Subject: Re: Cecrle/how Rush touches us
From: sghorwitz@aol.com (Sghorwitz)
Date: 13 Jul 1997 20:16:18 GMT
FC asks:
>How does Rush touch your lives?, that's what I'm dying to know.
Admittedly, this is hard to articulate, but I'll give it a shot. I find their music (and I mean the music first, the lyrics second) to be enormously uplifting and optimistic. It has the same kind of Romanticism that one finds in the classical music of the late 19th and early 20th century - it speaks to me of an unlimited future full of grand possibilities. When Geddy sings (in "Presentation"): "Just think what we might do," it sums up everything that "touches" me about their music.
Even in their most "depressing" songs, there is always an optimistic ray of sun that bursts through. The best example of this is my very favorite Al solo in "Between the Wheels." It's an altogether gloomy song, but that solo rescues it and restores the optimism and openness that one associates with Rush.
I've said it before in other Rush forums, but I think this is also why many Rush fans are also Star Trek fans - they both contain the same fundamentally optimistic and open view of human possibilities.
Whatever has happened in my life, their music has enabled me to celebrate the good and survive the bad. No one completely understands why particular sequences of notes and chords generate the emotional responses they do, but in some way, music makes emotions more real than mere words or pictures. They do indeed touch the heart. Neil has said that he really likes when fans describe Rush's music as the "soundtrack of their lives." I'm sure he does. In many ways, that captures how Rush has touched me.
And clearly I'm not alone. What I love most about Rush concerts these days is watching other people enjoy themselves as much as I am. I will never forget the Albany show this tour, with many, many hard-core fans there, and hearing the whole place singing along to Red Barchetta, CTTH, and all of 2112. Everyone was smiling and I know many who cried during 2112. That's being touched.
Spew your cynicism if you must Frank, but hear me out. I read almost everything you post and I respect your criticisms of the band. However, I think the reason that you get under people's skin (which I know is your point of pride :) ), is your *cynicism* not your criticisms. The way in which you poke fun at people who take Rush seriously and really are touched by them probably is the most irksome thing one can do for fans who are looking for the kind of optimism, openness, and, yes, even innocence, that Rush projects. Where love is concerned, cynicism goes over like a, well, lead zeppelin.
Long-time, serious Rush fans are used to ignoring the critics who call the band pretentious etc.. We know what we like and we're proud of it. That kind of public commitment to what one loves is out of step in the cynical, detached 90s, where flitting from interest to interest in the flicker of an MTV second is the way to go, but being out of step didn't stop Rush and it won't stop Rush fans. The love-in shall continue!
The Professor