Swamped & rushed actually, but speaking of Rush...
When I was in college a lot of the kids I attended with were Rush fanatics (including my not-so-tall hot blonde brunette friend). I always thought they were cool for a progressive rock band (no; not that kind of progressive rock) but I was never an apostle of the Church of Geddy (in fact the Rush heads turned me off to the band to a degree for a while). I do feel a lot of sympathy for their drummer (who is also their main lyricist). He lost his daughter to a car accident & his wife to cancer in less than a year. In any case I always dug the tune Red Barchetta. Musically it's nice (although not as smooth as the R&B I gravitate towards) & it's rather fun to play (as are a lot of Rush's tunes). But what I I really dug was the story it told & where that story came from. From the Wikipedia page on the song:
"The song was inspired by the futuristic short story "A Nice Morning Drive", written by Richard Foster and published in the November, 1973 issue of the magazine Road and Track. The story describes a similar future in which increasingly-stringent safety regulations have forced cars to evolve into massive "Modern Safety Vehicles" (MSVs), capable of withstanding a 50-mile-per-hour impacts without injury to the driver. Consequently, drivers of MSVs have become less safety-conscious and more aggressive, and "bouncing" (intentionally ramming) the older, smaller cars is a common sport among some.
The song is also consistent with the libertarian themes of the band in general; songwriter Neil Peart identifies himself as libertarian. Both song and story indicate what the authors believe to be the natural consequences of allowing government to violate people's natural rights by restricting their free choices through regulation[1]. Each also anticipated modern struggles to limit, or entirely prohibit, "unsafe" and "gas guzzling" vehicles like SUVs and sports cars[2]." (links in original)
So give it a listen. Here's a vid of a live performance of the tune.
Posted by Publicola at April 15, 2007 03:29 PM | TrackBack