About The Song
“Katmandu” roared onto U.S. radio in 1975 as a single from Bob Seger’s album Beautiful Loser, the first spark of a broader national breakthrough that would arrive the next year. Issued by Capitol and paired with the B-side “Nutbush City Limits,” the track bottled Seger’s bar-band punch—chugging guitars, pounding piano, and a vocal that grins as it growls—into a get-out-of-town fantasy with a chorus you can shout from the driver’s seat.
The album context matters. Beautiful Loser landed in April 1975, much of it cut with the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section in Sheffield, Alabama. “Katmandu” sits early in the sequence (Side One, Track 3) and carries that studio’s calling cards: a tight pocket, unfussy guitars, and keyboards that jab rather than smear. Seger co-produced with the Shoals crew, keeping the mix dry and close so the performance hits like a small club turned up to eleven.
Lyrically, the song is part joke, part jolt: a weary rocker daydreams about bolting to the farthest place he can name—“Katmandu”—just to escape the grind. Seger has since framed it as a tongue-in-cheek wish to disappear to someplace exotic, a far-off dot on the map that promised distance if not answers. The verses sprint through American place names and road-movie images; the hook turns wanderlust into a punch line you can chant.
On record, the ingredients are classic rock’n’roll: Chuck Berry–style guitar figures, a down-home, rockin’ piano, and Seger’s sandpaper tenor leaning into every syllable. The album version runs 6:09; the single edit trims to roughly 3:16 without dulling the song’s charge. It’s an economy of parts—no gratuitous solos, just momentum—built for AM countdowns and FM block parties alike.
Radio responded. “Katmandu” peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard Hot 100—Seger’s best national showing since 1969’s “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”—and rose to No. 57 in Canada. The performance helped re-introduce him beyond the Midwest while setting the stage for the one-two punch of 1976’s live Live Bullet and the studio album Night Moves that finally vaulted him into headliner territory.
The song’s live life became a story of its own. Recorded at Detroit’s Cobo Hall in September 1975, the Live Bullet take—complete with Robyn Robins at the piano and the Silver Bullet Band in full flight—cemented “Katmandu” as a set-list staple. It’s the same arrangement, just hotter: the tempo breathes, the crowd roars, and the chorus lands like a hometown rallying cry.
The title city eventually met its bard. Though Seger hadn’t been to Kathmandu when he wrote the song, he finally visited in early 1991 in conjunction with the World Special Olympics, later recalling the trip—and even a conversation about the tune with King Birendra—as a long-imagined place made real. Decades on, “Katmandu” keeps its grin and its gas-pedal urgency, a reminder that sometimes the fantasy of escape is its own kind of fuel.
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Lyric
I think I’m going to Katmandu
That’s really, really where I’m going to
If I ever get out of here
That’s what I’m gonna do
K-k-k-k-k-k Katmandu
I think that’s really where I’m going to
If I ever get out of here
I’m going to Katmandu
I got no kick against the west coast
Warner brothers are such good hosts
I raise my whiskey glass and give them a toast
I’m sure they know it’s true
I got no rap against the southern states
Every time I’ve been there it’s been great
But now I’m leaving and I can’t be late
And to myself be true
That’s why I’m going to Katmandu
Up to the mountain’s where I’m going to
And if I ever get out of here
That’s what I’m gonna do
Aw, k-k-k-k-k-k Katmandu
Really, really where I’m going to
If I ever get out of here
I’m going to Katmandu
Oh
Take it away
I ain’t got nothin’ ‘gainst the east coast
You want some people where they got the most
And New York City’s like a friendly ghost
You seem to pass right through
I know I’m gonna miss the USA
I guess I’ll miss it every single day
But no one loves me here anyway
I know my plane is due
The one that’s going to Katmandu
Up to the mountain’s where I’m going to
If I ever get out of here
That’s what I’m gonna do
K-k-k-k-k-k Katmandu
Really, really, really, going to
If I ever get out of here
If I ever get out of here
If I ever get out of here
I’m going to Katmandu, oh
Ooh huh huh
Ooh huh huh ooh yeah
Katmandu
Katmandu
Katmandu
Katmandu
Katmandu
Katmandu
Katmandu
Katmandu
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Katmandu