Hi all.

One day while driving to work in my car and listening to the radio, the DJ tossed out a tidbit of trivia about Bob Seger, and said he'd give the answer to the trivia after a commercial break. Well, I arrived at my destination at the time and never heard the answer. Perhaps one of you here knows the answer.

The DJ said that there's a song (presumably an "oldie") that Bob Seger will no longer perform live at concerts, that it's something that's within the lyrical content of the song that he doesn't want to condone anymore, especially since he has children.

Anyone know what song of Seger's is being referred to here? This has been bugging me.

Thanks for any info.
Pez

Tough question. Not that any Seger album or single would need a PAEC-sticker but there are indeed a couple of Seger songs a father wouldn't play to his children, I suppose. Anyone's a guess?

It could be something like "Lucifer", with a Satan conection. My first thought was Mainstreet, with the lovely dancers inside, but he has played that.

Let it Rock - "Rollin great big joints til my foreman gets back". Drugs? Just a guess.

I haven't posted until now because I cannot recall the name of the tune I have in mind. I give up, and haven't had time to try to look it up. So I'll just spout off from the hip.
I'm thinking of a song that is not his, but he has covered it often. IIRC, he used it during the FTP tour also, so it may or may not be the answer to the question.
But, it could be, too. Here's why.
He does it, but it's modified.
It's a Chuck Berry tune, IIRC. Part of the lyrics go "...too daxx cute to be a minute over thirteen..."
In the days it was written, people interpreted things differently than they do today, so it could get past the censors, etc.
But on a more recent recording Bob did, the age had been raised to, again IIRC, 17. And I think he did it last using an age of like 18 or over. But memory gets dim with age.
So, maybe. Just maybe.
Mark D.

Interesting, Mark. But... what does IIRC mean? I don't get it, I admit.

The Horizontal Bop, maybe?

Sorry, Al. It's an abbreviation I picked up years ago from other discussion forums. I didm't know what it meant either until someone else asked on a forum. I was too timid to ask. It means If I Recall Correctly.
Mark D.

Mark, you are also thinking of "Let it Rock". Bob changed the lyrics sometime between '75 and '80. On Live Bullet the lyrics are "too damn cute to be a minute over 13" while on Nine Tonight he sings "too damn hot to be a minute over 17".

I do recall listening to an interview on Good Morning America in '96 which I have on tape in which Bob discusses the meaning of some songs & he suggests that one or two of his songs he tries to relate to differently compared with when he first wrote them so in other words they tend to hold alternative meanings for him now compared to when he first wrote them.One such song he said is "Come To Poppa".He said that it has a rather sleazy meaning to it but now he likes to think of it in a different way and hopes his kids will still come to him when he wants them to ( he joked and laughed by saying "Please come to Poppa" .I think that he performed it on the 96 tour but not on the 2006/07 tour.Maybe that one -I honestly dont know,its my guess anyway.

That song is actually "Little Queenie" which was played in conjunction with "Let It Rock", IIRC

AHHH YES!
I think written by Chuck Berry. And yes, he did segway into it from Let It Rock. I'm not sure why he put those two together, but he seemed to like to do that pair at the end of a concert. They both rock hard, and everyone is hyped high by then, so I suppose it fits that way.
But I'm pretty sure he did it in the FTP tour. Maybe not. I can check, though. I have most of the set list.
If he didn't do it in '06/07, then that's probably the one.
Mark D.

Thanks for the clarification. I hate to show my ignorance (there is plenty more where that came from) but I thought that he just added to the original version during the concerts......I had no idea that was a completely different song. Bob did not do Let it Rock or Little Queenie when I saw him on FTP tour, but they did do C'est La Vie (which I believe is also a Chuck Berry tune).

Wow.....alotta replies here!!!

There's the "Lucifer" one about Satan....."Let It Rock" about rolling a joint......also changing the age of the girl from 13 to 17.

I went and looked up some lyrics to many of his songs. He still performs "Night Moves" live, doesn't he? That song's lyrics make no bones about it as to what it's about: It's about teenagers having sex (in the back seat of a '60 Chevy....in the backroom.....in the alley....the woods). They weren't in love, just bored, using each other....working on their night moves..........

I guess the lyrical content of Night Moves is not something a father would want to condone to his kids, to say that teen sex is OK. But I couldn't imagine him not performing that song; that was one of his biggies.

So no one's heard anything definitive, have they? This is just speculation on your parts, right? The way this DJ I heard once say it, it was as though Bob came out and said something like, I will not play THIS song in concert anymore.

It's just one of these things that's been bugging me since I never heard the answer to the trivia question. I can't even remember what station it was I was listening to, because if I did, I would have shot off an e-mail to the station (DJ) and asked what the answer was.

Grrrrrrrrr.
Pez

Got to agree with Buckeyebobfan, Seger came out really strongly against drugs in the 80's after "Nine Tonight" came out. I think he was talking about the line buckeye quotes. Can't be "Lucifer" he dosen't play any old songs except "Ramblin". I don't know, but I think it was probably that he didn't want "rollin' great big joints" to be heard in his song. I heard that "American Storm" was a comment on how you can't feel anything when on coke.
I don't put anyone down for smokin', I went through chemo & radiation about 6 years ago, and when my surgeon refused to do the operation until I gained weight, well, I found a way to keep my food down. It worked for me.
Let it Rock was a great Berry tune. I always play it LOUD while I thank God I'm still alive.