Night Moves (poetry collection)

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Night Moves
Night Moves Pic.jpg
Author Stephanie Barber
CountryUnited States of America
LanguageEnglish
Genrepoetry
Publisher Publishing Genius
Publication date
February 2013
Media typePrint (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-9887503-0-2

Night Moves is a 2013 poetry book by Stephanie Barber which consists of a portion of comments posted to YouTube on the music video of the 1976 song "Night Moves" by Bob Seger. [1] The nostalgic and relatable comments and the large amount of cultural references Barber saw here are compiled in this work of conceptual writing. [2]

Contents

Bob Seger's "Night Moves"

According to Slate, “Night Moves” was a 70s FM radio classic. [3] In an article edited from interviews in The Wall Street Journal, Seger (age 70 at the time) reflects on when he was 30 and wrote “Night Moves” as a reflection on his childhood and coming of age. [4]

Content

The book contains 75 pages worth of comments from the YouTube music video. The majority of these comments are instances of people relating to the song lyrics. Many comments are memories of commenters, such as this one: “Love this song…I remember this song and dancing around singing it, stereo as loud as it would go…” A few times a series of comments appear as a conversation between two listeners, more often than not arguing about music. For example, one commenter wrote, “You claim this song is boring but I think what you are missing is that it is a “Mood” song. It might not have interesting melodies and chord changes but to Add these you would Subtract from the “Mood.” Some of the best songs are the simplest and this you do not understand.” [5] Another disagreement ensues when one commenter states that they are a rapper and other commenters attack the original commenter’s career, claiming that being a rapper is a sad excuse for a career. [6]

As cultural references go, many commenters mention what brought them to find the song on YouTube. These references include the television programs How I Met Your Mother , That '70s Show , Top Gear , and the video game Grand Theft Auto V . There was also a one-line parody of the song featured in 30 Rock , remaking the main chorus phrase to be "Workin' on my night cheese..." instead of the original, "Workin' on my night moves...". [7]

Reception

According to a review by Barrett Warner, Barber’s work transformed a common 2013 discussion on YouTube into something much more romanticized and cryptic at times. However, in the same review, Warner touches upon how Barber’s book promotes poetry that is more about the big picture or the extended metaphor, than an actual concrete narrative. [8] and of the ability of people to connect through music, there have been some critics of the form of the work, specifically the fact that it is simply copy-and-pasted and that is uncreative. Another discussion of the book remarks that while Night Moves is a conceptual book, it is not only conceptual. [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>Live Bullet</i> 1976 live album by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

‘Live’ Bullet is a live album by American rock band Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, released in April 1976. It was recorded at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan, during the heyday of that arena's time as an important rock concert venue. The album is credited, along with Night Moves, with launching Seger's mainstream popularity.

Bob Seger American singer-songwriter

Robert Clark Seger is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, breaking through with his first album, Ramblin' Gamblin' Man in 1968. By the early 1970s, he had dropped the 'System' from his recordings and continued to strive for broader success with various other bands. In 1973, he put together the Silver Bullet Band, with a group of Detroit-area musicians, with whom he became most successful on the national level with the album Live Bullet (1976), recorded live with the Silver Bullet Band in 1975 at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan. In 1976, he achieved a national breakout with the studio album Night Moves. On his studio albums, he also worked extensively with the Alabama-based Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, which appeared on several of Seger's best-selling singles and albums.

<i>Night Moves</i> (album) 1976 studio album by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band

Night Moves is the ninth studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bob Seger, and his first studio album to credit the Silver Bullet Band. The album was released by Capitol Records on October 22, 1976. Although the front cover only credits backing by the Silver Bullet Band, four of the nine songs on the album feature backing by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

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References