Bob Seger - Stranger In Town (1978)

The title of Bob Seger's follow-up to Night Moves says it all.  Like so many entertainers from the heartland who found nationwide success, Seger soon found himself among the rich and famous in Hollywood, but he remained astonished at being rich and famous himself.  Seger was no wide-eyed innocent in Los Angeles; he was a well-worn veteran recording artist who had been based in his home state of Michigan and knew a thing or two about the music business. Stranger In Town was actually his tenth album with Capitol, and he'd begun his recording career at Cameo-Parkway in 1965.  Now, in 1978, Seger was assuming his new stardom in the Hollywood spotlight . . . even if he was still just a regular guy from Detroit.

Stranger In Town is a solid album that showed Seger adjusting to a new life in the City of Angels, where he re-acquainted himself with old hometown buddies like Glenn Frey (who had left Michigan and found stardom as a co-leader of the Eagles), even while coming to terms with his new success after years of trying to make it in music and enduring a decade and change of frustration.  On the one hand, Seger didn't know if his success would last; on the other hand, he was uncomfortable handling it.  The resulting dichotomy fueled the intensity of Seger's music, both in his heavier songs and in his ballads, with expert backing by his live group, the Silver Bullet Band, and the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.  "Hollywood Nights," the earnest rocker that opens Stranger In Town, is a tale of a Midwesterner succumbing to the charms of a beautiful California girl and being left alone to wonder if he could ever return to his old life, while his left-handed tribute to an anonymous gambler, "Still The Same," is a intriguing character study of the high-powered movers and shakers of LA, backed by some sturdy, unvarnished piano lines.  The crisp "Till It Shines," backed by an angry guitar buzz (Glenn Frey plays the solo) finds Seger wishing to be freed from his inhibitions and being allowed to enjoy life going forward.  The material from outside sources finds Seger ready to enjoy himself on his own terms; his brutally raw cover of Frankie Miller's "Ain't Got No Money" and the pointed, straightforward "Old Time Rock and Roll" (written by George Jackson and Thomas Earl Jones with additional uncredited lyrics by Seger) are some of the best rock Seger has ever performed.

Except for "Brave Strangers," an offbeat song with a stunted beat and a forced, slow-tempo romantic interlude, the other numbers on Stranger In Town are a revelation, underscoring his unsatisfied hunger for respect.  "Feel Like a Number" not only finds him feeling alienated in the larger world but even in his personal life - "To workers I'm just another drone" - while "We've Got Tonite" tenderly expresses a need for feminine company that he knows will only soothe his restless temporarily (this song is as close to emulating his kindred spirit Bruce Springsteen as he's ever come).  "The Famous Final Scene," the smoldering power ballad that closes out the album, seemingly closes the curtain on his life back home in Michigan, but it's actually a chronicle of the end of a relationship.  As he stared down on the lights of Los Angeles, Seger, for all his recent accomplishments, remained unfulfilled.  But not undaunted; as Stranger In Town ends, and as the light fades from the screen, you know that his own final scene has yet to be written.