Blue J

Happy happies to you!

I went to a Buddy Guy show in Columbus about two years ago, and his playing was hot! So was his energy. The cat's still got it, definitely.

I feel the same way...as I've said, the drought I had between shows was just entirely too long. I haven't posted my own review of the Cincinnati show, but it would be sort of old news to do that now, wouldn't it?? Anyway, I also thought Geddy sounded fantastic (and as for Alex and Neil it goes without saying, but some people seem to be upset that Geddy doesn't sound like 1978 anymore. Whatever! He's the man). Anyway...so glad to hear that it was everything you could have wanted and more... :)

SUCH a great show last night...I was able to upgrade my seats about lunchtime yesterday, too, so I was mid-pavilion, section 600, third row up- about 20 feet to the right of the soundboard? Awesome seats and an awesome performance. SO stoked!

I suppose the guys in the band could go au naturel by now, sure...but 'should' they is a different question. I certainly don't think the fans would abandon them... I started going grey in my beard first, and I just shaved it off late last year (not because of the greys; it's just that I had it for fifteen years and I wanted a change)...the hair is getting more and more that way, which really doesn't bother me. The thinning bothers me a little more, but I'm not vain enough to do anything about that, either. I'm just happy I still have some, hahahaha. (My six year old son told me that the last time I got my hair cut, too, a few weeks ago- "I'm glad you still have SOME hair, Daddy." HAHAHAHAHA! He's a funny one).

My current favorite is Let it Bleed, but I go back and forth between that one and Sticky Fingers. 1. Let it Bleed 2. Sticky Fingers 3. Exile No real surprises, I don't think. I will venture to say that their best post-Tattoo You, by far, is Voodoo Lounge. Always loved that record.

I'm counting down the days as well...four to go, for what will be my first Rush show since 1994. I'm more than a little bit stoked for it! I'm also not a seat snob...I mean, I love it when I can get great seats, but it's not going to turn me off to a show just because I happen to have lawn tickets. More personal space for me to enjoy, as far as I'm concerned (I might try to trade up when I get there, but if I can't, then so be it).

I have been paying attention to the news in Brazil about this, Rodrigo (yes, it is being talked about in the news here in the States). It's outrageous to think about how much those billions of dollars could do to go back to the people, in the form of services that they need- especially since the money has come from the people in the first place. The World Cup and the Olympics are supposed to be great points of pride, but unfortunately, you have this situation now. But the Olympics were hosted in China in 2008, and will be held in Russia next year- neither country has a very good record when it comes to valuing all of its citizens. Here in the U.S. we have people starving, homeless, unemployed...and yet it is considered a 'land of plenty', where a very few have so much, and everyone else gets to split what's left...we also give billions upon billions of dollars in aid to other countries...I've never been able to understand how all of that goes on without millions of Americans rioting in the streets and cities, also. I wish you and your people safety and prosperity!

I wish them well, hobo...so sorry to hear that you're going through so much shite right now. (Yes, 'shite'- that was intentional. The e is like an asterisk of emphasis). I made it to the hospital in time to say goodbye to my brother, even though he was pretty much already gone. And I just lost my sister, too, almost five years ago. I don't need to tell you, those relationships are to be cherished. Be grateful for every day and every conversation you get.

Congratulations- that's awesome, to be loving what you do all day long.

I'm sorry I missed this, too, but maybe you haven't seen it yet, either! (It's just because you've been too busy celebrating it, right?) So...happy TRF anniversary. :)

The The first guitar riffs definitely did come from the blues- Son House, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson...Muddy and the Wolf both came a bit later. But as far as pinpointing what the very first recognizable riff was? No idea...

I'm sorry, but I won't be giving my money to a bloke who can't spell 'particular', no matter how juicy the Rush bits might be.

Ohhhh, yes...'twill be awesome, it will. I thought this was going to be a joke when I saw the thread title- I thought, it can't be! But I'm happy to be proven wrong.

Happy happies to you!

Yes, exactly. I think that's pretty good, too.

I think that's also needed in the PMS forum. lol I think so too! I'll take the hugs (and give some in return, of course), but I'll stay clear of the PMS thread, thanks... I appreciate everybody's comments regarding my posts- I have to say, it did take a lot out of me to write all that, and I've scarcely posted anything in the whole forum since! But it's good to be in the company of those who feel that Rush is extremely important to them, rather than being merely an incredible band. Anyway, I'm off to vacation with my family for awhile, starting tomorrow...y'all be good.

I'm also caught by random passages of Rush music that affect me like that- and there are times when Geddy does get to me that deeply. I'm glad I'm not the only one, because when it catches me off-guard, it surprises me, you know- things that I've listened to hundreds of times, and still, sometimes I just get blown away.

Part 4 of 4 In July of 2008, my wife was diagnosed with cancer. We were both 35, and our sons were ages four and one. I really didn't know what I was going to do; I just had to do my best to stay positive. I remember being in the hospital waiting area when she was going through her first operation, and talking to my sister on my cell phone. And the date was July 22nd- it was exactly 22 years to the day since the accident that killed our brother. I hadn't said anything about it, but Alex did. "Don't you think it's just...too creepy for words?" And had thought about it, of course, but my main focus was on staying positive for my wife, and just keeping myself together. And I didn't know it right then, but I was not too far away from delving headlong back into Rush. Three months after that day at the hospital, and that conversation with my sister, Alex died, on October 15th. After nearly 20 years of drinking various amounts of alcohol in conjunction with her medication, her heart just gave up. She was 38 years old. After 1986, I was convinced that I had lived through the worst year of my life, but 2008 was proving me wrong. I had just talked to her the day before, and we were both laughing...everything was totally fine. And then about 36 hours later, she was gone. In the wake of her death, I felt like someone had cut off both my arms and kicked me in the stomach. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't embrace anything; there was no source of comfort I could find, for quite a little while. And at the same time, I was trying to keep it together enough to take care of my kids, and to care for my wife. And this was when it happened...as I started to finally get my bearings again, about two years later, part of what had helped bring about that recovery was in becoming absorbed in nostalgia. Thinking back to better and happier times, and especially since Rush music had already helped me through another terrible time, I started thinking of them again. I knew they were still active, but I didn't know what they had been up to for nearly fifteen years. And biographically speaking, I didn't know anything at all, either, about that period of time- I didn't know that the period between Test for Echo and Vapor Trails was actually a hiatus, nor that it was because Neil had been going through things in his personal life that I also completely identified with. And so, over the past two and a half years or so, I've become completely immersed in Rush music again. There has been a tremendous amount of new material for me to enjoy in the past couple of years- new to my ears, anyway. The first of those "new" things that I bought was Snakes and Arrows Live- I had never even heard the studio album, at that point. And when I heard Workin' Them Angels, in particular, I was blown away anew. I found myself thinking something very familiar about Neil- how did he KNOW?? "All my life, I've been workin' them angels, overtime"...yes indeed. I feel that way, too. And it's not just Neil's lyrics, but Geddy's delivery of them, and the music of all three of them- the music still grabs me, just as much as it always has- it is still so viscerally felt, and so vitally important to my life. It's so much more rewarding now than it ever has been in the past, just because I've been through so many more highs and lows, and I've reached the point where I am now. It makes me so happy that these three amazing men are still having so much fun, doing what they're doing. If there is an overarching message in the example they've set, I think it's that it's OK to be a misfit, and it's OK to have our personal demons- that we don't have to deny them, but we also can't let them rule us. I'm happy to be able to say that my wife is healthy today, and so are our children...and I am, too- still sober after fifteen years now, and counting. And I'm so happy to still be able to talk about Rush in the present tense- still making new music, and still touring the world together. We as fans are all the richer for ir. In a little more than a month from now, I'll be going to a Rush show for the first time since 1994. It will be at the same venue where my brother spent the last night of his life, and on the way home, I'll pass the exact spot where his accident happened. But it's OK. It's not the thing that is ruling my thoughts. I've been by there several times before. I'll be going to the show with a good friend of mine, and most importantly, there will be a big, long night of music from the three most important people who have ever brought music to my ears. It will be so good to see them again!!

Tell ALL of them. This! Yes! That's the tack I decided to take, too. I hope to be sending it to you tomorrow. It's done, but it's just not all typed yet.

Part 3 of ? My sister Alex was sexually abused by a relative of ours, starting when she was nine- but she's also the most brilliant person I've ever known. She graduated high school at sixteen, full scholarship to a private university...but she also didn't believe that her life was worthy of anything whatsoever. She had her own set of problems that were specific to her when our brother died- she had some feelings for him that went rather beyond what a sister is "supposed" to feel for a brother, if you understand what I mean (he was actually our stepbrother, remember)...she was filled with shame and self-loathing about that and some other things too, that probably will never be explained. She started cutting when she was about fifteen. Drinking and drugging didn't help her any, either, and when she was nineteen, and a junior in college, she was raped. She was three years older than I was, which puts that right in the same time frame I've led up to in my own story here. She had attempted suicide a couple of times after that, and failed out of school. I didn't find out about the rape until about six months later, and I had no idea how far down she had gone until one night that was just the two of us talking, and ended with me forcibly taking a knife away from her. The Pass, another song from Presto, came to frankly freak the sh*t out of me. To this day, it still shakes me to the core; it's really emotional for me (but not in a scary way, anymore- it became comforting at some point, and has stayed that way). I helped my sister as much as I could, with the emotional equipment I had at the time, which was not a lot. But she did end up living through that time- she was diagnosed manic depressive, and began medication for it. The first time I had the opportunity to see Rush live was on the tour for Presto- March 6th, 1990, in Cincinnati. I was not quite 17 years old, and I can remember how excited I was to finally go to a show by this band that had meant so much to me for the ten years or so that I'd been listening to them (and it was on a school night, too, so I really felt like I was getting away with something huge! Haha). That morning after my shower, I went to my bedroom to get dressed, and was thinking about nothing other than what I had coming up that night...and I had a spiritual experience right then. I'll put my hand on any book you want and swear to what happened. Freewill was the song going through my head at that moment ("You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice"), and I opened my bedroom door, and there was Greg, standing right in front of me- I saw him there, as sure as life, just for a split second- and then he was gone. But it was enough to let me know that he was literally with me in spirit that night, when I went to the show. And the show itself was just magical. I can't think of any other word to describe it. I would go to see Rush anytime I had the opportunity to do so, over the next couple of tours after that, too. But in the mid '90s, my alcoholism had become a ruling force in my life, and by that time, I had fallen in with a crowd of people who were pretty far removed from the Rush scene, as it were. By the time I finally got sober in 1998 (I say "finally"- I was not yet 25 years old), my whole life was a mess- I was near death inside. And the thing about Rush, and how they DO relate to that time, is the fact that I had always been inspired by them- and I had completely forgotten about the inspiration. Or I had ignored it. Rush music had always lifted me out of sadness and turmoil, at least to a degree. But at that time, I was awash in all of my own problems, and they were all problems that I created...but I've never associated Rush music with drinking and drugging; they've always been healthier for me than all of that. The second half of the '90s and almost all of the 2000s were virtually Rush-free, for me. They just weren't on my radar at all. I was still as much into music as I had always been, but I was spending all my time on other bands then. When I was almost two years sober, I married the woman who had been my girlfriend on and off since we were 18. We've had two children together, and my life was pretty much devoted to our new family. But Rush would come Rushing back, due to the most unexpected circumstances. (Still more to come)...

Part 2 of ? My parents had encouraged me to hold Greg's hand and talk to him, in his hospital bed, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't speak, I couldn't even approach him. I had said goodbye to him in my mind, and that was enough. In the first couple of hours after he died, I remember sitting with the rest of my family in total silence, and I found myself thinking about the music. The song Subdivisions came into my head- Greg was 15 years old in 1982, so he was the perfect audience for that song when it was released...it's odd to me that I was thinking about his life in relation to Rush music (or then again, maybe it's not odd at all)...I was also thinking about that day I watched him playing YYZ on the drums. And then I thought about the last time I had seen and spoken to him, less than 24 hours before. In those 24 hours since, he had lost his life, and mine was changed forever. A year after he died, Hold Your Fire was released, and that was the first Rush album that I bought on my own- the first album of new Rush music that hadn't been handed down to me by my brother. And it took me awhile to recognize the first lyric that opens that album: Tough times Demand tough hearts Demand tough talk Demand tough songs- demand! How was it that Neil knew exactly what I was going through, you know what I mean? HOW DID HE KNOW?? But the truth of the matter was that there was nothing tough about me when I was 14. I had begun drinking alcohol when I was twelve, and especially after Greg died, that started to become a problem- lots of time spent in my bedroom, with the door closed, just drinking and feeling sorry for myself, and escaping in the music (there was Rush, and then there were other bands, too). I don't associate Rush music with the depression and the grief I was going through at that time- if anything, it only helped to life my spirits a bit, which was not an easy task, back then. The lyrics on the Presto album are full of inspiration- some of them, also represent cases when I can only figure that Neil had his crystal ball fixed firmly on me once again- and on things that I had yet to go through, as well. I'll get to that more, a little bit later. But the main lyric that I remember grabbing me first was from the title track- "If I could wave my magic wand, I'd make everything all right." It was as if my brother had guided Neil's pen, and Geddy's voice, directly at me. (I'm also an absolute sucker for Alex's acoustic playing, so the flourish of strumming at the opening of that song lit me up as well). And it was at about that time that I started to emerge, just a little tenuous bit, from the darkness. It wasn't a lot, but it was some kind of something like hope, which was not a feeling I'd had for the three years before then. It was enough to keep me going. Music was really the only solace I had. But I was still only sixteen, and I still had a lot of trials and troubles on the horizon- I had no idea how many, at that time. Because as I was just starting to emerge into the available light, my sister- my closest relative on Earth, my dearest friend, my soulmate- was receding further and further into the dark. (Still more to come)...

Part 1 of ? (I don't know how many parts it will be) It's difficult to know where to begin, other than just at the beginning. Rush has been a part of my conscious and subconscious mind for almost my whole life. I was introduced to them by my older brother Greg, sometime around 1979 or '80. He was my step-brother, actually, but he has always been a brother in every sense but that of blood, so I always just called him my brother. Anyway, I was about seven years old back then, and he was twelve or thirteen. In what I'm sure was a source of annoyance to him, I emulated him in so many different ways- the way he looked, his movements and mannerisms...I had the classic I-want-to-be-just-like-my-big-brother syndrome... There was something about Rush's music, from the very start, that I can only say it affected me viscerally- that's a good word for what I felt. It just so deep, rhythms and riffs flying everywhere; it just lit me up. It was the most important discovery I had ever had, at that age. Permanent Waves was the 'new' Rush album at that time, and thanks to my brother, I had already had a lot of exposure to Fly By Night and 2112 in particular (and my first favorite Rush song was Xanadu, which captivated me from the first time Greg played it for me). Neil Peart's playing was the primary reason that my brother became a drummer himself. The first (and only) kit I remember him having was a Slingerland, just like what Neil played back then. I have a vivid memory of watching him play along to the studio version of YYZ; it must have sometime around 1983 or '84, and he nailed every beat and every one of Neil's fills just right. I remember that moment being the very one that made me want to pick up the drumsticks as well, and within another year or so, I started playing as well. Taking up the drums had led my brother into marching band when he was in high school, and when I started playing, he showed me a couple of rudiments, but that was it. Other than that, I just played along with the records I liked at that time. I wasn't tackling Rush, though. Even today, all these years later, in a lot of cases I can only play a reasonable facsimile of what Neil does, but that's it. But I digress... Fast forward to the summer of 1986- I was 13, and Greg was home after his freshman year of college. The afternoon of July 22nd was a typical hot summer day, nothing unusual about it...Greg was waiting for some friends to come pick him up and go to Cincinnati for a rock and roll show (it was not Rush). And there was something about it, when he left that day, going through my head, that something wasn't right; that something was going to happen to him. But I didn't let on. As I walked out the front steps before he got in his friend's car, I just said, "You'll be back tomorrow, right?" And he looked back and smiled, and said, "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." The next morning, I was awakened by my sister, who was bawling. She said, "Mom's on the phone, and she needs to talk to you." And I'll never forget, I looked at the clock, and it was 8:07 AM. I thought to myself, OK, why the hell isn't Mom at home? And I got on the phone, and she said, "Greg was in a pretty serious accident last night, and he's in the hospital. You need to come down and say goodbye to him." Thinking back on it, I don't remember exactly what my thoughts were, exactly. The story was that on the drive home, on a highway on-ramp, they swerved to avoid hitting an animal in the road and hit a pole. All of them had been drinking, and Greg was asleep in the back seat. The place where the car hit the pole is exactly where his head was, and that was it. But the accident was minor enough that nobody else was even scratched, and they got back up on the road and kept going, thinking he had actually slept through it. But then they found blood on the seat a couple of minutes later. They told us Greg could live, but he would be in a permanent vegetative state- his brain stem had been severed. And my parents decided they didn't want that life for him, so the machines were turned off. A little after noon on July 23rd, 1986, my big brother, my biggest influence, and the one who had introduced me to the most important music I had ever known, was gone. (More to come)...

The dog wet on the picnic basket!

Happy happies to you!