The Fire Down Below

This song is about the prostitution industry. Seger points out that the customers come from many different backgrounds and are from all over the world. The "fire down below" is the desire they're all trying to satisfy with the ladies of the night.

Bob Seger isn't who you'd expect to write a song about prostitutes - he's known for being rather shy and abstemious. But while many of his songs read like his journals, in others he takes the role of observer. "Fire Down Below" is one of these where he's not pouring his heart out, but having some fun. Seger explained that he wouldn't release a song like this on its own, but in the context of the album, it's offset by "Night Moves" - personal, poignant song that reveals his true self. Not everyone saw "The Fire Down Below" in the big picture: the advice columnist Ann Landers criticized it in one of her newspaper columns for glorifying sex. It wouldn't be the last time Seger dealt with this: he would later take heat from Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) for the sexual content in another one of his songs, "The Horizontal Bop."

"The Fire Down Below" wasn't released as a single but still became one of Seger's most popular songs and a favorite on rock radio. It goes over very well live and often shows up on his setlists.