Bob Seger
Ride Out
Capitol Records – 2014
You might be asking yourself why I am reviewing this album now when it was initially released back in October of 2014.
Well, here’s the background: When the album was first announced, I added it to my want / buy list but never actually got around to it. Fast forward to Record Store Day 2015 and the Newbury Comics shop I went to for the event had a special sale that enabled me to get a number of albums for a lot less money than I normally would be able to spend in one visit. Ride Out was one of those albums. Of course, time still went by and I still hadn’t gotten around to even listening to this disc. But I finally got off by butt and gave it a spin. After that first time through the album’s track list, I knew that I just HAD to do up a review
I came away so impressed by Seger’s songwriting on this disc. I knew he had a bunch of great material from his past career and consider myself a fan of his music, but it had been a while since I’d listened to any of his “newer” works. Ride Out has certainly changed my outlook on Seger’s music all over again. So come hang out and indulge me this flashback review because this is definitely an album worth talking about and listening to, if you may have missed it too.
My copy of the disc is the deluxe version of the album, containing three bonus tracks. Seger wrote 9 of the 13 songs on the disc, but those four non-Seger written tracks are pretty outstanding as well. In fact, it is the John Hiatt written “Detroit Made” that opens the album with a fast paced rocking style. (You can see the video for the song below). The song is an ode to automobiles as Seger sings Hiatt’s words about the different kinds of automobiles driven throughout a lifetime. The track has a thumping relentlessness to it and Seger’s own life in Michigan gives the song an added dimension to what is being said.
When you take into account the album’s title and the makeup of a few of the songs on the album, the questions asked centered on whether or not this would be Seger’s last hurrah. While he hasn’t ruled out anything for sure, he plainly acknowledges that at the age of 70, his career could very well be winding down. The concert tour for the album might be his last trek as he has stated everything depends on how his voice holds up. That school of thought is perfectly understandable, but on Ride Out, the deeper maturity of his voice is both apparent and used to give more balance to the songs that call for it. He may sound older, but a fuller sense of wisdom seems to permeate everything Seger sings on the disc. I would hazard a guess that Seger also producing his work on this album helped give him that much more control over fully fleshing out what he had to say.
I really enjoyed how the material bounced all over the musical spectrum. “Detroit Made” is pure rock and roll, while “Hey Gypsy” is a bluesy mid tempo romp. The Steve Earle penned “The Devil’s Right Hand” moves along briskly as a cautionary tale about a fascination with guns is told. I didn’t like the title track at first, but when listening to Seger’s lyrics about life in the modern day and the desire to unplug from it, the song managed grow on me. He does a fabulous job with the lyrics, including the first verse:
From the sword of the crusader to the missionary spin
From the atom of creation to the secrets deep within
Illusions and delusions lead where we shouldn’t go
Time to disconnect from the clutter, time to hit the road
The country-esque duet with Laura Creamer on “Adam and Eve” is as you might expect a retelling of sorts of the story of the Garden of Eden. The spare instrumentation heightens the importance of the vocal performances and both Seger and Creamer are excellent in their roles.
While there’s a decent hook in the chorus of “California Stars” (co-written by Woody Guthrie), for me it was probably the weakest cut on the album alongside Seger’s environmental treatise “It’s Your World”. While I did like the line “The rich keep bitchin’ and the rest keep wishin’ it away”, the overall tone of the song just did nothing for me. Of course, protecting the environment is important, but this song just felt kind of one note to me.
Things really got interesting for me with “All of the Roads”. It’s a look back on life and while this type of song might be somewhat standard for older artists, the writing here is dramatically good. I’m not anywhere near the age of having to truly look back on my life, but that doesn’t prevent me from connecting deeply with what Seger is saying here:
All of the roads I’ve run
All of the faces I’ve left in my wake
Hoping to leave my mark
Hoping I gave and I didn’t just take
Climbing a mount many are left behind
Chasing a dream and seeing the world takes time
I marvel at such lyrical ability to draw in the listeners and Seger did an outstanding job on that song. The track “You Take Me In” is more of a slow, reflective sort, but it is beautifully conveyed. And again, lyrically powerful. I loved this verse:
When promises scatter and don’t seem to matter
I know in the end you take me in
Through all of this vanity all this insanity
I’ve got a friend, you take me in
While I may not buy into the whole “spiritual awakening” notion imbued to “Gates of Eden”, it was an impressively good song with a great opening line: “I was in the tender mercies of the breaking dawn”.
The three bonus cuts take the idea that Seger’s time in the recording artist spotlight may be coming to an end and runs with it. There is what I initially termed a sense of melancholy about the tracks, but then realized there is also a sense of hope about them as well. I’m not sure exactly what that says in full about the songs, but they were outstanding.
The closing track “Let The Rivers Run” fascinated me with this particular passage:
Let the rivers run like they always do
It’s not up to me it’s not up to you
When we reach the end when our time is done
Let us all be still while the rivers run
The more I listened to that song the more it blew me away. Proving that age is nothing but a number, Bob Seger turned out not just an album that could serve wonderfully as his final musical statement. Instead he served notice that perhaps he’s not done just yet. There are songs here that would stand among some of the finest work from his heyday. And the fact he’s turning out such quality work even now means that dismissing him as part of the so-called “dinosaur rock” coterie of musicians is a foolish notion indeed.
Ride Out, had I listened to it when it first came out last year, would’ve easily made my Top 10 list. The album demonstrates to anyone with ears why Bob Seger remains an important figure in rock and roll. His output may have slowed down, concert touring may be on the way to being a thing of the past. But as a recording artist, Seger remains a vibrant force and Ride Out is merely his latest statement of intent, with hope for more to come.
