Bob Seger

Turn the Page – Bob Seger

May 7, 2010

in Daily Music Picks

Bob Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter and musician.

After years of local Detroit-area success, recording and performing in the mid-1960s, Seger achieved superstar status by the mid-1970s and continuing through the 1980s with the Silver Bullet Band. A roots rocker with a classic raspy, shouting voice, Seger was first inspired by Little Richard and Elvis Presley. He wrote and recorded songs that dealt with blue-collar themes. Seger has recorded many rock and roll hits, including “Night Moves”, “We’ve Got Tonight”, “Like a Rock” and also co-wrote the Eagles number one hit “Heartache Tonight.” His iconic signature song “Old Time Rock and Roll” was named one of the Songs of the Century in 2001. With a career spanning five decades, Seger continues to perform and record today.

Turn the Page

The song was originally released by Seger in 1973 on his Back in ’72 album. Seger’s original version never made the charts, but an evocative live performance on his 1976 Live Bullet album became a mainstay of album-oriented rock radio stations, and still gets significant airplay to this day on classic rock stations. He revealed at his concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during his 2006 tour that he had written the song in a hotel room in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

“Turn the Page” is about the emotional and social ups and downs of a rock musician’s life on the road, against a slow tempo and a mournful saxophone part.

http://djallyn.org/media/BobSeger-TurnthePage.flv

On a long and lonesome highway
East of Omaha
You can listen to the engine
moanin’ out its one-note song
You can think about the woman
or the girl you knew the night before
But your thoughts will soon be wandering
the way they always do
When you’re ridin’ sixteen hours
and there’s nothin’ much to do
And you don’t feel much like ridin’,
you just wish the trip was through

So here I am
On the road again
There I am
Up on the stage
And here I go
Playin’ star again
There I go
Turn the page

Well you walk into a restaurant,
strung out from the road
And you feel the eyes upon you
as you’re shakin’ off the cold
You pretend it doesn’t bother you
but you just want to explode.

Most times you can’t hear ‘em talk,
other times you can
oh, the same old cliches,
“Is that a woman or a man?”
And you always seem outnumbered,
you don’t dare make a stand

So here I am
On the road again
There I am
Up on the stage
And here I go
Playin’ star again
There I go
Turn the page

Out there in the spotlight
you’re a million miles away
Every ounce of energy
you try to give away
As the sweat pours out your body
like the music that you play
Later in the evening
as you lie awake in bed
With the echoes from the amplifiers
ringin’ in your head
You smoke the day’s last cigarette,
rememberin’ what she said

So here I am
On the road again
There I am
Up on the stage
And here I go
Playin’ star again
There I go
Turn the page

Yeah here I am
On the road again
There I am
Up on the stage
Here I go
Playin’ star again
There I go
There I go

  • Audio from the 1976 album, Live Bullet:

Tagged as: Bob Seger

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Travelin’ Man / Beautiful Loser ~ Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band

August 17, 2009

in Daily Music Picks

Bob Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter and musician.

After years of local Detroit-area success, recording and performing in the mid-1960s, Seger achieved superstar status by the mid-1970s and continuing through the 1980s with the Silver Bullet Band. A roots rocker with a classic raspy, shouting voice, Seger was first inspired by Little Richard and Elvis Presley. He wrote and recorded songs that dealt with blue-collar themes. Seger has recorded many rock and roll hits, including “Night Moves”, “We’ve Got Tonight”, “Like a Rock” and also co-wrote the Eagles number one hit “Heartache Tonight.” His iconic signature song “Old Time Rock and Roll” was named one of the Songs of the Century in 2001. With a career spanning five decades, Seger continues to perform and record today.

Travelin’ Man / Beautiful Loser

Live Bullet became a staple of FM rock radio in Detroit. Classics such as the live version of “Nutbush City Limits,” and the connected song rendition of “Travelin’ Man” and “Beautiful Loser” were among the most widely played live tracks on Detroit stations such as WWWW (quad), WRIF, and WABX. Other tracks such as “Let It Rock”, “Turn the Page”, and “Get out of Denver” also received wide airplay in Detroit.

http://djallyn.org/media/bob-seger_travelin-man-beautiful-loser.flv

Travelin’ Man

Up with the sun, gone with the wind
She always said I was lazy
Leavin’ my home, leavin’ my friends
Runnin’ when things get too crazy
Out to the road, out ‘neath the stars
Feelin’ the breeze, passin’ the cars

Women have come, women have gone
Everyone tryin’ to cage me
Some were so sweet, I barely got free
Others, they only enraged me

Sometimes at night, I see their faces
I feel the traces they’ve left on my soul
Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul
Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul

Travelin’ man, love when I can
Turn loose my hand ’cause I’m goin’
Travelin’ man, catch if you can
But sooner than later I’m goin’

Sometimes at night, I see their faces
I feel the traces they left on my soul
Those are the memories that made me a wealthy soul
Those are the memories that made me a wealthy soul

Beautiful Loser

He wants to dream like a young man
With the wisdom of an old man
He wants his home and security
He wants to live like a sailor at sea

Beautiful loser

Where you gonna fall?
When you realize
You just can’t have it all

He’s your oldest and your best friend
If you need him, he’ll be there again
He’s always willing to be second-best
A perfect lodger, a perfect guest

Beautiful loser
Read it on the wall
And realize
You just can’t have it all
You just can’t have it all

you just can’t have it all
ohh, ohh, can’t have it all
you can try, you can try, but you can’t have it all
oh yeah

He’ll never make any enemies, enemies, no
He won’t complain if he’s caught in a freeze
He’ll always ask, he’ll always say please

Beautiful loser
Never take it all
‘Cause it’s easier
And faster when you fall

You just don’t need it all
You just don’t need it all
You just don’t need it all
Just don’t need it all

  • Audio from the 1976 album, Live Bullet:

album-live-bullet

Tagged as: Bob Seger

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