Record #154: Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Night Moves (1976)

If you can’t stand Pink, Katy Perry, Colbie Collette, modern rock, or CCM and want some decent music in my town, there are only two radio stations to turn to in my town: unsurprisingly, they are both classic rock/oldies stations. And as such, one thing is for sure: they play a LOT of Bob Seger. Just how much Bob Seger wasn’t revealed to me until a few months ago when I got Shazam and realized how many of the songs on their rotation were his.

Even more surprising was how good all of those songs were. Rock and Roll Never Forgets is an undisputed radio classic, causing very few to change the station saying, “oh no, not this song.” Mainstreet is an all-American rock ballad if there ever was one. The title track is a Homeric epic of wasted youth that, when it catches me in the mood, will make me cry. Because let’s be honest: who can’t relate with lines like “I used her and she used me, but neither one cared” or “trying to lose our awkward teenage blues.”

While there’s nothing that reaches the same peak as Night Moves (either on the record or in much of recorded music), every song on the radio would sound at home on classic rock radio, like Fire Down Below with its rocking, bellowing blues. A classic record by a legend in his own right.