Over the years there have been songs that caught my imagination without the artist ever finding a place in my musical life. This is one of those songs – and Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band are one of those artists.

Still The Same is an apt title because listening to it now, for the first time in years, it simultaneously tugs at my heartstrings and lifts my spirits in just the same way as it must have done when I first heard it in 1978.

Yet I know very little about Bob Seger beyond a mental picture of a short, hobbity-looking fellow with a beard and long hair, probably in a plaid shirt and possibly wearing a battered cowboy hat.

He’s one of the founding fathers of American ‘heartland rock’ alongside (but before) Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty and today’s exponents like The War On Drugs and The Hold Steady.

I’m pretty sure I have an album by Seger – Stranger In Town – but I just don’t remember ever playing it, especially as it came out in that punk/postpunk period when I just didn’t listen to stuff like this.

While I have an idea of some sort of chugging boogie, I cannot for the life of me think of any other song on it – is there one with the words “rock’n’roll” in the title? I’m guessing there must be.

So now I’ve looked it up and yes, there is. It’s called Old Time Rock And Roll, and I have a distant memory of it chugging and boogieing along. And now that I peruse his catalogue, I remember Hollywood Nights, which does indeed chug and boogie.

I also remember Night Moves which, as I recall, is another slow and moody one like this. So my thesis is wrong on all counts: I do know Bob Seger – a bit. And I do know some of his songs. And not all of them chug and boogie.

But this is the one I love.