Neil, Inspired

[goose]

Throughout Neil Peart's career, he has paid homage to great writers and philosophers. In this thread I'm hoping to create a collection of lines from his songs and the original works that inspired him, in a fun format.

 

For example, if someone asked about the song "Anthem", we might build our answer around Ayn Rand and her novel of the saem name.

 

Here's my first question: Where does the song "Out of the Cradle" get its inspiration?

Edited June 9, 2012 by goose

[ArrowSnake]

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 9 2012, 08:29 PM)

Here's my first question: Where does the song "Out of the Cradle" get its inspiration?

Great thread!

 

I believe the inspiration for that song was the poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" by Walt Whitman.

 

"Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,

Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle,

Out of the Ninth-month midnight,

Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child

leaving his bed wander'd alone, bareheaded, barefoot,

Down from the shower'd halo,

Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they

were alive,

Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,

From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,

From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,

From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears,

From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,

From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease,

From the myriad thence-arous'd words,

From the word stronger and more delicious than any,

From such as now they start the scene revisiting,

As a flock, twittering, rising, or overhead passing,

Borne hither, ere all eludes me, hurriedly,

A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,

Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,

I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,

Taking all hints to use them, but swiftly leaping beyond them,

A reminiscence sing."

 

...and so on..

[ArrowSnake]

Next question: where does the song Xanadu get it's inspiration from?

[goose]

QUOTE (ArrowSnake @ Jun 9 2012, 03:25 PM)

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 9 2012, 08:29 PM) Here's my first question:  Where does the song "Out of the Cradle" get its inspiration? Great thread!   I believe the inspiration for that song was the poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" by Walt Whitman.   And of course, Neil puts his own little twist on it through the double-entendre of RUSH "endlessly rocking"

[goose]

In Snakes and Arrows' "We Hold On', Neil writes about..

 

"Straining against a fate

Measured out in coffee breaks"

 

What author and poem is this line a nod to?

[ArrowSnake]

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 9 2012, 10:02 PM)

In Snakes and Arrows' "We Hold On', Neil writes about.. "Straining against a fate Measured out in coffee breaks" What author and poem is this line a nod to?

I believe the poem is "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by the great T.S. Eliot.

 

It contains the line "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" .

 

 

[goose]

QUOTE (ArrowSnake @ Jun 9 2012, 03:29 PM)

Next question: where does the song Xanadu get it's inspiration from?

The famous unfinished Colridge poem...

 

Xanadu

Kubla Khan

 

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

 

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round:

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

 

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:

And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

 

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

 

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid,

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight 'twould win me

That with music loud and long

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread,

For he on honey-dew hath fed

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

[goose]

What Voltaire novel appears to have played an important part in the framing of the Clockwork Angels story?

[HowItIs]

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 9 2012, 06:09 PM)

What Voltaire novel appears to have played an important part in the framing of the Clockwork Angels story?

Candide

 

Which author inspired the chorus of The Pass: "All of us do time the the gutter...."?

[ArrowSnake]

QUOTE (HowItIs @ Jun 10 2012, 12:10 PM)

Which author inspired the chorus of The Pass: "All of us do time the the gutter...."?

Oscar Wilde: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"

 

I love that quote! And this thread too!

[ArrowSnake]

Which legendary English poet and playwright is quoted in Limelight, and what is the quote?

[HowItIs]

QUOTE (ArrowSnake @ Jun 10 2012, 06:07 AM)

Which legendary English poet and playwright is quoted in Limelight, and what is the quote?

Shakespeare

 

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages."

 

 

What is the name of the ship from Cygnus X-1 and in what novel can we find a character named the same?

Edited June 11, 2012 by HowItIs

[t2s]

Rocinante, Don Quixote?

[goose]

QUOTE (t2s @ Jun 11 2012, 02:39 PM)

Rocinante, Don Quixote?

It was the name of Quixote's horse, and is aplay on the Spanish word for "nag", which is "rocin".

 

Regarding the Limelight Shakespeare quote, what play is it from and which character says it?

[HowItIs]

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 12 2012, 04:14 PM)

QUOTE (t2s @ Jun 11 2012, 02:39 PM) Rocinante, Don Quixote? It was the name of Quixote's horse, and is aplay on the Spanish word for "nag", which is "rocin".   Regarding the Limelight Shakespeare quote, what play is it from and which character says it? Right, both of you!   As You Like It, spoken by Jaques.     What French author & critic said: The more things change, the more they are the same? (which is often mistakenly accredited as a French proverb) Sung, of course, as plus ca change plus ca la meme chose.

[goose]

QUOTE (HowItIs @ Jun 13 2012, 04:03 AM)

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 12 2012, 04:14 PM) QUOTE (t2s @ Jun 11 2012, 02:39 PM) Rocinante, Don Quixote? It was the name of Quixote's horse, and is aplay on the Spanish word for "nag", which is "rocin".   Regarding the Limelight Shakespeare quote, what play is it from and which character says it? Right, both of you!   As You Like It, spoken by Jaques.     What French author & critic said: The more things change, the more they are the same? (which is often mistakenly accredited as a French proverb) Sung, of course, as plus ca change plus ca la meme chose. I'll take a chance at a guess...   Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr?     In "Lock and Key", Peart uses the lines   Behind the finer feelings- This civilized veneer- The heart of a lonely hunter Guards a dangerous frontier   Edgar Rice Burroughs has been credited with popularizing the phrase "the veneer of civilization". What character of his has the lonely hunter heart that may have inspired this line from Neil?

Edited June 14, 2012 by goose

[Finding IT]

QUOTE (ArrowSnake @ Jun 9 2012, 04:18 PM)

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 9 2012, 10:02 PM) In Snakes and Arrows' "We Hold On', Neil writes about.. "Straining against a fate Measured out in coffee breaks" What author and poem is this line a nod to? I believe the poem is "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by the great T.S. Eliot.   It contains the line "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" . Speaking of Eliot, I've always thought there were several indirect references to The Waste Land in Between the Wheels.

[HowItIs]

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 14 2012, 02:02 AM)

QUOTE (HowItIs @ Jun 13 2012, 04:03 AM) QUOTE (goose @ Jun 12 2012, 04:14 PM) QUOTE (t2s @ Jun 11 2012, 02:39 PM) Rocinante, Don Quixote? It was the name of Quixote's horse, and is aplay on the Spanish word for "nag", which is "rocin".   Regarding the Limelight Shakespeare quote, what play is it from and which character says it? Right, both of you!   As You Like It, spoken by Jaques.     What French author & critic said: The more things change, the more they are the same? (which is often mistakenly accredited as a French proverb) Sung, of course, as plus ca change plus ca la meme chose. I'll take a chance at a guess...   Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr?     In "Lock and Key", Peart uses the lines   Behind the finer feelings- This civilized veneer- The heart of a lonely hunter Guards a dangerous frontier   Edgar Rice Burroughs has been credited with popularizing the phrase "the veneer of civilization". What character of his has the lonely hunter heart that may have inspired this line from Neil? Yes, indeed! Good guess.   I'm not sure about a Burroughs character. I'd always thought it was a nod to Carson McCullers' The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter.   QUOTE Speaking of Eliot, I've always thought there were several indirect references to The Waste Land in Between the Wheels.   What part of it? There are 430 sets of lines. Did you mean "I will show you fear in a handful of dust"?

[goose]

QUOTE (HowItIs @ Jun 15 2012, 01:38 AM)

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 14 2012, 02:02 AM) QUOTE (HowItIs @ Jun 13 2012, 04:03 AM) QUOTE (goose @ Jun 12 2012, 04:14 PM) QUOTE (t2s @ Jun 11 2012, 02:39 PM) Rocinante, Don Quixote? It was the name of Quixote's horse, and is aplay on the Spanish word for "nag", which is "rocin".   Regarding the Limelight Shakespeare quote, what play is it from and which character says it? Right, both of you!   As You Like It, spoken by Jaques.     What French author & critic said: The more things change, the more they are the same? (which is often mistakenly accredited as a French proverb) Sung, of course, as plus ca change plus ca la meme chose. I'll take a chance at a guess...   Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr?     In "Lock and Key", Peart uses the lines   Behind the finer feelings- This civilized veneer- The heart of a lonely hunter Guards a dangerous frontier   Edgar Rice Burroughs has been credited with popularizing the phrase "the veneer of civilization". What character of his has the lonely hunter heart that may have inspired this line from Neil? Yes, indeed! Good guess.   I'm not sure about a Burroughs character. I'd always thought it was a nod to Carson McCullers' The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. Certainly.   In addition to that, Tarzan is the Burroughs character I was referring to.

[ArrowSnake]

In which song on Snakes & Arrows does Neil make a reference to Ayn Rand's view of the world? And what is the reference?

[ArrowSnake]

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 13 2012, 12:14 AM)

QUOTE (t2s @ Jun 11 2012, 02:39 PM) Rocinante, Don Quixote? It was the name of Quixote's horse, and is aplay on the Spanish word for "nag", which is "rocin". Rocinante was also the name of John Steinbeck's truck in his travelogue "Travels With Charley".

[ArrowSnake]

In which song on Snakes & Arrows does Neil make a reference to Ayn Rand's view of the world? And what is the reference?

[goose]

QUOTE (ArrowSnake @ Jun 21 2012, 02:50 PM)

QUOTE (goose @ Jun 13 2012, 12:14 AM) QUOTE (t2s @ Jun 11 2012, 02:39 PM) Rocinante, Don Quixote? It was the name of Quixote's horse, and is aplay on the Spanish word for "nag", which is "rocin". Rocinante was also the name of John Steinbeck's truck in his travelogue "Travels With Charley". Nice!