I believe your friends. Neal was truly talented with words and music. In the early days, people would talk about his intelligence, and the story I heard was that Neal was a schoolteacher who taught mythology. I don’t know how that rumor started. I now see it wasn’t true. He was simply well-read and self-taught. It’s sad that he had so much heartbreak in his life.
The funniest thing is that people called Rush a “Fascist Band”, because of Neal’s references to Ayn Rand.
Without even realizing that Geddy’s parents were Holocaust survivors.