy, but it doesn't go anywhere," E2 says,
and I have to agree. Good vocals, hollow song.
-
- Something
More
-
- This song
took a long time to take hold. It's more than
slow -- it's almost stately with its dignified
beat. I could imagine a slow drum cadence to
this, though there wasn't one. But there was big
production, with back up singers going wooo-hooo
in a big slow, majestic way and castanets adding
a dignified clickety-clack at the ends of most
lines.
-
- So let's
review. The song is slow. (Think "Chances Are.")
It might make something well up inside you, but
it will tap no toes. And, for my tastes, it's
over-produced. But the song is also
interesting.
-
- The narrator
seems to be asking an uncertain lover to make a
decision.
-
- "When
you've reached the point where nothing's in
your way
- When your
family and your friends have had their
say
- When
you're here at last, you're right outside my
door
- Is that
all you want, or is there something
more?
-
- For
those of you keeping score, there is a "new
uncharted shore" and a "restless wind" involved
lyrically, marking it as an authentic Seger
ballad. This
is sit-down music, and to be honest I wrote it
off the first few times I heard it. But the song
has power. The more I heard it, the more I
realized there's something very interesting
going on in "Something More."
-
- September 20,
2003, Revised November 13, 2005
-
Finding
Out
-
- "Finding Out"
is another Seger ballad. It's the slow-blooming
type -- if this were on a CD, it might be one
you'd overlook at first. But slowly, it plants
itself in your imagination and you wonder how
that melody got in your head. (For me, "Coming
Home" is a good example of a slow-blooming
ballad, as opposed to say. "Turn the Page,"
which hooks you from the start.)
-
- The piano in
the intro of "Finding Out" carried just a hint
of "Famous Final Scene" but it quickly resolves
into something original. The song starts with
the chorus. A back-up singer -- could this be
Laura Creamer? -- provides an almost gospel-like
vocal behind Seger as the song
opens:
-
- "Well I'm
finding out about us,
- How we
give in to the obvious
- While the
heroes see the hill and rush
- I'm
finding out about us."
-
- The piano
nearly stops at this point. The quiet feeling is
a little similar to "Always In My Heart."
-
- In an October
2003 interview, Seger said, "I've got a ballad
on the new album called "Finding Out," where I
really nailed the lyric." I agree.
-
- "Finding Out"
is definitely worth hearing. It would be the
perfect song for the end of an album -- or the
end of a day -- when you can stop rushing and
take all the time you want.
-
- Numbers
Game
-
- I don't
remember how music goes to this. Honest. That's
my story, and I'm sticking to it. But the lyrics
concern a May/December romance -- older man,
younger girl.
-
- "Ten will
get you seven
- Every time
you turn away, she'll eye someone
- She can't
help it, the girl is just too
young
- Odds are
ten to one...
-
- 'Cause
it's a numbers game
- Your ages
aren't the same
- Makes it a
numbers game."
-
- The song was
recorded in 1990, but didn't make it onto The
Fire Inside.
-
- Lioness
Girl
-
- Oddly enough,
I don't remember the music to "Lioness Girl"
either. Yet the lyrics stick in my mind. It's
the strangest thing.
-
- "Lioness
Girl" is a song about the pursuit of "a
strong-willed girl." In the first verse, Seger
tells us, "I can laugh about it
now."
-
- "All the
while she was playing her roles
- She was
acting her various parts
- I fell in
love with a strong-willed girl,
- She
terrorized my heart, she terrorized my
heart."
-
- By the end of
the song, though, he's captured her, and the
"red-hot lioness" is lying next to him. Written
in 1990, "Lioness Girl" was presumably
considered for The Fire Inside.
-
- October 26,
2003 -- Revised November 13, 2005
-
-
|
sparling@segerfile.com