I imagine a lonely train rolling through a rural landscape on a summer night, a starry sky, a warm breeze rustling through the tall grassy fields and treetops. It's very peaceful, this setting. A landscape of porch swings and fireflies. OK, here's a specific image: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the place in Indiana where the little kid Barry lives with his Mom, and he's running off into the woods and the breeze is blowing through the curtains of the farmhouse. And then he makes it to the road and the older guy is sitting there whistling 'She'll be Comin Round the Mountain.' Just like that. Or the movie Hoosiers.
Night Moves tells the story of an adolescent love affair from an older man's perspective. The nostalgia of carefree wonder. It is an American classic, completely full of American imagery. And these last lines are the ones that make it so special:
I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered
Started humming a song from 1962
Ain't it funny how the night moves
When you just don't seem to have as much to lose
Strange how the night moves
With autumn closing in
So quiet and calm, and the vision it creates: thunder off in the distance, wondering how far away it is, humming an old song, a magical time and place that your mind can go to every now and then.
Great piano from Doug Riley. I also love the backing vocals, especially during the fade out, of Sharon Lee Williams, Rhonda Silver, and Laurel Ward. And Bob Seger's vocals are so rough, man I really thought he was an old guy when I'd hear this song as a kid from the back seat of the station wagon.
It's a nice way to bring September to a close.
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