Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush
Book Reviews | Feb 17th, 2007
Author: Carol Selby Price & Robert M.
Publisher: Wildside Press
Genre: Music Essays/Criticism
Pages: 164
Retail Price: 9.99
Buy on Amazon.com link
Rush is my favorite band of all time. They play with a talent and discipline that is unparallel. And for some reason, they’re doomed to the fate that whoever writes about them lacks any talent or discipline whatsoever.
The only authorized biography on them (and only mainstream book-length piece on them, period) was Visions by Bill Banasiewicz, which told you more about Bill Banasiewicz than it did about Rush. Poorly written to the point of hilarity, it was filled with the most incredibly vapid insights, such as how the song ‘Tom Sawyer’ is about “a modern day warrior with mean, mean stride.”
Thus, it was with great pleasure that I discovered Mystic Rhythms by Carol Selby Price and Robert M. Price a book I had hoped would be full of academic analyses of Rush lyrics, and not just breathy paraphrasing. Again, I found myself reading about the brainiest band on the planet, and becoming dumber by the second at the idiocy of the text.
Our trouble begins in the introduction, where the Prices make it known that 1) their writing is based upon the painful overuse of stock phrases and melodrama, and 2) they’re hopeless dorks. Here’s a sample:
“Where are you going to find another Jethro Tull? Who else is going to even want to try a modern electric version of the authentic strains of old Celtic folk melodies that haunt the listener with the frisson of what seem for the moment ancestral memories of a greener, more heroic age?”
I’m sorry if I just made you vomit. It only gets worse. They go on to “analyze” Rush lyrics, which ends up taking the form of lifted lyrics coupled with eye-rolling hack writing. This is from their “analysis” of “The Enemy Within”:
“Blood pounds in the temple pulses! Adrenalin pours into the bloodstream! Muscles tense up! Gooseflesh! Nape hairs prickle! You are ready to square off with the enemy! But where is the intruder? He is within.”
It’s just moronic. And it goes on and on. They try so hard to be thoughtful at places, it’s funny when they completely miss the mark. For “The Trees”, they tie the lyrics to Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, Orwell, and even another Rush song “2112”. You’re subjected to pages of the most asinine philosophical references. And never once did it occur to them that “The Trees” is about Quebec yearning to secede from Canada.
Another example: Their conclusion to the extremely anti-war, anti-nuke song “The Manhattan Project” is that “Rush stands in awe of the human greatness that could find the unseen atom, break it in human hands, those hands that had once swung on jungle vines, and unleash the force that causes suns to explode!” Is this a joke? Can someone who claims to be a Rush fan really be this utterly clueless?
Well, I should’ve been warned when, in the introduction, the authors insist that one should read Bill Banasiewicz’s horrid book. Although there’s not much else on the market, I could only recommend either of these books if you need a good laugh or want to commit intellectual suicide.
Bottom Line: Brainless musings on one of the most thoughtful bands.
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