"Katmandu" | ||||
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Single by Bob Seger | ||||
from the album Beautiful Loser | ||||
B-side | "Nutbush City Limits" | |||
Released | 1975 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 6:09 3:16 (single edit) | |||
Label | Capitol | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bob Seger | |||
Producer(s) | Bob Seger and Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section | |||
Bob Seger singles chronology | ||||
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"Katmandu" is a song written and recorded by American rock artist Bob Seger. It was initially released on his 1975 studio album Beautiful Loser , which became the first of ten consecutive platinum albums for Seger. [1] The song was later featured on his live album Live Bullet . The single edit reached number 43 on the US Top 40, becoming Seger's most successful single since "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". [2] The song was featured in the soundtracks of the 1985 film Mask , the 16th episode of Freaks and Geeks , the tenth episode of the eighth season of Supernatural , and in the 2009 documentary Journey to Everest .
The song refers to the city Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, although there is no evidence that Seger visited Kathmandu before 1991. [3] After the Nepali earthquake of 2015, Seger said his "heart went out" to the city.
Seger said of the song:
That’s kind of like "Turn the Page." It’s an exasperated song. It’s like: “I’m never gonna make it, I’m just gonna go to Katmandu”. I’d always loved the group Little Feat. They were on Warner Bros., and that’s why I wanted to be on that label. I was on the label for two years. Since then I’ve bought the catalog back from them. Talk about getting lost in the woods. They had so many acts on the label that you just got lost in the shuffle. I felt like a number. Katmandu was written at the end of that nine-year or 10-year period where I was going nowhere fast. Glenn [Frey] and Don [Henley] told me that the Beautiful Loser album was the first little step in the right direction for me. Then the next step after that was Live Bullet, which was a huge step. And the next step was Night Moves, which was an even huger step. By 1980 both records were at six million, and they kept selling continuously. Beautiful Loser was a transitional album, and in the song "Katmandu" I still had some of that defeatist mentality and you can hear it in there. [4]
Cash Box called it "fine, tight, rock and roll," saying the song "is punctuated with classic Chuck Berry-style guitar, down-home rockin' piano and fine vocal stylizing by Bob." [5]
Classic Rock History critic Janey Roberts rated it as Seger's 9th best song. [6]
Chart (1975) | Peak position |
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Canadian RPM Top Singles [7] | 57 |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 43 |
‘Live’ Bullet is a live album by American rock band Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, released in April 1976. It was recorded at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan, during the heyday of that arena's time as an important rock concert venue. The album is credited, along with Night Moves, with launching Seger's mainstream popularity.
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.
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.
"Night Moves" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger. It was the lead single from his ninth studio album of the same name (1976), which was released on Capitol Records. Seger wrote the song as a coming of age tale about adolescent love and adult memory of it. It was based on Seger's teenage love affair, which he experienced in the early 1960s. It took him six months to write and was recorded quickly at Nimbus Nine Studios in Toronto, Ontario, with producer Jack Richardson. As much of Seger's Silver Bullet Band had returned home by this point, the song was recorded with several local session musicians.
"Turn the Page" is a song originally recorded by Bob Seger in 1971 and released on his Back in '72 album in 1973. It was not released as a single until Seger's live version of the song on the 1976 Live Bullet album got released in Germany and the UK. The song became a mainstay of album-oriented rock radio stations, and still gets significant airplay on classic rock stations.
"Like a Rock" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger. The single peaked at No. 1 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart.
"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.
"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.
"Shame on the Moon" is a song written and recorded by Rodney Crowell on his 1981 self-titled album. It was covered by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band as the lead single from their 1982 album The Distance.
"Roll Me Away" is a song written by American rock artist Bob Seger on the album The Distance by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. The song was used as Seger's opening song on his Face the Promise tour in 2006–2007, his first tour in a decade.
The discography of Bob Seger, an American rock artist, includes 18 studio albums, two live albums, five compilation albums and more than 60 singles. Bob Seger's albums have sold over 50 million copies and received seven multi-platinum, four Platinum and two Gold certifications by the RIAA.
"Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" is a song by the American rock band the Bob Seger System, and written by its leader Bob Seger. The song was originally released as a single in October 1968, then as a track on the album of the same name in April 1969. The single fared well, reaching No. 17 on the national charts. The original studio version, released in mono, had been unavailable to the public until it was included on Seger's compilation album Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets (2011). It was Bob Seger's first top 20 hit.
"Rock and Roll Never Forgets" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger. The song first appeared on Seger's ninth studio album Night Moves (1976). The song was released in early 1977 as the third and final single from the album. The song peaked at No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100, charting less successfully than the previous two singles. Nevertheless, "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" remains popular with Seger fans, and has become a staple of classic rock radio.
"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.
"Hollywood Nights" is a song written and recorded by American rock artist Bob Seger. It was released in 1978 as the second single from his album, Stranger in Town.
Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets is a compilation album by American rock singer–songwriter Bob Seger. The double-disc album was released on November 21, 2011, and contains 26 remastered tracks from throughout Seger's career, which spans more than four decades. Included are the original mono version of "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man", Seger's first hit with The Bob Seger System from 1968, the classic Christmas song "The Little Drummer Boy" from 1987's A Very Special Christmas, which makes its first appearance on a Seger album, and previously unreleased cover versions of Tom Waits' "Downtown Train" and Little Richard's "Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey ." There is also a Walmart exclusive edition that includes the bonus track "Living Inside My Heart," a song from the soundtrack of the 1986 film About Last Night..., which has also never before been released on any Bob Seger album. Two songs on this compilation album are edited compared to the original releases: "We've Got Tonight" is the single edit, which is about one minute shorter than the album version, and "Katmandu" is a newly edited version which omits the second verse, making the song also about one minute shorter compared to the original album version. In the US it was certified gold and platinum in June 2013 by the RIAA.
"Beautiful Loser" is a song written and recorded by American rock artist Bob Seger. It was the title track on his 1975 studio album Beautiful Loser. The single just missed inclusion on the US Top 100, but became more widely known when it was included on Seger's breakout album, 'Live' Bullet (1976), where it was paired with "Travelin' Man".
"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.
"Feel Like a Number" is a song written by Bob Seger that was first released on his 1978 album with the Silver Bullet Band, Stranger in Town. It was also released as the B-side of the top 5 single "Still the Same" and a live version from the album Nine Tonight was released as a single in 1981. The song was featured in the 1981 movie Body Heat.