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Bob Seger

Those of you who didn’t grow up in the Midwest and therefore had less sophisticated musical tastes may not have even known this guy in the ’60s, but Bob Seger’s national popularity exploded in the mid to late ’70s. Today many (of us) prefer Seger to Springsteen.

Seger is a great lyricist and although he wrote directly from his own experience, you just felt like he was describing your own experiences, reactions, and feelings.

Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man reached number 17 on Billboard in 1969 (#1 in Detroit, needless to say) and is considered Seger’s first big hit single. This video is from a local Detroit TV show and, as the announcer says at the end and you will agree, RGM is definitely “a groovy song”.

Here are some later Bob Seger samples. Listen to the lyrics and you”ll think each song is about you.

• 70s – Night Moves (hard to choose from this decade – funny comments)
• 80s – Like a Rock (my ’80s anthem even though I’m a Ford guy)
• 90s – Fire Inside (did he borrow Weinberg from Springsteen for this one?)
• 00s – Wait for Me (he’s still got it)
• 10s – on tour now
• extra – Till It Shines (most underrated, covered by Keb Mo and Lyle Lovett in the ’90s)

In the boonies

The last thing a grunt needed while humping in the boonies was a portable radio which

1. added an extra 1-2 pounds of weight better used for a few extra hand grenades
2. would start rusting within a week from the rain, wading through rivers, or constant 90% humidity
3. required a constant re-supply of 9-volt batteries
4. worst of all let Charlie know exactly where to point his AK or spot his mortars whenever it played

But we were the generation that couldn’t drive to McDonalds for a Big Mac without blasting our car radio set to our favorite AM station. We had 3 choices in music: pop, country, or classical. Each of us had our favorite station and many of us would listen to 2 of the 3. This was before cable TV decided it needed to fill all its empty channels by inventing dozens of music channel “themes”.

While Armed Forces Radio was keeping the remfs plugged in to the latest tunes from back in The World, we remained clueless. So let’s start to catch up.

Folsum Prison Blues by Johnny Cash was originally released in 1957 by Sun Records. In 1968 it was re-released and was hugely popular. It reached number 1 on the country charts and number 2 on the pop charts in July and August of 1968 – my first 2 months in VN. It was also the number 1 single of 1968 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.

So grab a beer, lean back, unbuckle your belt, and enjoy this performance from the Johnny Cash Show which ran from 1969 to 1971.