By jman2112
Now that we've talked about me - and I have distracted you from your own personal finances for a few minutes -
let's re-direct and talk about YOU guys. And maybe, just maybe we can talk about, ah, the band. Yeah! Let's talk about Rush!
So, think about how much an hour you make. How much do you think Alex, Geddy and Neil make per hour? But we must
really define this time frame first. Are we talking about all the prep, the meet and greet, sound check, wardrobe,
dinner and then the 3.5 hours of music. Hey, wait a minute. They take a 20 minute break for intermission
and go have refreshments. The law does not allow a break after 1.5 hours at work baby. You have to work
longer than that to earn that 15 minute smoke break. And they take 20. Every night they play. That ain't fair. Or is it? Are we
counting the fact that they probably begin working at about 2 p.m. or so of a show? We can probably assume that.
So Rush works from 2 p.m. to let's just give them, ah, 11:30 p.m. That's 9.5 hours. Okay, they have a full
shift going now, law says they get a minimum 30 minute break, plus two 15 minute breaks, so we'll give them
the 20 minute intermission. Who doesn't take a little longer on break, right? Right. Now we have Rush's
work day established, in a nutshell, of course.
How about you fans? All us eight to fivers know the feeling. Loooong day, five days a week.
Crappy benefits or none at all. Questionable health care. No personal trainers or nutritionists (remember
I ate at Wendy's). No catered lunches. Nose to the grindstone, do this, do that, ordered around all day by
some incompetent management at best, having the ability to lift 50 pounds and type 32 words per minute corrected
and subject to mandatory random drug testing at a moment's notice. Fifty-cent raises every year, only seven
major paid holidays per year and you get yelled at for going to the dentist to get a cavity filled for two hours
on a Tuesday when the office is all but dead. Now that's what I'm talking about. Work. Does any of this sound familiar?
Of course, we all COULD have taken up a musical instrument and not pissed off the piano teacher
after school back in 5th grade. We make conscious decisions. We could all be living in the limelight
and listenting to the freedom of our own music, right?
How about you housewives and Mr. Moms out there? Got kids? Diapers? Dishes? Meals? Playtime? Pre-school pick ups and drop offs?
Soccer practice? Van need new tires? Laundry? Mopping? Cleaning? Clip those grocery coupons? Moody husband when he comes home?
Water heater breaks down and floods the basement and you have to deal with that? Do you babysit other little tykes in the neighborhood
and put up with all that yelling and screaming? Great. The dog just pooped the carpet in the living
room and the kids are going nuts over it. Has the cat yacked up a hairball the size of a hot dog
on the bed? That is us - we are the FANS! We do the WORK! And we pay Rush
to play this...music.
Of course, at these trying times, we have the ability to put a certain CD in the player, like, say, "Hold Your Fire,"
at which time, we begin to relax. And our four year old knows some lyrics and it makes us all feel
bonded and we hold this Closer to the Heart. And a 13 year old boy on the block is already getting pretty good on the skins
and can make some pretty good Mystic Rhythms. It may only be a '69 VW Bug, but it feels like we have a Red Barchetta
in the garage. Our dog is named Panacea. Sometimes we take those kids to Lakeside Park. Your husband may be the perfect
Cinderella Man and maybe you you call him the Working Man while he's out making that hard earned money and whisper
seductively to him that you Need Some Love when he gets home. The cat just had kittens and you named the first one
to come out Lamneth. We all carry some baggage (not at the airport) from time to time and it leaves Scars. I curse
the arena for not having enough Available Light for taking good photos, as frustrating as that is at times.
Maybe you're lucky and live in a nice Subdivision where the next door neighbor likes to run Marathons from time to time.
The band is back in town and you have no cash reserves whatsoever because you just got divorced and he or she
took everything but the Lock and Key but you say, what the hell, just Cut to the Chase and Fly by Night. Just GO!
I'm on a MISSION! Maybe I'm walking down the street and I Freeze and see this really hot chick and feel
a wave of Cold Fire wash over me like an Emotion Detector and I end up feeling like I have Kid Gloves and just knew that
I didn't have a Ghost of a Chance anyway because I just liked the way she looked but I didn't pick up on any Chemistry.
Hell, everyone gets laid off, but then that leads to other opportunities and you start making some Grand Designs of
your own because you have a really strong sense of Freewill and are a very Driven person. And you use your
networking skills to get a lot of Feedback on your ideas. Being single means being
lonely sometimes I guess but we all tend to make a little Peaceable Kingdom of our own at home, don't we? There's
always someone in our life to provide us with just that right Secret Touch and Time Stands Still when we are comforted
and loved by someone so familiar, it just feels like Second Nature. As we get older and more feeble and forgetful and
we can't find our eyeglasses or our keys and we say outloud, "Where's That Thing?" and feel like Half the World can't
Resist laughing at us in our stupidity, especially since I'm Going Bald, too. I've flown on a plane to distant cities to see this band called Rush
at least three times without a ticket, and each time you know, you just have to Roll the Bones and hope for the best because
You Bet your LIFE I'm going to get in somehow! How about that psycho boyfriend or girlfriend? Everyone has one
or two of those, right? And they leave for the last time, and you just yell at them! Neurotica! Pschotica! Get OUT and
consider it just One Little Victory but you know you have a long road of recovery left ahead of you, like
a Ghost Rider.
Yes. We pay for this. We pay Big Money for this.
But wait. The guys took days off. Lots of days off. How many dates did they play? From what I can gather, Rush played
57 dates for the entire tour, and worked from May 26th to October 1st, which is just over four months. Call it
125 days of hardcore commitment - not including travel - cause travel does count, just for rounding purposes.
But remember, they skipped out on a bunch of days. They had to rest. And
relax, like at a baseball game, or riding around on a motor cycle and taking in a little bird watching at the
lake or in the mountains or maybe even a national park. God only knows what Alex does. Maybe
he takes a relaxing bath each day contemplating his next rant, playing with his pirate ship in the tub (just kidding!)
Then maybe also consider rehersals, maybe include the making of "Feedback"...there are a lot of factors.
Now that we've had this little discussion about YOU and the BAND, maybe it's time to ask a few more questions
and crunch some hardcore numbers. See, the numbers we've been talking about are peanuts. Just fodder.
Nothing much exciting.
So, follow the Yellow Brick Road to HERE
echoesofoldapplause.com
