An excellent pre-Bullet Seger recording

Beautiful Loser (1975.) Bob Seger's eighth album.



Bob Seger had played in a number of bands in the late sixties, and in the late sixties and early seventies he released a number of albums. Unfortunately, he didn't really get the proper recognition until nearly ten years after he started making music, and joined up with his Silver Bullet Band. Seger's final album that he released before joining up with the Bullets was the 1975 effort, Beautiful Loser. Read on for my review.



The album may be called Beautiful Loser, but Seger proves he's certainly no loser throughout the course of this album. Seger's blend of rockabilly, rhythm and blues, and pop-rock is demonstrated beautifully on every track of this album. Although the next album, Night Moves, would be Bob Seger's breakthrough, this one gave him his first big hit - Katmandu. This song is the only one from the album that will be known to casual fans, and any Seger die-hard won't deny its place as a classic. Many of the songs on the album, Katmandu included, have often been compared to the stylings of Chuck Berry, and that's a good thing. Essentially, the album uses simplistic stylings that aren't too complex at all, but simplicity is really this album's greatest strength. Trying complex new things often ruins an artist's musical career, and Seger obviously knows his limits. Beautiful Loser is simple, excellent seventies rock.



Bob Seger's catalogue is a big mystery. All of his pre-Silver Bullet Band albums (with the exception of this one) are out of print (I'm not even sure all of them were released on CD!) All of the Bullet albums are available on CD, and are fairly common. However, many of their later albums (nineties-era) are out of print. Also, Beautiful Loser, for reasons unknown, is usually sold for extremely cheap in most stores (I'm not complaining, though!) If record company executives are reading this - put the pre-Bullet stuff back into production!



Beautiful Loser scored Bob Seger his first big hit, and rightfully so - the album is an excellent one, through and through. It's not surprising that so many fans of Seger praise this album. If you're new to Seger, you should probably start with one of the three albums that followed this one (Night Moves, Stranger In Town, Against The Wind.) But if you're a tried and true Seger fan, don't hesitate to add Beautiful Loser to your collection.

Great Bob Seger CD But One Flaw!

The songs on this cd are great, but there is one problem! Very few of these song are with"The Silver Bullet Band"! Just ain't the same without them! The cover of Ike & Tina Turner "Nutbush City Limits" Kicks ass!It is much better than the original! Don't be a beautiful loser go get this cd!

Simple, but pretty good fun

A mixture of Chuck Berry-like rockers, tough rhythm & blues, and generally well-crafted ballads, "Beautiful Loser" is a fine example of good old-fashioned seveties album rock, and one of Bob Seger's better efforts.

He may not be the most versatile songwriter ever, and many of the tunes are somewhat alike, but there is still some really good stuff here:



The title track is a fine, mid-tempo rock shuffle with an excellent, soulful melody. "Black Night" grooves, and "Katmandu" is a blatant Chuck Berry-ripoff, but it's also a great Chuck Berry-ripoff.

Seger's roaring rendition of Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits" almost outshines the original, and "Jody Girl" and "Travelin' Man" are quite good as well, but the last half of the album generally doesn't compare favorably to the first.



Besides, almost all of the best songs on this album are on one or the other of Seger's two excellent live albums, "Live Bullet" and "Nine Tonight", and in equally good or even better versions, too, so "Beautiful Loser" is not really an essential purchase (unlike the two above-mentioned live albums). But it is still a fine and enjoyable rock record, in spite of a few forgettable songs, which mostly serve to make up the numbers.

3 1/2 stars.