"Fire Lake" | ||||
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Single by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band | ||||
from the album Against the Wind | ||||
B-side | "Long Twin Silver Line" | |||
Released | January 1980 | |||
Recorded | 1979 | |||
Studio | Muscle Shoals (Sheffield) | |||
Genre | Rock, heartland rock, country rock | |||
Length | 3:30 | |||
Label | Capitol | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bob Seger | |||
Producer(s) | Bob Seger and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section | |||
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band singles chronology | ||||
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"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,[ citation needed ] 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. [1] A live version of the song appeared on the album Nine Tonight , released in 1981.
Seger and colleagues decided to make "Fire Lake" the first single from Against the Wind because it was "totally and unequivocally unlike anything I'd ever done before." [2]
Music critic Maury Dean described the song as an "ominous ballad" about "4th of July fireworks". [3] Dean praised the song's intensity, Seger's vocal, and the "nifty" minor chords. [3] Dean speculated that the title may not be entirely figurative, as there may be a hidden reference to a midwestern body of water which caught fire, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. [3] Billboard described "Fire Lake" as an "excellent song [that] is paced by acoustic guitar which lends a folk flavor" and the lyrics as describing "the subversion of small-town life." [4] Cash Box said it has "full-bodied harmonies and an easy, country-tinged melody" and praised the production. [5] Record World called it "Dynamite!" [6] Classic Rock History critic Janey Roberts rated it as Seger's 14th best song. [7]
Three of the Eagles provided the backing vocals for this track: Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit. Seger's recording engineer David Cole refers to the song on his website when he talks of his history with Seger: "I was there when the Eagles sang 'Who wants to go to Fire Lake?' and many other great moments during the Stranger in Town album". [8]
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Seger's 2003 Greatest Hits 2 compilation. [9]
Additional musicians
Weekly charts
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