| "Roll Me Away" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byBob Seger | ||||
| from the albumThe Distance | ||||
| B-side | "Boomtown Blues" | |||
| Released | May 10, 1983 | |||
| Genre | Heartland rock | |||
| Length | 4:39 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Bob Seger | |||
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Iovine | |||
| Bob Seger singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Roll Me Away" is a song written by American rock artistBob Seger on the albumThe Distance by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. The song was used as Seger's opening song on his Face the Promise tour in 2006–2007, his first tour in a decade.
According to Seger the song was inspired by a motorcycle trip he took toJackson Hole, Wyoming.[1] He stated:[1]
I wanted to do that for a long time. It was fascinating being out. The first night it was 42 degrees in northern Minnesota; the second it was 106 in South Dakota and all I had on was my shorts, and my feet were up on the handlebars to keep them from boiling on the engine. It was just silence and feeling nature.
Rolling Stone criticDave Marsh described it as an "anthemic" song and considers it Seger's best single.[2][3] Marsh interprets the song as being about "leaving a shattered home for a life that has to be better, though it never quite is."[2] Marsh elaborates that the narrator of the song has lost his love and so goes off on a cold and lonely journey while he "lets his frustrations and confusion congeal into one sad cry that dissolves his fate into what has happened to the whole crazy mess of a world in which he lives.[3] He sings that he plans to straighten things out for as long as he is searching but at the end he admits that only next time will they be able to get it right.[3] Marsh feels thatRoy Bittan's "elegaic" piano chords drive home the point that the time for wild rockers to settle down.[3]
Los Angeles Times critic Richard Cromelin says that in the song Seger uses thecontinental divide as ametaphor for "confront[ing] questions of right and wrong," allowing him to "shake off his spiritual malaise."[4]Cash Box called it "a most powerful,Springsteenish piano-based hymn" and said that it is fitting that Seger only finds personal freedom at theGreat Divide.[5]
Classic Rock History critic Janey Roberts rated it as Seger's all-time best song, noting some influence fromBruce Springsteen.[6]
Credits are adapted from theliner notes of Seger's 1994Greatest Hits compilation.[7]
The Silver Bullet Band
Additional musicians
Production
The song peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[8]
| Chart (1983) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S.Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks | 13 |
| U.S.Billboard Hot 100 | 27 |
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