My go-to band, Rush, is never far from my daily existence. Spotify obviously has me pegged as a fan, Peloton rides will surprise me with a song from their catalogue (more of that please!), they pop up in movie soundtracks, and some lyrics have a knack for being spot on during particular situations. Most recently (and probably most often),Tom Sawyer’s line “…changes aren’t permanent, but change is…” captures so many of my experiences, like my new employer where changes have been enacted which are triggering follow on changes, sometimes expected and sometimes not.
The newest appearance of Rush for me was on YouTube. It’s a data visualization of live songs the band played over the course of their decades of touring. It’s limited to the top 20 songs even though their total song count tops 150. Songs written early in their career have more time to be performed, obviously. That keeps their early classics like Working Man high on the list for years on end, even decades on end. Their heyday came around the time of Moving Pictures, but that album was released nearly 20 years after they formed. For songs of that era to ultimately find themselves among the most played is a testament to their deep connection with fans (myself included, hence the lyrics noted above which come from Moving Pictures). Anyway, it was interesting to view the trend although it would have been icing on the cake to pair it with a Rush song. At nearly 11 minutes, they had a decent choice of songs long enough to use. Indeed, 2112 is nearly twice as long as needed.