“Like Darren McGavin when he won the leg lamp in the epic holiday film A Christmas Story, I am elated!” says Dave Bonko, the lucky winner of our Bob Seger giveaway contest. Bonko will receive Seger’s entire catalog on CD; we’re jealous.
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We asked the contestants to tell us what their favorite Seger song or album was. Read Bonko’s answer below. Thanks to all our entrants for their great replies.
— My favorite Bob Seger album is Against the Wind for it served as the soundtrack of my high school senior year. However, one song, in particular, holds the most personal reverence. “No Man’s Land.” It’s the spring of 1980 and I was in the final semester of my high school senior year. Angst and fear along with a shot of relief and youthful cockiness pretty much defined the aura and attitudes of my cornfield kegger buddies and I. As graduation day approached, the realization that it was time for this train known as high school to leave its safe, suburban station really started to hit. OK then…college. What’s that all about? Moving away from home, away from a number of very close friends who defined who you are…total late teen uncertainty. It was probably mid-April when I seriously listened to the last verse and things became much clearer.
“And so it seems our destiny/ To search and never rest/ To ride that ever changing wave/ That never seems to crest/ To shiver in the darkest night/ Afraid to make a stand/ And then go back and do our time Out there in no man’s land.” It was like Reverend Robert was saying, “Hey kid. It’s the ride, not the destination, that counts. Society says you’re old enough to ride…so get your confused arse on board.”
The song’s lyrics combined w/a simple, yet powerful chord structure (nothing says desperate and urgent like an Am played at the end of a line) combined to create a philosophical masterpiece that helped to guide a very confused, yet eager young man.
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