When we were supposed to be revising for our O Level exams in 1980, Jeremy, Andrew Heald and I would 'perform' almost the entire 2112 song cycle in the classroom, doing the riffs, as well as the lyrics, with our mouths, and playing air guitar, bass and drums. (Supper's Ready was another of our favourites.) Other revisers were understandably irritated, mocked our lack of application, our obsessions, and I remember Andrew Gammie asking sarcastically, "Are you sure it goes duh, duh, duuuhhh, dah, da, da, da and not duh, duuuhhh, duh, da, da, dah?" "Yes, of course we're sure; how dare you doubt our intricate knowledge of Rush?" No one, Gammie included, got better exam grades than me.
As I was saying of Coltrane's Village Vanguard Recordings, I wish my bar-by-bar familiarity extended across my collection, and wasn't so concentrated on the albums I listened to in my teens. This is in storage, so I can't play it, but I bet I could still mime the Overture fairly accurately.
Notoriously, Neil Peart's lyrics for 2112 show the influence of Ayn Rand's novel Anthem — googling found me this essay on the connection. Being an impressionable adolescent, I read Anthem. I remember thinking the book was poor, and not as rich as 2112. Rand had the aura of a cult crank, and I like the story that she rejected rock music for "going back" to drums, which, one suspects, was an implicitly racist rejection of African culture.
Neil Peart's recommendations also led me directly to read Conrad, Dos Passos, Scott Fitzgerald and Garcia Marquez. Bearing in mind that my English teachers completely failed to inspire any interest in literature (aside from Mr Hills triggering my love of William Blake), being impressionable had its rewards, for which I remain grateful.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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