Night Moves
There’s a reason why the characters in the song never quite do it
Is America, also, fated to end in the middle, undone by the contradictions of adulthood?
Love doth fade, and so doth beauty. But there still ain’t nothin’ like a fine Segar.
In late 2019 I was feeling a bit bored with whatever was playing in the car, and my mind settled on Bob Seger. After a quick search on Apple Music, “Night Moves” filled the space in my gray Dodge Journey. The song wasn’t new to me, but after the fadeout, I played it again. And again. For weeks afterward, I listened to “Night Moves” over and over, an obsessive and mysterious journey down a rabbit hole I didn’t understand. I’d known the chords of the song since I was a teenager. But my new obsession with “Night Moves” was far different than anything I’d ever encountered. If I had something to learn from Seger’s song, the message wasn’t at all clear, and I had no idea as to how I might articulate where it was taking me. Seger begins his story with a clearly identified first-person narrator: “I was a little too tall, could’ve used a few pounds.” And later, the wistful singer tells the listener, with some finality, that autumn is closing in. After “Night Moves” gets to the bridge …
