Rush and Philosophy

I'm certainly glad that I keep up with the Rush is a Band blog, because as it turns out, there is now a Rush and Philosophy book in the works for the Pop Culture and Philosophy book series! If you remember, I was pretty dang excited about this series just a few entries back. When I came across the Beatles and Pink Floyd editions, I couldn't help doing a Google search for a Rush one as well. Of course, I wasn't surprised to find that such a book didn't exist, but that doesn't mean I wasn't certain that it would make a great edition. Apparently, others at "the top" agree with me.

Ol' Rush may not be The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's cup of tea, but they are certainly getting a lot of attention lately. And what with a few of their songs getting into the Rock Band video games and all, perhaps the coming generations of video game junkies will get into it and download some Rush albums. Of course, I also fully acknowledge the supreme power of the "Colbert Bump." Old news, of course, but the fact that Rush hadn't been on tv for 30 years, and then suddenly made an appearance on The Colbert Report of all things, last year, REALLY excited me. I even want to see I Love You Man, even though it looks pretty stupid, because I know that there is a Rush concert in the movie.

Well, not much else to this entry other than the fact that I was excited about that book coming out. I guess before I leave you, I'll let you in on an interesting facet of Geddy Lee's personality. Now, I don't know whether or not Geddy has an obsession with a sense of equality, or symmetry, but he always seems to want something on his side of the stage to counterbalance Alex's amps. In this instance, industrial dryers:

While we welcome eccentricities in the World of Rock, our curiousity certainly heightens when we notice that for the subsequent tour Alex has gotten a larger set of amps, and Geddy has gotten an equally larger-sized set of...chicken rotisseries?!:

Okay, so Geddy is officially a little nuts. But I love him for it!

Nerd Band

The most recent issue of Rolling Stone featured an in-depth article on none other than...(let's have a massively elaborate drum roll please, complete with such flourishes as chimes, crotales, timbales, and melodic cowbells)...RUSH! And no, they were not critical this time, but finally objective enough to say,"Music taste aside, the scope of Rush's achievement is undeniable - 18 studio albums, more than 35 million records sold worldwide, a legion of fans as loyal as Deadheads and the Kiss Army. Still, much of the world ranks Rush somewhere just north of the mullet. Their hypertrophic musicianship is mocked by critics, their lyrical pedantry spoofed by hipsters, their singer's voice a subject of churlish speculation..."

Wow, "just North of the mullet," huh? That is an insult I have never heard. But no, I have no qualms with the article. So, I will move on, and include some snippets that I found interesting. I'll do it this way, I'll pose a question, and answer it with quotes from the article. In fact, I'll keep all the questions geared on the undeniable stimga that Rush is a "nerd band."

What is your stereotypical Rush fan like?

"Under bright houselights, the 17,000-capacity venue is quickly filling with fans of the Canadian rock trio Rush - many resembling the two young men I find sitting 10 rows from the stage: brow-fringing hair, utilitarian glasses, sprouts of chin whisker. They look straight out of an '82 yearbook photo of the after-school D&D club - a suggestion neither finds insulting. 'We fully embrace that,' says Sam, 21, an electrical-engineering student with a Ziggy Stardust tee and Harry Potter tattoo. 'That's definitely our lifestyle, the whole nerd thing. We play video games and listen to Rush, we play video games about Rush. That's what we did all last night in preparation for this.'"

So, Rush fans are nerds?

"The American-Nerd Age is nigh. Today, everyone from the bed-headed club promoter to the siliconed spokesmodel calls themselves a "nerd" because they play Sudoku or can operate an iPhone. But 34 years ago, when singer-bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart first emerged on the music scene, the n word had teeth. And if you were heavy into Rush - three skinny Canadians with a fixation for sprawling rock epics and Tolkien references - you had found your home."

So, the members of the band are nerds too?

"A ruddy 55-year-old with a Robert Mitchum-ish brow, Peart stands drinking bottled water, dressed head to toe in a ninjalike black suit topped by a black tarn bearing the logo from Rush's 2007 album, Snakes and Arrows. One pant leg is cinched by a bicycle clip. His feet are in dancing shoes. "

Yep, you heard it here. Neil Peart dresses like a Ninja with dancing shoes.

"'This is to absorb the sweat,' Peart says of his outfit...'They're so you get the dance and glide on the pedals like you get on a dance floor.'"

That's it though, I mean, they never look like characters out of some fantasy novel, right?

"With his long hair, soul patch and round sunglasses, the 54-year-old Lee suggests either a French semiotics professor or an abstract expressionist. He's often noticed but frequently misplaced. 'For some reason, Latino people think I'm Ozzy Osbourne,' says Lee. 'I don't know-big nose, long hair? Others say Bono.'

When Rush emerged as a hard-rock power in the Seventies, Lee entered the history books as one of the genre's truly sui generis frontmen: gimlet eyes, ectomorph frame, noted proboscis. Robert Plant may have sung about Tolkien's mystic realm of Mordor; Lee looked like he'd been there."

It's true. The man really looks very witch-king-like.

But does he act nerdy too?

"Sitting under Toronto's former Sky-Dome, Lee recalls Rush's U.S. debut, at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena in 1974. "They asked us if we wanted anything in our dressing room, so I asked for some Southern Comfort," he says. "I read that rock singers drank that before they went on. So I had this little shot when we go on, and I'm like, 'Holy mackerel!' I've got all of 26 minutes to play, and I'm dizzy for half of it.' Behold Rush's entire history of onstage intoxication."

Now while some might argue that any rock stars that are responsible enough not to get into the drug/alcohol scene at all must be nerds, I think that what I'm really aiming at here as evidence of the nerd factor is the phrase, "Holy mackerel!" Now, that's pretty nerdy.

How was their luck with the ladies?

"Now for the sex. This wont take long either. Lifeson is married to his first girlfriend, Lee is married to his high school sweetheart, and Peart was with the same woman for 22 years until she passed away in 1997. Of Rush's 150-odd songs, not a single one concerns that rather popular rock & roll topic: chicks - which, when compared to the likes of Kiss, makes Rush more or less the AV Club of 20th-century rock."

Songs without chicks are probably pretty nerdy. What did they write about?

"When Peart signed on as Rush's drummer, he also took on the band's lyric-writing duties, beginning one of the most infamous oeuvres in the entire rock canon. Peart did not write like a lyricist. He wrote like a philosopher. A German one. In translation. 'I was ambitious and had wide interests,' says Peart. 'So I kind of tried writing about everything: autobiography, science fiction, fantasy, social commentary and junior philosophy.'"

Did the fans like it?

"...Rush dived off the deep end of prog with Caress of Steel. The album, whose five songs contained the 12-minute "The Necromancer" (which drank deeply from the well of Tolkien) and the 19-minute "The Fountain of Lamneth" (about a search for the fountain of youth), tanked. The band went on an internally dubbed 'Down the Tubes Tour'...But at this rock bottom, Rush found their moment of clarity...

The result was 2112, widely considered Rush's masterwork: a seven-part, dystopian fantasy complete with interplanetary war, robotic vocal effects, instrumental fireworks and clerical bureaucracies straight from the Dune trilogy. With a theatrical pitch somewhere between Jesus Christ Superstar and Pink Floyd's The Wall, 2112 portrays a galaxy controlled by one Red Star of the Solar Federation, whose Priests of the Temples of Syrinx dictate all cultural life. In the titular year, a young hero discovers an ancient, mind-freeing relic - yes, an electric guitar - and brings this Promethean gift to the Talibanic priests, who promptly wreck it and ground him, sending him off to his bedroom, where he presumably smokes bud, bums out and eventually kills himself. After which a coup brings a new galactic order and completes the most heroic rendition of the cranky-adolescent-male consciousness ever committed to vinyl.

2112 went multiplatinum and won Rush their independence. But it did more than find an audience. With philosophical touchstones in Orwell, Nietzsche and the band's acknowledged hero, Ayn Rand (whose politics got the band members labeled cryptofascists in the late Seventies), the album played a role analogous to that of L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology-launching book, Dianetics - eventually amassing the most die-hard, detail-obsessed rock fans in history."

I think that that paints a pretty good picture of this author's initial claim that Rush is a "nerd band." And perhaps this is why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame overlook them time and again, despite their obvious success. "Nerds have no place in Rock and Roll!" I can hear them protest. Or, perhaps they have something against Canadians. Anyhow, I like that the closing remarks of the article reflect the bands' feelings about this well-known rejection into the hall of fame.

"Self-effacing poise may be rare to arena rockers, but like Green Party candidates and Nascar heroes, the members of Rush have adjusted to both idolatry and disregard. Just prior to tonight's dinner, they were once again snubbed by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which instead inducted no greater rock luminaries than the Dave dark Five. But Rush seem convincingly unfazed. 'I just keep saying we're too young to be in there,' says Lee.

'Yeah,' says Peart. 'Unlike all those other people, we're still working.'

'I think it really upsets our fans,' allows Lifeson. 'It's a big issue for them.'

It's true that Rush doesn't mean today what it did in '76 or even '96. It may mean more. Back when Peart was lost in America, Lee remembers knowing that his friend's path back would be through music. 'Because that's who he was,' Lee says. 'The quickest way to health is to be who you are and do that thing that you love to do.' And if today's Rush stands for anything besides dazzling chops and heady abstractions, it may be that simple, oddly courageous conviction: doing what you love - whether it gets you called a nerd, spurned by your label or turned into an icon."

So, if you've read this far, you've basically read half the article. But here it is in full. And if you've read this far you know the message I want to leave with you. Do what you love! Be who you are! Even the n word, just like Rush, but the n word with teeth.

Witch Hunt

Note: You probably ought to read "Putting Blender in the Blender" first.

Let's begin with a song that came from what many Rush fans (not myself) believe to be the height of their career, the album Moving Pictures. Witch Hunt is a dark metaphoric narrative which relates a self-righteous madstricken mob burning their victims to the issue of censorship. How apt! After all, that is precisely how many groups of people have taken censorship into their own hands. Burning. And it was a common practice throughout history, and often the reasons can be pinned on religious censorship. Among the not too-far-distant incidences that come to my mind are the Nazi book burnings and the group back in the 60s who burned Beatles albums and propaganda after John Lennon made the comment about The Beatles being "bigger than Jesus." Also, my mind reflects on the novel Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, where the firemen in the future are not responsible for putting fires out, but for starting them. Burning is certainly the most blatant and destructive means of censorship, when only ashes remain.

I became a fan of that book about ten years ago, as well as 1984 in high school, and am still attracted to dystopian themes involving censorship today. What's particularly powerful about the lyrics of this song, I find, is that it isn't a far-fetched, dramatic dystopian. Witch hunts really happened. It's history, people. Much more dramatic, when you think about it. But no, Peart is no Bradbury or Orwell. But he picked a killer way of getting his point across:

The night is black

Without a moon

The air is thick and still

The vigilantes gather on

The lonely torch lit hill

Features distorted in the flickering light

The faces are twisted and grotesque

Silent and stern in the sweltering night

The mob moves like demons possessed

Quiet in conscience, calm in their right

Confident their ways are best
The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill
They say there are strangers who threaten us
In our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness too dangerous
In our theaters and bookstore shelves
That those that know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves
Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand...

I won't pretend I remember most of the literary terms and technical jargon I learned in high school. I remember some basics though. I just have to point out that there is a heck of a lot of alliteration, and I notice that Peart uses it all the time. I've always been a fan of it. So, be warned that I am likely to always point it out. And though all of the rhymes are simple enough, I think that "ill-will" with "kill" is simply brilliant. I've also noticed a couple of Rush songs where the lyrics can be written at least two ways and come off sounding the same. Here we have "strangers who threaten us" and "strangeness too dangerous." Or, when you hear it in the song, it also sounds like, "strangeness to danger us." But 'danger' is not conventionally, or ever, used as a verb. Is it? I guess that's what the word 'endanger' is for. Blast, that's not as interesting anymore.

And, of course, the song has my favorite punctuation mark: the ellipsis (...). No, I didn't completely remember that name either. I had to look up how to spell it. Personally, though, I overuse my dot, dot, dots. Anyway, here at the end of the song the ellipsis makes it seem like ignorance and prejudice are ongoing qualities. To me, it indicates that Peart has no solution. I'd like to think that if we are looking to find one, it's up to us individually. Really, I think it's taking the notion that "those that know what's best for us must rise and save us from ourselves" and flipping it into singular introspection. I'm thinking of that scripture about motes, you know, that concept.

Actually, this song also reminded me of a scene in...Footloose. That ellipsis indicates slight embarassment. Or, should I do what Strong Bad does? Actually, this song also reminded me of a scene in Footlose. Nah, it's a good movie. Anyway, I'm thinking of the part where the town is burning library books and the town preacher approaches them, rebuking them that there is no evil in the books, but in their hearts. He then tells them to go home, and rather sit in judgement on themselves. It was an interesting scene because it is meant to come as a surprise. We suspect that because he does not support dancing in public because it can foster corruption, that he would therefore approve of all the censorship going on. He's really a pretty good guy after all.

Back to the song, now, and winding down. What I always find interesting are the situations where the "good guys" are also, or actually the "bad guys", or vica versa, and where fear acts as the impetus to instill fear. And so I say, a job well done, Neil.

Putting Blender in the Blender

Alright, so back some time ago when I had my 2112 epiphany from my cardboard box, I was reading about Rush on Wikipedia. It all went along well until reaching the bottom where I read that Neil Peart made number two on Blender's list of the "40 Worst Lyricists in Rock". Now, personally, Peart's lyrics are one of my favorite things about Rush. And currently, he is my favorite lyricist in rock. But here, for Blender's list of the worst lyricists, he made number two?! Now, logically, you might wonder whether my opinions hold any weight against a music magazine. And in this case, I would have to say, "You betcha."

First of all, I don't think too much of Blender. I got egged into subscribing for it from those guys that visit all the apartments at Old Farm each semester trying to sell magazines. The first time around, I got rid of them with the honest and golden words "I have no money...at ALL." The second time, I gave in, but only because I said that I'd only get a magazine that suited my interests. Unless they had anything science or music related, I was out. I should have used some stricter criteria.

Anyway, that is how I started reading through Blender, which, as it turned out, was very disappointing. The only thing cool I got out of it was finding out that Ringo Starr and Keith Moon were pretty good friends, and I saw some advertisements for some interesting mp3/satellite radio players. In between were a lot of scandalous advertisements (in the back, at least), and audaciously crappy suggestions of what you "needed" to download. Now, I'll just let you know, anyone like me who likes philosophy really gets unnerved at the words "need", "must" or "should." I obviously haven't read enough of the magazine to make a logical argument against them...so, hopefully you don't have to make the mistake of subscribing to it yourself to believe me.

Anyway, I feel that poor Mr. Peart deserves a bit of support from those of us who don't trust the opinions of those behind Blender. And thus, perhaps as a corny play-on-words, but an accurate visual, I want to put Blender in the Blender. Yes, I personify my own "Blender".

"What exactly did they have to say, anyway?" you ask.

02 • Neil Peart
An ace on the rototoms, a train wreck on the typewriter.

Drummers are good at many things: exploding, drowning in their own vomit, drumming. But the Rush skinsman proved they should never write lyrics—or read books. Peart opuses like “Cygnus X-1” are richly awful tapestries of fantasy and science fiction, steeped in an eighth-grade understanding of Western philosophy. 2112, Rush’s 1976 concept album based on individualist thinker Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, remains an awe-inspiring low point in the sordid relationship between rock and ideas. Worst lyric: “I stand atop a spiral stair/An oracle confronts me there/He leads me on light years away/Through astral nights, galactic days” (“Oracle: The Dream”)

What is particularly offensive here is that the lyric they chose happens to be one of my favorite parts of the song 2112 (on my playlist, almost 15 min. in). Any times in a Rush song where the music lingers on quietly and then the quietude is broken by Geddy Lee's screams is always cool. Now, the lyrics here, I realize, are not that great. However, they're not that bad, either. Let's consider a couple things. First of all, it's the worst Blender could apparently find of all his lyrics. He's been writing lyrics for about 30 years! Second, the fact that these lyrics are supposedly a prime example of the second worst lyricist in all of rock means that they didn't look very hard. In fact, I have a suspicion that they deliberately were targeting rock figures that have gotten significant praise for being deep or intellectual thinkers. Those Jim Morrison lyrics aren't bad either. In fact, I think they are pretty good. Maybe they're just expecting something amazing from people who like to read. Or perhaps they're just taking cheap shots, like those trippy Donovan lyrics. That's what 60s lyrics were all about... you know ;0. In their defense, though, minus genres such as pop, rap, and country, the field for cheap shots narrows significantly.

Well, I hope I got my Blender humming. Hereafter, I will often mention Peart lyrics, and what I like about them. Stay tuned, one day I'll hit purée.

Dejected, but Feeling Famous Too

After pawing through several adjectives yesterday, the best one was DEJECTED. Rush is not coming to Utah anymore! They are cutting their tour short in July. I was all excited about them coming, and told my friend Luke about it. He was excited too, which was awesome because I didn't think very many people even knew who they were...let alone would be excited to see them. Anyway, after checking their website, he let me know that no such stop to Salt Lake is on their current tour list. It ruined my day! There's still Styx and Journey, that would be fun...but they're not as cool as Rush.

On the bright side, band wise, I got a text message from Jimmy Eat World yesterday! Seriously. And one at 3:30 in the morning too. Haha, good thing it was on vibrate and they didn't wake me up with "kicking it in osnabruck." Where is that? Anyway, the deal with that is that I signed up for the service Twitter, which is like a "microblog" that can be sent to "followers" via text messaging (if you so choose). Now, I really don't see the point as far as friends and family goes. Just text them...morons. However, getting texts from Jimmy Eat World is really fun, it makes me feel famous too. It's a cool concept that-a-wise.

"So light, yet endless"

It's been raining the last few days, and it's absolutely beautiful outside. Not all rainy days are beautiful. I think that only a light summer rain really appeals to me, visually. Specifically, the contrast of the gray sky and the rich vibrant green of the grass and trees can only be seen during a summer rain, in Logan. In other seasons, the rain seems to drown out all color. And in a summer rain, you can go out without a jacket, and still be comfortable. In fact, I believe that the second you put a hood over your head...the rain begins to become a nuisance. Or, perhaps it is the other way around.

The Quad was particularly breathtaking. Lately, I've been pretty cynical about all businesses, and I often can't help looking for something wrong with this University (the business where all my money is going). But today, I only was pleased that USU has such a wonderful location that overlooks the valley and the temple on one end, and is so close to the mountains on the other. I love to see the moisture cloud around the mountains after it rains.



It all reminds me of the special feeling I got on this campus when I toured it back in high school. It felt like the right place to be.

It just felt so amazing today walking around outside. I don't know what was different, so I just picked the rain. That's not it, though. I'm just really happy without a reason for it. It reminds me of the title of C.S. Lewis's autobiography, "Surprised by Joy." That title has always fascinated me ever since I heard it.

While walking, I kept thinking of my favorite part of the Rush song, The Camera Eye, that says:

They seem oblivious

To a soft spring rain,

Like an English rain.

So light, yet endless

From a leaden sky.

(This song is now in my playlist)

As the lyrics were repeating in my head, I kept having the thought that today I was not oblivious...to a happiness that is "so light, yet endless."

Rush Concert

Rush is coming to SLC (Usana Amphitheatre) on Monday, August 6th!! Wow, I love finding these things out! If anyone is interested, save the date. It should be an amazing show!

My Big Confession

I've finally acknowledged that it is time for a confession. A big one. The Beatles are officially NOT my favorite band. "What?!" you all cry. "Who is it??" Well, I've decided that choosing a favorite band of all time is not a good idea, as it will make me close-minded to explore the possibilities of loving new bands. And honestly, I really don't listen to The Beatles very much, and haven't for a long time. Although I have acknowledged that fact, I still have always claimed they are my favorite band. No more.

And crazy as I am, I see that Fate would have this be. Haha. I was at the movies a couple weeks ago (Iron Man), and was annoyed as usual by the commercials and continuous cycles of movie pop-quiz questions and such. Honestly, I love a blank screen until the movies start up. And since we pay to get in, I really don't think we should be forced to see commercials by any right. Anyway, one of the questions up on the screen just happened to be: "Who is your favorite band?" The guy next to me read this question aloud and said "Hm, let's see, I think it would have to be...Rush!" As I have been really into this band lately I was very happy by this remark, and turned and replied "I love Rush!" And we started talking about them for a few minutes.

I thought that it was especially cool, since they are not an incredibly popular band (mainstream-wise). Sadly, it seemed like the guy was on a date, so I felt inclined to not chat the boy up too much. Interestingly though, the girl he was with mentioned liking The Beatles, and I felt...a slight hint of disdain for them. Very fleeting, and possibly only because I wanted to talk to him longer and really couldn't because of her. Who knows. I just found it really satisfying that we both really liked a band that wasn't hugely popular, but are hugely talented for sure.

After this little experience, I moved into the Beach House (as I have mentioned), and have just been unpacking the last few days. And guess what got damaged in the move, the only thing? Amazingly enough, all my Beatles albums. No, no, but close. The glass on my Beatles collage was broken. It was sad!

And just yesterday, as I was cleaning out one of my boxes I saw this number written on the side of it:

Okay, now, check out this Rush album cover:

It was a weird sign. But a sign nonetheless. I needed to put the Beatles reign to an end, and acknowledge fully what I am currently obsessed with. Today, it's Rush. And I don't have a favorite band. And The Beatles are not the greatest band in history.

I consider admitting it in this blog a big step to expanding my musical horizons. And just so you know, the other day when someone saw my Yellow Submarine hoodie and said that they loved The Beatles, I withheld my usual "They're my favorite," and just said "Cool, me too." Wow, what a confession.