Against the Wind | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 25, 1980 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | Heartland rock [1] | |||
Length | 40:24 | |||
Label | Capitol | |||
Producer | ||||
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band chronology | ||||
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Singles from Against the Wind | ||||
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Against the Wind is the eleventh studio album by American rock singer Bob Seger and his third which credits the Silver Bullet Band. Like many of his albums, about half of the tracks feature the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section as backing musicians. It was released in February 1980. It is Seger's only number-one album to date, spending six weeks at the top of the Billboard Top LPs chart, knocking Pink Floyd's The Wall from the top spot. Seger said that the album "is about trying to move ahead, keeping your sanity and integrity at the same time." [2]
Against the Wind was an immediate commercial success, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart in its third week and remaining there for five weeks behind Pink Floyd's The Wall before reaching No. 1 and holding the top position for six weeks. [3] By late 1981 the album sold 3.7 million copies in the United States [4] and was certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2003.
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band won the 1980 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the album Against the Wind and Capitol Records art director Roy Kohara won the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. [5] [6]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [7] |
Billboard | (unrated) [8] |
Robert Christgau | C+ [9] |
Record Mirror | [10] |
Smash Hits | 5/10 [11] |
Rock critic Dave Marsh, writing for Rolling Stone , strongly criticized the album as a betrayal of Seger's longtime fans: "I'd like to say that this is not only the worst record Bob Seger has ever made, but an absolutely cowardly one as well" saying that Seger had crafted "failureproof songs that are utterly listenable and quite meaningless." Marsh had followed Seger since before Night Moves , when Seger finally gained national fame, and said in his review that Seger's long, tireless struggle to stardom is trivialized by this record. "He had to fight hard to prove there was still a place in rock & roll for a guy like him, and, with Night Moves, he won. This is the LP that makes such a victory meaningless ... It makes me sad, and it makes me angry (another emotion that's disappeared here, though it's often fueled Seger's finest work)." [12]
Marsh did concede that on the album "Seger sings fantastically well" and called it a "carefully constructed album." A review in The Boston Phoenix echoed some of Marsh's criticisms, saying that Seger offered nothing that hadn't been heard before or equaled his best work, "only heavy-handed efforts to simulate it." [13]
In a more positive review in the Los Angeles Times, critic Robert Hilburn said the album was "close to [Seger's] earlier works" but represented a "mastering of the form" and that the reflective ballads stood out. [14] John Rockwell of The New York Times called it an "honest, attractive album" and a "nice return to his Night Moves form." [15]
All tracks are written by Bob Seger
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "The Horizontal Bop" | 4:03 |
2. | "You'll Accomp'ny Me" | 4:00 |
3. | "Her Strut" | 3:51 |
4. | "No Man's Land" | 3:43 |
5. | "Long Twin Silver Line" | 4:18 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Against the Wind" | 5:34 |
2. | "Good for Me" | 4:03 |
3. | "Betty Lou's Gettin' Out Tonight" | 2:52 |
4. | "Fire Lake" | 3:30 |
5. | "Shinin' Brightly" | 4:30 |
The Silver Bullet Band plays on side one tracks 1–3 and on side two tracks 1 & 3.
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section plays on side one tracks 4 & 5 and on side two tracks 2, 4, & 5.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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Year | Winner | Category |
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1980 | Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band [6] | Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal |
Roy Kohara [6] | Best Recording Package |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Canada (Music Canada) [26] | 5× Platinum | 500,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [27] | 5× Platinum | 5,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Robert Clark Seger is a retired American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded with the groups Bob Seger and the Last Heard and the Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, breaking through with his first album, Ramblin' Gamblin' Man in 1969. By the early 1970s, he had dropped the 'System' from his recordings and continued to strive for broader success with various other bands. In 1973, he put together the Silver Bullet Band, with a group of Detroit-area musicians, with whom he became most successful on the national level with the album Live Bullet (1976), recorded live with the Silver Bullet Band in 1975 at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan. In 1976, he achieved a national breakout with the studio album Night Moves. On his studio albums, he also worked extensively with the Alabama-based Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, which appeared on several of Seger's best-selling singles and albums.
Back in '72 is the sixth studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bob Seger, released in 1973. It was the first new album on Seger's manager Punch Andrews' label, Palladium Records, to be released under their distribution deal with the Reprise division of Warner Bros. Records and one of three early Seger albums that has never been reissued on CD.
Beautiful Loser is the eighth studio album by American rock artist Bob Seger, released in 1975. This album marked Seger's return to Capitol Records after a four-year split. His previous record with Capitol was Brand New Morning in 1971.
Night Moves is the ninth studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bob Seger, and his first studio album to credit the Silver Bullet Band. The album was released by Capitol Records on October 22, 1976. Although the front cover only credits backing by the Silver Bullet Band, four of the nine songs on the album feature backing by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.
Stranger in Town is the tenth studio album by American rock singer Bob Seger and his second with the Silver Bullet Band, released by Capitol Records in May 1978. As with its predecessor, the Silver Bullet Band backed Seger on about half of the songs and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section backed Seger on the other half.
Nine Tonight is a live album by American rock band Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, released in 1981. The album was recorded at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan, in June 1980 and at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts in October 1980. With the exception of three tracks — "Nine Tonight", "Tryin' To Live My Life Without You" and "Let It Rock" — the album is composed entirely of songs drawn from Seger's three previous studio albums. Only "Let It Rock" was repeated from the previous live album Live Bullet. "Tryin' to Live My Life Without You" was released as a single and peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. The album's title track was originally recorded for the Urban Cowboy soundtrack album.
The Distance is the twelfth studio album by US-American rock singer Bob Seger, released in December 1982. It peaked at #5 on Billboard's album chart and sold close to two million copies in the United States.
Like a Rock is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger, released in 1986. The title track is best known for being featured in Chevrolet truck commercials throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
The Fire Inside is the fourteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger. The album was released in mid 1991 on the record label, Capitol. It was Seger's first album of entirely new music since Like a Rock in 1986. Though credited to "The Silver Bullet Band", much of the album used guest and session musicians, with limited contributions from Silver Bullet Band members. Among the guest artists on the album are Joe Walsh, Bruce Hornsby, Roy Bittan, Steve Lukather, Don Was, Waddy Wachtel, Rick Vito, Mike Campbell, Patty Smyth, Lisa Germano, and Kenny Aronoff.
It's a Mystery is the fifteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger, released in 1995. As with his prior album, it is credited to the Silver Bullet Band, though many of the tracks feature a wide array of session musicians and the members of the Silver Bullet Band itself only make limited contributions to the album.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, released in 1994. Certified Diamond by the RIAA, it is Seger's most successful album to date. In December 2009, Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan confirmed that with nearly nine million copies sold. Bob Seger's Greatest Hits was the decade's best-selling catalog album in the United States, even out-selling The Beatles' 1 and Michael Jackson's Number Ones. By September 2011, the album had sold a total of 9,062,000 copies in the United States.
"Against the Wind" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Bob Seger for his eleventh studio album of the same name. It was released as the second single from the album in April 1980 through Capitol Records. Seger recorded the ballad during a two-year process that begat his eleventh album; it was recorded with producer Bill Szymczyk at Criteria Studios in north Miami, Florida. Sonically, "Against the Wind" is a mid-tempo soft rock tune with piano backing. It was recorded with Seger's Silver Bullet Band, and features backing vocals from Eagles co-frontman Glenn Frey.
"We've Got Tonite" is a song written by American rock music artist Bob Seger, from his album Stranger in Town (1978). The single record charted twice for Seger, and was developed from a prior song that he had written. Further versions charted in 1983 for Kenny Rogers as a duet with Sheena Easton, and again in 2002 for Ronan Keating.
"Fire Lake" is a song written and recorded by the American musical artist Bob Seger. He had planned to record "Fire Lake" for his 1975 album Beautiful Loser, but the track was not finished. The song had been partly written years before, in 1971, and was finally finished in 1979 and released in 1980 on Seger's album Against the Wind. The single reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. A live version of the song appeared on the album Nine Tonight, released in 1981.
"Old Time Rock and Roll" is a song written by George Jackson and Thomas E. Jones III, with uncredited lyrics by Bob Seger. It was recorded by Seger for his tenth studio album Stranger in Town. It was also released as a single in 1979. It is a sentimentalized look back at the music of the original rock 'n' roll era and has often been referenced as Seger's favorite song. The song gained renewed popularity after being featured in the 1983 film Risky Business. It has since become a standard in popular music and was ranked number two on the Amusement & Music Operators Association's survey of the Top 40 Jukebox Singles of All Time in 1996. It was also listed as one of the Songs of the Century in 2001 and ranked No. 100 in the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Songs poll in 2004 of the top songs in American cinema.
"You'll Accomp'ny Me" is a song written and recorded by American rock singer Bob Seger. It appears on his album Against the Wind.
"Mainstreet" is a song written and recorded by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. It was released in April 1977 as the second single from the album Night Moves. The song peaked at number 24 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and has become a staple of classic rock radio; it also reached number one on the Canadian Singles Chart.
Jesse Willard "Pete" Carr was an American guitarist. Carr contributed to successful recordings by Joan Baez, Luther Ingram, Bob Seger, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Boz Scaggs, Percy Sledge, The Staple Singers, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Wilson Pickett, Hank Williams, Jr., and many others, from the 1970s onward.
"The Horizontal Bop" is a song written by Bob Seger that was first released on his 1980 album Against the Wind. It was also released as the fourth single from the album, backed by "Her Strut." The single did not perform as well as the earlier singles from the album, stalling at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Her Strut" is a song written by Bob Seger that was first released on his 1980 album Against the Wind. It was also released as the B-side of his single "The Horizontal Bop." The song was inspired by feminist icon Jane Fonda.