Night Moves (Bob Seger song)

"Night Moves" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger. It was the lead single from his ninth studio album of the same name (1976), which was released on Capitol Records. Seger wrote the song as a coming of age tale about adolescent love and adult memory of it. It was based on Seger's own teenage love affair he experienced in the early 1960s. It took him six months to write and was recorded quickly at Nimbus Nine Studios in Toronto, Ontario, with producer Jack Richardson. As much of Seger's Silver Bullet Band had returned home by this point, the song was recorded with several local session musicians.

"Night Moves"
Picture sleeve for the 1976 German single
Single by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
from the album Night Moves
B-side"Ship of Fools"
ReleasedDecember 1976 (1976-12)
Recorded
Genre
Length5:25 (album version)
3:20 (single version)
LabelCapitol
Songwriter(s)Bob Seger
Producer(s)
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band singles chronology
"Nutbush City Limits"
(1976)		 "Night Moves"
(1976)		 "The Fire Down Below"
(1977)
Alternative release
Side A of the 1976 US single

Released as a single in December 1976, it reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Seger's first hit single since "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" from 1969. It also charted at number five in Canada and was a top 25 hit in Australia. The song was responsible for changing Seger from being a popular regional favorite into a national star.

Background

"Night Moves" has roots in Seger's adolescence; he wrote the song in an attempt to capture the "freedom and looseness" he experienced during that period of his life. At a certain point, he began socializing with a rougher crowd, who thought he was cool because he played music.[2] The song's contents are largely autobiographical; for example, the group of friends would often hold parties they called "grassers", which involved going to a farmer's field outside Ann Arbor to dance.[3] Through these, he met a woman—credited as Rene Andretti in the Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings—whose boyfriend was in the military and was away.[4] "It's about this dark haired Italian girl that I went out with when I was 19, she was one year older than me," he later recalled.[5] Seger promptly pursued a romantic relationship with the girl, but eventually her partner returned and they married, leaving Seger with a broken heart.[6] Seger later told journalist Timothy White that many of his early songs were written to impress the girl.[7]

The song took Seger over six months to complete writing. He had recently purchased a house due to the success of his first live album, Live Bullet, and he and the band would write and practice in its large basement. The ending lyrics were written first.[3] The use of descriptive imagery was inspired by Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee” (1969), a song that Seger loved and which motivated him as he was developing his writing style. The catalyst for writing "Night Moves" came after Seger saw the 1973 film American Graffiti: "I came out of the theater thinking, ‘Hey, I've got a story to tell, too! Nobody has ever told about how it was to grow up in my neck of the woods.'"[2] Seger was inspired by the film's depictions of early 1960s car culture, of which he was a part.[3] A 1996 article in The Detroit News claims that Seger wrote portions of the song while at an A&W drive-in restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[8] Seger was inspired by the example of Bruce Springsteen's "Jungleland" to include two bridges in "Night Moves."[9]

Recording and production

"Night Moves" was recorded at Nimbus Nine Studios in Toronto, Ontario. Seger and the Silver Bullet Band had gone there for three days to record a few tracks with The Guess Who's producer Jack Richardson at the request of Seger's manager, who wanted him to produce a more "commercial" song. The band quickly recorded two Seger originals and a cover of the Motown hit "My World Is Empty Without You", but before Seger left on the third day, he composed a fourth song to record. He had been "waiting on the right moment" to record "Night Moves", as he feared a saxophone, performed by Alto Reed, wouldn't complement it, and that lead guitarist Drew Abbott's playing would not be satisfactory.[3] Richardson remembered Seger first playing the song at a piano in his office, though Seger did not feel it was good enough to record.[2] Seger instead remembered that Richardson was not sold on the song at first.[5] As the only members of the Silver Bullet Band still in Toronto were the bassist and drummer, Charlie Martin (plus Seger on acoustic guitar and piano), Richardson recruited local session musicians to play electric guitar and organ, while Sharon Lee Williams, Rhonda Silver and Laurel Ward sang the song's trademark backing vocals.[2]

The song was completed in fewer than ten takes, with the session dispersing momentarily to record the bridge section that consisted solely of Seger and a guitar.[2] Paul Cotton of Poco was brought in to record a guitar solo that was later edited out, though the last notes of it are faintly audible preceding the last verse.[3] The team stayed at the studio until 2:30 in the morning to get the song right.[4] After the tracks were mixed by Richardson and engineer Brian Christian, Richardson said that he received a call from Seger's manager/producer Punch Andrews expressing dissatisfaction with the tracks, and Andrews said that Capitol Records had been equally disappointed.[2] A few months later, when Richardson was talking to a Capitol A&R executive, he asked about the Seger sessions and was told that "both tracks" were potential B-sides.[2] It turned out that Seger and Andrews had never given "Night Moves" to Capitol, so Richardson did and, after hearing it, Capitol made it the title track of Seger's next album, as well as the first single.[2]

Composition
"I really liked the title because it was two-edged. It had a duality to it. “Workin’ on our night moves”—our moves with girls—and “Ain’t it funny how the night moves”—what you remember as you’re getting older."

—Seger in 2015 reflecting on the song[3]

"Night Moves" is a mid-tempo number that starts quietly with acoustic guitar. Bass guitar and drums are introduced as the song's setting is described: 1962, cornfields, '60 Chevy. While Seger actually owned a 1962 Chevy, he felt "'60s" flowed better in the song.[3] Seger uses the word "points" in verse one to reference his pointed boots and his love interests' breasts.[3] An intense summertime teenage affair is described, knowingly more sexual than romantic, with short instrumental lines breaking the evocative imagery, sometimes in mid-sentence. Piano, female backing vocals, electric guitar and organ are added as the song's emotional nostalgia builds momentum. Then suddenly it stops, as the narrative flashes forward to some period in the future, where he hums a song from 1962. Seger has claimed in interviews that he was referencing the song "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes, though that song was actually released one year later.[10] To a quiet acoustic guitar, the narrator, awakened by a clap of thunder and unable to fall back asleep, ponders a different sense of the title phrase. Seger said this passage was inspired by late-night self-analysis and "the uncertainty night represents": "I was thinking about the whole aura of nighttime, the four o'clock in the morning moment when you assess yourself, check your weaknesses."[11] Then the rest of the instruments fall back in, for an extended coda vamp of the chorus.

Richardson said that "the whole arrangement came together in the studio."[2] The decision for an unusual bridge (consisting of three separate movements) was inspired by the Bruce Springsteen song "Jungleland". He credited that song, in addition to the Born to Run album, with helping him complete the song: "He had like a multiple bridge, he had various different things going on, and I thought to myself, 'That's how I'll finish 'Night Moves.'"[5][12]

To Rolling Stone Magazine critic Dave Marsh the coda after the false ending takes the song beyond the realm of nostalgia to turn it into a complete story covering both the past and the present. According to Marsh the song could be "about the sexual discovery embodied in the verses, or about the sense of loss and nostalgia captured in its coda. Or you could say that the Bob Seger story really took place in the long silence between them, from the moment he began to play to the moment, fifteen years later, when he was finally widely heard."[13] Marsh also states that the characters in "Night Moves" are more realistic than those in American Graffiti in that the characters in "Night Moves" don't pretend to expect fidelity when pursuing sex, and that the coda reveals how "trivial such a crucial moment" becomes years later.[14]

Chart performance

"Night Moves" was a commercial success in the United States. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of December 11, 1976 at number 85,[15] gradually rising over the ensuing weeks to a peak of number four on March 12, 1977,[16] a position it held for two weeks.[17] In total, it spent 21 weeks on the chart.[16] In Canada, the song debuted on RPM's Top Singles chart at number 93 in the issue dated December 18, 1976,[18] eventually rising over the course of twelve weeks to a peak of number five on March 12, 1977.[19]

The song also charted in Australasian territories: in Australia, it peaked at number 25 on the national charts,[20] and in New Zealand, it reached a peak of number 39.[21] The song did not chart in the United Kingdom until 1995, when it peaked at a position of 45 on April 30, 1995.[22]

Reception

"Night Moves" received critical acclaim. Timothy White of Crawdaddy! felt "the genius of the song [...] is the way Seger changes the meaning of the phrase 'night moves,' from a reference to making out, to a comment on the passage of time."[11] Billboard described "Night Moves" as having a similar feel and theme to Van Morrison's "Wild Night," stating that the theme was "the earthy yearnings of adolescence" and saying that Seger matched Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart in vocal expressiveness.[23] In his 1979 volume Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island, famed rock critic Greil Marcus selected the single "Night Moves" for inclusion on same, writing simply: "The mystic chords of memory." [24] Paul Evans, in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, writes: "[It] is not only Seger's best song, but one of rock's most moving exercises in elegy."[25]

Seger, for his part, has claimed that "Night Moves" is his favorite song he ever wrote, and that he continued to try and replicate it years afterward.[26]

Accolades

"Night Moves" was named by Rolling Stone as Best Single of the Year for 1977. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll,[27] Seger's only such selection.

Music video

Filmmaker Gary Weis produced an unofficial music video for "Night Moves" that aired on Saturday Night Live in January 1977.

In 1994, nearly 20 years after the original song was released, an official accompanying music video was released.[28] Directed by Wayne Isham, it was set in a drive-in movie theater in the early 1960s; it interspersed footage of Seger performing in a present-day version of the drive-in (seemingly, now abandoned) with various vignettes featuring characters described in the song. Matt LeBlanc, a friend of Isham's, was in the starring role, prior to his debut in Friends; he later claimed that he was drunk through the whole video, having shared a bottle of tequila with Seger in the musician's motorhome immediately before the shoot.[29] Also featured in the video was Daphne Zuniga of Melrose Place. In the video, Zuniga's dark, edgy young woman becomes an object of visual fascination for LeBlanc's clean-cut young man. Johnny Galecki and Natasha Gregson Wagner also appear in the video as a young couple.

Chart history
Chart (1995) Peak
position
UK Singles (OCC)[22] 45

Notes

    References
    1. "Sound Familiar? 10 Famous Cameos That May Surprise You - 60s and 70s Pop - Oldies Music". May 26, 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-05-26.
    2. Dan Dailey (April 2001). "Bob Seger's "Night Moves"". Mix Magazine. Retrieved November 15, 2007.
    3. John Jurgensen (May 19, 2015). "Creating Bob Seger's 'Night Moves'". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 22, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
    4. Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 1. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0810882959.
    5. Seger, Bob. "Bob Seger Interview". In the Studio with Redbeard (Interview). Interviewed by Redbeard. Dallas, Texas. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
    6. Graff, Gary (October 19, 1994). "Rocker Tells the Stories Behind the Hits". Detroit Free Press. p. 3–C. Retrieved 2018-10-11 – via newspapers.com.
    7. Paul Grein (1992). Capitol Records Fiftieth Anniversary, 1942-1992. Capitol Records.
    8. David Shepardson (February 6, 1996). "Seger's 'Night Moves' hangout is history". The Detroit News.
    9. Sharp, Ken (September 10, 2018). "How Bob Seger Changed The Face Of American Music". Future Publishing Limited Quay House. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
    10. "Rolling Stone Fact-Checks Famous Rock Songs: Bob Seger – 'Night Moves'". Rolling Stone. February 23, 2011. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
    11. Timothy White (November 1977). "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Rocker". Crawdaddy!.
    12. Black, Johnny. "The Greatest Songs Ever! Night Moves" Archived 2007-10-13 at the Wayback Machine, Blender, January/February 2004. Retrieved November 15, 2007.
    13. Marsh, Dave (June 15, 1978). "Bob Seger: Not a Stranger Anymore". Rolling Stone Magazine. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
    14. Marsh, Dave (1999). The Heart of Rock and Soul. Da Capo Press. pp. 316–317. ISBN 9780306809019.
    15. "Music: Top 100 Songs — December 11, 1976". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media.
    16. "Bob Seger Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
    17. "Music: Top 100 Songs — March 19, 1977". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media.
    18. "RPM: Top Singles". RPM. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada. 26 (12). December 18, 1976. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 10, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
    19. "RPM: Top Singles" (PDF). RPM. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada. 26 (24). March 12, 1977. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
    20. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
    21. "Charts.nz – Bob Seger – Night Moves". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
    22. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
    23. "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard. December 4, 1976. p. 59. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
    24. Marcus, Greil. Epilogue, Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island; Knopf, 1979. ISBN 0-394-50828-9.
    25. Nathan Brackett (ed.) (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Fireside. ISBN 978-0743201698.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
    26. Timothy White (April 1983). "The Roads Not Taken". Musician.
    27. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "Night Moves" Archived 2006-11-18 at the Wayback Machine.
    28. "Bob Seger - "Night moves"". mvdbase.com. Retrieved 2011-06-23.
    29. Top Gear 18x02, 5th February 2012
    30. "Top 200 Singles of '77 – Volume 28, No. 14, December 31 1977". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. 2013-07-17. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
    31. Musicoutfitters.com
    32. "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 31, 1977". Archived from the original on October 20, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
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