Bob Seger’s song “Old Time Rock & Roll” is one of his most popular songs. The song was written by songwriters George Jackson and Thomas Earl Jones III. The song was pitched to Bob Seger by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, a group of Alabama session musicians that Bob Seger recorded with in the 1970s and 80s. Bob Seger re-wrote the lyrics, but didn’t ask for credit (which he regrets) so he isn’t credited. George Jackson’s demo of “Old Time Rock & Roll” appeared on the compilation album “All Because of Your Love”. I’ll be embedding the official audio of George Jackson’s version followed by Bob Seger’s version.
George Jackson’s Original Version
Bob Seger’s Version
George Jackson’s demo opens with the piano intro that’s played only once. Bob Seger has the intro played twice. According to Jimmy Johnson of The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section who was mixing the demo that was handed to Bob Seger, he made a mistake mixing the song featuring the piano intro played twice which is how it ended up that way in Bob Seger’s version. The lyrics of the first verse are similar with some changes. George is singing about how his girlfriend likes old time rock & roll, unlike Bob who sings that he likes old time rock & roll. The differences in the first verse and chorus are based on the girlfriend. There’s a contrast in how George sings about when he takes his girlfriend to a disco and Bob’s singing saying not to try taking him to one.
The second verse is completely different. I remember Bob Seger mentioning in an interview that the original lyrics referred to Little Richard & Jerry Lee Lewis and you hear references to them here. There is a more intense guitar part in this version including two guitar solos. The second guitar solo seems to be accompanied by the same piano notes that accompany Alto Reed’s saxophone solo in Bob’s version. The backing vocals are the same as the ones backing Bob. Interestingly, George Jackson is one of the backing vocalists on Bob Seger’s version. I would imagine that George is also one of the backing vocalists on his version.
I enjoy listening to George Jackson’s demo of “Old Time Rock & Roll”. It’s good to hear what the song was originally like which shows the changes that Bob Seger made. It’s fun to hear how different the original version of a song you love is. Bob Seger improved the lyrics which flow better and fit more naturally to the melody. Bob singing praise for rock & roll from his perspective sounds more organic than George singing praise for rock & roll from his girlfriend’s perspective. Comparing the two, Bob’s version is better produced. He sings with such power and passion. I like the fact that Bob’s version is longer. He features a production choice not in the original demo where he sings the chorus accompanied with only drums and backing vocals. Bob got his Silver Bullet Band saxophonist Alto Reed to record an overdubbed solo in place of the demo’s second guitar solo.
For my article about the making of Bob Seger’s “Stranger in Town” album that featured this song, bassist David Hood said ““Old Time Rock & Roll” was recorded for our publishing company demo with the writer, George Jackson singing the original version. George didn’t have a traditional “rock” voice so we overdubbed a young white singer named Dennis Gulley on the track to give Bob the right idea about finishing the recording.” As Bob’s attempts to record the song with both the Silver Bullet Band and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section wasn’t working, he ended up using the demo as his version of the song and recorded his voice over it.
I am not so sure that George Jackson’s demo which is embedded in this post is the same demo that Bob Seger used as most of the guitar parts sound so different. Jimmy Johnson says that the song was slowed down and says that the part in the song where Bob sings with the drums and backing vocals was achieved by muting the other instruments. This does explain some of the differences between George Jackson and Bob Seger’s versions including its speed and length, but they don’t feel like the same recording. My theory is that George Jackson’s version released is an alternate take of the song to the demo that Bob Seger used. As Bob Seger and his manager Punch Andrews bought the demo, I suspect that those compiling George Jackson songs for the album “All Because of Your Love”, would have only had access to alternate takes of George Jackson's “Old Time Rock & Roll”.
Old Time Rock & Roll is one of the most iconic rock & roll songs in the history of music. George Jackson and Thomas Earl Jones III made a great contribution to music with this song. They are a big part of the popularity and success of Bob Seger. I’m pleased to hear that George Jackson considers “Old Time Rock & Roll” as his favourite song he’s written. If you enjoyed this post, you might like my post “Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock & Roll Live” where I embed the official video of Bob Seger performing “Old Time Rock & Roll” at his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction 18 years ago in March 2004 and give my thoughts on it.
