More than Quadrophenia, Rush's Signals spoke to me in a way that few other albums had. If lyrically Quadrophenia evoked adolescent feelings using Jimmy the Mod in place of Pete himself, then Signals, specifically "Subdivisions", placed no such fictional character as the go-between. "Subdivisions" came out at a time when I was very aware of the music around me, so its "newness" meant that it was mine. It was my story, these were my feelings, even though they were articulated by master lyricist/drummer Neil Peart, not I. Where Quadrophenia fails to connect and "Subdivisions" doesn't is that Quad was written from an inherently English, working-class sensibility. "Subdivisions" was written from the same socio-economic, suburban experience that I had as an American kid stuck in the alienating sprawl of post-war suburbia. (Note: Neil Peart is Canadian; he grew up in the Toronto suburbs. That said, the geographic layout of Toronto isn't terribly different than, say, Long Island.) It was the bourgoise, suburban experience, down to the letter:
Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown
Couldn't have put it better myself. The song goes on to touch on sentiments every kid feels:
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone
No wonder so many Dungeons and Dragons dorks are into this band. I wasn't one of them (a D&D dork), mind, but we still all flipped out over this song. Again, friends that are my contemporaries, as well as younger friends of mine, have expressed the much needed vote of solidarity that this tune provided them, thus giving them the sustenance to deal with the insecure teen years. I mean, if Peart went through this, and Peart rocks, it'll all wind up okay in the end, right? Guess so....
I leave you with the rest of "Subdivisions" below, and thank God that someone understood when it mattered most:
Subdivisions ---In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions ---In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth
Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night
Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights...
No comments:
Post a Comment