Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band: The Fire Inside - 1991

I remember buying this album in 1991 and being a tad underwhelmed. I felt it didn't have as many Seger classics on it as previous albums had. I am revisiting it now, all these years later, maybe with new ears. 

Take A Chance kicks the album off in fine style in its slow, brooding but powerful style. It is more intense and dour than some of his earlier material. The acoustically-driven but robust slowie The Real Love is more what had come to expect from Seger. It's a good one. Sightseeing is a pleasing and lively Cajun-style rocker, enhanced by a winsome accordion. 

Real At The Time is a solid, guitar-powered gritty rocker in praise of a former girlfriend. I like it a lot. The album's jewel in the crown, though, is the wonderful piano-driven corker, The Fire Inside, on which the ivories are tinkled by none other than Roy E St. Band Bittan. Bob's vocal is superb on this infectious number. I loved it back in 1991 and guess what? Yep, I still do. Great stuff. "Dreams die hard and we watch them erode but cannot be denied the fire inside.....". Lines like that are somewhat clichéd, I guess, but they are exactly why I love some of Seger's songs. 

Bob knew his music too, and he covers Tom Waits' New Coat Of Paint as effectively as you would expect him too - bluesy and gin-soaked, just as it should be. It's up there with Southside Johnny's cover of it. Which Way is chunky riffery, nothing special but still listenable. The same applies to The Mountain, which features some impressive guitar duelling with ex-Eagle Joe Walsh. 

I knew The Long Way Home would be a moving ballad before I even heard it and it is just that. As have said many times before, Seger does stuff like this so well. It features a fine saxophone solo from Alto Reed. We get another Tom Waits cover in Blind Love, from his Rain Dogs album, a country-ish song that suits Seger down to the ground. She Can't Do Anything Wrong closes the album in enthusiastic rocking fashion. Back in 1991 it seems I wanted more instant gratification than this solid album now gives me. I still prefer Seger's previous ones but it's still worth a bit of attention.