Customer Reviews

Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The hammer in this case would be mindless, overanalytical philosophical tripe meant to impress and demonstrate the authors "intelligence" more than trying to get at the heart of any issue.

The most profound philisophical ideas are the most simple, she has completely missed this point and tried to turn the very simple truths contained in Pearts work into some Sartre-esque cesspool of meaningless babble.

The fact that this author missed the connection between 2112 and Ayn Rands Anthem explains alot. If this author had taken the time to do a little research into the works of Peart, she would have found that Rand and her philosophy of Objectivsm had a profound influence on much of his work.

She might also have learned that there are two types of people in this world: Builders and Looters. Those who create, and those who ride the coattails of those who do. This book is a looting spree.

Don't buy this book, and if you do, send this moron a bill for your time and mental anguish.

...Everything Starts To Look Like A Nail

The hammer in this case would be mindless, overanalytical philosophical tripe meant to impress and demonstrate the authors "intelligence" more than trying to get at the heart of any issue.

The most profound philisophical ideas are the most simple, she has completely missed this point and tried to turn the very simple truths contained in Pearts work into some Sartre-esque cesspool of meaningless babble.

The fact that this author missed the connection between 2112 and Ayn Rands Anthem explains alot. If this author had taken the time to do a little research into the works of Peart, she would have found that Rand and her philosophy of Objectivsm had a profound influence on much of his work.

She might also have learned that there are two types of people in this world: Builders and Looters. Those who create, and those who ride the coattails of those who do. This book is a looting spree.

Don't buy this book, and if you do, send this moron a bill for your time and mental anguish.

This is a good book. There are a few chapters that ramble aimlessly and laboriously, quote unlikely sources (the bible?) or at times overlook the obvious (such as 2112 being based partly on Ayn Rand's novel Anthem). But there are several excellent chapters. These include Fear (Witch Hunt, The Weapon, The Enemy Within) The Mass Production Zone (Grand Designs, The Body Electric, Subdivisions, The Analog Kid, Digital Man, Tom Sawyer) and the final chapter Machine and Man (Red Tide, Manhattan Project, Countdown, Red Barchetta, Natural Science, Hemispheres).

Surprisingly, given the title the book, the author never attempts to briefly summarize Rush's "philosophy" in a paragraph. I'll take my best shot: Most people do not deal in reality...but do not despair. And for god's sake don't mindlessly conform to the masses! Regard the objectivity of natural, observable science and the trial and error experiments of human existence as a foundation for knowledge. Your life's experiences may seem to be dictated by "chance." But in fact, causality works in your favor. Use the volitional power of your mind (reason), the power of your creativity, and take action! Harness chance to your advantage for it is this probability game that enables you the opportunities to mold the world around you.

This is a good book on a great band with the most constructive philosophical "message" of any band or artist in the history of music. An overstatement? Sorry, but you have to admit it's slim pickins' out there.

Cannot understand why anyone believed this was worthy of publishing. Reads like the work of a some graduate student. Author uses far too many pages analyzing selected lyrics for philosophical statements. Detailed interpretations are unnecessary. Most of us are smart enough to get the idea without the aid of CLIFF Notes. My recommendation is to borrow it from the library and look this over before spending your money on the book. This style of writing will NOT appeal to many people.

This book was OK. The content was an interesting interpretation. I have to say that I was embarrassed slightly at song ideas I missed. Some of her explanations I had picked up on myself. Still others I disagreed with. But that's all fine; this is a primer to start with, or an opinion to challenge your own. The only truly definitive book would come from Mr. Peart alone.

The lower rating I supplied was more for the style of the book. As I read, I got more annoyed with the manner in which the song lyrics were referenced. It almost was choppy how 'artistic' lyrics would be inserted with 'critical' discourse without delineation between the two (a specific instance that pops up in my head is 'Closer to the Heart'). Also, I don't ever need to read the word 'torpor' again.

The reference in the appendix is strangely incomplete. They chose to include some non-standard albums in the album listing, but not all. That, and the bootlegs were not referenced as such, not that a hard-core Rush fan would necessarily need that. If you are going to list some in addition to the official catalog, list them all.

All in all, an interesting book. My beef has been more with style, not substance. Worth the time to read.

If you're looking for a book about Rush the band, this is not for you. If you are looking for insights into the inspiration behind the lyrics, this book is a step in the right direction.

Carol Selby Price comes off as well-read, with a wide range of knowledge covering philosophy, religion, literature and pop culture. She definitely is a fan of the music of Rush, but especially the lyrics of Neal Peart. Don't expect a lot of coverage on the instrumental music here, this is strictly about the lyrics.

I found that the breakdown of theme categories and selection of titles worked from the standpoint that she covered from 2112 through Presto. The book works best when clearly staying with the topic of a single song, then using some comparisons from literarture, etc. If one were to merely listen to the songs, there would be a surface meaning, but this book helps dig deeper below the surface layer, peeling through the layers of allegory and metaphor to some core visions.
For example, while "Red Barchetta" appears to be a thumbing of the nose against the powers of a dystopic society, I never thought about the adventure merely being a dream by the fireside itself. Did he actually drive the care or simply remain with his uncle by the fireside?
I liked the link of Analog Kid, Digital Man and New World Man, especially the inner/outer versions of New World Man comparing both individuals as well as the regions New World, Old World and Third World.
Criticisms: There must have been a copyright issue with reprinting the lyrics, because one would need the album/disk package at hand to review the writing. While there are plenty of quotes from other sources, the Rush songs are merely paraphrased. I also would have liked to have the entire song broken down, instead of going off on a tangent to show comparisons with Kant, Plato, Nietzsche or Ayn Rand. At times the writers appeared to be showing off their knowledge and there was some definite narrative preachiness about our society. E.T. one long commercial for Reese's Pieces? What does that have to do with Rush?
Some songs are covered briefly, such as 2112, which was then recovered in The Trees. Some editorial tightening would have helped this book, but then again, at barely 150 pages, it was not that long a read.
I would recommend this book to Rush fans who are scholars and have read works by some of those in the bibliography.

This book was a major disapointment

I was mislead by the other reviews of this book. Don't get me wrong, the book has it's moments, but the author is more concerned about letting the reader know how learned she is than actually writing an interesting book. There are more tangents about other works of literature and entertainment that it's easy to forget that the book is about a Rock bands lyrics. As insightful and intelligent as the lyrics are, it is still Rock music. The book should be fun. At the very least, the book should stick to the topic. I have not finished yet, but I have been skipping whole paragraphs because they simply don't apply.

If you are looking for an eclectic book covering many topics, buy this book. If you are interested in Rush lyrics exclusively, this book may be hard to swallow.

What a horribly written book! The authors make a feeble attempt to connect the lyrics of Rush to various philosophical themes and fail miserably. I titled this review "Grasping At Straws", for that is exactly what the authors try to do.

Avoid this book!!

I have at least two problems with this book.

1) The Prices are much better thinkers than they are writers. The writing style is frequently cackhanded and juvenile.

2) The book does not (as I thought) discuss ALL of Rush's songs, merely those than lend themselves to the Prices' Randian-based philosophical analyses. I was kinda hoping to at least get some comments on every song (such as Cygnus X-1 or the Necromancer), but the Prices stick only to the deeper songs which most clearly reveal the structure of Peart's thinking.

Notwithstanding this I rate the book 5 stars because it accomplishes nicely what it sets out to do; it's just that it set out to do a lot less than I hoped for.

Other gripes would include the fact that the Prices occasionally evince shoddy research (e.g., apparently not knowing that "Red Barchetta" was heavily lifted from that short story, "A Nice Morning Drive," (I forget by whom), which one can easily find on the internet.

I've sung along with Rush's canon nearly all my life, but reading this book definitely opened up completely unexpected ways of understanding them. Not a trifling achievement, considering I smugly assumed I knew all there was to know about "what Rush was saying."

On the whole, a worthy and useful achievement. Naturally it would be difficult to concoct something that would please ALL of Rush's variegated and finicky fans, but you're unlikely to regret having purchased it. There's something in here, I would think, for everybody.