Travelin’ Man: On the Road and Behind the Scenes with Bob Seger

On the Road and Behind the Scenes with Bob Seger

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM T r a v e l i n ’ M a n 1 o n T h e r o a d a n d B e h i n d T h e s c e n e s w i t h Bob Seger 2 T r a v e l i n ’ M a n MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM We recorded the album Noah at GM Studios (east Detroit) in the spring of 1969. Bob was very adroit at recording; he wanted to make sure everything sounded exactly the way he wanted it to sound, even to the point of tuning the drums himself if they weren’t the way he wanted them to sound. He was particular about recording his voice straight up, without effects on it, and then playing with it later if he wanted to tweak it, which most of the time he didn’t. He made absolutely certain it sounded the way he wanted it to sound—a perfectionist, to be sure. We played in Madison, Wisconsin, in the summer of 1969 for some sort of sociology class or something. It was the weirdest gig we’d had—$4,500 to play forty-five minutes a day during school for four days. Kids would come see us, write things down, and analyze what they saw. Very strange. We did some shows in Iowa in 1969 with Alice cooper as our opener. We had three more dates with them, and I called Punch and asked, “can we please not be the headliner?” Punch is going “Fuck you!”— which was a typical response from the boss. I explained to him that it was taking forty-five minutes to clean all the chicken feathers off the stage and our equipment—thanks to Alice cooper’s last tune, which called for a real pillow bustin’, feather flyin’ show-stoppin’ mess. Pep Perrine would be hitting his drums and feathers would be flying all over the place. But my call didn’t work; Punch yelled, “We’re the headliner!” so we had to put up with chicken feathers for a few more dates. Y gM Studios (east detroit), spring 1969. W Winter 1969. T r a v e l i n ’ M a n 3 MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Y Winter 1969. Isold Bob a guitar once, a beautiful “backwards” Gibson Firebird, just all gorgeous dark wood. I paid $300 for it. He said, “I’ll give you $375, cash,” so I sold it to him and bought myself a Fender Telecaster. A week later, when I went over to his house, I saw the Firebird on a guitar stand, and he had painted it red, white, and blue with stars on it like Wayne Kramer’s guitar in the Mc5. I was shocked: how the hell could anybody fuck up a great-looking Gibson like that! But I got over it. After all, he bought it fair and square, and it stood out a lot more. Bob was a showman, and the paint didn’t hurt the sound. 4 T r a v e l i n ’ M a n MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Y Southern illinois university (carbondale), spring 1969. We were booked to play in carbondale, Illinois. They had a round stage that revolved while the band played. But the setup, with a hole in the middle for the electrical plugs, meant that everything would come unplugged as the stage rotated. We pointed that out to the union electricians, and they figured out how to drop a cord from the ceiling and set it up so the plugs would rotate with the stage. The setup was very odd. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 5 W Mongrel sessions, Phillip edward “Pep” Perrine, Pampa Studios, winter 1970. W The Bob Seger System, Noah sessions, Pampa Studios, december 1969. When Seger was recording Noah, his band, the Last Heard, became the Bob Seger System, with Tom Neme replacing carl Lagasa on guitar. So Seger was in this transition; they were going out and playing a lot of covers, Beatles and stuff like that. Then Schultz left, and we got Dan Watson, an interesting character from Kalamazoo who could play really, really well—and drank three quarts of milk a day! It was a weird mix; usually with rock bands you had to make sure there was vodka and lots of beer, but Danny had to have his...