Bob Seger Took Six Months To Write ‘Night Moves’ [Video]

Back in 1976, Bob Seger was poised on the brink of superstardom. His Live Bullet album was riding high on the charts, and he knew his next studio album could push him to national prominence.

So he took some time off to write the song that would define his career, 'Night Moves'.

In this fascinating Wall Street Journal article about the creation of his narrative song about summer nights spent making out in the back of a Chevrolet, Seger talks about the true to life origins of the song, and how he borrowed an idea from another '70s super star to finish it.

I had taken some time off the road to write. I had some money from “Live Bullet” so I bought a nice house. Nothing spectacular, but it had a huge basement so the band could play. I wrote my brains out. The one that got me stuck was “Night Moves.” It took me six months to write. I had the ending [“I woke last night to the sound of thunder, how far off I sat and wondered”] but I didn’t know how to get there.

What broke me free was listening to Bruce Springsteen’s album “Born to Run.” On the last song, “Jungleland,” he did the bridge and slowed down the last verse, but it’s not the same chords as the first. Almost like a double bridge. I said, “Wow, OK, that’ll be my structure.”

 

In there is the line, “Started humming a song from 1962.” The song I was thinking about is “Be My Baby,” sung by Ronnie Spector. I always loved her voice.

 

In other Seger news, the veteran rocker was awarded the CMT Award for Performance of the Year at last week's awards show for Turn the Page which he sang with Jason Aldean on CMT Crossroads. Check it out below.