These three rock songs from the 1970s below are great no matter what age you are when you hear them, but they are especially stunning when you’re old enough to understand them fully. The messages within them only get better as they age. Every year, listening to these hits becomes a new experience.
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“Landslide” — Fleetwood Mac
“Landslide” is about facing life’s changes head-on. That’s an evergreen message. The thing about life is that it never stops changing and never stops challenging you. That makes the need for this rock song ever-present.
When you’re younger, this song feels distant. It’s stunning always, sure, but the topics covered in the lyrics aren’t in your bones yet. As you age, you start to really hone in on what Stevie Nicks is singing about. The lines, “Well, I’ve been ‘fraid of changin’ / ‘Cause I’ve built my life around you / But time makes you bolder / Even children get older,” become all the more pertinent to everyday life.
“Night Moves” — Bob Seger
Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” is youth incarnate. When you’re young, it feels like the heartland rock icon has an intimate look into your life. When you’re older, this song feels like flipping through a photo book, remembering a time gone by.
“I woke last night to the sound of thunder / “How far off?” I sat and wondered / Started humming a song from 1962 / Ain’t it funny how the night moves,” the lyrics to the bridge read. That sense of intruding nostalgia is a frequent feeling in adulthood. This song is the perfect tonic for it; the sense that everyone feels the ills of growing up and leaving youth behind.
“Running On Empty” — Jackson Browne
Though this Jackson Browne staple is about life on the road, the exhaustion in these lyrics is familiar to most. “Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive / Trying not to confuse it with what you do to survive,” the lyrics read, dictating the ways life can bog you down. There is plenty to relate to here for any listener, not just those who know the pain of a touring lifestyle.
This is a song we can turn to again and again whenever we need a reminder that we all experience moments of just trudging along.
(Photo by Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
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