The subtle art of Bob Seger

The are subtle performers in this world, masters of ellipsis and euphemism, musical talents that haunt us. Deftly drawing a character in a few light brushstrokes, they introduce us to people we never knew, not only through description, but through affect, the emotions those individuals evoked in those who met them.

And then there is Bob Seger.

One of my great guilty pleasures, Bob Seger is a Hall of Fame rock and roll artist, a great vocalist, and a commercial success of mind-boggling proportions. Seger sold 75 million records, about 1/3 as many as the Beatles. I have nothing but respect for him, and when I’m driving around in the midwest and a Bob Seger song comes on the radio, I tap the accelerator a little and go along a little more briskly, because Bob Seger is straight and honest, a simple man who understands what is right and good and talks plain and says what it is.

Except for this one song…

I can’t recall when I first heard ‘Still the Same’ - it must have been on my car radio when it came out in 1978. It didn’t make much of an impression at the time. There was a lot of competition that year, from Van Halen to the Police to the Bee Gees. Nor can I recall exactly when I first started wondering about ‘Still the Same’. It might have been when I was out driving -somewhere - perhaps east of Omaha…

But I digress. Seger grew up as a straight-ahead rock and roll guy. Somehow he managed to distinguish himself from all the rest of those. It is risky business, trying to be a plain and honest man on stage, selling that persona. But even if you’re not that great at it, the market is gigantic: even Billy Joel and John Mellencamp made it work. I think Seger is slightly miscast as a rock star - in his stage presence, commanding voice, and unobtrusive backing band he seems to me a little closer to Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings than, say, David Lee Roth.

Playing star again

Billy Wilder once described Jack Lemmon as “as a ham, a fine ham,” and this is what Seger is, too. He has the same vices as many others, but he is better in almost every way. He writes good songs and polishes them to a fine sheen, his his band is first-rate, his records always have high production values. Grab a Bob Seger live performance from the past 30 years and it will be note-perfect. And despite his protestation of “playing star again” in ‘Turn the Page’ Seger never seems to lord it over the band or the crowd. He is no minimalist - he has plenty of ham in him - but a straight plain-talking midwestern man shouldn’t be making it all about himself. This is why they love him.

Anyway, as I drove down that highway I wondered how the man who wrote “Old Time Rock and Roll” and “Like a Rock” could also come up with this (original 1978 recording):

Here are the lyrics:

You always won

everytime you placed a bet

You're still damn good

No one's gotten to you yet

Everytime

they were sure they had you caught

You were quicker than they thought

You'd just turn your back and walk

You always said

The cards would never do you wrong

The trick you said

Was never play the game too long

A gambler's share

The only risk that you would take

The only loss you could forsake

The only bluff you couldn't fake

And you're still the same

I caught up with you yesterday

Moving game to game

No one standing in your way

Turning on the charm

Long enough to get you by

You're still the same

You still aim high

There you stood

Everybody watched you play

I just turned and walked away

I had nothing left to say

'Cause you're still the same

You're still the same

Moving game to game

Some things never change

You're still the same

Something odd is happening here. This is not a simple text.

In the first instance, it is metrically and structurally complex. The two verses at the top run on a two beat / four beat pattern that builds up tension, then releases it. In the first verse this effect is accentuated by straight-up spondees (see what I did there?) in those first lines, this relaxes toward more traditional iambic in the second verse as the mood moves a bit from affect to exposition. In both verses Seger’s inflection picks up at the top of the third couplet, and both phrases work as near-spondees in the performance (“EV’RY TIME”, “A GAMbler’s SHARE”). After that a sort of a chorus with three couplets in a spondee/iampic pattern closing with two short-footed spondaic lines, the second the climactic “you still aim high”, a moment Seger milks in every performance. Then sort of a bridge and reprise, and fade out. And just like that: he’s gone.

The musical arrangement is simple, but well thought-out. It layers in, with Seger and the piano running the first verse, the backup singers harmonizing on the second, and then joining in more strongly on the chorus (“I caught up with you yesterday”). The piano part starts off ranging below middle C, but at the chorus elevates to the singers’ range as the monologue shifts from distant memories to the present.

Unlike EVERY SINGLE OTHER BOB SEGER SONG it’s a little tricky to work out what the narrator is talking about. We don’t know if he’s addressing a man or woman, nor the nature of the game being played. Casino gamblers do lose bets, but there are other games in LA (Seger says it’s an LA song) with undefeated players. The addressee does take risks - losing is a possibility - but through bravado, guile, and good risk management, always gets through.

Who is this person? A serial lover, moving from conquest to conquest? An astute deal-maker? A drug dealer? It’s a popular song, so I’m going with an attractive woman that flirts a lot but never commits. This is not unheard of in LA, but (take it from me) alien and incomprehensible to the mind of a right-thinking midwestern male.

What is the narrator’s opinion of this person? At first, admiration bordering on worship. The opening stanzas and the chorus are a paean to a life lived on the edge with skill and ambition The mood doesn’t turn until after the bridge:

There you stood

Everybody watched you play

I just turned and walked away

I had nothing left to say

Now the narrator is walking away. Our mystery person has not changed (check the title of the song), but after all this praise, the narrator cuts the cord. In disappointment? Disgust? Because the other person has not changed? …or because the narrator has?

So who is this? Seger’s not saying. This is his ‘You’re So Vain”. According to Wikipedia he “has been asked for years who the song is about, and [says] that it is actually an amalgamation of characters he met when he first went to Hollywood.” Uh huh.

I think - just this once - Seger broke the cardinal rule of pop music and wrote about someone he really cared about. Can we have details? No. This is all you get.

The best I can do it this: the narrator is smart enough to understand the person’s modus operandi, admires their courage and charisma, but doesn’t understand their enduring commitment to a life that seems devoid of meaning. Or is it something more existential? Is the narrator saying that even a skillful, fortunate life, lived with courage and abandon, is still meaningless without… Without what? How do you turn your back on a person like this? It is moral superiority or nihilism? Is there somewhere in there a dash of Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?”

Here is a typically competent live performance (not a given in that era) from 1978. One odd thing about it is that Seger has a huge smile on his face, mugging for the cameras I suppose. The lyrics profess bafflement and sorrow, but he doesn’t seem overly confused. In fact, he seems delighted to have the opportunity to deliver this message:

There are not many covers of ‘Still the Same’.  It’s a beautiful song and it’s pretty easy to play, but it’s hard to sing. Seger wrote it for himself, and whatever you think of his artistic choices, he had pipes; later in his career even he had trouble hitting the high notes. So perhaps lesser talents shy away.

I did enjoy this performance by Jamie White, karaoke effects and all:

I also like the mad Johnny Hallyday performance, although he’s no Bob Seger:

Also enjoyable:

I regret to say I was unable to find a digital copy of the all-important Finnish cover by Markku Aro. This failure haunts me.

We’ll skip Rod Stewart.

Seger is retired now. He did one last tour and wrapped up his career. Here is a performance from that tour:

Still smiling.