Last week I listened to Grace Under Pressure a dozen times or so, and it’s been a lot of fun to visit these old friends. There’s some *great* songs on this album. And then there’s some others.
Afterimage was the first song I thought of when Neal died 4 years ago (can you believe it’s been four years?!)
Suddenly you were gone
From all the lives you left your mark upon
I remember …
I remember when my best friend Jerome died in high school, I listend to this on loop for weeks.
I feel the way you would
I feel, I feel the way you would
And of course, now, we remember Craig, who started us on this journey through Rush’s music, and left us before we were done.
I’ve never been much of a fan of Red Lenses. This was one of those “let’s pick random rhyming words” songs that seemed like Neil was phoning it in on this one.
Red Sector A, on the other hand, is a very powerful song, which became even more powerful for me when I learned of Geddy’s personal connection to Dachau and Bergen-Belsen.
And I’ve always loved The Body Electric, which on the surface is a little silly, but also strikes me as a wonderful sci fi story that I’d love to see written. It always reminded me a little bit of the Electric Monk, from Douglas Adam’s book Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. And more recently, of Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Somehow this song managed to make me feel empathy and anxiety for a lost robot.
Between the Wheels was weird this time around. I loved it when I was younger. I loved the lines “reeling by on celluloid” and “soaking up the cathod rays”. But it seems a bit trite now. Still catchy, though.
Anyways, these songs have been part of my personal sound track for almost 40 years, so they are all old friends, and it was a lot of fun to revisit them.
Join us next week for Fly by Night!