Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the
pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead
wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep
with the record.
— Paul, Vinyl Curator
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Live Bullet
1976 · Capitol Records SKBB-511523 · Stereo · US (Columbia House Record Club pressing; plant not named on the label) · 2xLP, gatefold · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Capitol Records |
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| Catalogue number | SKBB-511523 |
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| Year | 1976 |
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| Mono / Stereo | Stereo |
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| Country | US (Columbia House Record Club pressing; plant not named on the label) |
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| Format | 2xLP, gatefold |
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| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
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| Genre | Rock |
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| Producer | Bob Seger, Punch Andrews |
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| Performer / Orchestra | The Silver Bullet Band |
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| Musicians | Bob Seger (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Drew Abbott (lead guitar, background vocals), Robyn Robbins (organ, clavinet, piano, background vocals), Chris Campbell (bass guitar, background vocals), Charlie Allen Martin (drums, background vocals) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: SKBB1-11523 G1A ANNA B3 □ G2
Side B: SKBB2-11523 G1A ANNA F2 G1
Side C: SKBB3-11523 C1G CRT C1 □ G14
Side D: SKBB4-11523 G1A ANNA B9 C G1
Condition
- Cover
- EX
- Vinyl
- NM-
Variant chronology
1976 - US Capitol standard retail pressing, SKBB-511523
1976 - US Capitol/Columbia House Record Club edition, SKBB-511523 <- this copy
1976 - UK Capitol E-STSP 16 / 0C 192-82225/6
1976 - Japan Capitol ECS-67085/86
1981 - US Capitol/Columbia House Club edition repress (Carrollton/Pitman), SKBB-511523
current - reissue 2LP (colour vinyl editions)
This Pressing
1976 Columbia House Record Club pressing (stereo) - Capitol-licensed club label text, deadwax stamper codes distinct from the standard Capitol retail cut.
The Album
Live Bullet captured Bob Seger at a pivotal moment, ten years and several overlooked studio albums into a career that had made him a regional hero in Detroit but a cipher almost everywhere else. Recorded across two nights at Cobo Hall in September 1975 in front of a rabid hometown crowd, the album let Seger's gritty, soul-steeped rock and roll breathe in a way the studio records never had, turning deep catalog pieces like "Travelin' Man," "Beautiful Loser" and "Heavy Music" into the definitive versions fans would come to know. The set draws on his full catalog to that point - the garage-rock energy of "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," the ballad "Jody Girl," the soon-to-be-staple "Turn the Page" - while covers of Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits" and Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry material showed the breadth of the Silver Bullet Band's bar-band chops. It became the commercial breakthrough that years of relentless touring had been building toward, eventually going multi-platinum and establishing Seger as an arena-rock headliner just as his next studio album, Night Moves, would make him a national star. Critics and fans alike have long regarded it as one of the great American live rock albums, prized for its raw, unpolished energy and for finally giving a frustratingly underrated artist his due. Its legacy endures as the record that converted Bob Seger from a Midwest cult favorite into a household name.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Nutbush City Limits
2. Travelin' Man
3. Beautiful Loser
4. Jody Girl
Side 2
1. I've Been Working
2. Turn The Page
3. U.M.C.
4. Bo Diddley
Side 3
1. Ramblin' Gamblin' Man
2. Heavy Music
3. Katmandu
Side 4
1. Lookin' Back
2. Get Out Of Denver
3. Let It Rock
The Label
All four labels carry the Capitol dome/building logo over a mauve-to-red field with the rim text crediting manufacture by Columbia House, 51 West 52nd Street, New York, under license from Capitol Records, Inc. - the standard wording Capitol's licensee used on its mail-order record-club pressings rather than on copies sold through retail stores. The colour shifts slightly from label to label (mauve on side one, pink on sides two and four, red on side three), a trait of the club pressing runs rather than a distinct design family. The 1976 copyright line dates the plating to the album's release year, but the Columbia House rim text places this specific copy in the club-edition stream that ran alongside, not ahead of, the standard Capitol retail pressing.
Fidelity
The Capitol retail cut of Live Bullet was mastered in-house with cutting engineers' initials appearing in the deadwax; the codes on this club pressing differ from those marks, consistent with a separate plating run supplied to the record club rather than Capitol's own stampers. Club-edition pressings of this era are generally regarded by collectors as a notch below contemporaneous retail copies in surface quality and cutting care, though the basic sonic signature of the original analog masters carries through. Collectors generally rate the original-era Capitol retail pressings as the sonic benchmark for this title, with later reissues and specialty colored-vinyl editions not meaningfully surpassing them.
Notes
This is a 1976 stereo pressing manufactured for Columbia House under license from Capitol, identified by the club-edition rim text on all four labels. The runout codes transcribed for this copy do not match the cutting-engineer stamps ("wally," "KP") associated with Capitol's own retail cut of this catalogue number, pointing instead to a club-only stamper family, likely from a contract pressing plant rather than Capitol's in-house facility. The copyright line of 1976 dates the metalwork to the album's release year; nothing on the label identifies the specific pressing plant.
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