Unglaublich, aber wahr. Das Live-Doppel-Album hat es uns damals besorgt und natürlich hat man sich nach hinten vorgearbeitet und war dementsprechend erstaunt, dass es da schon mindestens 7 Platten des Detroit Rockers gab. Smokin OP’s war eines davon, eine solide Hardrock Platte, die aber fast durchweg aus Coverversionen bestand ("smoking other people's songs..."). Dass er aber solchen Tunes wie Bo Diddley, If I Were A Carpenter, Love The One You’re With und Turn On Your Lovelight richtig Feuer unter dem Hintern machen konnte, muß man ihm noch heute hoch anrechnen. Zum Schluß covert er sich mit „Heavy Music“ selber. Leider ist dieser remasterte Reissue offensichtlich nicht der Beginn einer Serie, es wäre zu schön gewesen (Back In 72 – genial!). Dafür kommt wohl demnächst ein neues Studioalbum – was mit dem hier vorliegenden 70er Hard Rock-Juwelchen ausser dem Namen nichts gemein haben wird.
(Glitterhouse)
Bob Seger closed out his Capitol contract with Brand New Morning, a singer/songwriter album quite unlike anything he had yet released. Following its release he moved to the Detroit-based label Palladium and returned to hard-driving rock & roll with Smokin' O.P.'s, the polar opposite of Brand New Morning. According to legend, the title stands for "smoking other people's songs," which makes sense since this is a cover album that even covers Bob Seger & the Last Heard. In other words, it's nothing like the intimate, reflective, risky Brand New Morning, but that doesn't matter since it rocks so good and since it reveals that Seger isn't just a first-class bandleader and rock songwriter, but that he's a terrific interpreter of other writers' songs. Even well-worn tunes like "Bo Diddley" and "If I Were a Carpenter" get made fresh by internalizing the hooks, turning them into something fresh and original. That's also true of songs by such contemporaries as Stephen Stills ("Love the One You're With") and Leon Russell ("Humming Bird"), and he also breathes fire into blues and rock stalwarts like "Let It Rock," "Turn on Your Love Light," and "Jesse James." Smokin' O.P.'s closes out with two originals, one new (the fine, but not especially noteworthy "Someday") and one old (the perennial "Heavy Music"). Neither change the essential character of the album, which is just a really fun, hard-rocking record that bought Seger some time while reasserting the fact that he could really rock. He could -- and he could rock really well -- which is why Smokin' O.P.'s remains a lot of fun, even if it's a relatively minor work in Seger's canon.
(by Stephen Thomas Erlewin, All Music Guide)
