It is as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have broken the laws.
The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so. May we be forgiven!
— Equality 7-2521 from Ayn Rand's book Anthem
My folks had a couple of paperback copies of Ayn Rand books in the house when I was a kid.
I remember seeing paperback copies of and on the high shelves in the high bookshelves of our home library. My first real exposure to the work of Ayn Rand was in 1990 during my senior year of high school. I was taking a miserable course called "Contemporary Issues in Literature" or something like that.
It is something of a miracle that I passed the course given my complete lack of enthusiasm for most things at that point in time. It was the first class of the day and it is absolutely the truth when I say that I spent much of this class catching up on my beauty sleep. Most of our class time was spent doing something that I think was called "sustained silent reading.
" This basically meant that the teacher really didn't have to teach that much. We were assigned a number of books to read that year and I don't mind saying that I really didn't appreciate most of them. was really good, but I hated the way the teacher had tried to explain and analyze the book.
I didn't care how many times she had read the book — I felt like I knew more about Holden Caulfield than she did! We read , which I thought was fairly depressing and whiny at the time. Then we read , which was something of a Cold War armageddon-ish yarn (I had already read Steven King's The Stand a few years before and that was pretty much the definitive apocalyptic tale in my mind).
Somewhere in there, we were supposed to read Solzhenitsyn's , but I must confess that I never really got around to that one. But I did read by Ayn Rand and I was really taken by it. I was 17 years old and disenchanted with almost everything around me.
..Was there anything not to like about it back then?
Anthem definitely had a futuristic, science fiction feel to it and this certainly caught my interest as I had been enjoying the work of authors like Alan Dean Foster, Ben Bova, and Arthur C. Clarke for most of my high school days. The politics behind the story weren't completely lost on me, either.
I often tell the "baby boomers" that I discuss politics with that I consider myself to be as much of a child of the Cold War as anyone who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis. By the time I was a kid, we didn't "duck and cover" any more…Our teachers would just tell us in some detail what would happen to all of us if the bomb landed on the local military base. Fun stuff.
Anyway, the point is that the anti-collectivist theme of Anthem was not so objectionable to me after living through eight years of Ronald Reagan. For me, Anthem struck a particular chord in how the character dealt with acute, institutionalized alienation. Alienation and the struggle for identity were themes that I really identified with at that point in time.
It would be much later that I learned a different way of explaining and analyzing alienation as a phenomenon. At the time, I accepted that the needs of the individual were paramount and that collectivism was, as such, highly impractical to say the least. Some years later, reading my first bit of Guevara would undo all of that line of thinking.
Anthem stuck with me as an outstanding work for some time. I remember telling other people about the magnificence of the book and even returning to the text to look for quotes and information at different points. Politics weren't so important at the time because, as I noted above, my political beliefs and opinions had already been shaped for me by eight years of Reagan (plus a few years of George HW Bush as well).
But despite my favorable opinion of Anthem, I didn't bother to delve much farther into Rand after reading the book. I worked at a library for several years and books by and about Ayn Rand passed through my hands with fleeting interest. I especially remember the day we received a new book featuring a critique of Rand's life and work.
The cover was orange and it featured a picture of Rand wearing a huge brooch in the shape of a dollar sign. The contents described Rand as a champion of capitalism which was new information to me (maybe I should have paid more attention in my literature class). I was just starting to become interested in politics by that point and I was beginning to put some pieces together.
I was drawn to the liberal end of the political spectrum by the start of my undergraduate years and I began to look at Rand with some skepticism. I was still interested, though. It would be a while before I read much on Objectivism and Randian thought , but basic tenets such as Rand's emphasis on logic and reason and her rejection of metaphysics and religion seemed largely agreeable to me.
Over the years I read a little more by Rand, including a collection called . Thomai bought a super-deluxe edition of Atlas Shrugged as a gift for me one Christmas, but I am sorry to say that to date I have not succeeded in putting so much as a dent in it.
So what about music? I started my high school years listening to The Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival. By the time I started college, I had moved on to The Misfits and Sex Pistols.But certain tastes, like Kiss and Rush remained constant throughout these years. I think my interest in Rush picked up considerable around my junior year in high school after I rented a VHS copy of " ." I made a copy of the video, adding it an eclectic VHS mix tape that included the videos " " and the Exodus/Slayer/Venom show " " (I still love Venom!
...
You just can't outgrow some things no matter how crazy they are!) Anyway, seeing the Rush concert video motivated me to pick up some of the studio albums that had featured songs from the live show. " " and " " included some of my favorites like " ," " " and " .
" " " was also featured on "Exit...
Stage Left" and I really enjoyed the song with all its drama and imagery, although I found the message behind the lyrics to be somewhat perplexing. I would later come to learn that "The Trees" as well as "Closer to the Heart" were credited as featuring "Randian themes" by some. Towards the end of high school, I picked up a copy of " .
" I remember seeing television commercials for "Signals" when it was first released back in 1982. I was 9 years old back then and I thought the dog and fire hydrant scene on the cover was funny. Almost 10 years later, I was able to appreciate the album it at another level.
Rush stuck with me (or maybe I should say that I stuck with Rush) as I entered college. By this point, I had become interested in a lot of competing genres and styles and I think it was around this time that I started listening to music in cycles. By the time " " had come out, I had been away from Rush for a while.
I bought a second-hand copy on cassette one night during one night during one of the "long, lonely summers" before I met Thomai. This was one of the summers before we had started to date, and it was a period in which I was very uncertain of what I was going to do and where I would go in life. I still remember the night rather well.
I remember walking to the car and putting the tape in the car's tape deck. It was kind of late and I was alone. I remember driving down what seemed like a very dark road listening to " ," the opening track from the album.
I couldn't help but identify with the lyrics as song poured out of the speakers and filled the air around me:
Wandering the face of the earth
Wondering what our dreams might be worth
Learning that we're only immortal —
For a limited time I have noticed that my interests tend to run in cycles. I have a lot of interests and a lot of "favorites." Every so often, I might read a whole lot on one particular subject and then, as quickly as my interest builds I shift to another topic.
I am like this with Russian and Chinese history, reading a spate of books on one of these subjects over the course of weeks to months, then shifting back to the other, maybe picking up another unrelated interest in between and then returning back to Russian or Chinese history for a stretch. I am the same with comics, television, sports and . I have never really looked for a pattern or a relationship to seasons or events in my life.
..It's just something I have just come to accept.
I am especially this way when it comes to music. I will often go for several weeks concentrating on work by one artist or another until my interest shifts to something else. But as quickly as the tide rolls in, it rolls out again and I'm on to something else.
For many, many years now, has been a recurring favorite in my listening rotation. About two or three times a year, I enjoy a steady diet of Rush material, from their earliest days through some of their more recent fare. If I made a soundtrack for a movie about my life, there would certainly be a few Rush songs in there representing some of the better moments thus far.
But as much as I have loved this music over the years, I have grown to have some reservations regarding the philosophy which apparently guides the band. Much of this has come in the last decade or so as I have grown older and more politically aware. Since I am currently in the midst of my semiannual Rush fixation, I thought this might be as good of a time as any to reflect a little on my affection for the music and my thoughts on the politics behind the band.
I am sure I don't have the time or patience to write a thorough exposition and analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of this rock and roll icon. I'm not up to writing an amateur dissertation here — I'm just waxing philosophical. Think of it as "blogging out loud.
" The first Rush song I ever listened to — and I mean really listened to — was "Tom Sawyer." I'm sure that's probably true for a lot of people. I was about 13 or 14 and I taped a bunch of songs off the radio, most of which were apparently rather forgettable.
I think I might have been sick and I was home from school on a weekday. I listened to the tape at least once a day for a really long time and the only songs that I really recall from that particular mix were "Tom Sawyer" and "Break on Through" by The Doors (the latter song would lead to a fascination with the doors a short time later). I mean, I am sure I had heard a lot of Rush before that particular day, but to have finally captured a song off the radio was kind of a big deal for me back then.
I was really taken by the music itself ("prog rock" is what they call it, I guess) and the lyrics — the meaning of which were not really clear to me back then (and still aren't today) — were equally captivating. 
Eventually, I got around to buying " " on cassette and soon after, I got " " for $4.
99 from the local K-Mart. In the spirit of full disclosure (and unnecessary detail), I will confess that my mom actually bought it for me and that I had promised to pay her back for it, but I never did and she seemed to forget about the debt after a relatively short time. I guess I still owe her five bucks.
Anyway, I still remember looking at the big owl on the cover of "Fly by Night" as I fiddled and fumbled with the removal of the long, plastic anti-theft casing. Whenever I bought tapes back then, I would usually spend about 20 minutes trying to pry the plastic casing off with a screwdriver before I realized that a wire-cutter would get the job done a lot faster. "Fly by Night" was such a great album.
It was years before I appreciated the grandeur of "By-Tor and the Snow Dog," (which happened after I finally listened to the live version on " " at the repeated urging of a coworker from one of my part-time jobs while I was in high school) but most of the other tracks made strong impressions on me almost immediately. I was already familiar with the title track from one of the local "album rock" (that's what they used to call "classic rock") stations and that was all well and good, but "Anthem" (more on the significance of the song's title later) and "In the End" were almost instant favorites of mine. I remember playing "Anthem" for my dad on the way to school one morning and he was less than impressed.
That's okay...
I gues it's not exactly cool for your parents to like your music. Years later, I had Thomai over to my house on a date and I recall sitting in my room and playing "In the End" for her on my electric guitar. I played the soft part intro and then I stood on a chair and turned on the distortion to belt out the heavy part. She was very impressed.
She is, I think, the only person whom I have ever truly impressed with my guitar playing. I wonder if she still remembers that night..
.
And then there was " ." This album changed everything in a big way.
I don't remember exactly when I bought it, but I do clearly recall listening to it back when I was working a part-time job at a fast food restaurant, so I would have been 16 or so at the time. I was already familiar with lengthy, over-the-top masterpieces thanks to Led Zeppelin albums like " " and " ." The fact that Zeppelin was able to fill an entire side of " " with just one song, a live version of "Dazed and Confused," had really impressed me.
But the Rush song "2112" — lasting a full 20 minutes and 33 seconds and comprising the entire first side of that album — really blew my mind. Of course, this particular song was a story; a true epic tale for the ages. Most people who are familiar with the album know the gist of story: A sterile and bland future world ruled by an authoritarian clique is rocked with controversy when a young man discovers a long-forgotten relic.
The relic is a guitar which the man tunes and plays happily. In his excitement, he takes the guitar before the rulers and attempts to show them how the music from the guitar can change the world for the better. The rulers dismiss the man and his discovery, and in doing so they dash his dreams for a happy life.
Deciding that he cannot live in such a cruel heartless world, the man commits suicide. A planetary war ensues in which the rule of the clique is threatened and the final act, while somewhat ambiguous, leaves plenty of room for the listener's imagination to take it from there. At 16 years old, much of the political overtones were lost on me.
The theme of the rebellious spirit striking out against feelings of alienation and repression was understandably appealing to me as an angst-filled teenager. The music on the album was a fantastic range of heavy rock, ballad-like interludes and musical narratives. Even these days, I still listen to "2112" quite often.
In fact, "Soliloquy/Grand Finale" is still one of my favorite rock pieces of all time. My first copy of "2112" was a cassette and the older Rush tapes didn't include the full liner notes that were available on LP versions. I don't have the old cassette version any more, but I am relatively certain that it didn't have any liner notes at all; just a shot of the main cover image and the track names.
It wasn't until many years later that I picked up "2112" on LP from a second hand record store on High Street in Columbus. It was then that I held the full gatefold LP cover in my hands and read the words which had gained Rush so much notoriety from some and heaps of scorn and infamy from others: 
I was very lucky to get the chance to attend a Kiss Expo in Louisville, Kentucky way back in late 2001. It was really a great time as we got to see Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick talk for a while and there was even a performance by a Kiss Tribute Band (I think it was Mr.
Speed). All of this stuff took place in the multipurpose area of a Holiday Inn, which was surprisingly a good accommodation for the event. The room was chock-full of vendors selling all kinds of licensed and unlicensed Kiss memorabilia.
I carted away a few great finds that night, including a complete copy of " " on LP and a CD copy of . But my best find of the night was a CD copy of the full show from 1992 . I had seen this show offered as a collection of tapes on eBay a while back, but the final price on the set was really ridiculous at the time.
I think most people were paying for the sentimentality associated with the show, but the amazing artwork on the package was a definite plus. The cover art was an homage to the Kiss solo albums, featuring a makeup-era portrait of Eric as "The Fox". I was sorry I had missed out on snagging this when I was bidding on the eBay auction and I even asked the seller for a scan of the artwork after the auction had ended, but he politely declined, explaining that he didn't want copies of the picture to be spread around too much.
Kind of funny, eh? A bootlegger doesn't want other folks pirating his stuff! Anyway, when I saw a CD copy of the Eric Carr Memorial Tribute show for sale at the Kiss Expo, I was pretty excited.
The packaging was obviously not professional per se, but the front cover was – sure enough – an exact copy of the solo album homage, complete with lettering and logos to match the other Kiss solo albums. For CD that was not a professional job, it was still an impressive package, including the inkjet labels on the CDs. 
But all things considered, I have to say that I was really not prepared for just how awesome the Memorial Tribute show was.
The show was actually originally aired on the New York Station WCWP/88.1 FM in 1992 as a tribute to Eric Carr on the first anniversary of his passing. The main part of the show is a rebroadcast of a radio show from December 23, 1989 in which Eric Carr stopped WCWP for an unannounced visit to promote the Kiss album "Hot in the Shade.
" But throughout the Memorial Tribute show broadcast, DJ Tony Mal provides narration featuring anecdotes and trivia regarding the life and times of the legendary Kiss drummer. Much of Mal's background information was gathered through interviews with Eric's family as well as articles and fanzines. Remember, 1992 back before the rise of the Internet, so they had to do research the old-fashioned way back then.
The fact that the show turned out so well is really indicative of Mal's hard work and dedication. Throughout the special, Mal also plays a virtual compendium of Eric's Kiss-era work, including some material he wrote and/or performed for other talents, from Wendy O. Williams to Bryan Adams.
Also included are some ultra-rare tracks of Eric's first band "The Cellarmen" that were recorded when Eric was only 15 years old. Because the special was produced in 1992, material from Eric's posthumous release " " as well as some other unreleased tracks that have come to light more recently are not included as they were not in circulation at the time. I pull the tribute CDs out two or three times a year and I listen to the whole show start to finish.
I just listened to the show yesterday for the first time in a while – in fact, I also listened to it again today! Sure, the program gets a little silly and cheesy at times but at the end of it all, it stands up as a fantastic celebration of one for rock's best and most underrated drummers. I've always thought it would be kind of cool to get the chance to tell Tony Mal what a great job he did in compiling this show, but there's not a lot of info about him on the 'net, so this article will have to do the job.
Thanks Tony! is kind of a new thing to me. I think the first time I ever heard of it, I had been searching for some clips from the old MTV show The State when I came across a clip of the “ ” sketch that had been uploaded to YouTube (they also have the “ ” sketch and a couple of clips featuring the “ ” YouTube after checking out those clips from The State, but every so often for the last few months, I have been stumbling across links to interesting pieces on the site.
And last week alone, I think I just the first few minutes of my YouTube browsing, I decided that I would never buy the Kiss: Rock the Nation DVD. The few clips that filling in for Ace Frehley. It just doesn’t work.
There…I that runs almost 10 minutes. Say what you will about his cheesy bow tie, Randy is one of the greatest guitar players in the history of metal. I can remember back when you had to pay through the nose for 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation copies of this stuff at record shows (.
..and that was only a few years ago, by the way).
And speaking of metal, where else can you see the original music video for Venom’s “ ”? Again, it’s kind of cheesy – but who cares? It’s Venom!
There’s a “Alive in ‘85" on YouTube as well. Hail, Venom! There are a few clips of Phil Ochs on YouTube, including clips from performances of “ ,” “ ,” and “ ” to see him playing, even if it’s only for a few minutes here and there.
promotions from back in the early 1980's. I was, of course, happy made it on to YouTube. Some of their better selections include the time when and the on Late Night with David Letterman.
Awesome stuff! YouTube as well. Some of my favorite songs from Mughal-E-Azam are posted on the site, including “ ” and “ .
” These clips are especially good, as they are from the 2004 colorized re-release of the film. guess you can say I am hooked. It’s probably accurate that for everything “good” on YouTube, there’s a whole lot of weird and pointless stuff too.
But then again, I know my tastes are rather eclectic by most standards -- In fact, the above list probably proves this better than anything. I guess that in the end YouTube is was a sign of the times, for sure. Last Thursday night, came to Dayton, Ohio.
Back in his heyday, Alice surely would have played to a packed house at the area’s main venue of the day, Dayton’s Hara Arena. But the 2006 version of the Alice Cooper Show was performed at in Kettering. Fraze is an open-air amphitheater in an almost posh suburban area.
In fact, it’s right across the street playground. The lead singer from the opening band even said that he had there was a retirement community nearby. I started to feel old when I thought about it — Imagine!
Going to see the legendary Alice Cooper in the coziness of suburbia instead of in a smoke-filled club or a giant arena! The last time I Music Hall in Columbus. Someone threatened to beat me up while we were next day with all kinds of bruises and broken bones.
Ah, the responsibilities that come with adulthood. But I digress..
.
Thomai was kind enough to get tickets to the show as part of my gift for our . She was also sporting enough to come along to the show!
How cool is that? Alice just as it was getting dark. They blasted into "Wicked Young Man" before turning to some vintage Cooper fare.
The next half-hour or so was a mix of old and newer material and it was all terrific stuff. I have to admit that I didn’t really expect Alice’s band to be that good, hired guns who would be more unlikely to steal the show. Man, was I ever wrong!
The current incarnation of Alice Cooper’s touring band is a tremendous drive and edge to classic Cooper songs.
plowing through songs like "Lost in America" (one of my favorites!), "Go to Hell" (another one of my favorites!
), "I’m Eighteen" and "Billion Dollar Babies," the real Alice Cooper Show started. The creepiness that one might expect from an Alice Cooper Show. Well, come to think of it, maybe everyone didn’t expect it.
..Quite a few parents guillotine near the end of the show.
They also might not have expected Alice’s severed head while the band played "I Love the Dead." Great, great stuff. Here’s to well-rounded preschoolers.
..
all seriousness, this show was phenomenal!
Seeing Alice perform "The of the best rock performances I have ever witnessed. The show was how damn old Alice is these days (he’s 58 now!).
I also forgot that I am getting old for a little while as well...
But by the end of the show, I was wondering if the kids were still awake (they you have heard about an Alice Cooper Show is true. It’s ghoulish, frightening, and obnoxious..
.and it’s incredibly fun and entertaining. I’m glad I got to see it while Alice and I are still feeling young.
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