THE BARGAIN BUY: Bob Seger; Ultimate Hits, Rock and Roll Never Forgets

Elsewhere is a place with few rules but there are two: that Cher be worshipped as the goddess she is, and that Bob Seger should be spoken about in the same breath as other great Michigan rockers like Mitch Ryder, MC5, the Stooges and the White Stripes.

Bob Seger should have been as big as them all and he certainly had his shots at fame from time to time.

His biggest moment perhaps came with the single Night Moves in the mid Seventies which got traction in various parts of the globe and sparked interest in his already expansive back-catalogue. But Seger was a reluctant flier so he couldn’t exploit his success.

But he was never short of an audience back home for his blue collar, honest rock’n’roll delivered by a modest man who became a reluctant star. You always got the sense that Seger just wanted to play his brand of rock and soul, and the rest of it wasn’t that important.

That said, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and that allowed many writers and fans to look back on Seger’s career which had included a dozen classic songs such as Turn the Page, Night Moves, Hollywood Nights, Still the Same, Against the Wind, Kathmandu, Rock and Roll Never Forgets . . .

Across these two discs initially released in ’11 are 26 great Seger songs (all those above among them) and a couple of previously unreleased songs (Little Richard’s Going Back to Birmingham and Tom Waits’ Downtown Train).

So why might we mention Bob Seger now . . . other than to acknowledge his 72^nd birthday on May 6?
Because this excellent double disc is now one of a package deal of two-for-$20 at JB HiFi stores here.

So you can pick this up with the Fleetwood Mac four CD box set 25 Years or the Essential Santana or . . .

Whatever else you get is down to you. But Elsewhere says entry to our world requires you to have some Bob Seger in your collection.

This will get you through the gate.

Elsewhere has a longer consideration of Bob Seger's career here.