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Clockwork Angels: The Concept and The Plot


The Owl
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To me the album means that country life is better than city life. Growing your own garden, fresh air, living a simpler life without all the headaches that are found in cities.

 

The adventure of visiting the city is "fun" and "exciting" but ultimately not the best place to live.

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QUOTE (The Owl @ Jun 13 2012, 09:54 PM)
QUOTE (The Owl @ Jun 13 2012, 09:31 PM)
QUOTE (Running Rebel @ Jun 13 2012, 09:27 PM)
QUOTE (The Owl @ Jun 13 2012, 09:01 PM)
I wonder if there will be an audiobook as well, and who would be the narrator?

Yes and it's Neil.

For real?, I've heard nothing about an audiobook..

Okay, I just now read this over at RIAB... THis is fantastic!!!

yes, YES IT IS!

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QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 08:56 AM)
To me the album means that country life is better than city life. Growing your own garden, fresh air, living a simpler life without all the headaches that are found in cities.

The adventure of visiting the city is "fun" and "exciting" but ultimately not the best place to live.

Wow. That's really deep. sarcasm.gif

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QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Jun 14 2012, 10:57 AM)
QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 08:56 AM)
To me the album means that country life is better than city life. Growing your own garden, fresh air, living a simpler life without all the headaches that are found in cities.

The adventure of visiting the city is "fun" and "exciting" but ultimately not the best place to live.

Wow. That's really deep. sarcasm.gif

your post is an example of what we're discussing in another thread about criticizing others and their opinions on albums.

 

 

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QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 09:59 AM)
QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Jun 14 2012, 10:57 AM)
QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 08:56 AM)
To me the album means that country life is better than city life. Growing your own garden, fresh air, living a simpler life without all the headaches that are found in cities.

The adventure of visiting the city is "fun" and "exciting" but ultimately not the best place to live.

Wow. That's really deep. sarcasm.gif

your post is an example of what we're discussing in another thread about criticizing others and their opinions on albums.

I'm just saying, if your interpretation of the lyrics is what Neil actually intended, it would mean he hasn't exactly arrived at a philosophical highpoint in his lyric-writing.

 

You can have all the opinions you want - the album is awesome, the album sucks - I don't care. But as for interpreting lyrics, if you really think this is all Neil intended ("country life is better than city life"), you haven't dug very deeply.

 

 

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QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Jun 14 2012, 11:13 AM)
QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 09:59 AM)
QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Jun 14 2012, 10:57 AM)
QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 08:56 AM)
To me the album means that country life is better than city life. Growing your own garden, fresh air, living a simpler life without all the headaches that are found in cities.

The adventure of visiting the city is "fun" and "exciting" but ultimately not the best place to live.

Wow. That's really deep. sarcasm.gif

your post is an example of what we're discussing in another thread about criticizing others and their opinions on albums.

I'm just saying, if your interpretation of the lyrics is what Neil actually intended, it would mean he hasn't exactly arrived at a philosophical highpoint in his lyric-writing.

 

You can have all the opinions you want - the album is awesome, the album sucks - I don't care. But as for interpreting lyrics, if you really think this is all Neil intended ("country life is better than city life"), you haven't dug very deeply.

Geddy said that there are many interpretations to it.

 

Why should I "dig" deep for anything? It's rock music afterall.

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Not so much Forest Gumpian, I think it more closely resembles one of my favorite movies, The Jerk. biggrin.gif

I also think you should always dig deeper into the lyrics of a Rush album. If you don't, you're short changing yourself intellectually. Rush is, after all, rock and roll for people who read. trink39.gif

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QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 10:15 AM)
QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Jun 14 2012, 11:13 AM)
QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 09:59 AM)
QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Jun 14 2012, 10:57 AM)
QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 08:56 AM)
To me the album means that country life is better than city life. Growing your own garden, fresh air, living a simpler life without all the headaches that are found in cities.

The adventure of visiting the city is "fun" and "exciting" but ultimately not the best place to live.

Wow. That's really deep. sarcasm.gif

your post is an example of what we're discussing in another thread about criticizing others and their opinions on albums.

I'm just saying, if your interpretation of the lyrics is what Neil actually intended, it would mean he hasn't exactly arrived at a philosophical highpoint in his lyric-writing.

 

You can have all the opinions you want - the album is awesome, the album sucks - I don't care. But as for interpreting lyrics, if you really think this is all Neil intended ("country life is better than city life"), you haven't dug very deeply.

Geddy said that there are many interpretations to it.

 

Why should I "dig" deep for anything? It's rock music afterall.

It's rock music, but not typical rock music. It's Rush, so there's always much more going on. With Rush, the lyrics are often deep, sometimes with more than one theme in each song. The listener benefits from taking a closer look at the words and extrapolating on the meaning of the philosophical ideas expressed.

 

Or, the listener can just appreciate the music and only accept the surface meaning of the lyrics, or even ignore the lyrics completely. But I wouldn't want to be this kind of Rush fan; I got into Rush and stayed a diehard fan for thirty years because they're NOT "just rock music."

 

QUOTE (hunter)
I also think you should always dig deeper into the lyrics of a Rush album. If you don't, you're short changing yourself intellectually. Rush is, after all, rock and roll for people who read.

 

Exactly! trink39.gif

 

 

 

Edited by GeddyRulz
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I don't have to dig into it. I get my own message out of it and that's where my enjoyment comes from.

 

That's always been the case with me. I do the same thing with every other band out there I like

 

Geddy said that the most successful Rush tunes occur when the listener takes away their own interpretation of the lyrics and music. Which is what I do with every album.

 

I don't want to interpret it the same way as Neil or anybody else. Otherwise, it's not as personal.

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QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 10:32 AM)
I don't have to dig into it.

Of course you don't. But as hunter said and I completely agree, with Rush you're short-changing yourself if you don't.

 

I guess we may as well be discussing ACDC lyrics. They're just rock music. Rush is more.

 

 

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QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Jun 14 2012, 11:43 AM)
QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 10:32 AM)
I don't have to dig into it.

Of course you don't. But as hunter said and I completely agree, with Rush you're short-changing yourself if you don't.

 

I guess we may as well be discussing ACDC lyrics. They're just rock music. Rush is more.

and yet I've been a Rush fan since 1982. I must be doing something right.

 

The more vague the lyrics and story, the better I like it. This way I develop a personal interpretation.

 

If I enjoy what I get out it, I'm not short-changing myself at all.

Edited by circumstantial tree
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Apparently Neil discussed the whole concept on the Jim Ladd radio show last night. I haven't heard, but hope to be able to at some point. From RIAB:

 

QUOTE
#25 - Posted 6/14/12 @2:35AM by Most Endangered Species [contact]

Here are some highlights from the interview for those who missed it:

Jim Ladd, for those who don't know, was a well known radio DJ in LA ever since forever. Very passionate and opinionated about rock music. He had a brief spot in the Moving Pictures Classic Album episode. The format of the interview was a track by track discussion of the whole Clockwork Angels storyline, with Neil reading the prose from the liner notes leading into the playing of each of the 12 songs in order, with brief interview questions before/after each song that shed light on what we'll see in the novel. Seemed that Ladd did his homework about the songs and the storyline, and he gathered several questions from a colleague at Sirius who is a big Rush fan. With Neil doing interviews so infrequently, it was a treat to listen to an interview that was a serious attempt to get to the bottom of the lyrical subject matter. The way I would put it, they "gave the album the attention it deserves."

Neil said he just finished recording the audiobook and joked that because of that he was very warmed up to read these liner notes intros. [i though he did indeed read it very professionally]

The lyric "In a world where I feel so small" wasn't originally in the lyrics that Neil submitted to Geddy, and came about later in the writing process because Geddy asked for an extra line to make it sound good.

He described The Anarchist's character as a "Freedom Extremist", the polar opposite of the Watchmaker. Not originally a terrorist, but "brought up" to be "lacking" which in turn fueled his evil. Neil said the Anarchist fits the saying "I am the way my life has made me." He said he got chills when he heard Geddy sing "A missing part of me that grows around me like a cage." Didn't realize how cool a lyric that was until he heard Ged sing it.

A funny part was that Neil referred to The Anarchist as a "Malignant Narcissist" and even quoted the line from Team America: World Police (as authentic as he could with a girly voice!).

The song Clockwork Angels is about how the pageantry of Chronos Square is meant to keep the population in line. Noted how in Ancient Rome they said "Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt."

Joked about the reference to In N Out milkshakes with the biblical quote in the title track. He explained to Jim Ladd how that SoCal burger chain has biblical chapter:verse references on the bottom of their cups and fries. [As a sidenote, I actually had lunch at In N Out today and sure enough there was "Proverbs 3:5" at the bottom of my milkshake.] And proof that Neil is not infallible, during the interview he mistakenly referred to it as Proverbs 3:16. wink.gif

Asked about his collaboration with Kevin Anderson (author of the book version), he said they always wanted to collaborate on something but never had an opportunity until this project. Neil had the initial idea and they fleshed out some of the story while on a hike near his home in Colorado, discussing themes of order and freedom.

Halo Effect was one song that came out of that collaboration. They weren't afraid to make the hero in the story a reflection of themselves and this song was somewhat inspired by experiences in their own lives.

The Pedlar is really the Watchmaker in disguise. He wants to know what people lack, hoping the answer is "nothing". His role in the storyline is to prompt soliloquy's with his "What do you lack?" question.

When asked if they'd ever consider adding other pieces to their tour, Neil gave sort of a long stammering pause (seeming to choose his words carefully) before saying they are "talking about" augmenting the live performances with an orchestra. The way he stumbled at the beginning of his answer led me to the same conclusion as #14 below, that he let the cat out of the bag.

Francesca is the name of the trapeze artist that the hero gets tooled by in Halo Effect. [i'm wondering if that name could be a literary reference of some kind?]

The historical factoid about the fake lighthouses from The Wreckers is that this was done in the southwest coast of England, in Cornwall.

Speaking for myself, I have been confused about why BU2B2 comes after Headlong Flight. Seemed backwards to me, as BU2B2 seems like a sort of fork in the road that should follow the character's disaster in The Wreckers, with Headlong Flight as sort of a 3-part epilogue to his adventures along with Wish Them Well and The Garden. Neil addressed that a little bit in this interview, he said that in BU2B2's soliloquy the hero is figuring out how to deal with all the bad things that happened to him, and Wish Them Well is the answer that he comes up with.

Asked if Wish Them Well is how he approaches life, he said it's more like a resolution that we should try to do that. Ladd said "like turning the other cheek?" and Peart said no you're not just standing there and taking more abuse, you're walking away from the situatio
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QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 10:46 AM)
If I enjoy what I get out it, I'm not short-changing myself at all.

Of course you'd feel that way, because you have no idea what you're missing. wink.gif

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In North Carolina, archaeologists uncovered evidence that the Spanish were indeed there first before the English colonies many years later.
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QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 03:06 PM)
In North Carolina, archaeologists uncovered evidence that the Spanish were indeed there first before the English colonies many years later.

Yep, the Spanish were traipsing around North America for over 100 years before the English got around to it. The Spanish came looking for gold ended up taking Syphillis back to Europe and the English came looking for a cure laugh.gif

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QUOTE (Running Rebel @ Jun 14 2012, 05:25 PM)
QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Jun 14 2012, 03:06 PM)
In North Carolina, archaeologists uncovered evidence that the Spanish were indeed there first before the English colonies many years later.

Yep, the Spanish were traipsing around North America for over 100 years before the English got around to it. The Spanish came looking for gold ended up taking Syphillis back to Europe and the English came looking for a cure laugh.gif

and infected the native Americans. I watched a film in Manteo, NC about the Lost Colony from the perspective of the native Americans. They were fine until Europeans brought their illnesses with them.

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Actually, "The Wreckers" makes me think of John Carpenter's "The Fog". The backstory is about a ship that was lured to its death and was pillaged for its gold. Carpenter said it was a true story.
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