Slappin Da BASSSS!!!

I was recently watching I Love You, Man and the main theme is centered around two guys becoming tight friends around their love of Rush and how great the album 2112 is.  It’s funny out of all the bands they chose Rush because they really are a phenominal classic rock band and constantly over looked by people as to how important they were in the rock genre.  So obviously the album I am interested in talking about is the definitive album by them being entitled 2112.

The first half of the album is concept and the track is self titled and is broken into seven chapters that all tell the story of a futuristic Earth in the year 2112.  The story takes place in a time when the Earth was almost on the brink of destruction from a series of wars that caused the humans to almost destroy themselves.  The Earth is now run by a group of Priests called the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx who are apart of a communist like regime called the Red Star of the Solar Federation.  Anyway, these Priests are highly strict an only allow self expression to be approved by their law, so music, poetry, literature and anything free speaking is ruled.  A man in the 3rd chapter of the epic song makes a discovery deep in a cave in barren Earth and finds what was known as a guitar.  He is infatuated with it and starts playing it and becomes so happy he runs to the priests to show them what he found.  They are unhappy with his discovery after he is done playing for them and they tell him that this is one of the many reasons man almost destroyed himself and it needs to be destroyed.  He leaves the meeting obviously devastated and falls asleep depressed and is visited by an “Oracle” who explains to him the priests are evil and are power hungry and the earlier human race who was now in the underworld would not be set free to stop them unless a prophecy was fulfilled.  The man wakes up shocked that it was only a dream and goes on with his day so depressed about what happened with the priests that he decides to take his own life knowing he can’t live in a world like this.  The story ends in the last song where the human race comes back from the other world and destroys the priests so the human race doesn’t have to live under their rule any longer.  Obviously the man taking his life for something he believed in triggered the prophecy to be fulfilled and that’s how the story ends. 

The album is kind of Star Warsy and a little nerdy but it’s a pretty sick concept that has a lot of meaning behind it and became the breakthrough the band needed.  Everytime I listen to it, I really buy into the story and how Geddy Lee will change his style his singing to replicate the man and Priests talking.  It’s sort of like a musical style of production that they did because most of the lyrics are dialogue between characters.  Not only is the concept what makes the album so solid but it’s just Rush’s arrangement of music and it’s amazing how just three guys could play so technical and really create their own genre of music called progressive rock.  Geddy Lee has one of the most distinct vocal styles and his bass playing showed that bass didn’t have to be a back up instrument and can be just as prominent as guitar.  And Neil Peart the lyric writer and drummer is considered by most to be one of the greatest drummer’s in history.  If your really into classic rock and want to get into somebody you sometimes overlook, definately check out Rush and their 2112 album.  Most songs you know are their 80′s hits like “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight” but their early work was very epic tracks with superior musicianship and great lyric writing.  Check out a video below of them rocking out in concert.