Bob Seger - Stranger in Town

Released - May, 1978 on Capitol Records. Produced by Bob Seger, Peter "Punch" Andrews and Muscle Shoals Rythm Section.

Silver Bullet Band:
Drew Abbot - Guitars
Robin Robbins - Keyboards
Alto Reed - Horns
Chris Campbell - Bass
David Tegarden - Drums & Percussion

Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section:
Pete Carr - Lead Guitar
Jimmy Johnson - Rhythm Guitar
Barry Beckett - Keyboards
David Hood - Bass
Roger Hawkins - Drums & Percussion
Jerry Luck - Accordion on "Ship of Fools"

Additional Musicians:
Doug Riley - Piano on tracks 5 & 8
Glenn Frey - Guitar on track 4
Don Fender - Guitar solo on track 6
Bill Payne - Piano & Organ on track 1

Backing Vocals:
Venetta Fields; Clydie King; Shirley Mathews; Maxine Waters; Oren Waters; Lames Lavell Easley; Standley Carter; George Jackson

All songs written by Bob Seger except "Old Time Rock n Roll" written by G. Jackson & T.E. Jones; and "Ain't Got No Money", written by F.Miller

	SONG	RATING

1	Hollywood Nights	10.0
2	Still The Same	8.8
3	Old Time Rock & Roll	10.0
4	Till It Shines	7.8
5	Feel Like A Number	10.0
6	Ain't Got No Money	5.8
7	We've Got Tonite	8.7
8	Brave Strangers	7.4
9	The Famous Final Scene	6.5
Ave.		8.3

Stranger In Town is yet another excellent album put out by Bob Seger. He just has a way with handling songs that most others lack, even if some of these songs on here sound a bit like other numbers he put out in the past. Most of the time that doesn't matter too much, other than with maybe "Ain't Got No Money", which sounds like a total rip off of his great song, "Fire Down Below", in the way he sings it. Still, it isn't as bad if one does that with their own songs, but do that to somebody else's song and you get sued.

There are 3 masterpieces on here, best of the bunch is "Old Time Rock & Roll", music-wise I can identify with this song; just to think rock music was old already when this number was first recorded, damn, 30 years later its that much older, yet this one still sounds fresh. The best written song on the LP is "Feel Like A Number", and again, its one of those songs written and recorded over 30 years ago and yet it still rings true today.

"Hollywood Nights" is the last of the three masterpieces from the album. A song about a Midwestern boy visiting Hollywood, who finds the perfect girl, falls in love, and then before he knows it she's gone and its all over, but can he go back home now after all of that? Excellent! There might be fine women back in the Midwest to return to, but no, there are no Hollywood type of women back there, which might actually be a good thing. Yet sometimes those type of women can work on a young inexperienced man the same way addicting drugs do, and getting hooked on anything is usually never the best of deals, as an open mind can make you feel so much freer, and I think that is what this song is pointing out at its close.

There are several other nice tunes on Stranger In Town, as Seger was peaking around this time and really put together one nice little package with this album.