{"id":7009,"date":"2011-05-04T21:50:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T01:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=7009"},"modified":"2011-05-04T23:27:13","modified_gmt":"2011-05-05T03:27:13","slug":"im-totally-serious-i-love-bob-segers-night-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/im-totally-serious-i-love-bob-segers-night-moves\/","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;m Totally Serious: I Love Bob Seger&#8217;s &#8220;Night Moves&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DBFL5cDKv98?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>I&#8217;ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I&#8217;m finally ready. Ready to take a bold stand in shallow waters. Ready to ask for a massive critical upgrade for <strong>Bob Seger<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Night Moves.&#8221; This song &#8212; this grossly overplayed FM rock radio staple, this iconic coming-of-age saga, sung by Rock Town Hall&#8217;s\u00a0gravel-throated <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/seger\/\" target=\"_blank\">patron saint of unintentional Rock mediocrity<\/a>, Bob Seger\u00a0&#8212; people, this song is <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/lemggreat-l-emg\/\" target=\"_blank\">Great<\/a><\/em>!<\/p>\n<p>I ain&#8217;t lying, and I ain&#8217;t crazy. The length of my years has taught me to open my eyes and ears to many things I sneered at as an ignorant youngster: funk music, lefty politics, agnosticism, and now this. And why not? Can you find any real, substantive flaw in this song? More to the point: can you name a song that covers the same lyrical ground better?<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s pause for a moment and consider just how hard it must be to write a song that involves wheat fields, Chevys, and young love. I point you in the direction of the collected works of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/songwriter-rodney-crowell-inadvertantly-touches-on-the-mellencamp-conundrum\/\" target=\"_blank\">John Cougar Mellencamp<\/a><\/strong> to see how <em>not<\/em> to do this. But Seger&#8217;s &#8220;Night Moves&#8221; is different.<\/p>\n<p>There are so many &#8212; oh, how do I say it &#8212; <em>moments<\/em> in this song that just don&#8217;t sound like utter bullshit, when they otherwise totally should. You&#8217;ll find a few in the first half of the song: &#8220;we were just young and restless and bored&#8221;; &#8220;out past the cornfields where the woods got heavy&#8221; &#8212; <strong>Alex Chilton<\/strong>, eat your heart out!<\/p>\n<p>Then, we grow up: &#8220;I woke last night to the sound of thunder. How far off, I sat and wondered.&#8221; Ow! Seeg, you got me again! This is followed by one of those minor miracles in performance that turn into private &#8220;wait for it&#8221; moments &#8212; the way dude sings the next line: &#8220;starting hummin&#8217; a song from <em>nineteen<\/em> sixty two&#8230;&#8221; when the song comes full circle, eventually blossoming into one of Rock&#8217;s great everymanworkingbloke outchoruses &#8212; &#8220;workin&#8217; and practicin&#8217;.&#8221;. Just workin&#8217; and practicin&#8217;. Isn&#8217;t that all we ever do?<\/p>\n<p>Come on, people &#8212; we make a lot of good-natured fun of Bob Seger &#8217;round these parts. Can I at least get an &#8220;amen&#8221; on the Greatness of his &#8220;Night Moves&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>HVB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I&#8217;m finally ready. Ready to take a bold stand in shallow waters. Ready to ask for a massive critical upgrade for Bob Seger&#8216;s &#8220;Night Moves.&#8221; This song &#8212; this grossly overplayed FM rock radio staple, this iconic coming-of-age saga, sung by Rock Town Hall&#8217;s\u00a0gravel-throated patron <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/im-totally-serious-i-love-bob-segers-night-moves\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[61,78],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}