Musical Musing #12808

RUSH: Band for the New World Man

In my 24th year, the appreciation I have for the band RUSH has blossomed.

Let me give you a short back story.

At Decatur High School, I had a teacher and track coach by the name of Mr. Rogers. He was a young teacher, only a couple of years out of WSU by the time he took the reigns on my 11th grade English class. This is important to know, because he was a big time child of the 80's.

Over the course of the year, he would drop subtle RUSH references as they related to literary topics we were discussing in class. Of course, they pretty much flew over all of our heads. Then, he did something that stuck with me. He brought in a VHS tape of RUSH videos he had recorded back in the day, and made us all watch one during class. We were reading "Of Mice & Men" at the time, I remember that.

This video was unlike anything I had seen. The singer had an annoying squeal of a voice, the music was all over the place, and there was a baby riding a missle as it cut through the sky. The whole thing was all together corny in a way only something from the 80's can be; soft colors and lots of synth, you know?

The point is, everyone just thought he was a goof, making us listen to his crappy old music.

Fast-forward to now, it wasn't until I got hooked on a Canadian TV show called Trailer Park Boys that I even became half interested in RUSH. I began listening to the parts of their catalogue that I could initially stomach, which wasn't much.

With free time on my hands, I became interested in knowing what Geddy Lee was actually saying with that unique voice. So I started reading the lyrics, and began really liking what I was uncovering about this band. The depth of the lyrics and the complexity of the arrangements finally struck something inside of me, and damnit, I love me some RUSH now!

So, it was a weird journey, but only now, years after they have pretty much been out of the "Limelight" (eh? eh?), am I starting to get what they were trying to do.


Loves it! Thanks RUSH, and thanks Mr. Rogers.