Kids today, huh?

After leaving the Omens, Seger gathered a backing group that he dubbed the Last Heard and began releasing singles that became big hits in his native Michigan, but went unnoticed in the rest of the  country. His voice had grown raspier and he had discovered his nascent songwriting talent. "East Side Story" his first hit (selling roughly 50,000 copies in 1966, nearly all in Michigan), is garage rock of the highest order, with it's death rattle percussion, fiery, dramatic vocal, and pumping organ. The writing is also a fine early example of the type of 'street opera' that Seger (and Springsteen among others) would later specialize in. 'Persecution Smith' while still retaining the garagey rawness, shows that Seger had discovered Bob Dylan, as illustrated by by half-parodic/half-tribute sardonic lyrics. "Sock It To Me, Santa" is one of the finest 60's Christmas singles, with Seger doing a James Brown/Mitch Ryder tribute for Old Saint Nick.

In 1968, Seger dissolved the Last Heard and formed a new unit called the Bob Seger System, and managed to snare a major label conract with Capitol Records. The music released represented a huge leap forward in a number of ways. By this point, the White Panther Party and their house band the MC5 were in Ann Arbor, and Seger definitely kept company with them. Maybe that's what's behind the angry, explicitly ant-Vietnam War lyrics of "2+2=?", but by the fire in Seger's vocals, I'm betting that the 'friend' reffered to in the lyrics is not fictional. Seger's voice has also deepend even further into a fine, gravelly roar and the sound of the band is heavily toughened up, with it's accelerated tempo and biting guitar.This is a long way from "Ballad Of The Yellow Berets" in no uncertain terms. "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" off the same album gave Seger his first national hit, reaching #17 on the Billboard charts. Seger's blue-eyed soul roots show through in his vocals and the organ (the guitar is played by future Eagle and fellow Michigander Glenn Frey, but don't hold that against it), but the thunderous drums and trebly top end were a big inspiration to the MC5, who when they cut their landmark second album Back In The USA, used the song as their sonic model. Seger's next album stiffed commercially and many wrote him off as a local hero one-hit wonder who couldn't cut it in the big time. It would be another six years before he'd prove them wrong.