The opening guitar riff on Bob Seger’s “Mainstreet” offers up a wistful yearning of times gone by…remembering and wanting to go back to those past days for at least one more time before it’s time to check out.
Such desires are possible only in dreams, but brought to the fore by songs like this. “Mainstreet” was Bob’s reminiscences about his days as a high school teenager, hanging out on the Ann Arbor street brought to life in the song.
That particular street was not Main Street, but Ann Street, running east to west between the Huron River and the University of Michigan. It was ‘down on Ann Street’ where Bob says he experienced his ‘awakening’ – that is, from being “a quiet, awkward kid” to his eyes and mind opening to what his life could be and the fun he could have…