Songoftheday 10/5/14 - Headin' out on some uncharted path, you soon turn back It happens time and time again...

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - "American Storm"
from the album Like A Rock (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day is brought to us by Detroit rocker Bob Seger, who was last seen contributing a mellow track called "Understanding" to the soundtrack of the movie Teachers, and scored a top-40 pop hit in 1985. The following year Seger released his fifth studio album with his Silver Bullet Band, Like A Rock. It was a shiny and commercial affair, perfectly matching the Chess King-style clothes they were donning on the album cover. The first single from the project, "American Storm", sounded like a commerical for 'Murika in the middle of the Reagan Years, though according to Seger it was about cocaine abuse rampant in the decade. I guess the "beneath a mountain of cold but you never get warm" line points to it perhaps...

"American Storm" reached the top-20 on the pop chart in May of 1986, while climbing to #2 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine (matching the summit of his other two best, "Even Now" and "Trying To Live My Life Without You"). Internationally it didn't make too much of a rumble, considering the title, but it did manage to get into the top-40 in Canada (#26) and be a minor hit in England (#78). The "B-side" of the single, a live rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son", also made the rock chart at #14.

It's one of those songs I hated then, and pretty much dislike now. That's kind of rare, I usually mellow about things, but this song makes me wanna do coke just to get away from the pain of listening to his whiny growl on it.

Up tomorrow: a drummer needs you to help him to return.