"We'd like to do for you Side 1 from our latest album. This is called 2112." Ah, sounds from a bygone era. Hard rock power trio releases a double live album (now apparently extinct — the format, not the trio — wiped out by the live DVD?), which at the time felt like a magnum opus — now, at under 74 minutes, it fits snugly on a single CD and feels no more substantial than almost any other release (apart from those admirable folks like Euros Childs that keep putting out albums under 35 minutes).
My triple gatefold import version of this album is now out of storage and I can reflect at leisure on the foolishness of paying all that money for 144 square inches of printed cardboard; and, further, it seems three years ago I thought I had grown out of such nonsense, but experience since then has shown otherwise — as will be revealed here in due course.
Time to reflect, too, on how labour-intensive it was to research Rush song lyrics 28 years ago. Take Lakeside Park: even then it was no trouble to look up my parents' Pears Cyclopaedia to find that the 24th of May was Queen Victoria's Birthday, and therefore likely to be celebrated as an anniversary in our old colony. But what chance of tracking down exactly where said park was, notwithstanding Geddy's clue from the Toronto stage that it was "not to far from here as a matter of fact"? Now two minutes Googling pins it down to:
And I can still feel disappointed that there's no street-level view available — but here's a photo.
You may have noticed that I have little to say about the music featured on this album, and you may be able to hazard a guess as to why.
 MusicBrainz entry for this albumWikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in full at Last.fm Listen to this album in full at We7 |
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