Reconnecting with an Old Friend
As a cliche, the phrase "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" may occasionally be true, but most of the time it's just a steaming pile of solid waste. I've particularly found this to be so as I've begun my tenure as your '80s music guide. While fine-tuning my ear to every waking opportunity to listen to '80s music, I've recently become re-enamored with the heartland rock of Bob Seger, for one, and I've noticed that my time away from the singer-songwriter during more than a decade of aural snobbery has only succeeded in denying myself some really premium music.Mere months ago, in fact, at my workplace, I loudly ridiculed Seger's 1980 hit "Against the Wind" for being lyrically simplistic and employing a really lame metaphor. Well, what the hell was I thinking? After listening to the tune several times lately, I realize that it's an existential masterpiece, a meditation on growing old in the face of dreams deferred, and a thoughtful take on the nomadic lifestyle of not only musicians but modern society in general. Yeah, that's right, I was an English major.
Anyway, I'm grateful for every opportunity I get to observe the fact that great music really matters, and I just wanted to share that with an appreciative audience. Thanks for coming out, and drive home safely.
Album Cover Photo Courtesy of Capitol Records
Comments
Seger’s talent and longevity are both underrated. He’s also a great guy, and, apparently, a very dedicated father. I heard a radio interview he did after it was just announced that he was entering the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. The interviewer asked “what are you doing to celebrate tonight?” His reply “homework!” He was helping his kids with their homework – on the day he was inducted into the RnR HOF! What a guy! I’m even more a fan of him now than I was in my teens.
Not so much “growing old in the face of dreams deferred,” I think, as “the emptiness of dreams realized at the cost of everthing else.” Otherwise, right on.
Every time I listen to “Hollywood Nights” while I’m driving, I find myself going about 20mph over the limit.