Seger with a bullet

Press, 3 April 1980, Page 14

Seger with a bullet

RECORD REVIEWS >b y ■

Nevin Topp

808 SEGER AND THE SILVER BULLET BAND “Against The Wind” (Capital). Don’t let the wishywashy cover put you off. Bob Seger has managed to recycle his old hits into something new and still come up with the goods. It’s not all good news, but that raspy throat straining away against the wind has the power to suck the listener in.

“The Horizontal Bop” opens the album. In the main it seems to be a steal from Chuck Berry, and does not do much for Seger, but then the album digs into some better material that has the body swaying. Throughout the album there are echoes of the old Seger songs. “No Man’s Land” has the same abandoned- feeling that the words of “Hollywood Nights” give, and “You’ll Accompany Me” is alongside “We’ve Got Tonite.”

Bob is unashamedly sexist in his- approach, perhaps .the influence of working in Motor City. “Her Strut” is even recognition of this sexist-ap-proach. “Against The Wind” sounds like Seger is back on Main Street (Tm older now but still runnin’ against the wind”), with the same effective use of vocals that he employed on his earlier material. The Silver Bullet Band slide neatly in behind the leader, and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section also contribute to an album that is sure to be going to the top with a (silver) bullet. « The chunky piano sounding like railway

crossing bells on “Long Twin Silver Line” is effective, but Seger does not need the Eagles to help him out on the single release, “Fire Lake.” PETER GREEN “In the Skies” (7 Records).

Those who are interested in Peter Green will be pleased to know that he is happily married and the father of a little girl, and is at present living in Los Angeles. Although not everyone will recognise the name, tunes like “Albatross” and “Black Magic Woman,” instantly associated with Fleetwood Mac — the early years, were written by him. Green’s history as a guitarist goes back, to John Mayall in 1966, when Eric Clapton left to form Cream. The following year he and John McVie left to f<7rm Fleetwood Mac. Green left Mac in 1970 after becoming obsessed with religion and doubts about his life. He made a brief return to Fleetwood Mac in 1971 when Jeremy Spencer also dropped out of rock music and into religion but his whereabouts after that read a bit like a riddle: grave-digger, farman in Cornwall commune in Israel, and hospital orderly, in Southend were among the jobs he took to at one time or another. “In The Skies” is a seemingly nostalgic piece for the old Mac fans, yet it has such good qualities as a laid-back album that it cannot be dismissed. It is beautiful listening in the true sense, and not just more radio. The album starts on “In The Skies.” which Santana could have easily done. Not surprising really,

since the percussion features Lennox Langton from Carlos Santana’s band, and it is his rhythms which give the track its quality. Equally superb is a long blues track, “Fool No More,” which Peter Green seems to enjoy lingering over, before closing side one on an up-tempo “Tribal Dance.”

Side two is not quite up to the songs featured on side one, but the over-all context is interesting and relaxing, a mixture of the qualities of Santana and J. J. Cale, with the haunting guitar always associated with Peter Green. U.K. SUBS “Another Kind of Blues” (Gem VPLI 7323). A nice headline for reviewing this album would have been “U.K. Subs: that sinking feeling.” As overseas critics have remarked U.K. Subs have refused to move with the times and so all “Another Kind of Blues” consists of is nostalgic 1977 punk rock. The band play the themes of groups better than they are particularly the Clash. U.K. Subs have been left behind the rush of the new new wavers like the Police, Costello, and the Specials.