Posted on 09/12/2006 11:51:45 AM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Rush Wrestling With Faith On New Album
Neil Peart
September 11, 2006, 3:50 PM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y. Rush has penned eight songs for its next studio album, which should be out in early 2007, according to drummer Neil Peart. The artist tells Billboard.com his lyrics for the as-yet-untitled set were greatly influenced by his motorcycle journeys throughout the United States, chronicled in the new book "Roadshow: Landscape With Drums."
Peart says he was struck by the ubiquity of religious billboards that have sprung up on America's highways, which got him thinking about some weighty topics. "Just seeing the power of evangelical Christianity and contrasting that with the power of fundamentalist religion all over the world in its different forms had a big effect on me," he says.
"You try to put your own way of seeing the world into some kind of congruence with other peoples, and that's difficult for me," he admits. "I mean, I see the world in what I think to be a perfectly obvious and rational way, but when you go out into it and see the way other people think and behave, and express themselves on church signs, you realize, 'Well, I'm not really part of this club.'"
"I looked for the good side of faith," Peart says. "To me it ought to be your armor, something to protect you and something to console you in dark times. But it's more often being turned into a sword, and that's one big theme I'm messing with."
Musically, the new album is continuing in much the same vein as 2002's "Vapor Trails," which returned Rush to a more guitar/bass/drums-driven sound. But Peart is quick to add that the music is "remarkably organic in a way that I haven't heard [from Rush] before. We spent a month together in May working on those songs and developing our individual instrument parts for them. It's early to characterize it, but it's definitely fresh and different and that's certainly satisfying."
Peart, bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson will regroup next month to finish pre-production and will begin recording in November. However, as Peart writes at the conclusion of "Roadshow," he is ambivalent about putting himself through yet another massive world tour.
"It is true that in 1989 I announced that I wasn't going to tour anymore, and have said that every time since and have gone back and decided [to do it] for all good reasons," he says. "One of the main ones to me is that a band plays live, so if I want to consider our band as a living, working thing then that's the case. I haven't in my own mind committed to [another tour] yet, but of course I haven't ruled it out, either."
I'm mostly an afficionado when it comes to rock.
I play classical piano, intermediate level, but I do play a bit of rock as well (I transposed some Metallica and other guitar parts to the keyboard.)
And one year I learned guitar (There was a handful of songs I could pick out -- Cinderella Man and Closer to the Heart (Rush), Stairway to Heaven, and SAve your Love by Great White) I didn' t pursue it because I'm left handed and could only play it right handed.
I did later try learning on a left handed guitar, but it was too "backward" for me, after years of a keyboard going left to right.
It's strange that my favorite rock instruments are the ones I've never played!
(All I am really though is a voice coach my husband who impersonates Elvis. Does that count?)
Very much...LOL. This thread has one done one thing....I fired up Rush on the CD player....been a few years. Regardless of current views....these three guys could play....damn....Geddy Lee playing bass, Taurus pedals and vocals....Leifson doing what Liefson does.....and Peart just knocking the crap put of a drumset the size of a small house.... Compare to the synced over, pop/rap/made up musicians of today.....not even a candle....
It's not so much that they use the keys...they did it before AND after. It's more the production and overall "sound". It just seemed to sterile or "studio". However MANY albums which were first recorded digitally sound that way to me (especially Damn Yankees - which I loved)
You know, I don't think Alex gets enough credit for his guitar skills and contribution to Rush's sound. Well, I mean obviously it's a big part of the sound just because they're a 3-man team, but I've always thought he has a unique style that is just as distinctly Rush as Geddy's vocals or bass playing or Neil's drumming. He has a real feeling for the instrument that goes beyond pure technical skill or flashiness. Watch and listen to him playing on the R30 DVD, for example. The song that really stands out for me on that disc is "Between the Wheels" from the "Grace Under Pressure" disc. The guitar work in the bridge and ending is really nice. Much like Earthshine, a song that was good but not great on the CD, but really came alive in live play. "Marathon Man" was also really good on R30.
It would not be Rush, without Alex.......the dude plays rhythm, and lead at the same time.......fringin awesome...
Thats why John Bush era Anthrax stays in my CD player.
...and oh, so true.
I see some here still have stars in their eyes over Rush. Truth be told, I never liked their tuneless, meandering music to start with.
After reading the Christian-bashing replies on this thread, one Peart lyric definitely comes to mind -
"Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand..."
Do not confuse man's sinful abuse of power under the guise of Christianity (which has been the exception of history, not the rule and if not the abuse of Christianity, it would have something else) with the truth of Christianity. Also, abolishing religion would not solve the problem of man's abuse of man.
Christianity is not a threat to individual liberty. In fact, it is the key to individual liberty not only because it stresses human dignity and responsibility but because it is Truth. (Whether you or I believe that it is Truth does not make it so or not so - it is either Truth or a lie and that fact is not dependent on anyone's belief). It also includes the moral authority of God as revealed in the Word of God that is external to man. When a society introduces a moral authority (and every society has one) that is man-based, tyranny is inevitable.
Wrong. Christianity's abuse of power has been the norm.
The Crusades, the Papal Inquisition, the Burning Times, the Salem Witch Trials, Catholicism's puppet master control of European monarchies, the Puritan Revolution....
Time and time again, when Fundamental Christians have gained power throughout history, they have brutally opressed the People. So don't tell me it has been the "exception" to the rule and spare me the 'Well, they aren't TRUE Christians' argument.
It also includes the moral authority of God
Sorry. A God that murders and tortures and uses human beings for his amusement is not a moral God. Your Christian God is a sick, twisted deity.
Most of the things you mention above encompass a relatively brief period in history by a single institution that was more political than religious.
While the much of the behavior during the Crusades was questionable, it is important to understand their context. Like most other "Christian abuses", the Crusades were political rather than religious and were used by the Pope to raise funds. Just as important, the Crusades were a response to 500 years of violent Islamic expansion.
You should also keep in mind that the first victims of the inquisition were Christians who had the same opinion of Rome at that time that you have and had gone back to the Bible - in essence, they were the first reformers. Rather than being offended by what they perceived to be sacrilege, Rome persecuted these people because they threatened their political power.
You site the Puritan Revolution. I am assuming you mean the persecution (which, again, was mostly motivated by politics) of the Puritans by the throne of England and you are not claiming that the Puritans themselves persecuted. (John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress during his 12 year imprisonment) Keep in mind, the Puritans were largely an English movement. The Puritans in America had fled persecution in England. And please don't define American Puritans as witch burners of Salem. To do so is to show your ignorance of Puritans in particular and history in general.
So let me concede that there have been evil men who have put on the Robes of Christianity in order to abuse other men. An analysis of the records indicates that as a result of this abuse of Christianity, it is likely that around 300,000 people were killed in all of history.
Contrast that with atheist societies, such as the Soviet Union. Stalin killed at least 20 million in the purges. In China, Mao killed millions more. (If ever the amount of suffering caused is the yardstick to determine whether a belief system should be outlawed, atheism will be the first go). Look at the death and destruction of Europe by pagans in the dark ages (by the way, it was the Christian monasteries set up by Irish monks that saved Europe during that period). Finally, untold millions have died at the hands of Islamists - for either simply not being Muslim or for failing to convert.
And let's not forget the other side of the coin. Besides saving Europe from the pagan tribes, there are many, many more examples that could be cited of Christians working selflessly to benefit society.
I will give you just one of the perhaps millions of examples. The men of the Southern Baptist Convention have an agreement with the Red Cross whereby during a crisis, the SBC is responsible for providing meals. Within hours of the planes hitting on 9/11, the head of the SBC meal program was on the phone in his car driving to NYC. On 9/12, there were boots on the ground in NYC and on 9/13 they were serving meals. Over the next six weeks, the SBC served over 300,000 meals to rescue personnel, volunteers and victims of 9/11. I personally know two men who spent the week after 9/11 serving meals during the day and sleeping in an old converted prison at night. The fact that most people don't know that story is because the SBC doesn't go around promoting its Christian service - just like most Christians.
I would remiss if I did not state that, to my knowledge, there is not a single serious Evangelical leader today in America who supports Christian theocracy as a form of government. In fact, most argue against it. History shows that when government and church mix, it is the church that ends up on the short end of the stick.
Finally, I have read the entire Bible (and you are free to as well) and in no place in that entire book will you find God torturing, murdering or using people for his amusement. It just isn't there. In fact, it isn't even remotely there.
What you will find is the story of man's creation in the likeness of God, man's rebellion against God and fall into sin, and God's perfectly merciful and just restoration of man to Himself through the sacrifice of Himself through Jesus Christ. No murder. No torture. No using. Only self-sacrifine, justice, mercy and love.
He speaks about something to which his words expose massive ignorance.
Not hardly. Anarchists and socialists have barraged this country for the better part of a century and still strike out at our Constitution, institutions, and morals.
"The Crusades, the Papal Inquisition, the Burning Times, the Salem Witch Trials, Catholicism's puppet master control of European monarchies, the Puritan Revolution...."
These disasters weren't perpetrated by fundamentalists. That didn't have anything to do with Biblical Christianity. That's obvious to anyone who knows what the Bible actually says.
Peart is a major Ayn Rand fan. 2112 is Anthem put to music.
Yes, correct
Every religion has its murderous zealot psychopathic adherents. T’was ever thus, sadly. Religious governments are particularly bad.
Still, don’t throw out the baby with the bath. Most religious adherents are peaceful, loving people, given a bad name by the few miscreants
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