On my recent drive back from Colorado, I was listening to a stack of old CD mixes that I keep in my pickup. Not remembering what tunes some of them contain, I was pleased and a bit emotional when Roll Me Away, by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, suddenly rose from the aging speakers. Released in 1982, when we lived in Denver full time, it always stirs my feelings for the American West.
Indeed, the song is about choice, desire and the need for change, speaking to the lure of open spaces for many of us who grew up in the industrial Midwest. Of course, reference to the freedom of a young hawk helps to solidify the power of the story.
A music person, I always associate songs with certain periods in my life and Roll Me Away evokes a time when family responsibilities were in a tug of war with personal preferences. Most of us manage to compromise throughout the course of our lives but the flame of truth is never fully extinguished.
