I recently embarked on what may be the last of the great hurrahs in my rock-and-roll life. I am not a performer – unless air-guitar counts – but I really like rock music. As the Beatles once sang, though I think Carl Perkins may have written the words, “It’s got to be rock and roll music, if you want to dance with me.” Not that anyone particularly wants to dance with me, but you get the point. I was raised on baseball and rock music, among other influences. While I have enculturated myself to different levels both above and below rock and roll (let’s be honest, seedy is fun!), the baseline has been there from as early as I can recall, as has the bass line, but that is a different idea entirely.
Like many Pittsburgh suburbanites, I was into what was called “Classic Rock”, music that roughly spanned from 1965 to 1980. From the British Invasion through Post-Modern, I was a guy who just wanted rock music, save the heavy metal hair for someone else. Bad Company and Bob Seger filled my cassette player, and orders from Columbia House (free music scam – Google it yourself) consisted of Foreigner, Billy Joel, The Eagles, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac and the like. Eventually, I found Led Zeppelin and they were a favorite for years. I was a “Ten Years Gone” and “Out on the Tiles” guy as much as I was “Dazed and Confused” and “Black Dog.” Truth be told, I still sit in the car to hear the entirety of “Stairway to Heaven” if a trip ends before the guitar riffs do. Along the way, I discovered Rush.
Hold on! I know a lot of you just rolled your eyes because you are sick of me talking about the band. This isn’t necessarily about Rush, it’s about something bigger. Be a good reader and continue.
Rush and Zeppelin were my favorite bands for years, though Rush officially (As if these things matter!) became my top favorite in 1989 with the release of their Presto album. I figured a band that was still recording and still touring should be a favorite. I have seen the band in concert more than 20 times since 1987, and each has been a unique level of coolness, rock-amazing-ness and good times spread over 11 venues, 7 cities, 5 states, with and without my wife and kids, but mostly with one friend. There have been other people invited over the years, but roughly the other Dan and I have rocked Rush in concert at least 15 times. (We’re idiots – we lost count somewhere along the way.) The most recent, the 2010-2011 Time Machine Tour, was the best.
I first saw Rush in 1987 when I was a straight-edge kid with a huge case of The Big V suffering through an insufferable high school. Since then, I have been educated, fell in love, married, parented, re-reeducated, hired 4 times, fired 2 times, dabbled in and out of theatre, went through a mini drinking phase and, of course, matured. Throughout those years, the Rush concert has been the one constant (other than the Pirates losing).
It has been said that there is no luck, that luck is born where preparation meets opportunity. I think this is true now more than I ever had before. Was I lucky to see Rush 3 times in 8 days in April of 2011? Sort of. The schedule and availability fell in line well because the band’s tour dates were close to Pittsburgh when my school was on break between classes. Perfect! But I had prepared my place in life so that I could attend.
They called the tour “Time Machine” in reverence to their now-thirty-seven years in rock and roll. I can’t help but think that witnessing the tour 4 times in total was like taking my own trip through the backward lens of a life spent. Rush ripped through “Time Stand Still,” a song that inspired the first poem I had published in a college journal. When you’re 19, those things matter. They cycled through the entire Moving Pictures album, which includes a personal favorite called “The Camera Eye.” That song once served as means for bonding, silliness and good-natured laughter with a friend Phil who has since moved far away. The band also tuned up a blues rendition of their classic, “Closer to the Heart,” a song that has a unique place in my life, my heart, my ambitions and my art. I am working on a novel that borrows its title from that song, and every time I hear the line from which the title is drawn, I get shivers of hope and excitement. (Look for more blog postings before anything is revealed about the novel. A writer has his secrets!)
The thing about Rush is they have always somehow said in song exactly what I was pondering at each moment of the last twenty-five years of my life. Case in point, this past year I went back to graduate school to study creative writing and with the hope of finishing that novel. Shortly after I signed on, a new song by Rush was released that sang, “In a world where I feel so small, I can’t stop thinking big.” That’s me right there – I just keep thinking something big is out there, and I am working toward it. In 1991, as I was figuring out all those late college / early career ambitions, they released “Bravado,” which tells us to pay the price but not count the cost. I followed some of that crazy old dream. When I became a parent, a Rush song written four years earlier took greater precedent in its meaning: “Take it easy on me now, I’d be there if I could; I’m so full of what is right, I can’t see what is good.” That is no lament! We parents should take pride in doing what is right at the risk of being our child’s friend, or even simpler, just going to a kid’s second birthday (which they will not remember) and passing up on the night at the bar with friends. It sounds like an easy lesson, but count how many friends would actually make that right choice.
So the music continued through the concert and then Rush made the whole cost, the whole travel, the whole two decades worth the time and energy by playing my all-time favorite song. A rare title track for Rush, “Presto” from the aforementioned CD is without a millisecond of consideration my favorite song. That Rush chose to finally play it live in 2010-11 was worth each trip taken. (Don’t tell my wife; she thinks I would have wanted all of the other 20-25 songs for the money too!) As far as I can recall, they had never played “Presto” before. This song has inspired me as an artist and a thinker in ways I cannot express in words in a small space. One has to have such a song in their personal repertoire in order to relate. From “Don’t ask me, I’m just improvising” to “I’m not one to believe in magic, but I sometimes have a second sight,” this is my directing song. I can’t explain it, it just happens. When I am directing a play and looking to move characters along with a playwright’s words, “Presto” somehow creates a rhythm and nuance that dictates the show. It is as if, and as the song goes, “I could wave my magic wand.” And they finally played it after all these shows!
That is why you go again and again and again, not because you drink copious amounts of beer (I never have) or because you hope some stoned chick will take her top off (there are girls at a Rush concert?), but because a favorite band should not just be about music, they should fill your life, enhance who you are, and connect on a higher plain.
Will I See Rush again? If they tour again, sure. A secret hope is to publish that novel and make enough money to follow the band on their eventual farewell tour and catch baseball games in every city they hit. But, if Rush retires without ever taking to the road again, I think I would be okay with that. Hitting the twentieth concert is a cool watermark. That they played so many songs that are part of my life makes it the perfect Farewell to Rush Tours Tour. (I didn’t even mention the beauty of “Faithless” and “Brought Up to Believe” as they relate to my personal views.) My kids are older, my plans are changing but I will keep rocking. We’ll have to see if I catch multiple shows again. I am just damn glad I did when they came around. I was lucky…no, I prepared my life so that when the opportunity presented itself, I could go.
"The caravan thunders onward, stars winking through the canvas hood; on my way at last.” Oh, you don’t know that song? You should! It’s by this band called Rush.
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