Beyond the Lighted Stage

[valyssia]

I woke up this morning and did something that was very out of character for me. I watch a video.

Actually, what I watched was a biography.

And I have something to say, “People in the public eye—whoever the hell you are—please, spare me the drivel about how you took something—whatever thing—‘too far’.”

You don’t need to share that, because here’s the thing: if you’re an artist, musician, poet, author…a creative force of any sort, you will fixate on a subject or medium. It’ll capture your interest and you will explore it. That’s what creating art is about.

It’ll feel right to you at the time. You’ll think what you’re doing is really good. Believing in what you’re doing is necessary to the act of being creative. It’s like air to a fire.

Looking back ten years later and saying, “I’m really sorry I did that,” is the very stuff of lameness.

Knock it off! You sound silly.

Though, I suppose it’d be different if they weren’t making excuses for platinum albums.

It wasn't very good, but it sold a million copies. Yeah, uh…

One of these days I’d like to be that kind of ‘not very good’ myself.

The biography I watched was called Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. And I was really into it. There wasn’t even that much guilt. The suspension of guilt for me when I should be working is a rare thing.

They killed it for me about halfway through by skipping over the latter half of the eighties and offering a few weak excuses about having taken the use of synthesizers too far.

So, let me get this straight. I say, “Rush,” and half of you—the ones who pull any reference at all—will probably think of this:

You may even hear the first chord…a first chord which is incidentally all synth. Yet Rush—the artists responsible—for some ungodly, unimaginable, unfathomable reason believe that they went overboard.

To me Rush lamenting their use of synthesizers is like Escher lamenting his use of tessellating shapes.

After Bowie decided that Monsters might not be all that Scary and started jazzin’ with Blue Jean…while my contemporaries were ‘rocking out’ to the Thompson Twins, Ah-Ha, Duran Duran, Culture Club…Rush gave me this:

You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb
But the wheels of time
Just pass you by

And this:

Snow falls deep around my house
And holds the winter light
I've heard the lions hunting
In the Serengeti night
I get this feeling...

Forests turned to factories
And river, sea, and sky
Hungry child in the desert
And the flies that cloud her eyes
I get this feeling...

Pleasure leaves a fingerprint
As surely as mortal pain
In memories they resonate
And echo back again...

And this:

I turn my face to the sun
I close my eyes
Let my defenses down
All those wounds that I can't get unwound

I let my past go too fast
No time to pause
If I could slow it all down
Like some captain, whose ship runs aground
I can wait until the tide comes around

And they find fault in that?

Comments

[frogfarm]

I highly recommend ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL. It was like a cross between this Rush documentary and a real life Spinal Tap. And anyone that doesn't stand up and cheer at the end has no soul.

[valyssia]

I'm not so much the cheering sort--what you suggest requires much energy--but I'll add it to my Netfix queue if it's available. ;)

[artemis-ephesus.livejournal.com]

This is kinda random, but I thought I'd share that today I found out the name of someone in my latin class at uni, and it is Howard Russell, which is also the name of your beta reader.

IDK, I just thought it was funny because I thought of you immediately.

[valyssia]

Howard Russell is actually my beta reader's pseudonym.

It's nifty that you met a real one. I'll pass that on to my Howard. I'm sure he'll be amused.