ALBUM: Night Moves (1976)
MVC RATING: 4.5/$$$$
Night Moves, the song and the album, was along with the Eagle’s Hotel California, ubiquitous on FM radio in the late 1970s. They fell full square in my high school days.
The songs bring back memories of weekends, cruising and boys looking for girls; where the only future was ‘later that night.’ You could throw Springsteen in there as well with ‘Born to Run.’ Although Springsteen seemed to come out of nowhere at that time whereas Seger and the Eagles were much more of a known quantity.
I recently saw ‘Night Moves’ on eBay going for $90-plus and it reminded me I have that album somewhere. (At my first record convention a year ago, I sold my Hotel California for $20 (It was in Near Mint condition and had the poster). I still have Seger and Springsteen. And that’s fitting because they were the closer aligned. Both had gravelly, powerful voices and wrote rock and roll epics; The kind of story-songs that help you visualize your nostalgic memories. Springsteen edges Seger in lyrics category but Seger dropped some fine lines.
From Night Moves: I woke last night to the sound of thunder/How far off I sat and wondered/Started singing a song from 1962/Ain’t it funny how the night moves.
The album gets a high rating from me because it is strong all the way through with ‘Mainstreet, ‘Rock and Roll Never Forgets,’ and the ‘Fire Down Below,’ to name a few.
Oh, and Night Moves album for sale on eBay was well above what I saw elsewhere. It generally seems to be worth between $15 to $35 depending on condition.