The National Midnight Star, Number 235

                   Thursday, 9 May 1991
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Date: Wed, 8 May 1991 13:31 MST
From: "Eric Kay (303) 499-7577" 
Subject: Satanic Rock

Sorry to re-hash an old topic, but I finally obtained *real*
information on the old subject of Rush being Satanic.

After reviewing the video tape called "HELL"S BELLS  The Dangers
of Rock 'n' Roll", an evangelistic yet professional approach to
showing Satan's influence over and use of rock and rock-related
music, I located two references to the group RUSH. These occured
in Part 4 (of 5).

1.) The use of the word "syrinx" from the 2112 album apparently
relates to the term "pan" which in turn relates to Satanism.

[ Or it could relate to the medical term 'syrinx', which is part of
  the voice mechanism.  This makes more sense to me "Priests of the 
  the Temples of The Voice (of God/what's right/etc)."  But then again,
  I guess they like the excersize of stretching for an explanation...
                                                              :rush-mgr ]

2.) The live version of the song "Anthem" from the Fly By Night
album, when played backwards, allegedly produces several audible
phrases that are considered Satanic.

Details follow: quoted material is taken directly from the video-tape
                parenthasised text is my own attempt to describe what
                is seen and heard

(video background: Samantha Fox's "Touch Me" live, music background: unknown)
"Not only do we see the socialogical manifestations of this anti-christ
spirit everywhere in rock today,
(video: 2112 from GUP, music: 2112 live from GUP)
significantly, we find some very direct allusions to pan himself.
(video: picture of 2112 album cover, music: continued 2112 live)
Rush's 2112 album features the song 'The Temples of Syrinx', a greek
word that relates to pan. (Syrinx pronounced like suh-RINKS not SEAR-inks)
(video: Elton John, music: still 2112 live)
In 1987 Elton John......"

(And he continues on his description of "pan". The second mention of RUSH
is described next.)

(video: GUP unkown section, music: live Anthem, 'yes it was for me not you..')
"There is also theological significance in our next example, the live version
of the song 'Anthem' by the group Rush. When we played this section reversed
we hear (video: GUP played in reverse, music: live Anthem in reverse)
(appearing in graphic text on screen) 'Oh Satan, you are the one who is
shining. Walls of Satan, I know it's you are the one I love.'
(he then re-plays this twice because it's hard to catch the first time)
(video: narator sitting next to TV in background with red-rush-star-and-man
on screen and the words 'You are the one who is shining" overlayed)
One of the translations for Lucifer, a latin title commonly associated
with Satan, is the shining one. And earlier in part 1......"

(The rest of the tape is basic christianity and salvation procedures)

Video tape origin:

Hell's Bells
The Dangers of Rock 'n' Roll
Reel to Real Ministries
P.O. Box 4145
Gainesville, FL 32613
800-822-8500

====------------------------ End Journalism/Reporting Mode

Several things I found interesting:

1.) They methodically developed how rock music parallels society's
    ills such as suicide, drugs, blasphemy, etc... but not once
    mentioned "...my life blood spills over", "A Passage to Bangkok",
    or "Freewill" respectively.

2.) They actually played a section of the GUP video in reverse during
    the examination of Anthem. Anthem is not on the GUP video.

3.) They used the 2112 album symbol when discussing Anthem. Anthem isn't
    on 2112.

4.) They made a point of discussing Satanic symbols such as the pentagram,
    but never called the 2112 star a pentagram.

5.) They didn't discuss the studio version of Anthem. Perhaps there is
    some sort of Satan-influence-filter at the studio.

6.) After my brother viewed the tape he said: "I liked watchin' Geddy."

In all honesty, I was surprised to see any Rush at all on the tape. I just
can't beleive they decided to target Rush. Now Neil's response is even more
enjoyable/meaningfull. Sorry for such a long post to those uninterested....
Rush and/or Religous discussions welcome over e-mail.
                                                           Eric Kay

[ \begin{soapbox-mode}
  It's the same methods used by the WOD people; initiate unthinking 
  hysteria, then ride the wave.  My favorite quote was when they said
  "the artist doesn't necesserily have to know the satanic messages are
  in the music; Satan could be speaking through their unconsious."  Sheesh!
  I wish somebody would play recorded religious hynms backwards and see
  what "satanic messages" pop up!
  \end{soapbox-mode}                                             :rush-mgr ]

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Date: Wed, 8 May 91 17:30:52 EDT
From: Macon N. Pegram 
Subject: Analog and Digital

I always thought that the relationship between Analog Kid and Digital Man was
fairly obvious; in that (the more advanced) digital technology was at the
time replacing the analog technology of the past (Signals was the tour where
Geddy replaced his old Oberhiems (analog synths) with the new PPG Waves
(digital synths) - as an example) - it also may be an analogy relating the
warmth of analog with the innocense of youth and the coldness of digital
with the realities of adulthood.

Another interpretation of the title Analog Kid is that the song paints a
picture of a young boy new to the wonders of the world - the could be a
portrait of Neil Peart, the artist as a young boy. I recall Neil saying in
an interview that as a boy he read lots of science-fiction and fantasy
(certainly evidenced in his early lyrics) - Neil would have been a boy
(pre-adolecent) during the early sixties, at which time the premier science-
fiction magazine was called Analog. So, prehaps the title could be interpreted
as a reference to the magazine that Neil (possibly) read as the kid in the
song.

the grinch

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Subject: FBN chords (hopefully a wrapup)
Date: Wed, 8 May 91 22:24:37 CDT
From: David Sandberg 

Joseph Kung's minor additions to the section of FBN tab I posted
last week, namely the open G string ringing in addition to the
two high strings and the first full A chord near the end of the
section, proved to be correct once I went back and listened
again.  His included comments were also right on the money for
anyone who doesn't already know which strings should be left
ringing and when.

However, in the process of the above, Joseph omitted the drone A
at the end of the section - a note which is rather important for
rounding out the cadence.  When the first A chord is played, it
should include the open A string, which should be left ringing
while the next two chords are played and then muted at the same
moment that the final chord is muted.

Thus we end up with the following chart:

    --2-2----3-3------------3------3-------3----------
    --3-3----3-3------------3------3-------3-2---0-2--
    --2-2----0-0------------0------0-------0-2---0-2--
    --0-0----2-2----------2------0-------0---2---0-2--
    ----------------0-2-3-----2------0-1-----0--------
    --------------------------------------------------

One final thing which persons attempting FBN might want to keep
in mind is this: in the live version Alex very often is picking
up the open A string in the second chord position, which yields a
different chord entirely (with a fuller sound).  He may have just
been hitting the A by accident, but since he did so both times
during the intro section of FBN live, one might want to keep it
in mind when deciding on which recording of the song to emulate.

In other words, the first chords of the live version of FBN might
be charted as follows:

    --2-2---3-3--
    --3-3---3-3--
    --2-2---0-0--
    --0-0---2-2--
    --------0-0--
    -------------

Now that we've dissected this bit of guitar work about as far as
it can be dissected, we might want to remind ourselves that if we
were to ask Alex today how he played FBN, he'd probably say "Oh,
I really don't remember anymore, but I think it went _something_
like this..."  B-)

--
 \*=-      David Sandberg, dts@quad.sialis.com    ,=,       ,=,        -=*\
  \*=-        "who can face the knowledge         | |uadric `=,ystems   -=*\
   \*=-     that the truth is not the truth?"     `=\       `='          -=*\

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Date: Thu, 9 May 91 16:18:39 BST
From: ano@csres.cs.reading.ac.uk (Adrian N Ogden)
Subject: Unreleased Songs

Andrew Brooks  writes
>How far did Rush get with recording the following songs?
>Did they just write them, or actually record them and lock
>the tape away somewhere?

>  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (PeW)

They had music and lyrics in an unfinished form, but it never
got further than that. It seemed out of place with the rest
of the album, so they scrapped it unrecorded. Neil went off to
write something to replace it and came up with Natural Science,
and they salvaged parts of Gawain when they set it to music.

>  Wessex Tales (MP)

No idea about this one.

  Holy Walter  (or was that Holy Water?) (HYF)

This sounds suspiciously like a typo for High Water.

Oh well, that's enough for now...

<< Adrian Ogden   _ . _ _   _ . _ _   _ _ . .   ano@uk.ac.rdg.cs.csres >>

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Date: Thu, 9 May 91 11:48:30 EST
From: bigal@wpi.WPI.EDU (Nathan Charles Crowell)
Subject: Babylon.....

	In "Digital Man", the line goes "He'd love to spend the night
in Zion/ He's been a long, long while in Babylon".  This seems to make
sense.  I seems to hint that the subject of the song would like to visit
the more spiritual place called Zion as an alternative to the decadent
world of Babylon he's been cooped up in.

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Date: Thu, 9 May 91 09:45:55 -0700
From: wbarry@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Bill Barry)
Subject: Witch Hunt

I just wanted to comment on a couple of things. First, someone
mentioned that it was hard to see why Witch Hunt was a big production
number. Well besides having Hugh Syme play keyboards on the track, Neil
actually did two separate drum parts and merged them together. This
was to give the illusory effect of two drummers playing at once.
Of course none of us picked this up when listening to it since
Neil sounds like two drummers playing at once anyways!

Bill Barry
(wbarry@cory.berkeley.edu)

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