Canter Bridge

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If you had to choose a single voice to represent blue-collar American rock & roll, you might well settle on Bob Seger’s as that iconic sound. Against the Wind could be Exhibit A as you face down the Springsteens and the Pettys and the Mellencamps to make your case.

There are several tracks on this album in which Seger hits his stride and holds it long enough to sound as though he’d have to be invented if he were not available to sing in just this way. ‘You’ll Accomp’ny Me’ is the first of them.

Along with the album’s eponymous ‘Against the Wind’, ‘Accomp’ny’ is arguably Seger’s most well-known tune, but it is not the only one that establishes a subset of his styles as the one that he’s come to be known by. ‘No Man’s Land’ is its twin.

Seger fans slot intuitively into a certain, ineffable Seger-esque groove when the SBB gets into its balladic rhythm, setting the table and the stage for Seger to do his best, abbreviated, enigmatic story-telling. Just listen to the Silver Bullet amble up to speed on ‘No Man’s Land’ and you’ll know what I mean. Like the best poetry, which tells us enough of its story to allow us to catch hold to one of its horns and merge our own tale with the poet’s words, Seger is at his best when he talks to us about the tip of the iceberg. We fill in the rest.

Don’t get me wrong. Seger also rocks in formulaic in-your-face mode as well and his music is beloved by fans of that style (‘The Horizontal Bop’, ‘Her Strut’; Long Twin Silver Line’ [good grief, the man can sing a half-interesting song about a train; what next, a semi-blues, testosterone piece about, say, his desk lamp?], ‘Betty Lou’). But we’re talking icons here, and Seger the balladeer is Seger the icon. The rest is some very fine window dressing.

Against the Wind belongs up there on the list of signature albums as well, an observation I’ll make as long as I’m in ranking and list-makin’ mode. Seger cemented something with this album. It was already there, but this cd plants the flag and says, ‘I’m Bob Seger and these are my Silver Bullet boys. ‘You got a problem with that?’

Nobody does, of course. The music is too good for makin’ trouble.