Bob Seger - "Feel Like a Number"

"Feel Like a Number" is a song written by Bob Seger that was first released on his 1978 album with the Silver Bullet Band, Stranger in Town.

According to Seger: "I got the idea for the song after watching a show about computer banks and how many names were in them. We're all in computer banks. Lord knows how many data collections there are. Everybody is a number and in the record industry you're also thought of a lot of times as a number — the amount you sell or whatever. Some of the humanity gets lost and the hype takes over. You have to watch out. That's the whole idea of Stranger in Town as an album, actually. It's about identity and trying to survive and keep your identity. I was real proud of that one. I was an auto worker for a brief time. I worked for six months making GM transmissions in Ypsilanti, Michigan. I lasted six months there loading conveyors. Then I worked at another plant on an assembly line putting rubber around windshields. Which is not good for a guitar player, so I didn’t do that for very long. I think I only lasted a month there. But I was there long enough to get it into my head that you can become just a number, you’re just a statistic; you’re not really a person, you’re just a cog in a very gigantic wheel. And it felt very uncomfortable to feel that way about myself. I tried to convey that in the song"