Such is the case with the song, "Like a Rock," by Bob Segar. It was recorded in May 1986 and hit #1 on the music charts. In perhaps one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history, Chevrolet used the song, "Like a Rock" to sell many, many pick-up trucks. In fact, when I hear this song, I think of watching a football game on TV and the commercial comes on. In my memory, I can hear "Like a Rock" playing and see dirty pickup trucks driven by cowboys bouncing down dusty gravel roads or Chevy trucks at a construction site being loaded by guys with hard hats. Sadly, the Chevy commercial is the first thought that comes to mind.
According to Wikipedia, Bob Seger said the following regarding the inspiration of the song: "it was inspired partly by the end of a relationship I had that had lasted for 11 years. You wonder where all that time went. But beyond that, it expresses my feeling that the best years of your life are in your late teens when you have no special commitments and no career. It's your last blast of fun before heading into the cruel world."
Just read the lyrics:
Stood there boldly
Sweatin' in the sun
Felt like a million
Felt like number one
The height of summer
I'd never felt that strong
Like a rock
I was eighteen
Didn't have a care
Working for peanuts
Not a dime to spare
But I was lean and
Solid everywhere
Like a rock
My hands were steady
My eyes were clear and bright
My walk had purpose
My steps were quick and light
And I held firmly
To what I felt was right
Like a rock
Like a rock, I was strong as I could be
Like a rock, nothin' ever got to me
Like a rock, I was something to see
Like a rock
And I stood arrow straight
Unencumbered by the weight
Of all these hustlers and their schemes
I stood proud, I stood tall
High above it all
I still believed in my dreams
Twenty years now
Where'd they go?
Twenty years
I don't know
Sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they've gone
And sometimes late at night
When I'm bathed in the firelight
The moon comes callin' a ghostly white
And I recall
I recall
Like a rock. standin' arrow straight
Like a rock, chargin' from the gate
Like a rock, carryin' the weight
Like a rock
Like a rock, the sun upon my skin
Like a rock, hard against the wind
Like a rock, I see myself again
Like a rock
The songwriter draws a picture of youth. Strong. Lean. Invincible. Bulletproof. It reminds me of the way I felt in high school, thinking the world was my oyster. Running around with my friends, playing football, listening to music in my truck. Eager, wide-eyed with anticipation about what life had in store. With a few miles on my odometer now (to use an appropriate Chevrolet metaphor), I realize that a whole lot of the emotion in that song is illusory. While we may, in the arrogance of youth, feel like a rock, we are not. Or at least I am not.
In the comments in the bottom of the video of the song I link below, an astute writer named Kevin H. apparently feels the same way and captured what I'm trying to say more eloquently than I can. I cut and pasted his comment below:
Life will destroy you. Work will grind you down, and you will fail as a husband and father. You will look back on the illusion of competence and control you once possessed and wonder how you could ever have been so naïve. One of the most heartbreaking songs about being a man ever recorded.
Although I'm standing on the Solid Rock, I have come to understand that I am not like a rock at all. Maybe that is the point of it all. Perhaps Chevy trucks are dependable, but truth be told, there's only One who is dependable. He's not like a rock. He is The Rock. Click the arrow and listen to Bob Seger sing it:
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