"Turn the Page" is a song originally released by Bob Seger in 1973 on his Back in '72 album. Released as a single but never charting, Seger's live version of the song on the 1976 Live Bullet album became a mainstay of album-oriented rock radio stations, and still gets significant airplay on classic rock stations.
"Turn the Page" is about the emotional and social ups and downs of a rock musician's life on the road. Seger wrote it in 1972 while touring with Teegarden & Van Winkle. Drummer David Teegarden (of Teegarden & Van Winkle and later the Silver Bullet Band) recalls:
We had been playing somewhere in the Midwest, or the northern reaches, on our way to North or South Dakota. [Guitarist] Mike Bruce was with us. We'd been traveling all night from the Detroit area to make this gig, driving in this blinding snowstorm. It was probably 3 in the morning. Mike decided it was time to get gas. He was slowing down to exit the interstate and spied a truck stop. We all had very long hair back then – it was the hippie era – but Skip, Mike and Bob had all stuffed their hair up in their hats. You had to be careful out on the road like that, because you'd get ostracized. When I walked in, there was this gauntlet of truckers making comments – "Is that a girl or man?" I was seething; those guys were laughing their asses off, a big funny joke. That next night, after we played our gig – I think it was Mitchell, S.D. – Seger says, "Hey, I've been working on this song for a bit, I've got this new line for it. He played it on acoustic guitar, and there was that line: "Oh, the same old cliches / 'Is that a woman or a man?' " It was "Turn the Page."
Tom Weschler, then road manager for Seger, remembers the same incident:
"Turn the Page," Bob's great road song, came along in '72, while we were driving home from a gig. I think we were in Dubuque, Iowa, in winter and stopped at a restaurant. We stood out when we entered a store or a gas station or a restaurant en masse. At this restaurant it was particularly bright inside, so there weren't any dark corners to hide in. All these local guys were looking at us like, "What are these guys? Is that a woman or a man?" – just like in the song. ... That was one incident, but there were so many others on the road that led Seger to write that song.
While on tour in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on November 16, 2006, promoting his 16th studio album Face the Promise, Seger said he wrote the song in a hotel room in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Both Seger's studio and live versions of "Turn the Page" feature a Mellotron and a saxophone part played by founding Silver Bullet member Alto Reed. Tom Weschler allegedly helped inspire Reed to create the opening melody. During recording, Weschler told Reed: "Alto, think about it like this: You're in New York City, on the Bowery. It's 3 a.m. You're under a streetlamp. There's a light mist coming down. You're all by yourself. Show me what that sounds like." With that, Reed played the opening melody to "Turn the Page".
"Katmandu" is a song written and recorded by American rock artist Bob Seger. It was initially released on his 1975 studio album Beautiful Loser, which became the first of ten consecutive platinum albums for Seger. The song was later featured on his live album Live Bullet. The single edit reached number 43 on the US Top 40, becoming Seger's most successful single since "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". The song was featured in the soundtracks of the 1985 film Mask starring Cher and Eric Stoltz, the 16th episode of Freaks and Geeks, the tenth episode of the eighth season of Supernatural, and in the 2009 documentary Journey to Everest. It was mentioned briefly in the 2016 film Doctor Strange, and in the 1987 made-for-television movie The Last Fling.
"Still the Same" is a song written and recorded by the American singer Bob Seger in 1978. It peaked at number 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
"Still the Same" is a midtempo ballad that begins with what Billboard Magazine describes as a "catchy piano" part. According to Harrison, the harmony vocals by Venetta Fields, Clydie King and Shirley Matthews give the song an r&b flavor.
The lyrics describe a gambler who the singer has admired but in the end walks away from because he won't change." Seger has said that he has been asked for years who the song is about, and that it is actually an amalgamation of characters he met when he first went to Hollywood.
Harrison regarded "Still the Same" as the most "striking" song on Stranger in Town.