The Genius of Middletown Dreams

[winter17]

I don't know if it's just me, but I had always heard that Middletown Dreams was similar to Subdivisions in the sense that it was a critique of suburban life. After listening to the song, I never understood what the relation was, what the lyrics were trying to say, even though it was one of my favorite songs.

 

It was only in the past week or so that I truly realized what it all meant; the worker getting restless at his monotonous job, the boy who's natural talents are stifled, and the mother who would have been a pop star but is instead left to dream about it.

 

This, I believe, is one of Neil's strongest lyrical moments.

[EagleMoon]

It's similar to Subdivisions in it's meaning. I always considered it kind of a part II with the older people rather than the young whipper snappers. ;)

[toymaker]

But I think it differs a bit from Subdivisions in that Peart ends up writing "but life's not unpleasant in their little neighborhoods" - they're content, but it's human nature always to be dreaming and thinking of what might have been. In Subdivisions, I get the sense that it's important to get out of the suburbs, where "nowhere is the misfit or the dreamer so alone." I get the sense in Subdivisions that those folks who get caught in the rat race end up looking at their little houses in the suburbs as a place to relax, but there's a sort of emptiness to it. . . . then again, maybe it's not that different - being content isn't necessarily the same as being happy. "Life's not unpleasant" is a bit of a hedge - he doesn't say that life is pleasant, just that it's not unpleasant.

 

It's fitting that Subdivisions is followed by the Analog Kid, which is all about the unknown. If you know where you're going (to your job, back to your house in the suburbs, then you're safe, but there's not chance of experiencing the "bright and nameless vision."

 

In Middletown Dreams, Peart references an apocryphal story about the writer Sherwood Anderson - one of my favourite American authors, along with William Maxwell - who, it is said, got up from his office chair one day in his office in an insurance company, and started walking down the tracks to pursue a different life.

Edited September 12, 2016 by toymaker

[goose]

Another day as drab as today is more than a man can endure...

 

 

The day to day tedium of a not unpleasant life. But dreams can help a person get through it...drive you when you're down.

 

Great song!

Edited September 12, 2016 by goose

[toymaker]

I've always liked it. It doesn't really showcase their Rush prog-chops, but it's a cool little tune.

[Alien Girl]

Bleh, no. The line 'Dreams flow across the heartland' is about the most trite line of drivel Neil ever wrote. *Shudder* Ruins the whole song for me. Edited September 12, 2016 by Alien Girl

[goose]

Bleh, no. The line 'Dreams flow across the heartland' is about the most trite line of drivel Neil ever wrote. *Shudder* Ruins the whole song for me.

http://aarongloy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/BewareCynic2.jpg

 

 

[toymaker]

"Dreams" is one of Peart's favorite words, for sure.

[x1yyz]

I think the lyrics in MD say a lot about the average person's life. Most of us do live average lives. Maybe we were the proverbial kid from Subdivisions, maybe we even tried to follow our dreams. Whatever our pasts, our present is spent dreaming what might have been.

 

This song is powerful in its message and that is something ask of us should take to heart: Don't sit at home thinking of what could have been; instead go out and do things! This doesn't mean you need to leave your family and go join a band, but rather, take that painting class, travel, learn, enjoy life.

[edhunter]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

[goose]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

 

I love the synth line as well. I think I'll give it a listen today.

[tangy]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

 

I love the synth line as well. I think I'll give it a listen today.

 

Yeah that synth is good. So good thats its unlikely that it was ged playing it....

 

Or was he?

 

 

[EagleMoon]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

 

Yeah same here. I lived in Middletown, Ohio for a long time and wondered at one time if it was written about my city. It was certainly a place you would want to get out of.

[Blue J]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

 

Yeah same here. I lived in Middletown, Ohio for a long time and wondered at one time if it was written about my city. It was certainly a place you would want to get out of.

 

I am about five miles from there right now, literally.

 

I live a good distance away, though.

[EagleMoon]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

 

Yeah same here. I lived in Middletown, Ohio for a long time and wondered at one time if it was written about my city. It was certainly a place you would want to get out of.

 

I am about five miles from there right now, literally.

 

I live a good distance away, though.

 

I'm a long way away now since I moved to Phoenix. :) Actually Middletown wasn't horrible, but like many places the economy hit there pretty hard.

[goose]

Neil Peart (April 1986 Canadian Composer interview): "I used the exact thing which 'Territories' warns against as a device in 'Middletown.' I chose 'Middletown' because there is a Middletown in almost every state in the US. It comes from people identifying with a strong sense of neighborhood. It's a way of looking at the world with the eyeglass in reverse. I spent my days-off cycling around the countryside in the US, looking at these little towns and getting a new appreciation of them. When you pass through them at 15 miles per hour, you see them a little differently. So I was looking at these places and kind of looking at the people in them - fantasizing, perhaps romanticizing, a little about their lives. I guess I was even getting a little literary in imagining the present, past, and future of these men, women, and children. There was that romantic way of looking at each small town, but also each of the characters in that song is drawn from real life or specific literary examples. The first character as basedon a writer called Sherwood Anderson. Late in his life, Anderson literally walked down the railroad tracks out of a small town and went to Chicago in the early 1900s to become a very important writer of his generation. That's an example of a middle-aged man who may have been perceived by his neighbors, and by an objective onlooker, to have sort of finished his life and he could have stagnated in his little town. But he wasn't finished in his own mind. He had this big dream, and it was never too late for him, so he walked off and he did it. The painter Paul Gauguin is another example of a person who, late in life, just walked out of his environment and went away. He too became important and influential. He is the influence for the woman character of song. The second verse about the young boy wanting to run away and become a musician is a bit autobiographical. But it also reflects the backgrounds of most of the successful musicians I know, many of whom came from very unlikely backgrounds. Most of them had this dream that other people secretly smiled at, or openly laughed at, and they just went out and made it happen."

 

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4178

[lifeson90]

probably standout album of synth era although all great. i cant listen to mystic rhythms these days played so much years ago is hardwired into my brain seriously powerful sh*t. Grand Designs mann Al as groovy as he gets and yeah Middletown Dreams obvs brill. great album great memories

[Pale Facsimile]

MD is my favorite synth-era Rush song (possibly top 5 all-time, definitely top 10). It reminds me of a girl I used to work with here in Syracuse whom I had a huge crush on (oh who am I kidding, I still do, almost 8 years later), and she moved back to her hometown of...that's right...Middletown, CT. I went up to visit her in 2012 and took her to the CA Tour show in Bridgeport, hoping they'd play it, but no such luck (still a great show, though!). I was kinda mad when I found out they'd been playing it occasionally on that tour and I didn't hear it once (saw 3 CA shows).

 

But yeah, back to the song...it's got a beautiful sound, and almost all of us can relate to the lyrics. The whole album is great, really. Still not a ginormous fan of Territories, but it doesn't take away from the cohesiveness of the album. Power Windows is a Rush powerhouse!

[fraroc]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

 

Too bad geddy never played that synth part, he always sampled it live.

[EagleMoon]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

 

Too bad geddy never played that synth part, he always sampled it live.

 

That's because it's a sequencer. He wouldn't have played it regardless.

[fraroc]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

 

Too bad geddy never played that synth part, he always sampled it live.

 

That's because it's a sequencer. He wouldn't have played it regardless.

 

It's a pretty fast synth line, so for someone who admit's he's not a great keyboard player, I don't blame him one bit if he didn't want to attempt it. A player like Geoff Downes or Jon Lord could have pulled it off though.

[JohnnyBlaze]

IMHO, Peart's best lyrics are easily those from the 80s. So yeah, I'd say a bunch of PoW lyrics are genius

[Blue J]

IMHO, Peart's best lyrics are easily those from the 80s. So yeah, I'd say a bunch of PoW lyrics are genius

 

Yes- Power Windows and Hold Your Fire in particular. I agree!

[JohnnyBlaze]

IMHO, Peart's best lyrics are easily those from the 80s. So yeah, I'd say a bunch of PoW lyrics are genius

Yes- Power Windows and Hold Your Fire in particular. I agree!

I've said a couple of times in the past that HYF has his best lyrics. I probably still think that. I liked the 80s album themes too. Continuing on down a few years, I liked Bones thematically...but most of those lyrics just didn't work for me.

[EagleMoon]

The synth part underneath the "Middle-aged Madonna" section is my absolute favorite Rush keyboard moment. I grew up not far from Middletown, CT and during the Hartford show that tour, Geddy introduced the song as being about a place "not too far from here". At the time I thought it was super cool. It was only years later I realized there were at least 33 Middletowns in America, so Geddy probably said that at every show on the tour!

 

Too bad geddy never played that synth part, he always sampled it live.

 

That's because it's a sequencer. He wouldn't have played it regardless.

 

It's a pretty fast synth line, so for someone who admit's he's not a great keyboard player, I don't blame him one bit if he didn't want to attempt it. A player like Geoff Downes or Jon Lord could have pulled it off though.

 

Oh sure but they are dedicated keyboard players. This is just a little sample in the middle of the song. He needed to be playing his bass at that point.