Dear Friends,
What day will it be today? Sure, it’s a Tuesday, but what will happen? Is it worth my time to ask or wonder? So many questions about a Tuesday.
According to ChatGPT, I have lived a total of 2,861 Tuesdays so far. I wonder how many of them have been amazing in that stretch. I’m guessing there have been quite a few. I used to have band practice on Tuesdays, so if anything, I’ve made some new music on those days.
I think of weird stuff like this pretty often. I recently read that people who are easily distracted or make themselves super busy all the time are probably trying to avoid dealing with deep down, underlying feelings. It made me wonder which ones I am not dealing with right now.
This blog has allowed me to address a lot of things that I think and wonder about. I rarely know what I’m going to write about when I sit down anymore. It just sort of comes out. Before I shut the door on this as a daily thing, I definitely have stories to tell, but which ones…
*****
My cousin, Cindy, sent my dad and I some pictures she found yesterday from when we visited Cleveland in 1981. One was my dad and I and the other was of my dad, my great-grandmother, and I in my great Aunt Peg and Uncle Phil’s house. That was a great trip.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Cleveland this past week since hearing that Aunt Peg died. I left there wanting to move there back in 1981. I thought Cleveland seemed like the coolest place and I felt instantly at home there.
It’s not hard to feel like you belong somewhere when there is family that is so welcoming and seem so genuinely happy to have your visit. Even a couple of years ago when we were there for a couple days, it just seemed to be a place that, if someone said, “You’re moving to Cleveland today,” I would probably be okay with it.
It’s where my dad lived until he was about 8, so it’s clearly in the DNA. I’m genetically pre-disposed to like living near a huge lake, I guess. Maybe that’s why Rangeley feels like home, too. Rangeley Lake is not Lake Erie by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s pretty darn big.
Out of my 2,861 Tuesdays, I’ve probably been in Cleveland (or passing through) on four or five of them. That’s a small percentage of Tuesday but is in no way insignificant. Before it is all said and done, I’d like to get another handful of Tuesday’s in Cleveland.
Outside of Phoenix, I’ve spent the most Tuesdays in either Berkeley or Rangeley. I wonder where the next largest number of Tuesdays have been spent. I can’t even think about it.
*****
So, today…it is a mystery. Work and then home to write and eat and sleep. Maybe talk to my family and pet some of our animals. The rest is the great unknown.
Here’s to this being a wonderful Tuesday.
*****
I really owe my friend, Derek, a huge debt of gratitude for inserting Rush into my life. I fought it for so long because I never really took the time to listen to the songs that weren’t on the radio. He was such a super fan that I enjoyed goading him a bit, back in the day, and talking shit about Rush.
I was so wrong about them. They are one of the most bad ass bands of their time. As far as bands that were getting radio play, playing huge shows, and had a rad merch game, Rush is right up there.
As I thought about what I wanted to say about 2112, the record that sold a jillion t-shirts, the thought kept occurring to me that so many of the heavier bands that were well-known in the mid-1970s and on into the 80s must have just secretly hated Rush. If you listen to the first part of 2112, the songs from the “2112” portion (also the A side) then you know they were about the heaviest, meanest sounding band with fan-fucking-tastic riffs that you could want to hear.
I remember when I got 2112 on CD back in 1989. I joined one of the Columbia House 10 CDs for a dollar thing under a fake name and this one was one of the few things I really wanted on their terrible list. I popped this bad boy into the CD player and just enjoyed the hell out of it.
Rush is great music when you are high as a Georgia pine, by the way. I would lay on my waterbed and listen to 2112 nice and loud. There is so much heaviness on the record, just riff after riff, that again, how could many of the self-respecting heavy bands of that time not just bow to them.
As a bass player, I listen to Geddy Lee’s stuff, and it just boggles my mind. He’s playing and singing this stuff live and every time I saw them, which was three or four times, they always sounded perfect.
“And the meek shall inherit the earth.”
From this point, what can you say? “The Temples of Syrinx” is scorching. Lee sounds like an Egyptian God, Alex Lifeson’s guitar tone is perfect, and Neil Peart was the best drummer in the world. I hate to admit, again, but I was so wrong not to embrace this band as soon as Derek said, “hey man, do you like Rush” freshman year.
Even when Rush drops into the prettier stuff, you can’t help being awed by the musicianship. “With notes that fall gently like rain” is such a great line in “Discovery.” Then “Presentation” comes into focus and they are ramping up to the hard stuff again.
“Listen to my music and hear what it can do/There is something here that’s as strong as life/I know that it will reach you.”
When “Oracle” starts, forget about it. Here comes Alex Lifeson again to make many of the other guitar gods just look like little girly men. Lifeson is here to ‘Rush you up” with his buddy, Neil, doing the crazy cymbal chokes.
I’ve gone off the rails here. I’m having fun listening to the record and I’m getting a little carried away. I’m geeking out to Rush.
It’s actually really easy to do. 2112 was their breakout record and there is a bunch of great stuff that came afterwards, but it bears repeating. These are some great riffs. Huge riffs. “Grand Finale-Medley) is spectacular.
I do have to wonder, though, if they had it do over again, would they have taken that little stereotypical riff out of “A Passage to Bangkok” and just did the song without it? I’m guessing I’ not the only one who cringes a little bit when I hear it.
It’s super unnecessary because “A Passage to Bangkok” is a really good song. Talk about a great opening guitar riff from Lifeson. That Chinese thing just steps all over it.
“The Twilight Zone” is a bit of a tone shifter, but I like it, too. Lee’s sort of lazily galloping bass line is way more bad ass than it might sound to most ears. “Lessons” is another one, too, that I really like. 2112 is definitely the tale of two sides. While Side A is pretty timeless, Side B sounds very dated, but I happen to love music from the 70s, so I love it, too.
“Tears” is pretty and moody, but it also emerges from itself in a really beautiful way. “Something for Nothing” is a fitting ender and when you get done with it, there is no harm in just starting over and listening again.
Rush knocked this mother out of the park. No doubt about it.
*****
See you tomorrow.
This is how AI sees the "Oracle" from 2112.
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