If Lester Bangs likes you, you've got to have something going for you.

I get the feeling that when people remember Bob Seger these days, it's as a redneck joke. Which isn't fair to the guy. He hung out in the same circle as Mitch Ryder & the MC5 growing up in Detroit (there's even a credit for Seger on the Mc5's post-Kick Out the Jams release High Times). Lester Bangs wrote a soul-searching article of Seger's transition from rock to MOR that's in Psychotic Reactions & Carburetor Dung. And Metallica turned in a cover of "Turn the Page" for Garage Days that played up Seger's darkness.

And Seger could rock out when he wanted to. "Katmandu" is a great, hard-driving rave-up about wanting to get out of America and get away from it all, for example. And luckily, Amazon has finally given us a chance to listen to the garage-rock Seger with a 5 dollar Early Seger MP3 album.

Check it out!