* Against the Wind - Bob Seger (song 9)

Bob Seger started off as a Michigan garage rocker with a band trio called the Decibels. Bob Seger has a distinct American sound and maybe a poster child for something that I call Americana rock. He is definately a blue collar musician who sings about the common man. Against the Wind became Seger's first number one album in 1980. This poor man has gone through a million and one bands. Is he hard to work with or does everyone he hooks up with fizzle out on him? Something to explore I guess. After the Decibels he was involved with the Town Criers, Doug Brown and the Omes, the Beach Bums, solo stuff, Silver Bullet Band, and then more solo stuff. His latest album was released in 2006 and is called Face the Promise.

A song about turning against the grain of life, and to use the metaphor swimming upstream says it all. Sometimes in life people choose the more difficult path of hard knocks. However, on that path we get some of our best life lessons and experiences. Many a songs and even a music genre or two have come from the path of hard knocks.

This song gets me thinking about how hard my life has been at times. I was thrown a lot of roadblocks in my young life and I guess the easy path would have been to accept the hand that was delt to me and to be happy with that. My internal operating system doesn't allow for me to work that way. I saw a challenge and thus found a way to win. The path to success is a narrow one, while the road to folding is wide and heavily used. What I am saying is that sometimes you need to go against the wind. This song is a constant reminder to me that I need to keep challenging myself and not to become complacid.

This gentle song with it's gradual beat gets my musical pulse in rhythm. I really like the lyrics. Bob Seger in the liner notes states that he never liked the line "Wish I didn't knoe now what I didn't know then" and it bothered him for a long time. However, everyone that he ever talked to about it loved the line. Thus, he left it in the song. The original thought was to have a piano solo. Glenn Frey of the Eagles had an idea that Drew Abbott, the guitarist, should play along with the piano solo. Bob Seger and Glenn Frey then sang the background vocals together. "Well those drifter days are past me now" really hits home. Great lines throughout. At the end of the song you will hear the line "Let the cowboys ride!" This line sets for me a strong punctuation to the end of a great song.

It seems like yesterday
But it was long ago
Janey was lovely she was the queen of my nights
There in the darkness with the radio playing low
And the secrets that we shared
The mountains that we moved
Caught like a wildfire out of control
'Til there was nothing left to burn and nothing left to prove
And I remember what she said to me
How she swore that it never would end
I remember how she held me oh so tight
Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then

Against the wind
We were runnin' against the wind
We were young and strong, we were runnin'
Against the wind

The years rolled slowly past
And I found myself alone
Surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends
I found myself further and further from my home
And I guess I lost my way
There were oh so many roads
I was living to run and running to live
Never worryied about paying or even how much I owed
Moving eight miles a minute for months at a time
Breaking all of the rules that would bend
I began to find myself searching
Searching for shelter again and again

Against the wind
A little something against the wind
I found myself seeking shelter sgainst the wind

Well those drifter's days are past me now
I've got so much more to think about
Deadlines and commitments
What to leave in, what to leave out

Against the wind
I'm still runnin' against the wind
I'm older now but still runnin' against the wind
Well I'm older now and still runnin'
Against the wind
Against the wind
Against the wind

Still runnin'
I'm still runnin' against the wind
I'm still runnin'
I'm still runnin' against the wind
Still runnin'
Runnin' against the wind
Runnin' against the wind
See the young man run
Watch the young man run
Watch the young man runnin'
He'll be runnin' against the wind
Let the cowboys ride
Let the cowboys ride
They'll be ridin' against the wind
Against the wind ...