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"Turn the Page" is a song originally released by Bob Seger in 1973 on his Back in '72 album. Though never released as a single, Seger's live version of the song on his 1976 Live Bullet album became a mainstay of album-oriented rock radio stations, and still gets significant airplay to this day 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. 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.
lyrics
LYRICS:
On a long and lonesome highway East of Omaha
You can listen to the engine moanin' out his one note song
You can think about the woman or the girl you knew the night before
But your thoughts will soon be wanderin’ the way they always do
When you're ridin' sixteen hours and there's nothin' there to do
And you don't feel much like ridin', you just wish the trip was through
Here I am…on the road again…there I am…on the stage
Here I go…playin' star again…there I go…turn the page
Well you walk into a restaurant all strung out from the road
And you feel the eyes upon you as you're shakin' off the cold
You pretend it doesn't bother you but you just want to explode
Most times you can't hear 'em talk, other times you can
All the same old cliches, "Is it woman, is it man?"
And you always seem outnumbered so you don't dare make a stand
Ah here I am…on the road again…there I am…on the stage, ya
Here I go…playin' star again…there I go…turn the page
Out there in the spotlight you're a million miles away
Every ounce of energy you try to give away
As the sweat pours out your body like the music that you play
Later in the evening as you lie awake in bed
With the echoes from the amplifiers ringin' in your head
Smoke the day's last cigarette, rememberin' what she said
Here I am…on the road again…there I am…up on the stage
Ah here I go…playin' star again…there I go…turn the page
Here I am…on the road again…there I am…on the stage
Here I go…playin' star again…there I go…there I go
(original studio version)
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