OT: Night Moves
Pretty good story about a song I always loved, and will love even more now that I know that "out past the cornfields where the woods got heavy" is a reference to a place in Ann Arbor.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/creating-bob-segers-night-moves-1432056405
I grew up in Troy and loved Seger. Moved to Asheville, NC when I was 13 (back in 1980) and soon after Bob played in Asheville. I convinced my Mom (also a Seger fan) to take me and my sister and ended up catching a drumstick at the end of the show. After going to college and my Mom moved the drumstick disappeared.
Not quite a cool story bro
Nice post and enlightening read. Always favored Hollywood Nights, but i won't make another trip to A2 without listening to some Night Moves on the way up to the Big House.
I appreciate it. This was my first time posting a topic, and I wasn't sure how it would be received. Also a big fan of Hollywood Nights. Saw a couple of posts of Seger songs ranked. My rankings:
1. Sunspot Baby
2. Hollywood Nights
3. Night Moves
4. Main Street
5. Ramblin' Gamblin' Man
6. Shame on the Moon
7. We've Got Tonight
8. Still the Same
9. Roll Me Away
10. Firelake
Never been much of a fan of Old Time Rock and Roll. It's one of those cases that kinda annoys me, where a band's most popular song is way, way down my list. Start Me Up is another example. There are 50 Stones songs better, but you hear Start Me Up constantly.
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Seger is THAT guy.
The one that, when you mention him, people that grew up in other places (the south) look at you and say "I don't know who that is".
Then you start listing songs they've heard 1000 times.
He did become moderately national and was extremely successful at all levels, but he remained primarily rooted in the midwest in terms of his audience.
In the A2.com story below he talks about the A2 song connections and all the streets he lived on and other A2 stuff including talks with sailing partner Bill Martin to arrange a concert at the Big House, which never came off due to conflicts with his drummer who always tours with Grand Funk in the summers.
But what about a pre-game/post game/halftime show in the fall? He could combine it with this:
"Well, I should say, at least once every two years I go to Ann Arbor. And I love going on a football day, and I go on my motorcycle or something, and see all the U of M regalia everywhere, and go by the Blue Front, and go by the Union, and go by all the places I hung out."
Speaking of Grand Funk Railroad, Bob mentioned living on Packard near the Blue Front. There was an apartment above the BF that I used to hang out at in the early 70's that some U of M hippies lived in when I was a younger teenager, and there was a story that either Grand Funk or Brownsville Station had lived in that apartment, but I can't remember which one.
He also mentions Ralph's Market next to the BF that I remember well. He went to Tappan like Harbaugh and I did. He must have gone to Burns Park like I did also given the streets he lived on like Packard near State, Wellington Ct off of Cambridge, Sheehan.
He lived in 4 places that I lived within a couple of blocks of when I was growing up and moving houses around Burns Park.
I saw a couple of GREAT Seger shows at Cobo, doing Live Bullet and I don't remember the other one. Saw him at Pine Knob too. I remember being really pissed that I skipped the Springsteen show at Crisler after I found out about Bob coming on to sing Thunder Road with Bruce for the encore!
Someone above said that he was never that well known outside the midwest, that's obviously not true just from his record sales and his touring success.
If you read the comments on the WSJ article and on all the pages I link to it's actually quite moving and inspiring to see what a chord he struck with people all over the country from small towns in the south to LA and NYC, and person after person felt he was singing about their own youth and that Mainstreet and Night Moves all took place in their own towns.
He said he wanted to write about growing up in his neck of the woods since no one had before, but in doing so he ended up writing about growing up in everyone's neck of the woods and touched a lot of people pretty deeply by singing about the everyman from the very streets and neighborhood I grew up in and there's something pretty cool about that.
http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/bob-seger-interview/
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1232
http://www.segerfile.com/nmoves.html