Track 34: "Red Barchetta" by Rush

Well-weathered leather, hot metal and oil
The scented country air
Sunlight on chrome, the blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware

I don't know how much simpler I could say it. Rush is awesome.

I was in 8th grade when I first came across THE Canadian power trio. A kid on my soccer team, Chris Pellicer, would always play either the cassettes of "Classic Yes" and Rush's "Exit Stage Left" when his mother would drive us to soccer practice. I immediately loved progressive rock. Yes and Rush especially seemed to fit perfectly into my explorations into classic rock--similar to Led Zeppelin and The Who--but with a step in a different direction musically.

The double-disc "Rush Chronicles" was my first Rush purchase and the amount of awesome rock songs on that album is absurd. But Rush has been at it well over 30 years now and it's the amount of music the band can create with just three people is nothing short of amazing.

This band has mega-chops, especially drummer Neil Peart, who also is the song-writer for the band. Most band's drummer's songs equate to nothing more than filler--a bathroom break at a concert--but Peart's lyrics are uber-intelligent and highly-advanced, just like his drumming skills.

In 1991, Rush was my first live concert ever. Their "Roll the Bones" tour came through the Carolina Coliseum, Primus opened, and I saw the show with my brother, Matt. Liking music is one of the few things I do better than he.

I got to see the band fifteen years later at the Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta and Rush just defies aging.

"Red Barchetta" is just such a cool tune and easily my favorite Rush tune. According to the infallible Wikipedia, the song is loosely based on the short story "A Nice Morning Drive." In the post-petrolem future, gasoline has been outlawed. And the narrator ventures to his uncle's cabin to take his prized 50+ year old sports car (a Red Barchetta) out for a weekly spin. He's encountered by enforcement vehicles (he is breaking the Motor Law after all), but through some bad-ass driving he eludes them. And heads to back to share a drink with his uncle.

So that's Rush in a nutshell. Their version of the quintessential rock song about "driving" seems like something out of some Orwellian or Ray Bradbury future. But the music is amazing--dramatic changes, ridiculous drum-fills, ebbs and flows--and undoubtedly a great song for the road.

So track 34 goes out to Chris Pellicer (who I haven't seen or heard from since my freshman year of college), my brother Matt P., Dan Balser (Creative Circus dept. head and big Rush fan), and my buddy Tillman Smith who ravenously loves this band.