My love affair with music began at a very early age---5
years old to be exact. It’s because of both my parents that I love music as
much as I do. My father amassed a vinyl record collection of more than 1500
albums. As a teen, I would sit and stare at my father’s collection for hours,
wondering how anyone could obtain such an enormous music collection. And I was
envious. I wanted to hold a collection like that when I was older. I wanted to
have a collection even larger than my Dad’s.
My mother played the radio constantly. She also had her
favorite bands and performers that she exposed to me growing up. Paul Revere
and the Raiders were Mom’s favorite band, so I learned a lot about 60s pop
through her. She also loved Fleetwood Mac and Patsy Cline and through her I
grew an appreciation for country music. And then there was one performer in
particular that she exposed me to very early on in my life and that was Bob
Seger.
When I was 5 years old, my mother started playing her
copy of Night Moves on our old 8 track
stereo. We would listen to it while she made dinner, or before bed, or whenever
we were just sitting around. When I first heard this delicious melodic folk
rock, I fell in love. Rock and Roll Never
Forgets was an awesome rocker, and as a kid, I could run around “dancing”
and being silly to this song and it was enjoyed by everyone. I was the life of
the party and getting attention! And what kid doesn’t love getting attention?
I also determined in my youthful mind that there was
something about these songs, the band, the singer, and the music. The way
everything blended to create a feeling of euphoria was an amazing experience,
especially to an impressionable young boy. The hard rock opening of “Rock and
Roll Never Forgets.” The slow acoustic intro of “Night Moves.” The bopping folk
rock of “Mary Lou.” It was all so fascinating and mesmerizing.
Night Moves
became my new addiction. At first, I would ask Mom to play it if we were out in
the car, or if we were home in the evening with no one watching television.
Then I would ask her to play it in the afternoon before I went to school (PM
kindergarten for me). Then I would ask her to play it in the morning when she
woke up. Eventually, I would knock on her door and ask her to play it myself. I
already knew how to use the 8-track player from watching Mom do it so many
times.
When she requested I watch Sesame Street instead, I
scoffed at the notion. I wanted to hear some good old rock and roll not a bird
and a furry elephant singing kids songs. Bring me the rock! I would persist and
my mother would usually lament. There’s something to be said for bothering your
parents at 6 in the morning. I would pop Night
Moves into the old 8-track stereo and let her rip. It was heavenly.
We would bring Night
Moves on road trips with us and listen to it in the car. I just couldn’t
get enough of that album. One weekend we took a road trip to my Grandparents
house where I was dropped off along with my sister to stay for a couple of
days. Somehow, Night Moves got left
in the back seat of the car in the hot, hot sun. When I climbed back into the
car that Sunday for the ride home I asked to listen to Night Moves once again. I was informed that we couldn’t. The
8-track had warped and we were no longer able to listen to that album. Warped?
How did this happen? How could this be allowed? Where was my Night Moves?
That ended 5 year old Ryo Vie’s intense affair with Night Moves. It would only be a matter
of time before my new obsession would strike, which ended up being Billy Joel’s
The Stranger, but that is a
reflection for another day. On that particular Sunday, I was mourning the loss
of Night Moves being laid to rest.
But like Bob sang, rock and roll never forgets.
As the years rolled by, Bob Seger would fall off my radar
for a while as I explored other avenues of music from bubble gum pop to death
metal. I tried all types of music across the spectrum and eventually Night Moves crept back into my life. I
was a teenager reconnecting with some lost classics while learning classic artists
for the first time in my life. Born To
Run, Bat Out Of Hell, and Rumors, were being discovered and/or
rediscovered and really picked apart.
As a teenager, I spent a lot of time in my room, sitting
in the dark, sneaking cigarettes out the window, and listening to music. I
would find a particular album and play it over and over again, analyzing the
songs, dissecting the lyrics, and looking for deeper meaning in the art as well
as my life. I was a dreamer as a teenager, always pondering my plight and
wondering where everything was going to lead me. I used music a lot as my guide
and my muse.
Night Moves got
a lot of play during this teenage journey of discovery. I used Bob Seger’s
stories through songs to analyze my life and understand the bigger picture of
the world that was out there. Particularly the title song. Seger’s portrayal of
himself and his beautiful love to open the song caught my teenage ears in a way
that 5 year old me did not understand. Two restless souls just using each other
for sexual gratitude and passing the time was something that I related to at 15
years old. I certainly didn’t understand the opposite sex well and I didn’t
know how to have a serious relationship, but I could imagine a “Night Moves”
scenario. And I was able to meet girls who could imagine the same.
“Sunspot Baby” was another fun song that I enjoyed as a
teenager. This was a blues rocking song that I just loved because of the piano
riffs and the lyrics. Heartache and love lost while trying to chase down the
woman who left you just to figure out why was a captivating story to a teenage
boy who had yet to live that sort of thing. And as a bonus, whenever I could
listen to this song with my dad, he would crank it to ten and we would rock out
together. “Sunspot baby! I’m gonna catch up somtime!”
Deep down that is the biggest reason that Night Moves will always hold a special
place in my heart. It’s one of the few albums that I would listen to with both
my mother and father and enjoy it with them on a deeper level. With my mother,
I just wore out as a kid, and we still joke about the warped 8-track to this
day. With my father, we would just rock out to several songs on the album and
be amazed at how great the record is. There are very few albums that share a
link between me and both of my parents, but Night
Moves is one of them.
When I was in my first marriage and going through a tough
time deciding on what I wanted to do, I rediscovered Night Moves for the third time. I was in my early 20s by then and
the songs on Night Moves presented an
even deeper meaning in my life. Like Springsteen’s Born To Run, Night Moves
is filled with stories of dreamers longing to get away or reflecting on their
past. The protagonists in the songs are asking themselves, “Did I do everything
that I could? Was my life better in the past than it is now?” Those reflections
and search of self were very relevant to me in my early 20s. I had gotten
married way too young and I was at a point in my life where I was wondering
constantly if this was all that life had to offer. If it was, I wasn’t too fond
of it and I knew that things had to change. I spent many nights listening to Night Moves over and over again,
contemplating my life and wondering what had to be done. Night Moves was a comfort because it was my link to the past, my
link to both my parents, and my link to understanding and self-discovery at
three major points in my life.
The album was there to bring me joy through the initial
phase of my life when I was hearing music for the first time. It was there to
bring me comfort as a teenager while I tried to learn my place in the world.
And it was there to center me in my 20s as I tried to figure out what I wanted
to do with my life. I would always have Night
Moves to fall back on and it was nice to know that the album was never
going away.
Regretfully, I’ve never seen Bob Seger in concert. I wish
that I had. I can only imagine that he puts on one heck of a show. And any
songs played from Night Moves would
give me fits of euphoria and glee because that album meant so much to me
growing up. I still pull it out every once in a while and play it a couple of
times through. And every time I hear the opening notes of “Rock and Roll Never
Forgets” a big smile comes across my face. The sweet memories of music from
another time in my life. Music that shaped me. Music that changed me. Music
that meant the world to me. I’ll never forget either, Mr. Seger. Night Moves will always hold a special
place in my heart.
