Back in '72:

Bob Seger Reprise RS 2126 Reviewed by P.F. O'Dea

Bob Soger is a heavy metal maniac out of Detroit, the same grimy Michigan city that spawned the Tamla Motown stable and the shoddiest automobiles in the world. In the past, the prolific Tamla output has tended to obscure the Very real, if not exactly musical, contribution made to the American rock scene by such high energy white groups as the MC5 and the Stooges. Seger sounds like he's going to change all that.

"Back in '72" is his second New Zealand release within a matter of weeks, the other being a rather lacklustre album entitled "Smoking OPs". To supply the hacking on "Back in '72" he has made use of his own band, the legendary Muscle Shoals scssionmen and some of Leon Russell's friends, including, J.J. Cale. Despite the diversity of the musicians and the studios used, the album is remarkably unified. Not only that, there's not a wasted track on the album.

Seger's not into lggy Stooges' self-mutilation-with-broken-bottle trip, not the MC5's naive political rhetoric. He doesn't need such hysterical antics — instead he stands hack and rocks as if his life depended on it. His voice grates less than other noted white r'n'b exponents, but it does provide the perfect vehicle for his deeply-felt, if somewhat crudely expressed, sentiments. Behind the lyrics his guitar, while not exactly in the Clapton class, underscores the vocals simply and extremely effectively.

The album kicks off with Seger's rendition of Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider", one of the three non-Seger compositions on the allium, the others being free's "Stealer" and Van Morrison's "I've been working". The first two work, the Van Morrison tune doesn't. "Stealer" particularly, blends a swirling organ and an edgy guitar with an appropriate!) hoarse vocal above a driving percussion line, and eventually runs out as a much better version than the original.

"I urn the page", the album's best cut, is an honest and graphic depicition of the life of a small-time rock 'n' roll star, and has Seger forcefully intoning the paranoid lyric over chunky piano chords and chilling, haunting sax fills: "Well, you walk into a restaurant all strong out from the road/ and you feel the eyes upon you as you're shaking off the cold/ you pretend it doesn't bother you but you just want to explode/ most times you can't hear them talk, sometimes you can/ all the same old cliches, is it woman, is it man? / and you always seem outnumbered so you don't dare make a stand".

The runner-up truck is Rosalie, a fast-tempo rocker introduced by a jangling guitar, which crackles and sizzles for over three minutes with an incredible amount of energy. The other three up-tempo numbers, the title track. "Midnight Rider" and "Neon Sky", also come close to a satisfying standard. The whole album's like that : satisfying.