”), or those stories that everyone around here has, like the one my ex-girlfriend used to tell about a younger, rougher, longhaired Seger showing up at her dad’s place up north in the middle of the night to smoke cigarettes and pass around the bottle and a guitar. For many of us, it’s the very idea of Seger that we can claim ownership of — a guy not that removed from the factory floor or the local bar, who fought his way to respect and stardom without losing his regional connective tissue or sure ear for the plain speak and calloused dreams of the Upper Midwest.
When I picture that guy sitting on a ridge up in Los Feliz, gazing down at the lights of LA and wondering if he can ever go home (Best Lyrics Ever alert: “She had been born with a face that would let her get away/He saw that face and he lost all control
”), I imagine his home to be Detroit.
Seger’s new record Face the Promise (featuring photography from ace MT photographer Cybelle Codish, btw)doesn’t officially drop until Sept. 12, but check it out: WCSX is going to play the whole thing tomorrow, Thursday Sept. 7, at 1pm. Which is a pretty big deal for all the Seger fans, obviously, but it’s also pretty unheard in contemporary radio, where the playlists are rigid and commercial breaks long. Remember what I was saying about “Heavy Music”? Obviously CSX loves the Seeg as much as we do.
There’s a bunch of other Seger stuff planned, most of it promotional, like a “Seger Blog” at the station’s Web site and album giveaways. But what might be cooler than hearing Face the Promise — assuming it’s a good album, and they’re aren’t any sequels to “Shakedown,” the Beverly Hills Cop II jam co-written with “Axel F” maestro Harold Faltermeyer - is the Q/A Bob will do with CSX morning guy Jim “JJ” Johnson, scheduled for 10pm Sept. 12. It’ll be your chance to call in and ask Seger when he’s going to reissue Mongrel.
JTL
