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Newsgroups: alt.music.rush
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From: dan@pdh.com (Dan Delany)
Subject: FAQ: Rush Fans Frequently Asked Questions [3/3]
Message-ID: <1994?13.083145.3121@snowbird.pdh.com>
Followup-To: alt.music.rush
Summary: Information about the Canadian rock band Rush
Supersedes: <1994?23.073121.7355@snowbird.pdh.com>
Organization: Shinola Industries: We know the difference.
References: <1994?13.083129.3082@snowbird.pdh.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 1994 08:31:48 GMT
Expires: Mon, 5 Dec 1994 22:01:45 GMT
Lines: 446

Archive-name: rush/part3

This file is current as of: Sun Nov 13 00:31:46 PST 1994

Rush Fans Frequently Asked Questions List, Part 3 of 3
Generated: Sun Nov 13 00:30:05 PST 1994

   This file contains questions that seem to crop up frequently in The
National Midnight Star and alt.music.rush.  If you received a copy of
this file in email, other than as an issue of TNMS, it is probably
because you asked one of these questions.

   This file has been expanded into 3 files because some mailers have
problems with files that are longer than 60K.  Part 1 contains general
questions about the band.  Part 2 contains questions inspired by
specific albums and songs up to and including stuff on _A Show Of Hands_.
Part 3 contains questions about material starting with _Presto_.

   If you want a copy of the current version of this file, email me and
I'll send you the most recent version.  This set of files is posted on
the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month to rec.music.info,alt.music.rush, and
TNMS.  The FAQ is also available via anonymous ftp from syrinx.umd.edu
(129.2.8.114) in the /rush/misc directory.  The file you are reading
now is current as of the date at the top of the file.  If you are reading
this within a few days of that time, please don't send me mail asking for
the FAQ - you've got it!  Note to people who want a copy of the current
FAQ:  I maintain the FAQ as an ASCII file.  I cannot send it to you in any
special format like WordPerfect format, RTF files, or anything.

   If you have any suggestions for additions to the list or corrections,
please send them to me at dan@pdh.com and I'll add them in
if you have documentation supporting your theory.  Also, don't send
your suggestions to rush-mgr@syrinx.  I'll repeat that because it's
important.  Don't send FAQ suggestions to the moderator of the Rush
fans mailing list.  He doesn't have anything to do with keeping the
FAQ up to date.  FAQ suggestions should be sent to me at
dan@pdh.com and not to the mailing list moderator.

I'd appreciate it if people who submit questions submit anything they know
about possible answers, since I don't have all of the answers myself!

THE FAQ IS A FILE OF FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT RUSH AND THEIR
ANSWERS.  IT IS NOT AN "OBSCURE RUSH TRIVIA" FILE.
Please consider this before sending me a suggestion for an addition.

I'll repeat that because it's important and people don't get it.
THE FAQ IS A FILE OF FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT RUSH AND THEIR
ANSWERS.  IT IS NOT AN "OBSCURE RUSH TRIVIA" FILE.
Please consider this before sending me a suggestion for an addition.

I know that it's fun to come up with pet theories for how things
are related to each other.  But please don't send them to me saying that
"It *can't* be a coincidence!"  I routinely ignore such email.  Send me
a reference to an interview or a quote or something from a band member
that supports what you say, and I'll be happy to add it to this file.
If you have a pet theory that you want feedback on, post it to TNMS
or alt.music.rush.

For example:  Don't point out to me that 1001001 in binary is equivalent to
73 decimal, and 73 decimal is ASCII for the letter "I," and the letter "I"
was significant to the plot of Ayn Rand's _Anthem_, and Neil Peart read
lots of Ayn Rand, therefore "The Body Electric" is a reference to _Anthem_.
Believe me, you won't be the first to point that out.  But Neil Peart has
never said anything on that particular subject as far as I know, so I'm
not going to put that into the FAQ.  (Especially since I think it's
a coincidence!)  Remember, coincidences happen, even in Rush songs!

An additional thing to consider is that many questions are answered in,
of all places, the liner notes on the albums.  Please look there before
posting a question.

DISCLAIMER: The information in this file is accurate to the best of my
knowledge, but I'm not perfect.  If you have an answer to one of these
questions that doesn't match the one given here that you can verify, let me
know, and I'll put it in.  But if you make a bet based on this
information and you lose, don't blame me.

One more thing: If you send me mail and I don't answer right away, please
be patient.  I eventually read all of my mail.  However, Rush FAQ-related
stuff has a lower priority than my job.

I'd like to thank Bruce Holtgren <70724.1622@CompuServe.COM> for lots of
editing advice on the FAQ.  He volunteered to proofread the entire set of
FAQ files for me, and he seems to be much better at that than I am.
Thanks, Bruce!

Here are the questions I get asked the most, so I'll put them here at the
start:

What is The National Midnight Star?

   It's a Rush fans newsletter that is distributed via email.
   Submissions are all sent to one address, and the moderator goes through
   the submissions periodically and sends out a digest containing lots
   of submissions.

   (If you don't know where the name "The National Midnight Star"
   comes from, that means you don't watch enough Canadian TV.  For a
   hint, listen to "Red Lenses".)

How can I subscribe to The National Midnight Star?

   Send email to rush-request@syrinx.umd.edu asking to have your name added
   to the list.  Don't send email to me - I can't add you!

   I'll repeat that.  I (dan@pdh.com) have absolutely nothing to do with
   the management of TNMS.  I can't add your name to the subscription list.

What other ways are there on the Internet for Rush fans to get together?

   There is a Rush IRC channel, called #p/g!, but I don't know anything
   about IRC so I can not help anybody use it.

Latest Word on the next album/tour:

   I haven't seen any official word about the rumors of a boxed set of
   Rush CDs.  Until I see official word on the subject, I'll treat that
   as a rumor.

   The _Counterparts_ tour is over.

     - there probably won't even be any *thought* of a new Rush tour until
         at least 1996.  Yes, that is correct, 1996! 
     - Neil is looking into the possibility of getting together a tour
         for the Buddy Rich tribute album, including himself on the tour
         playing drums.
     - Geddy is too busy with his newborn and really has not put much thought 
         into Rush at all.
     - There are no plans for a new album currently.  Yes, that is correct, 
         the band has not begun to think about the next direction.


-------- The following questions and answers are in this file: --------

= Questions about _Presto_

What are the hands in the "Presto" liner doing?

What is "Chain Lightning" about?

What is "The Pass" about?

What is "Scars" about?

What is the song "Anagram (for Mongo)" about?

Has anybody noticed that "Anagram (for Mongo)" contains lots of anagrams?

What does (for Mongo) after "Anagram" on the "Presto" album mean?

What is "Red Tide" about?

= Questions about _Roll The Bones_

Who does the RTB spoken "rap" section?

Who is the boy in the RTB video and on the RTB cover?

Is there a "Gangster of Boats" trilogy?

But why is "Where's My Thing" labeled as Part IV of the trilogy?

Is there a reason for the arrangement of the numbers on the dice on the RTB
cover?

Has anybody noticed that the "Gangster of Boats" is mentioned in the HYF
liner notes?

What does the pattern of skulls and bones at the bottom of the inside
front cover of the RTB tourbook mean?  Is there a pattern to it?

= Questions about _Counterparts_

Is there any connection between "Where's My Thing" and "Leave That Thing
Alone?"

What do the strings of ones and zeroes in the _Counterparts_ liner notes
mean?


-------- Questions and answers follow. -------

= Questions about _Presto_

What are the hands in the "Presto" liner doing?

   They are making scissors, paper, and stone, like in the children's
   game.  There is a discussion of the scissors/paper/stone
   symbols in the Presto tour book.  This is paraphrased in TNMS #212.

What is "Chain Lightning" about?

   "I'm a weather fanatic - I really love weather, and I watch the
   weather and look for a good weatherman.  And, one night I was watching
   it, and there are two incidents in that song that are synchronicity to
   one weather report, where the weatherman showed a picture of sun dogs,
   and described them, and they are just two little points of light that
   appear at sunset, often in the winter when the sky is clear and
   crystalline, and they are like little prisms, and they sit about ten
   degrees north and south of the setting sun, and they are just
   beautiful little diamonds of light, and often times there's a circle
   of light - one line, that connects them.  So they are a really
   beautiful natural phenomenon, and I love the name too.  'Sun dogs'
   just has a great sound to it.  And in that same weather forecast, the
   weatherman announced a meteor shower that night, and so my daughter
   and I went out on the lake in the middle of the night and watched this
   meteor shower.  So the whole idea of the song was response and how
   people respond to things, and it's a thing I've found a lot in
   traveling around the world, too.  It's not enough just to travel and
   see things.  You have to respond to them - you have to feel them, and
   a lot of the thrust of that song is how things are transferred, like
   chain lightning or enthusiasm or energy or love are things that are
   contagious, and if someone feels them, they are easily transferrable
   to another person, or in the case of watching a meteor shower, it's
   made more special if there is someone else there.  'Reflected in
   another pair of eyes' is the idea that it's a wonderful thing already,
   just you and the meteor shower, but if there's someone else there
   with you to share it, then it multiplies, you know, it becomes
   exponentially a bigger experience, so response is a theme that recurs
   in several of the songs and was one of my probably dominant sub-themes
   in the writing." - Neil Peart, on the _Rush - Profiled!_ CD

What is "The Pass" about?

   "There was a lot I wanted to address in that song, and it's
   probably one of the hardest ones I've ever written.  I spent
   a lot of time on it, refining it, and even more doing research.
   There was one song previously, called 'Manhattan
   Project' where I wanted to write about the birth of the nuclear
   age.  Well, easier said than done, especially when
   [writing] lyrics, you've got a couple of hundred words to say
   what you want to say.  So each word counts, and each word had
   better be accurate, and so I found in the case of the
   Manhattan Project, I was having to go back and read histories
   of the time, histories of the place, biographies of all the
   people involved, and that's not without its own rewards, but
   it's a lot of work to go to to write a song - having to read
   a dozen books and collate all your knowledge and experience
   just so you can write, you know, if it says the scientists
   were in the desert sands, well, make sure they were and why,
   and all that.  So with this song it was the same.  I felt
   concerned about it, but, at the same time, I didn't want the
   classic thing of 'Oh, life's not so bad, you know, it's worth
   living' and all that.  I didn't want one of those pat, kind
   of cliched, patronizing statements, so I really worked hard
   to find out true stories, and among the people that I write
   to are people who are going to universities, to MIT, and collecting
   stories from them about people they had known and
   what they felt, and why the people had taken this desperate
   step and all of that and trying really hard to understand
   something that, fundamentally, to me is totally un-understandable.
   I just can't relate to it at all, but I wanted to
   write about it.  And the facet that I most wanted to write
   about was to de-mythologize it - the same as with 'Manhattan
   Project' - it de-mythologized the nuclear age, and it's the
   same thing with this facet - of taking the nobility out of it
   and saying that yes, it's sad, it's a horrible, tragic thing
   if someone takes their own life, but let's not pretend it's a
   hero's end.  It's not a triumph.  It's not a heroic epic.
   It's a tragedy, and it's a personal tragedy for them, but
   much more so for the people left behind, and I really started
   to get offended by the samurai kind of values that were attached
   to it, like here's a warrior that felt it was better
   to die with honor, and all of that kind of offended me.  I
   can understand someone making the choice; it's their choice
   to make.  I can't relate to it, and I could never imagine it,
   for myself, but still I thought it's a really important thing
   to try to get down."  - Neil Peart, on the _Rush - Profiled!_ CD

What is "Scars" about?

   "I think it's part of everyone's experience that a certain
   record reflects a certain period of their life, and that's a
   pleasurable scar, you know, there's a mark left on you, a
   psychological fingerprint left by a very positive experience.
   And music is an easy one, but it translates to so many other
   parts of life where it's a given that, for instance, the
   sense of smell is one of the strongest forces in your memory,
   where a given smell will suddenly conjure up a whole time of
   your life, and again, it triggers another scar, it triggers
   another psychological imprint that was left by a pleasurable
   thing.  So it was just, again, the metaphor of scars and
   using it to say that, as the song does, that these are positive
   and negative aspects of life that have both left their
   mark.  Trying to make it universal, it's not autobiographical,
   and I took a whole autobiographical story of my own and
   made it one line, basically, but there are other things in
   there, parts of life that I've responded to in a sense of
   joy, and in a sense of compassion, and there's the exaltation
   of walking down a city street and feeling like you're above
   the pavement, and Christmas in New York is the perfect time
   to feel that, really, where you just get charged up by the
   whole energy and the positive feelings of it all."
     - Neil Peart, on the _Rush - Profiled!_ CD

What is the song "Anagram (for Mongo)" about?

   "It doesn't really say one thing; it says a bunch of little things, and
   I think that's OK as long as it sounds good.  You know, as long as it
   rolls off the tongue kind of thing?  So I think different songs are
   different exercises, to a degree, and I think that if they feel like
   exercises, then there's something wrong with the song.  But if they
   can slip by in a kind of cohesive and fluid way, or if the effect is
   to be disjoint, and sometimes that's what you're after.  Sometimes you
   want it to be jarring and disjointed and nonsensical.  I think it
   depends on what you're trying to do, and whether you've achieved it in
   your mind, and whether it actually worked, and 'Anagram,' I think,
   did work, even though it's a game - the whole song is a game.  The
   choruses are quite smooth and quite interesting, and they have a nice
   sound to them and they kind of mock the whole song itself, so I think
   it was effective there."  - Geddy Lee, on the _Rush - Profiled!_ CD

Has anybody noticed that "Anagram (for Mongo)" contains lots of anagrams?

   Yes.  {I resisted putting this into the FAQ for a long time, since
          this seems to be about as shocking as pointing out that
          "The Big Money" is about, of all things, money, or that
          "Countdown" is about a launch.  But it shows up in TNMS
          every once in a while.  Dan}

   It has been pointed out to me that, according to the Oxford definition
   of an anagram, this song contains very few anagrams.  To form a true
   anagram, you have to use all of the letters in one word to make another.

What does (for Mongo) after "Anagram" on the "Presto" album mean?

   It's a joke from the movie _Blazing Saddles_, referring to the
   "Candygram for Mongo" scene, according to Geddy on "Rockline" 12/4/89.

What is "Red Tide" about?

   "It's a bit of a selfish concern, really.  I really love
   wildlife, and I spend a lot of my time in the outdoors when
   I'm not working, so that's important to me.  One of my main
   hobbies is cycling, so air quality kind of becomes of critical
   importance.  So it is a selfish thing, and it's something
   I've written about before, on the previous album - the song
   'Second Nature'.  So, again, you want to say things in a way
   that is not only not preachy, but also not boring.  So finding
   the images like 'Second Nature' - I was really fond of
   that analogy of saying 'we want our homes to be a second
   nature', you know.  That was, again, taking a common phrase
   and being able to twist it to say what you want it to say.
   So, with 'Red Tide'  it was a little more adamant, because I
   think the time is a little more critical, and I had to be
   firmer about it, but still there are ways of getting at it,
   and to me there are jokes in there, too, that probably no one
   in the world will ever get, but in the first verse, when I'm
   talking about 'Nature's new plague' and then 'Lovers pausing
   at the bedroom door to find an open store' and all that, to
   me that was obviously referring to AIDS, but it was the irony
   of modern life, you know, where spontaneous love still certainly
   does occur, but here are two lovers who have just met
   in the middle of the night, and they have to go find a store
   before they can consummate their new relationship, you know,
   and to me, when I put those things down, I have a smile, but
   I know that it's one that will never be shared."
     - Neil Peart, on the _Rush-Profiled!_ CD

= Questions about _Roll The Bones_

Who does the RTB spoken "rap" section?

   Geddy Lee, according to Neil on the 12/2/1991 "Rockline".

Who is the boy in the RTB video and on the RTB cover?

   According to "The New Music Magazine" 11/11/91, his name is
   Michael Vander Veldt.

Is there a "Gangster of Boats" trilogy?

   No songs other than "Where's My Thing?" are labeled as being part of
   this trilogy.

But why is "Where's My Thing" labeled as Part IV of the trilogy?

   "Strictly an inside joke, in the sense that the other two guys
   keep threatening that if I don't come up with an album title in
   time, they're gonna call it 'Gangster of Boats,' for reasons best
   known to them. And then the joke in that, of course, is it's
   'Part IV of a trilogy', so we thought that was apropos." - Neil
   Peart, "Rockline," 12/2/91

   "The Gangster of Boats thing is just.. it's a joke.  We've decided
   tonight that it's not a very funny joke because because people keep
   asking serious questions about it." -- Geddy Lee, in the
             January 24, 1994 "Rockline" interview

Is there a reason for the arrangement of the numbers on the dice on the RTB
cover?

   I doubt it.  And if there is a reason, I doubt that it will be
   made public  (much like the significance of the HYF cover).
   Please don't send me mail saying that "it just has to mean something."
   Lots of people have theories about that.  But I haven't heard any
   "official" word on the subject yet.  If you have a theory about
   this and have to share it, post it to TNMS or alt.music.rush and
   see if anybody is interested in discussing it.  Don't send me mail.
   I won't add it to the FAQ without support from a band member.

Has anybody noticed that the "Gangster of Boats" is mentioned in the HYF
liner notes?

   Yes.

What does the pattern of skulls and bones at the bottom of the inside
front cover of the RTB tourbook mean?  Is there a pattern to it?

   It's Morse code for "Remember Death."

= Questions about _Counterparts_

Is there any connection between "Where's My Thing" and "Leave That Thing
Alone?"

   Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson discussed this during the "Counterparts"
   World premiere:

   GL: Only that the fact that they both have "things" in the title.
   AL: Yeah, and they're on our records.
   GL: The "things" are different are different things.
   AL: It's not the same thing.
   GL: It's not the same thing. Really, you have to say, "It's just not the
       same thing."
   AL: No, no... it's just a... thing.
   GL: It's a different thing.
   AL: A totally different thing
   GL: Yeah.

What do the strings of ones and zeroes in the _Counterparts_ liner notes
mean?

   No official explanation has been released.  If you can find an
   interview with somebody connected to the band explaining it, let me
   know and I'll update the FAQ, but DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, send me
   your pet theories without an "official" source to back you up.

 ##############################################################################

  Please send me your suggestions for additions or corrections.  But remember
  that FAQ stands for "Frequently Asked Questions", not "Obscure Rush Trivia".
-- 
Dan Delany, Dan_Delany@pdh.com (NeXT mail OK)
Member of Technical Staff, PDH Inc.
My sister wears combat boots.

