The Interpretive Leap

The concept of the "Interpretive Leap" gives the reader, or in our case the listener, a chance to really dig deep into what the piece means to them.  In Bob Seger's "Like a Rock," he sings about his days as a young man coming into his own.  He talks about hos he was strong both physically and in his ideals as a young American.  He tells the listener that he stood straight in his morals and that he still believed in his dreams.  I believe that Seger's reminiscence of this time in his life shows that he may not have realized it at the time but he sees his youth as a time when he was truly in his prime.  Toward the end of the song he sings about how he wonders sometimes where those days went.  This implies that as he aged, he may not have stood for his values as he should have.  Also, this shows that he knows now that the days of being a young, strong man may have been his best days.  He recalls how much he enjoyed that time in his life and sees where he is now and wonders what happened to the young, strong man that he was twenty years ago.  The "Interpretive Leap" is extremely important to the analysis of a piece because it helps the interpreter take that extra "leap" to truly understand what the piece is intended to mean.