"Beautiful Loser" was the last album Bob Seger recorded before hooking up with the Silver Bullet Band and finally breaking through to mass popularity after spending the better part of a decade laboring as a relative unknown. Five songs from this 1975 release would appear on "Live Bullet" a year later, the album that was the springboard from Seger's leap to the big time.

The backing band is credited as the "Muscle Shoals Rythm Section," and they give Seger strong backing for his excellent voice on what is mostly a batch of mid-tempo rock numbers. The highlights include "Katmandu," which sounds like it should have been a classic rockabilly number from the late 50s, the ballads "Jody Girl" and "Fine Memory," as well as "Travelin' Man" and "Beautiful Loser," recorded as seperate tracks here but which would be combined so memorably on the live album. Only a couple of obvious filler songs and the album's brief length (9 tunes, just over 30 minutes) keep it out of 5 star territory.

Overall, a strong set of songs from a vetrean journeyman rocker who was on the cusp of stardom when it was released.

This compilation was Bob Seger's nationwide, commercial breakout. Most Michigan natives were familiar with Seger long before this record came out. I love the entire album. I like the studio versions of all of the tracks that were redone for Live Bullet because the live versions were burned into our memories due to years of FM airplay. My personal favs are Black Night and Nutbush City Limits. This is a class album which I highly recommend.

Though he was already somewhat of a veteran of the rock and roll world, Bob Seger's 1975 effort "Beautiful Loser" packs an amateurish punch that is as effective as it is genuine. With the aid of long-times allies the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and the blossoming, soon-to-be infamous Silver Bullet Band, Seger found himself just a step away from stardom with his pair of breakthroughs "Night Moves" and "Live Bullet." But before that could happen, "Beautiful Loser" had to become the stepping stone.
The amateur-styled writing and recording are extremely useful in displaying the pure rock and roll feelings evident in tracks like the radio favorite 'Katmandu' and a cover of Tina Turner's 'Nutbush City Limits.' However, some of Bob Seger's most realistic and stirring points of view are found with the desperation of 'Jody Girl' and 'Sailing Nights,' the childlike calling of 'Momma,' and the lessons of the title track and 'Travelin' Man.'
Though slightly overlooked, "Beautiful Loser" is probably the most renowned of Bob Seger's pre-fame recordings, opposed to other obscure albums as "Noah," "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" or "Smokin' OP's." But it is still one of Seger's finest collections, if not one that should be held apart from his more popular recordings, as it is so purely genuine and subtle the result is just plain stirring.

Late last November, my Bro and I drove down to Tombstone ("The Town Too Tough To Die") to get out of Phoenix for the weekend. Bro doesn't have a CD or tape player in his car, and since Airheadzona is too uncultured to have a real Jazz radio station, we had to settle for "Classic" Rock. (There's nothing like seeing the rebellious Rock of a man's youth labeled "CLASSIC" and played in grocery stores to make him feel geriatric!)

Driving out of the uncultured metropolis and into the unyielding desert wasteland, our talk turned to tunes of our ancient personal history. While Bob Seger's 'Turn The Page' played (thanks to "The Real Deal, Rockin' Steele" at KDOG), Bro mentioned how much he used to like Seger, a rocker I had turned him onto back in '75. Before we even reached Tombstone's Boot Hill (final resting place of Billy Clanton and the McLaury Bros. after that nasty little bit of business near the OK Corral), I had decided that I was gonna get Bro a copy of Seger's 1975, BEAUTIFUL LOSER for Christmas. You know, exhume that body from the graveyard of his buried past for him.

So, on Christmas morning, while y'all were in slippers and knotting those new ties around the collars of your pajama tops, Bro and I - two Beautiful Losers - were reexperiencing our Black Nights, discussing Momma, and sharing a Fine Memory or two. It was astounding to me - a Rock 'N' Roll deserter who took up arms for the Jazz camp about 20 years ago - to find just how good this album sounds today. BEAUTIFUL LOSER was released at the time Bob Seger was just starting to get national recognition. Some might call this a minor breakout album, but I'd call it the "Lost Classic Rock" recording. My Bro also got Mr. Seger's 'Greatest Hits' from me last Christmas, but BEAUTIFUL LOSER was the winner.

Bob sings like a REAL man (a rare occurrence in those androgynous days and an even greater rarity in this era of wimpy, pseudo-tough poseurs trying to convince every hormone-overdosed, pimply suburbanite that they've seen bad times). Seger strikes an ideal balance between catchy hard rockers and sensitive (but most certainly not saccharine) ballads, perfectly expressed through that Jim Beam and barbed wire-raked voice of his. The man sure knew how to write an intelligent Rock song. (Yeah, I know that's nearly an oxymoron. And was this really the same guy who 5 years LATER would pen the sophomoric and regrettable 'Horizontal Bop'?)

The song BEAUTIFUL LOSER always did (and still does) remind me of a beautiful friend who one night decided to voluntarily find out what's on "the other side." KATMANDU is driven by Bob's Motor City mania. JODY GIRL is not just one of the most tender ballads ever written, it's one of the saddest. Damn near activates my tear ducts! MOMMA brings to my mind that tortured and misunderstood, yet loving relationship between my Ma and my Bro back in those days contemporaneous to this album. The biggest surprise was NUTBUSH CITY LIMITS, which I never much cared for back "in the day." Don't know what I was thinkin' - this bad boy REALLY ROCKS; it nearly blows the grey hair right off of my head! And this collection closes with a beautiful and introspective ballad about a FINE MEMORY, which the entire album is for me.

This recording is one of the best "vintage" Seger albums available. It was recorded before he formed the Silver Bullet Band, so it has a different sound from his newer work, but it has a style all it's own. Many of the tracks are familiar to Seger fans, and the differences between this album and "Live Bullet" are very evident. It lacks Alto Reeds blaring sax, but makes up for it with some awesome harmonica parts. Again, for the Seger enthusiast, you can't go wrong with this title. Give it a listen.