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Bob Seger puts live
collection on hold to work on new release
October 3, 1997
BY BRIAN
MCCOLLUM
Free Press Music
Writer
Bob Seger, still glowing
from last year's gangbusters comeback tour, is rolling up
his sleeves to get busy with new music again. And he's got
spring 1998 in his sights.
It's been 15 months since
the venerated Detroit rocker played Pine Knob to close out
his first tour in nine years -- a national trek that moved
$26.3 million in tickets and stood as the fifth-most
lucrative concert run of 1996.
Not long after the tour
ended, Seger and his staff sat down to sift through hours of
tapes recorded at several dates, pinpointing the best tracks
for a possible live album.
Those plans have been
shelved for the time being. "I just don't feel like a live
album is right," Seger says. "Sometime down the road, but
not right now."
Another project now on
hold is Seger's second anthology of hits, the long-promised
follow-up to 1994's "Greatest Hits," a dozen-track
compilation that has sold more than 3 million copies and
retains a comfortable berth in Billboard's Top Pop Catalog
Albums chart. There's plenty of familiar fare left to choose
from, including "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," "Shame on the Moon"
and "Even Now."
Because what the Orchard
Lake family man is really itching to do is put out another
album of new material, following 1995's "It's a Mystery," a
self-produced album that played to lukewarm reviews and
sales.
Seger says he was blown
away at last month's Fox Theatre show from rock contemporary
and pal John Fogerty. We'll have to wait to see if Fogerty's
latest album -- the raw and earthy "Blue Moon Swamp" --
lights up Seger's muse, but at least Seger is being finicky:
He says he's got three solid songs in his pocket and has
discarded six other candidates.
He's aiming for a March
release, with a national tour likely to follow. "We're still
plugging away," he says.
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