Can you write a song not about the road, but from inside it? Episode 3 of Coverist tells the story of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page": endless nights on tour, roadside diners and carrying on when you're running on empty.
Life on the road
In 1960s and 70s America, a musician who wanted to be heard had to bring the music to people himself, town after town, night after night. Touring wasn't an artistic choice, it was survival: long drives, identical motels, and the strange gap between the stage lights and a cold, silent room a few hours later.
A musician from Detroit
Bob Seger was born in Michigan and grew up around Detroit, between the car factories and the Motown studios. He played in local bands for years and broke through nationally with "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man", but he still wasn't a star. His albums sold poorly, so he took to the road.
"Is that a woman or a man?"
Around 1972, on one of those tours, the band walked into a late-night diner in a small Midwestern town. Long hair, tired clothes and heavy stares, until Seger overheard the line that went straight into the song. He later said it's about being judged for how you look, and about the real exhaustion of life on the road. Alto Reed's saxophone intro sounds like the loneliness of the highway itself.
Three silent years and a gamble in Detroit
"Turn the Page" appeared on Back in '72 in 1973 and went almost unnoticed. Three years later Seger recorded the live album Live Bullet in Detroit, and that live performance is where the song came alive. The version everyone knows today is that one.
Covers of Turn the Page
Few songs have had a cover as famous as the original; Metallica's 1998 version is one of them. In this episode we play and compare:
- Metallica
- Waylon Jennings
- Dave Fenley
- Liz Rubino
- The Union
- Blown Cover
- Marshall Chapman
- Jim Quealy Covers
- Kevin Hunter