"I lie awake, staring out at the bleakness of Megadon. City and sky become one, merging into a single plane, a vast sea of unbroken grey. The Twin Moons, just two pale orbs as they trace their way across the steely sky. I used to think I had a pretty good life here, just plugging into my machine for the day, then watching Templevision or reading a Temple Paper in the evening.
"My friend Jon always said it was nicer here than under the atmospheric domes of the Outer Planets. We have had peace since 2062, when the surviving planets were banded together under the Red Star of the Solar Federation. The less fortunate gave us a few new moons.
I believed what I was told. I thought it was a good life, I thought I was happy. Then I found something that changed it all..."Anonymous, 2112
Sometime in March of 1976, the greatest album of all time (at least to me) was released; Rush's 4th album, 2112. Just like with Moving Pictures, the exact date of release is up for debate (see the discussion in this post), but most sources place it sometime in early-mid March. I was 6 at the time. My 13-year-old brother bought the album, became an instant Rush fan and was inspired to start playing the bass guitar. Over the next 4 years or so I heard a lot of Rush coming from my brother's room and, interestingly enough, I distinctly remember how I "hated Rush" back then (although all I really knew about them was that the singer had a screechy voice and the music was loud). I was into crappy top 40 music for the most part although in 6th grade I started to get more into rock; bands like Queen and Styx.
Eventually my brother moved out and Rush became nothing but an echo in my mind. Then one afternoon in the Fall of 1982 I was bored so I snooped around my brother's old room. In the closet I found an old cassette tape. On it were the words Rush: 2112 (20:34). What? A 20-minute song? , I thought. I was intrigued. I didn't know that songs could be 20 minutes long. I popped it into my cassette player and for the rest of the afternoon I listened ... and listened some more. I loved it... and I was hooked. And here I am 24 years later and I can still listen to that album over and over again. In fact, I think I'll listen to it again right now. :)
NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.
