Xanadu

 

 

MEMORANDUM [circa 1977]

 

FROM: Geddy Lee

 

TO: Record Company Dude

 

Hey, man, it’s about time to film that video for our new song. We’re going to do it next week, and we need a few basics: double-neck guitar *and* a double-neck bass; tubular bells; little melodic wood-blocky things (no, I don’t know the name; Neil does, but he’s writing lyrics right now and can’t be disturbed); a drum kit the size of, you know, just a small city — Kankakee, maybe (Neil says he’s eventually working toward one the size of Shanghai, but not yet; no need for, er, excess); oh, and Druid robes, of course. So pretty much a typical Thursday. 

 

The song? Ooh, it’s a wild one — 11 minutes long and I don’t even start singing until 5:02 or so. 

 

We’re aiming to expand our audience for this one past “prog dudes” to “prog dudes who also like that punk stuff coming out of England and NYC and who will appreciate not just a Coleridge reference but a whole fucking Coleridge song.” Yeah, it’s a narrow uptick in audience, but I swear to you that those guys will still like this song and this album 44 years later even if they don’t care *too* much about ever seeing us live more than once. 

 

Anyway, see ya next week. Make my robe white! Please?

 

***************

Happy 68th, Geddy Lee. Mission accomplished.

 

Oh, and my one Rush concert? 1980 at the Philly Spectrum, with Saxon opening. They played this one and the Temples of Syrinx, which is pretty much all I required (ok, the title track of A Farewell to Kings would have been nice too, but I’m not greedy).

 

I was good. They were brilliant, but I never needed to see them again, because, you know... punk rock.