Song Lyric Sunday: Muscle and Bullets

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This week, Jim is inviting us to play something recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. You can read all about it in his post, Hit Recording Capitol of the World. Hyperbole? Maybe, but the list of those who have recorded there is stupendous! Having taken a look at their Wikipedia page I decided to play you a couple of songs by Bob Seger, an artist I have liked ever since I first heard one of his records way back when. The lead song is one of his slower, more reflective pieces, and then we’re rocking it up a bit with the second. This is my first choice:

If you watch that on YouTube you’ll see from the comments how much the song means to many people. As I said, it is Bob in reflective mood, as the lyrics show:

I remember standin’ on the corner at midnight
Tryin’ to get my courage up
There was this long lovely dancer in a little club downtown
Loved to watch her do her stuff

Through the long lonely nights
She filled my sleep
Her body softly swayin’
To that smokey beat
Down on mainstreet
Down on mainstreet

And the poolhalls, the hustlers, and the losers
Used to watch ’em through the glass
Well I’d stand outside at closin’ time
Just to watch her walk on past

Unlike all the other ladies
She looked so young and sweet
As she made her alone down that empty street
Down on mainstreet
Down on mainstreet
Ooh

Sometimes even now
When I’m feelin’ lonely and beat
I drift back in time and I find my feet
Down on mainstreet
Down on mainstreet

Down on mainstreet
Down on mainstreet
Down on mainstreet
Down on mainstreet

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Bob Seger

Mainstreet lyrics © Gear Publishing Company Inc, Gear Publishing Co. Inc.

If you listen closely you’ll realise that the song is about the one who got away, the one he desired but could never be with. Maybe that’s why it resonates with me, though in my case she wasn’t a dancer in a smoky bar. And just in case my ex-wife should stumble across this I feel I should point out that this was before we met, just for the record! This was a track on Night Moves, the first album released under the name of Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band – prior to then he had three albums as the Bob Seger System and five under just his own name. It came out in October 1976 and reached #8 in the US and #12 in Canada, but didn’t make the UK charts. To date, it has sold more than 6m copies in the US and 300k in Canada. This track was released as a single in April 1977, making #24 in the US but topping the chart in Canada. Despite this appearing on the first Silver Bullet band album Bob is the only member on this song: it was recorded in Muscle Shoals with the famous Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. I love Bob’s music, and for me this is right up there as one of his best.

I said I’d also play you a more upbeat song of his today. How abut this belter? You may recognise the dancer:

The follow up album, Stranger In Town, was released in May 1978 and included this song, Old Time Rock And Roll. The album peaked at #4 in the US and also gave him his first entry in the UK charts, where it got to #31. As before, the record was made with a range of musicians, and this track was another to be recorded with the Muscle Shoals guys. It was released as a single in March 1979, peaking at #28 in the US and #31 in Canada, though it wasn’t a hit in the UK. Following its now famous scene in the Risky Business movie (see above!) it was included as the opening track on the soundtrack album, released in 1984, and also re-entered the US Singles chart at #48 on the strength of that. The soundtrack is a bit of a mix, consisting of several tracks by Tangerine Dream, others by Jeff Beck and Journey, and also Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight. The movie is fun, and Rebecca De Mornay is stunning. Tom Cruise? Who he?

That’s all for today, and I hope you enjoyed my choices. I’m off to see what others have mined from the Muscle Shoals archives but will be back for Tuesday Tunes, for which I’ve rather stolen the theme. See you then, and enjoy the rest of your weekend 😊

28 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Muscle and Bullets”

    • Thank you, and thank you for following. I’ve looked at your blog, and it seems great. The only problem for me is that I don’t speak Spanish, sorry. But if you could add the Google Translate widget to your site that would be a great help.

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  6. Two solid picks. I probably prefer the first one more, but I like them both. I seldom watch a movie more than once, but I remember liking Risky Business so much that I went to see it twice.

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  8. Not sure why everyone seems to insist there is an “a” in Seger, but I guess that’s their thing. Good songs, no doubt. A good writer, a good musician, but ghat was sbout it for me. He came slong when I was ignoring radio, so I never got to know him in his prime. By the time i heard his stull he was old news.
    Never saw Risky Business either, and the video was start and stop. Main St., on the other hand, played well.

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  9. For anyone who hasn’t seen “Risky Business”, it shows how a razor sharp screenplay and non-pandering direction can result in a superstar-making turn for the lead Actor…hilarious but dark when it needed to be, it holds up as one of the best films of the 80’s…add “Fast Times At Ridgmont High” to the double bill and be surprised how substantive a teen “comedy” could be

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    • I agree, John, it’s a great movie and really made Tom Cruise. As you say, it mixed its darker moments with the comedy and was all the better for it. And I could watch Rebecca De Mornay all day 😊

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  13. Mainstreet is nicely written- I hadn’t appreciated the wordplay in ‘I drift back in time and find my feet / Down on Mainstreet.’ Segar’ put out more than a few good ones, it’s not his fault one or two keep getting overplayed on Classic Rock stations everywhere.

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