Night Moves (song)
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| “Night Moves” | ||
|---|---|---|
| Single by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band from the album Night Moves |
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| Released | January 1977 | |
| Format | 7-inch | |
| Recorded | Toronto, 1976 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 5:25 | |
| Label | Capitol Records | |
| Writer(s) | Bob Seger | |
| Producer | Jack Richardson | |
"Night Moves" is a song written and performed by heartland rocker Bob Seger, from his 1976 album Night Moves. Released as a single, it charted in early 1977 and eventually reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. In doing so, it almost singlehandedly changed Seger from being a popular regional favorite into a national star. There is a different song with the same title by Marilyn Martin.
[edit] Recording
Seger and the Silver Bullet Band went to Toronto for three days to record a few tracks with The Guess Who's producer Jack Richardson, whose Nimbus 9 Productions company was hot at the time. The band quickly recorded two Seger originals, one of which was "Long Long Gone",[1] 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.[2] Seger said that the song was influenced by Bruce Springsteen's "Jungleland".[3] As the only members of the Silver Bullet Band still in Toronto were the bassist and drummer (plus Seger on acoustic guitar and piano), Richardson recruited local session musicians to play electric guitar and organ.[2]
Richardson said that "the whole arrangement came together in the studio."[2] "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. 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. 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. Then the rest of the instruments fall back in, for an extended coda vamp of the chorus.
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 Punch Andrews had never given "Night Moves" to Capitol, so Richardson did[2] -- and, after hearing it, Capitol made it the title track of Seger's next album, as well as the first single.
Seger remembers the sessions somewhat differently. He claims that it was his decision to use musicians other than his normal band, and that he saw the song as potentially the one that would define his career.[3] However, that appears to be inconsistent with the fact that the song was not submitted to Capitol by Seger and Punch Andrews.
[edit] Critical reaction
Music writer Samuel Delliance of The New York Post wrote in 1977, "'Night Moves' is supposed to take place in Michigan in the early 1960s, but it is timeless and placeless. You can be across the street from Kissena Park in Queens in the early evening with no one in sight and the song will suddenly flood your mind just as it did Seger's." 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." [4]
"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[5], Seger's only such selection.
Within the lyrics of "Night Moves" is a reference to another song: "Started humming a song from 1962". In a radio interview Seger identified the song from 1962 as "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes.
Seger recorded a special version of "Night Moves" for the 1981 animated film American Pop. This version, with Seger's guitar replaced by a piano, has never been released on any album.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Sparling, Scott. "The Seger File: Recorded but Unreleased". Retrieved 15 Nov. 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f Dailey, Dan. 'Bob Seger's "Night Moves"', Mix Magazine, April 2001. Retrieved 15 Nov. 2007.
- ^ a b Black, Johnny. "The Greatest Songs Ever! Night Moves", Blender Magazine, Jan/Feb 2004. Retrieved 15 Nov. 2007.
- ^ Marcus, Greil. Epilogue, Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island; Knopf, 1979. ISBN 03-94508289.
- ^ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "Night Moves".
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