Get out of Denver

Saturday evening after the wedding I left the wonderful mountains in Dillon and headed back to Denver. It had taken me two hours to get up to the 9,500 elevation and only an hour to get down.

There is this thing about living outside of Detroit, I can’t recall if I had mentioned it before. But Bob Seger is from these parts. His drummer had a house on my bus route and Bob himself lives only minutes from me now. His baby boomer fan base has this huge loyalty here. It’s a rare day on one of the classic rock stations when he isn’t played at least twice.

The only other area I have experienced this kind of Bob Seger popularity is Denver and the Colorado Rockies. It wasn’t enough that driving into the mountains I heard both “Hollywood Nights” and “Get out of Denver,” but my brother was all excited when he said “Guess which Bob Seger song I heard on the way up here?” He got a little disappointed when everyone in the car named “Get out of Denver.”

So in my rapid descent around switch backs and flashing signal lights of big rigs locked in low gear I played the CD mix that the bride and groom distributed. It, of course, had “Get out of Denver” on it. When I finally got to a radio signal from the city, The Mountain, was playing the top 107 albums of all time. My fifteen minutes in that radio wave range was Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band at number 64 with “Live Bullet” (which includes a rockin' live version of “Get out of Denver.”)

I get the hint.

That Saturday night I stayed at a Double Tree by the airport which I had been to before. I remembered that it was near all of these new stores and malls in a nice neighborhood. It must have been a while since my last visit. The place was a bit run down and not as nice as my memories. But hotels get that way as my standards rise.

When I finally get home Sunday night and login to the news, I find a story about a shooting only a few blocks from my hotel that morning at the Safeway Warehouse.

When Bob tells you to Get out of Denver, he means it, GET OUT!