"Against the Wind" by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

Song 34:

"Against the Wind" by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band

Peak: 5

Year: 1980

Year end position: 51

Alphabetical Songs by Artist: 1/15

Chronological Songs by Artist: 7/15

Video?: No

Wikipedia?:  Yes:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_the_Wind_%28Bob_Seger_song%29

Spotify?:  No

Lyrics:  http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobseger/againstthewind.html

For those that don't know me, I am a product of the 1980s, and I grew up in Michigan.  What that means, almost by definition, is that I'm extremely well versed in Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.  Like the artist in the post before this, Bob Seger had 15 top 20 songs, making him a Hall of Fame member.  There are many differences between those two, but one that I'll highlight is that Phil Collins managed to squeeze all of his hits into a ten year span, while Bob stretched his career out a full 19 years (1969 - 1987).  As someone that listened to a lot of classic rock stations, I think I've heard virtually all of his songs roughly 2,658 times.

The bad thing now is that I can't listen to those songs on my Spotify app.  Bob Seger is one of those acts that refuses to license his music to Spotify.  Rolling Stone asked him why in an interview, and his response was, " They agreed to something many years ago about new media and they don’t want to live up to it.".  I have no idea what that means.  He later says he wishes that people could get any song at any time, so that seems to mean a service like Spotify, but I guess he has his reasons, and maybe someday we'll all get to hear his stuff there.  In the mean time, I just forked over about $7.00 to get his greatest hits album on iTunes.  Since he's in the Hall of Fame and all, it seemed like a pretty good value.

For those that remember, this song (as well as many others) were featured in "Forrest Gump".  This seems like as good a time as any to mention how the Oscars nominate Best Original Song Oscars.  In order to qualify for an Oscar, the song can't just be used in the movie, but it has to be specifically written for the movie.  I've heard of some songs that were very obscure and gained prominence because they were featured in a movie, but because they were recorded before the movie was made, they don't count for Oscar consideration.  Therefore, "Against the Wind" couldn't have been nominated for an Oscar even if people thought it was the best song in a movie of all time.  I will admit that it seems to fit in pretty well in "Forrest Gump".

I read the lyrics of this song a number of times, and I'm still a little hazy on just what kind of story it is telling.  As best as I can tell, the first verse is about Bob as a younger man.  He has a girlfriend, and they think that their relationship is going to last forever.  It all seems well and good until the last line of the verse, "Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then."  That maybe the most memorable line in the song, and I read that it was the line that gave Bob Seger the most pause.  He wasn't sure if it made sense grammatically, which I can fully appreciate.  There will be countless songs where the writer has no such reservations.

The second verse sounds like it's years later, and Bob's life seems to have taken a downward turn.  It sounds like he's made a lot of mistakes and he is getting reflective about it.  The last part of the song, he's even older, and he's debating the decisions he needs to make.  In all cases, it seems like "The Wind" is whatever issue he needs to overcome in his life, whether that be the heartbreak of losing a first love or facing the consequences of a life on tour.  That's the best I can come up with for this song.

Honestly, this isn't one of my favorite Bob Seger songs, but that's really a testament to the number of Bob Seger songs that I do like.  This song is a completely adequate early 80s classic rock staple.  It still holds up as many of his songs do.

Just as a bonus, I found out some fun facts about this song that I couldn't really weave into the main part of the blog.  The first is that the Eagles Glenn Frey sings backup on this song.  The second is that this is the first of 19 songs with the word "Wind" in the title.  I didn't include songs like "Wind it Up" or "Long and Winding Road" in that count.  Like I said, fun facts....