Growing up in the Catskill Mountains in the 70s-80s meant limited musical choices. This was the dark ages, kids... before on-demand streaming, youtube, satellite radio and even pre-MTV (when it actually showed videos). I had a couple of AM & FM radio stations and as a result knew primarily pop music, the Beatles, and the standard-issue rock favored by my classmates. All good stuff, don’t get me wrong. The material that you’ll hear on every decade-specific or classic rock station today.
That all changed in 1980, first when game-changer radio station WDST arrived on the local scene, then in July when I visited family in England and my cousin introduced me to music I’d never heard before. That music remains to this day some of the stalwarts in my favorites list… names such as Peter Gabriel, The Police, and this Canadian band called Rush. My musical life was never again the same, and I am forever grateful.
As someone with the soul of a drummer but not the limb independence or skill to do so in this turn of the wheel, Rush drummer Neil Peart and his incredible talent (not to mention the gorgeous drum kits!) was the stuff of my dreams. Rush was the second major concert I ever attended, in April 1983 at the Syracuse Carrier Dome. Given that my first concert was CSN a few months earlier, this was a bit of a change :-).
When I hear obituaries of people I don’t know they usually don’t affect me hard, but the recent news Peart had died, I was gutted. I started prepping this diary a few days ago and intended it to be a look at the band’s history and to share a bunch of my favorite tunes. But yesterday I read Frank Vyan Walton’s beautiful tribute A celebration and dedication to the brilliance of Neil Peart and the band Rush and realized I cannot add to what he wrote, so instead I’m heading directly to the songs that stick with me and hope you’ll join me by sharing your favorites (or your favorite percussion-heavy pieces from other artists). Grab a beverage and join me below the Story Break...
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I could easily have included another dozen songs and not been done, so if you’re wondering where Song X is that’s probably why:
- Free Will (Permanent Waves, 1980) — Leading off my list is the first song I remember hearing, and the one with the most steady influence in my life. The concept of free will forms the core of my ethical center, and one line embedded in the refrain is the basic for my political life… “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice”. This video chosen because this 2007 Snakes & Arrows tour was one Casa Brillig saw. K1 may not remember it, but she DID see Rush complete with rotisserie chicken ovens on stage.
- Xanadu (Farewell to Kings, 1977) — I am that fan who listens to the lyrics. One of the features that attracts me to musicians are what they SAY as well as HOW they sound. Rush simply blew me away with their words. This song is directly responsible for a trip to the library to read Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, the basis for this song.
- The Camera Eye (Moving Pictures, 1981) — A good friend & musician is also a Rush fan, and I asked him what were his picks. He said he had several that ‘didn’t get their proper level of respect’, and this was one of them. Interestingly, two of his picks (this and Xanadu) were already on my list! Chose this video because how many musicians can continue to play without missing a beat while the tech replaces a tom in his kit.
- The Trees (Hemispheres, 1978) — This song always felt like a soundtrack to The Lorax, but it’s much more a cautionary tale of ‘what if trees acted like people’ followed by ‘then people step in’. “There is unrest in the forest there is trouble with the trees...”
- Closer to the Heart (Farewell to Kings, 1977) — Lyrics co-written by Peart and his friend Peter Talbot. There’s an irony in that it’s a favorite of mine and also is one of the ‘poppiest’ of their songs. It also feels relevant today with the lyrics “And the men who hold high places must be the ones to start to mould a new reality closer to the Heart”
- Marathon (Power Windows, 1985) — Marathon running as metaphor for life. Take it steady and keep going. “You can do a lot in a lifetime if you don't burn out too fast”
- New World Man (Signals, 1982) — The song that happens when you have just under 4 minutes to fill on your album and you write one in a day, and it turns out to be one of your biggest hits. If this song hasn’t been on every ‘favorite song’ compilation I’ve ever made, it’s because of an accidental omission. This song solidified my belief that Peart truly is a percussion god. Also contains another of my core belief lyrics (bolded) “He’s not concerned with yesterday He knows constant change is here today He’s noble enough to know what’s right But weak enough not to choose it He’s wise enough to win the world But fool enough to lose it. He’s a New World man…”
- Cold Fire (Counterparts, 1993) — Love in a metaphorical night. The wonder of Google tells me that Cold Fire is a product that puts out fires by removing heat rather than smothering them. “It was long after midnight when we got to unconditional love [...] It was just before sunrise when we started on traditional roles [...] The look in your eyes as you head for the door is a cold fire”
- Fly By Night (Fly By Night, 1975) — I was today years old when I learned Peart wrote this about his first trip away from home. “Fly by night, away from here, change my life again”
Let me leave you with what is some of the best drum porn exhibition drum solo ever. Holy fick, it’s utterly amazing. And that kit!!!!!!!
And now, enjoy our trio of Top Comments, Mojo and Pictures, brought to you by the best accompianist I could ask for, BeninSC.
Top Comments
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TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, January 20th, 2019, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
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January 21st 2019. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!
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