More Rush for your soul

January 14th, 2006

OK, i’ve been on a little RUSH kick over the past couple of weeks. Even though my musical tastes have wandered a little past what I consider mainstream. A good RUSH song always brings me back to my days in high school, sitting behind my overly massive TAMA rockstar kit (with double basses of course), headphones in check, trying to emulate the syncopated, yet elegant, furry of Neil.

Earlier this week I discovered a nice vault of RUSH videos @ youTube.com. Then by sheer fate, I was scanning all 3 gazillion channels on cable last night and stumbled upon a nice interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, interspersed with some classically cheesy videos of the band on VH1 Classics. Then tonight on aforementioned channel, was a broadcast of the Frankfurt show which has been released on their new DVD. I didn’t watch the whole show, but one song during the performance really brought back some nice memories. The song was Subdivisions off of their Signals album, yes ALBUM, not CD or .mp3. I always enjoyed this song, musically it’s not as hard driving as much of the earlier stuff but has a great melody and some nice synths to boot. What really stands out in my mind though are the lyrics to the song. Growing up in a subdivision, now living again in a subdivision, the lyrics still kind of hit home in a special way.

So without further ado, here’s a reprint of the lyrics to Subdivisions by RUSH:

Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone

Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone

Subdivisions —
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions —
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth

Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night

Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight

Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights…

Thank you very much and good night.

Entry Filed under: music