A Companion Unobtrusive: Spirit of Radio by Rush

There’s something about hearing a song for the first time at the right time. It can make you a fan of a band about whom you weren’t sure. It takes the right person and the right moment to open the flood gates.

The person: Turner Watson

The band: Rush

The song: Spirit of Radio

Turner and I went to college together and worked at the college station. Turner, a huge Rush fan, was talking up their latest album (at the time, and boy am I dating myself!), Roll the Bones. I regarded this input the same way all guys react when their buddy is trying to set them up with a girl who has a “really nice personality”. All I knew about Rush was that they were Canadian, sang Tom Sawyer, and Geddy Lee was the vocalist on the Mackenzie Brother’s “hit single” “Take Off”. So I didn’t give Rush a fair shake until I was out of college and working with Turner at WGBF.

As with most of my stories, this one starts off with the line, “So there’s this girl…” She worked in our building, and we were sorta dating. On the night that she told me that she was getting back together with her ex, I instinctively went to the radio station. When I told Turner what happened, he took me outside and gave me a half full two-liter.

“I want you to throw this in defiance of all the girls who have wronged the both of us (even at that time, we both had already accumulated an impressive list). Watching the bottle explode on impact made me feel a little better, but I knew that this childish act of misplaced anger wasn’t the long term solution.

We went back inside and sat in the studio. The next song that was scheduled was “Spirit of Radio”. Turner turned up the music, and it all hit me; the music, the lyrics. I don’t know how it happened, but I instantly found myself being absorbed into the music. That night, I became a Rush fan and I became totally devoted to my chosen field.

Even as I started to explore their catalogue and absorbed more of their music, I still kept going back to Spirit, for many reasons.

Spirit of Radio is the most balanced song in their repertoire. Alex’s guitar riff at the beginning, Neil’s drums, and Geddy’s vocals meshed together in a perfect blend. It’s not a Neil song, or a Geddy song…it’s a Rush song.

But I must confess that the real reason it’s my favorite is that I lived that life.

All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open-hearted.
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question of your honesty, yeah,
Your honesty.
One likes to believe in the freedom of music,
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity.

As Hunter S. Thompson once wrote, “The radio business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Everything in music oriented radio is measured by charting and has lost its credibility. It’s slow to adapt to its new competition, the iPod. It’s so dysfunctional, I could write a book about it…oh, wait…

People in charge make very stupid decisions, sales people have weaseled their way into the programming side, the on-air talents are treated like seamstresses in a sweatshop, and I miss it every day of my life.

It’s unknown if I will ever get back on the air. I’d love to do it, but there are many things that I would have to consider (lower wages, going to work knowing that it could be my last day with a job).

I still believe in the freedom of music.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: There is a one night showing of the documentary Rush, Beyond the Lighted Stage at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis at 9.

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