More Scholarship on Rush (the band)

Oh sure, Chris... drop a little tempting tidbit like that and expect me to ignore it. For those who wish to read it, my own contribution to the symposium on progressive rock, Rush, and Ayn Rand that was in Chris's journal can be found here: Rand, Rush, and De-totalizing the Utopianism of Progressive Rock . Here's the abstract:

The music of Rush can legitimately claim to be progressive rock, both during the mid-70s when their music was most clearly related to that tradition and in their less obviously progressive work in the 80s and 90s. Rush's libertarian/Randian lyrics do not, as several authors argue, reduce their claim to progressivity because libertarianism can be viewed as a progressive, utopian social philosophy. Rush's career parallels the rise of libertarian thought, and the band's move away from large, long-song structures parallels libertarianism's critique of the totalizing, centralized utopias of much leftist thought.

And, I should note, Rush is currently on tour celebrating their 30th anniversary. How many bands have made it through 30 years and 18 studio, 5 live, and several compilation albums without any drug arrests/rehab stints, divorces, or major conflicts, all while maintaining the same personnel? This one has and they are still kicking the asses of bands have their age. They put on as good a live show as you'll ever see. For those in NYC, they are at Radio City Music Hall (yes, you read that right) on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Go check 'em out. I'll be in Montreal on Saturday night (my third show of the tour).

We now return to the non-musical portion of the blogging program.