Trollheart

You guys know how I love my slow songs. Ballads, love songs, all that stuff. If I rate an album track by track it's likely the slow songs are going to get the highest ratings, not always but very often. Not all slow songs of course have to be love songs, but there's nothing I like more than a nice solo piano, soft acoustic guitar or maybe some cello or violin, or a smoky sax, maybe a mandolin: hell, some orchestral strings really get me going! So that's rather obviously what I'll be doing here: talking about my favourite slow songs, classics, ones I know, ones I discover, and as slow songs are pretty much universal no matter the genre or subgenre – with the possible exception of Grindcore and Punk – the songs here will cover every type of music I can manage to listen to.

I'll be breaking down each song into various categories, rating it and dropping in the video, talking about it as much as I can, and perhaps on occasion comparing it to others, or even cover versions of the same song. If you want to suggest a slow song, go ahead, though I have a wealth of material to work with anyway. I think it goes without saying there will be no albums reviewed here, just single tracks, unless I happen across something so impressive that I simply have to review it. I doubt that will happen.

So let's kick things off with this one, which you may or may not know.


Title: “We've Got Tonite”
Artiste: Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
Nationality: American
Year: 1978
Genre: Rock
Subgenre: Americana, Heartland Rock, Country Rock
Source: 1978 album Stranger in Town
Written by: Bob Seger
Chart position(s) (Singles only): US: 13, UK: 41
Storyline: Two lonely people in a (perhaps) hotel or motel, the one trying to convince the other (presumably both strangers to each other, tying in with the title of the album) to stay for the night.
Main instrument: Piano
Other version(s) by: Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton (1983), Ronan Keating and Lulu (2002)
Comments: Stranger in Town is one of my favourite Seger albums, certainly from his seventies period, and it might seem odd to anyone who knows Seger that I prefer it to 1976's more popular Night Moves, but I feel the latter is a weaker album that stands on its singles – as in fairness does Stranger in Town, but whereas the former tails off with the last three tracks (in my opinion), the latter never flags even once, and this despite having a rare cover, Frankie Miller's “Ain't got no money” on it. This was one of the first Seger songs I heard, and I loved it right away, and it led to a lifelong love affair with the man's music which has continued to this day. Bob isn't the kind of artiste that most people dig (or will admit to anyway), straddling as he does the tenuous divide between Country and Rock or Pop, perhaps as The Eagles did, but I love his music and this song gets me every time.

From the opening piano lines and Bob's tired appeal to his lover “I know it's late/ I know you're weary/ I know your plans don't include me” to the powerful midsection where it builds up on the superb Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and those soulful female backing singers, this song hits all the right spots. Love it. I hated when Kenny Rogers covered it and annoyingly, duetting with Sheena Easton, changed the lyric to “Why don't we stay” instead of the original "Why don't you stay", which kind of made no real sense. Stick to your islands in the stream, Kenny, and leave Bob's music alone.
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