He quotes Ayn Rand?!?! Right that's it, I'm not listening to any fuckin' Rush ever again.

I fuckin' hate Rand.

N.P. only referenced A.R. twice, in the songs"Anthem" and "2112". And both of these are in reference to one book... Anthem, although some of the ideas in the song "anthem" owe a bit to We the Living.

I think N.P. lyrics are a bit contrived and even crap at times. BUT, I actually think most of his lyrics from about 1981 - 1989 are quite good. Very different from his earlier works.

I think of his 70's lyrics as being fun sci-fi stuff with lots of silly literary references.

so I guess Not Crap... WF=3.

Here's my favorite:

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone

(Subdivisions)
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
(Subdivisions)
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth the unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe the restless dreams of youth

Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night

Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory of lighted streets on quiet nights...

TheMilford wrote:Here's my favorite:

Sprawling on the fringes of the city...

Allow me to reduce that to haiku:

Suburban Ontarian
visits Toronto
Buildings! People! And Weed!

steve wrote:

TheMilford wrote:Here's my favorite:

Sprawling on the fringes of the city...

Allow me to reduce that to haiku:

Suburban Ontarian
visits Toronto
Buildings! People! And Weed!

Funny, but wrong.(sorry, maybe just inaccurate)

Neil is referring to the suburban housing developments (subdivisions), which are "sprawling in geometric order" on the "fringes of the city" not it's inhabitants.

In this section,
Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night ,
your quip is found more accurate, but I again I feel it's a bit amiss. I think the point is that the sheltering "Insulated border" helps to further alienate the youth of suburban life where traipsing out to the city only briefly alleviates this, while eventually leading to further alienation.

Of course there's much more to it than this... but further analysis would be silly and "nerdy".

Take Luck,

The rap on "Roll the Bones" cannot be beat. That's right - there is a rap on a Rush song. Rush, they are so white, YYZ notwithstanding.

To their credit, Rush has to be one of the most self-sufficient bands going -each is a crack musician, and they insist on reproducing their songs perfectly on stage without outside aid. So, to maintain integrity, they did not recruit a bonafide rapper to perform the rap. No Chuck D, no Kool Moe Dee, no Humpty Humpty. Nope, I think Mr. Peart, I guess because he's the member of Rush who has rhythm, performed it. Most of us agree that his lyrics are wretched, the stuff that high school seniors used to quote for their yearbook captions. Imagine those lyrics rapped. As local hero and well-loved Muslim Hakeem Olajuwon used to say, "unbettable!"

The Roll the Bones Rap was done by Geddy.

Jack relax...
Get busy with the facts.

HA!

This topic just keeps getting better.

Silly I say, silly.

I wish Matthew William Kohnle was here to back me up.

He likey the Rush. We used to trade Iron Maided and Rush records in junior high.

He're another fave:

We can move with savage grace
To the rhythms of the night
Cool and remote like dancing girls
In the heat of the beat and the lights

We can wear the rose of romance
An air of joie de vivre
Too-tender hearts upon our sleeves
Or skin as thick as thieves'
Thick as theives'....

TheMilford wrote:He're another fave:

We can move with savage grace
To the rhythms of the night
Cool and remote like dancing girls
In the heat of the beat and the lights

Put more succinctly:
When we fuck
I think of strippers

I must remark on this beautiful stanza en originale:

We can wear the rose of romance
An air of joie de vivre
Too-tender hearts upon our sleeves
Or skin as thick as thieves'
Thick as theives'....

"The rose of romance / an air of joie de vivre," I believe means that when we're done fucking, we stink from the exertion, beaverjuice and jizz, but we don't mind. I really would have rather he put it that way, if that was his intended reading. If not, then it's nonsense.

"Skin as thick as thieves?" This phrase has no meaning. "Thick as thieves" as an expression means that a group of people have a close camaraderie, as in a band of thieves bound together by adventure, risk, and the excitement of an illicit lifestyle. "Skin as thick as thieves?" Pure bullshit.

By presuming a tortured poetic license, I can discern one possible meaning: "...hearts upon our sleeves(,) or skin(.) (We are / were) As thick as thieves." If our poet genius intended this reading, then this is a truly perverse construction. I have trouble thinking that was his intent, but if it is, then he is still a terrible writer, as the expression "thick as thieves" generally refers to a group, and his lovemaking (as described so far) implies nothing so adventurous.

Keep 'em coming!

TheMilford wrote:I wish TheSwede was here to back me up.

Drop it dude. It's getting old.