Bob Seger's "Night Moves": C or D

also classic Seger:

hollywood nights

The drums on this song are friggin' great.

i agree with ned...it's both. it's a really well written and arranged song, and his singing is great too, especially those carefully strangulated high notes. i mean, the song is admirable in its counterbalance of romanticism and romanticizing-puncturing detail.... but even with all its lyrics acknowledging the bumbling, awkward nature of teenage sexual encounters, there's something a little icky about it.

i never had an adolescence like this :(... but i understand the feelinsg about this song offering one vision of adolescence for those for whom it hadn't yet arrived.

the drums on "hollywood hills" ARE great. seger has a bunch of really great songs.

-- Alex in NYC (vassife...) (webmail), May 22nd, 2004 1:05 PM. (vassifer) (later) (link)
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"used to"? have you come around?

he really is (was) a good songwriter, a better than good singer...and his best records have really classic r'n'r arrangements, exciting and meaty without being (like much of his lesser, and later, stuff) too thick and portentous.

(j/k)

D: "Shakedown," featuring the stomach-turning chorus, "Shakedown, breakdown--you're busted" and then the lamest robo-horns ever. From the Beverly Hills Cop 2 OST, natch.

Not really, but his like has become pretty scarce....unless you count Kid Rock.

Even better than Cougar's "Ain't Even Done With the Night," which is also classic in the exact same bra-strap-fumbling vein.

i'm not a big seger fan (i started a "defend the indefensible" about him a year ago, remember?). but i do like this song -- especially the slow part towards the end, where segar "wakes up to the sound of thunder," starts humming a "song from 1962," remembers the backseat romance of this song, and (as if to not dwell too long on it) notes that autumn is closing in. for some reason, it seems to sum up memories of that sorta thing pretty well esp. as one grows older -- think about it a while, then move on. and yeah, the music arrangement is pretty nice.

i also remember first hearing this when i was, like, 8? not having any knowledge of nookie, i just thought it was about a detective ("working on mysteries w/t any clues" and all).

Also, I got the chords wrong up there; I was trying to do it from memory. I had the I-IV-V in the wrong key; it's actually G-F-C. Same chords as "Sister Ray". Of course.

This just occured to me (your sentence about autumn closing in)

HUSKER DU'S CELEBRATED SUMMER = HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS OF 80S PUNK!!!!

Then that backward-looking section at the end is just knife-twistingly real: it's clear that he has romantic feelings about the past, while at the same time acknowledging how unromantic the coupling was.

Because nostalgia often has little to do with the quality of the experiences, and a lot to do with our own shifts in feeling about ourselves. This is actually a pretty feckin wise point, and one that I don't think was ever made in song before "Night Moves."

I have similar love for "Main Street." Not "Hollywood Nights," though, for some reason. Too frenetic, with its fast tempo and hooting backup singers.

...which is basically an "it's tough to be a rockstar" song, I figured out years later. "Deadlines and commitments/What to leave in/What to leave out." I didn't understand that line at the time. Now I wonder how choosing a final track listing for an album is really worst than, "Makin' Thunderbirds" or the other Midwest labor jobs he sang about.

But too true about "Night Moves" and "nostalgia for an age yet to come" in so many Seger songs. And 1962 seemed like the distant past, when it was really only 15 years earlier. It would be like "hummin' a song from 1990" now.

'Fire Lake' isn't bad. (And 'Makin' Thunderbirds' on *the Distance*. though I haven't heard it in years, might well be better.) But either way, *Stranger in Town* is his last great album, not *Night Moves.*

We weren’t in love, oh no, far from it
We weren’t searchin’ for some pie in the sky summit
We were just young and restless and bored
Livin’ by the sword
And we’d steal away every chance we could
To the backroom, to the alley or the trusty woods
I used her, she used me
But neither one cared
We were gettin’ our share

The chorus still annoys me. I don't like the phrase "Night Moves" -- it just sounds dumb. But I think maybe I'm hitting the age when I start to really like mid 70s super-steady-beat medium-light rock.

this is pretty much adult life summed up in a line.

uh, quite the opposite actually. as one who fits that description .. it makes it easy to LOVE it. Because we already knew how great Bob's early stuff wuz. tho it is fun to laugh at Soofjam lovin pitchdorks who discover Bob's early stuff and make an about-face.

Hmm... the scenario I describe also applies to a lot of Motown--some of which I still love, and a lot of which I can't stand anymore--or to which I've become numb--due to overexposure. And some Seger just hasn't aged that well ("Old Time Rock & Roll" I avoid for fear I will go on a killing spree if it comes within earshot). Anyway, YMMV, etc.

Bob Seeger is the king of songs that I hear on the radio but don't know who they're by and think they're pretty good.

it was deeply resonant for me for the opposite reason -- it represented what i wished being a teenager was going to be like but which i knew it could never be, not for me anyway. it was kind of like reading the letters to penthouse.

that use of "one" always bothered me, and still does. it's a really awkward line.

i just think, you know, Seger was a real good craftsman -- wudn't no genius, his inspirations were fairly obvious. but the songs are great. And his vocals are great. and there are tons of great little moments throughout his catalog .. from "k-k-k-k-katmadu" to the high-hats on "Hollywood Nights". And "Travellin Man"/"Beautiful Loser" from the live album is such an awesome performance. I just hate all the fucking hedged-bets when people bring him up. There are many great songs.

but you know, this year Prog is Not a Four Letter Word, five years from now, Mellencamp is Not a Ten letter Word...

(Were there any great punk/'70s bands from Indiana? Detroit and Ohio had their share, and Chicago obviously had a scene, but I can't think of a damn thing from Indiana outside of John Cougar.)

I'm sure. That always surprises me, since you'd think they'd want to shake it up a little, especially since his band was given not much of note to do. A couple of times Bob got to sit down and strum a barely-audible guitar, but he did play piano a little, and I thought it would have been nice if they just left him on stage for a couple of songs to play a deep cut or two. It really would have been sweet, given the context, if instead of a full-band "Night Moves" closing the set it was just Bob and the piano by himself.

He was doing "Busload of Faith" (a Lou cover from the last album) at earlier dates.

Of course, if you knock off "Simplicity" and the Dylan cover, the set is practically his greatest hits comps track-for-track.

I like how he does the same "Travelin' Man/Beautiful Loser" medley as on "Live Bullet". Talk about a pair of songs joined at the hip! Can't even begin to imagine how many times I heard that medley on the radio back in the day.

RIP Alto Reed :(

(from FB)

"It is with a heavy heart that we inform you of the passing of our lifelong friend and band mate, Alto Reed. Alto passed away this morning at his home with his family by his side after fighting a courageous battle with colon cancer.

Alto has been a part of our musical family, on and off stage, for nearly 50 years. I first starting playing with Alto in 1971. He was amazing – he could play just about anything…he was funky, could scat and play tenor sax and alto sax at the same time.

We worked with Alto often and when we booked our first headline arena gigs at Cobo Hall, we asked him to be a part of those shows. No doubt his iconic performance on Turn The Page helped lift us to another level. He has been with us on that stage virtually every show, ever since. And whether it was Turn The Page, Mainstreet, or Old Time Rock And Roll, audiences roared every time he played his part. In our band, Alto was the rock star.

Off stage, Alto had a passion for discovering and experiencing new things. He taught me how to sail on Biscayne Bay, we swam with the sharks (unintentionally!), and he often introduced us to local foods and restaurants he had discovered. I called him Captain. He was bolder than I was. I remember visiting him in the Miami area and I found him feeding the manatees in a lagoon behind his house. Most of us feed the seagulls, Alto fed the manatees!

Alto started a family and was a fabulous father. He helped raise two talented, beautiful, intelligent young ladies. Over the years, his passion for music, life and new adventures never diminished. We loved him like a brother and will miss forever."

- Bob Seger

Disappointed to learn that Alto Reed wasn't his real name.

lol same

I interviewed keyboardist Erik Deutsch once and when he told me he was married to one of Alto Reed's daughters, I demanded Bob Seger stories. (He didn't have anything really wild to share, just told me that yes, Bob Seger was at his wedding, and he was as awesome a guy as you would expect.)

Listening to Live Bullet on youtube today in memoriam. One of the records I sold pretty much as soon as punk hit, but I saw him around the time this was recorded and he was a rockin' great time. RIP Alto Reed.

I got a ton of nostalgia tied around the big 3 w/ Night Moves, Live Bullet and The Stranger. Where I grew up, Seger was the DUDE. I can remember being a kid that period in the late 70s early 80s and just knowing all those songs, they were just everywhere. At his peak, the Silver Bullet band could outsell live show tickets against anyone in Indianapolis, bigger even than Mellancamp at his peak. He sold out 3 nights at the Hoosier Dome on the Like a Rock tour to my memory, the Stones only did two. That's something like 160,000 tickets.

Live Bullet is awesome and that line on "Turn the Page" by Alto Reed is forever epic played day round on FM radio (RIP).

the tone on that Turn the Page line still gives me chills

I just watched a documentary on Muscle Shoals on Prime and fuck, does Mainstreet hit hard.

heh i have that doc in my watchlist but haven't checked it out yet. for the record, seger is an all-time balladeer.

Bob Seger’s Night Moves is an incredible song. It’s a Mid Western film noir RomCom in futile denial of the romance that it obviously ACHES for. Its proclaimed unsentimentality is ironically the source of its painful nostalgia. 10CC’s I’m Not In Love is its colder English Cousin.

— Vernon Reid (@vurnt22) April 17, 2022

He's not wrong.

otm

otm. inversely it helps explain why "summer of '69" is so cloying, at least to my ear

otm

I heard “Fire Down Below” for the first time in ages the other day. Had to crank it! Does it not get played much on classic rock radio anymore? This album rules, fuiud.

Have to admit it took me a long while for this guy to grow on me and I still don’t really like (not on this album) “Old Time Rock & Roll.”

Nostalgia for a web post yet to cOOOOOOOOooooooooommmmeee....

OTR&R is actually a great song imo, it’s just been beaten into Mustang Sally levels of tedium.

i dunno
it’s not that great compared to ~so much~ of his catalog prior to that

also my least favorite music subgenre is washed middleaged guys complaining about music

The worst thing that happened to OTR&R was Risky Business.

he had so many damn top 40 hits I don't know

“Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll” is Seger’s 1980s “Ballad Of The Yellow Berets.” The tragic difference is that there was no 1980s “2+2=?”

Following up OTR&R by making "Fire Lake" the first single off your next album is a hell of a move.

At least it was "Old Time Rock & Roll" that got played to death, not the vastly superior "Rock & Roll Never Forgets."

Yes, that one is much better.

all the seger -- particularly betty lou's getting out tonight -- reminds me of good burgers at the landmark inn

it was an absolute dive owned by my classmate's dad and always shady as fuck. classmate, last i heard, was in prison -- but his younger brother was flying blimps over sporting events

anyway seger rules

my least favorite music subgenre is washed middleaged guys complaining about music

True, I need them to be filthy before they start their whining.

Mr. Seger if you're nasty

nostalgia often has little to do with the quality of the experiences, and a lot to do with our own shifts in feeling about ourselves. This is actually a pretty feckin wise point, and one that I don't think was ever made in song before "Night Moves."

I'd say this is the point of "People Take Pictures of Each Other" by the Kinks, written eight years earlier.

...and "Picture Book".

The worst thing that happened to OTR&R was Risky Business.

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 18 April 2022 00:23 (three hours ago) link

idk, if you've ever seen the Stone Mountain laser show...