As a kid growing up in Canada I was told of a promised land south of the border, where the people were enlightened and progressive.
“In California…” they’d tell me “they study Rush lyrics as poetry !!”
I could only marvel that such a magical place existed. The poetic nature of the band’s work wasn’t news to me. In fact, Rush’s songs had helped me through many a pre-teen crisis. Like the time I discovered a new technology that could add richness and individual expression to the lives of the masses, only to have my discovery suppressed by higher powers within the solar federation. I thought I was all alone in the universe until I heard sections IV. (Oracle: the Dream) and V. (Soliloquy) of 2112 and knew that somebody out there understood. It was a truly liberating feeling.
The poetry of Rush has touched me in a special place. This is why I was disgusted to hear that there was a scam artist copying their work and passing it off as his own. I don’t know who this “Samuel Taylor Coleridge” guy is, but I wish he’d cut it out.
As proof, check out these lyrics from “Xanadu” which are credited to Rush on their 1977 album Farewell To Kings.
To seek the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
To break my fast on honeydew
And drink the milk of Paradise…
Compare that to these excerpts from Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” which, to the best of my knowledge first appeared in the Norton Anthology of Poetry in 1986.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran…
…It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
… For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
Like I said, I don’t know who this Samuel Taylor Coleridge is, but I bet they aren’t studying his lyrics as poetry in California.
That Coleridge should be sued!
I’ve written some thoughts on Rush — many, in fact. But, the bulk of it is here:
http://bsuwg.blogspot.com/2006/05/all-over-map.html
(You may want to skip the first 5 or 6 paragraphs, as they’re unrelated to Rush.)
Poetic genius of the Rush caliber must expect to be ripped off by lesser geniuses like this Colegate fellow. It’s like they say, “Imitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement.” From what I hear, Ayn Rand also copped a lot of her best moves from the Rush songbook. And a brothel in St. Louis is said to have stolen their “himonos”.
BSUWG: don’t worry, I routinely skip any paragraphs in any printed material that are unrelated to Rush. Great post. Very true about the math thing. The strangest stuff in their catalog was when they tried to sing about non-geeky things like sex (“In the Mood”) or drugs (“A Passage to Bangkok” – about a train that goes to all the spots where the best weed is grown. Only a mathematician would have come up with that).
UF: Dude, I’ve got a whole closet full of himonos. What are you saying?