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

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.)

http://www.pentaclerecords.net/covenstead/bob_seger_live_bullet.jpg

okay, so when we were all desperately hungover last week, my friends and i drove around listening to 'Night Moves' at full blast, and it kinda made me feel incredibly good.

but what is the song from 1962?

(i feel like i just became a little straighter by admitting that)

Wondered about that song from '62 for a long time, too

"autumn closing in" is a great romantic line.

I really like this song, but I also can't hear it without laughing at it.

yeah but it's that kind of laughter that is more laughing at the sentimentality because..well, it's kind of easy to identify with? it's like laughing at yourself for being a sentimental shit bag. i feel the same way when i hear Thunder Road, which i also know all the lyrics to.

anyway.

Who wants to wear those gypsy leathers????

(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.)

don't get me started...

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...

Woikin on a night move

Hardly renowned

Started hummin a song from nineteen sixty-two

It happens

Trusty woods

order of preference:

1. back room
2. trusty woods
3. alley

way up firm and high

1. young
2 restless
3 bored
4 livin by the sword

Pie-in-the-sky summit? Far from it.

i thought it was sonnet?

Woke last night to the sound of thunder

one of the few songs I know that make me swear I can smell the beer-soaked wood of a dive bar when I hear it (meant as a high compliment)

otm!

I was recently thinking about this song, in conjunction with Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight", and how they both implicitly refer to "Be My Baby"; and about the phenomenon of songs that are kinda low-key referencing an earlier song without mentioning it - as opposed to songs that are *musically" straight-up borrowing from an earlier work, the way the Beach Boys ("Don't Worry Baby") or the Beatles ("What You're Doing" offered their own "Be My Baby" homages.

(And of course the Ronettes' song was in fact from *1963*, shame on you, Bob!)

About 25 or so years ago, when I was living somewhere else, one night we kept hearing the downstairs neighbor playing "Night Moves" on repeat. At some point we realized his back door was wide open, too, and the apartment was dark, so after some discussion with the other neighbors we called the police. They found him passed out with a bong, Seger still on repeat.

^^Alternate opening to You're Next

There is a tagger in the south side of my town putting up “trusty woods” and it gives me so much joy

One of my all time fave songs. JiC's neighbor - legend.

this thread gives me so much joy.

Never realized Josh at one time was neighbors with Matthew McCaughnahey.