Mark Rutano

Was it the smooth guitar, the slightly raspy country boy vocals or was it the sexually adventurous lyrics of Bob Seger’s Night Moves that helped him reach national recognition in the United States 1976? His back-to-back releases of the albums Live Bullet and Night Moves brought him the fame a recognition he deserved in the ‘70s. Making music for over four decades, Bob Seger was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Bob Seger is currently touring for the last time with the Silver Bullet band that has been with him throughout his Rock ‘n’ Roll career.

Night Moves’ headline song featured the name and was the song of the young, wild and free in the time of its creation. It spoke of a forbidden love, a secret encounter, a couple of teenagers working on their night moves. This song tells a story of two teenagers sneaking away into the woods in the summertime one a one time encounter. It was the song you could not play with your parents around, but could not turn off when they were not.

We were just young and restless and bored

Livin’ by the sword

And we’d steal away every chance we could

To the backroom, to the alley or the trusty woods

I used her, she used me

But neither one cared

We were gettin’ our share

Workin’ on our night moves

Although it was very apparent that the song was about a sexual encounter, Bob Seger has said that the inspiration for this song came from a personal experience. The young Seger was in love with a beautiful Italian girl, in his younger years, and they ran away in his chevy to work on some night moves. His heart was later broken by this woman when she married her man that returned after serving in the military for a few years. Night Moves was the perfect song to inspire young adults during the peak of the sexual revolution. It was rock music, the music of the young rebels. It spoke of forbidden sexual relations, the actions of rebellious free loving youth. It declared freedom against conservative america.