Congrats, RUSH

I was going to let the occasion slip by without comment — if getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame was a non-starter for RUSH, I figured it was a non-starter for me, too. But Geddy Lee says it makes his mother happy, and that makes me happy, too. Congratulations, Mrs. W. You must be very proud.

"So now we're, like, famous rockers, eh?"

The CBC and various FM radio hold-outs saw fit to celebrate the day by putting “Tom Sawyer” and “The Spirit Of Radio” on constant rotation. I got a little tired of that, even if I understood the reasoning. Those are the songs that have reached near-universal ear-worm status. Up here, it's common practice to hear their opening bars before the puck gets dropped at NHL games.

Also, those two songs probably signify, more than any other, the “a-ha!” moment for most RUSH fans — that moment when it first occurred to the listener that rock 'n' roll could be so much more, and still rock. And, more to the point, that these three guys had something incredible going on, and were capable of rewarding decades' worth of attention.

Still, singling out two songs from such a massive catalogue strikes me as a shame, especially when Clockwork Angels, their most recent album, is one of their very best. Were I a DJ I'd have played “The Garden” a time or two. It strikes me as a retrospective mission statement, and a loving summary of the forces that sustain us.