Last week, Neil Peart died, and since then, Deep Tracks on Sirius XM has been playing nothing but Rush music. This is (to my ears at least) fantastic. It’s particularly good because NPR has been covering the impeachment hearings, and frankly, I’d rather hear Rush.
I’ve been a fan of Rush since the late 70’s. Somewhere I have a cassette with Tom Sawyer on it that was taped for me off the radio sometime before 1981. I know for sure I fell in love with The Trees in late 1983 and it’s all Michael’s fault. Michael was my best friend at college, and my first friend there, and we stayed close friends until his death in 2016. Michael also played guitar, and brought an electric guitar and amp to college with him, which I remember amazed me.
I think of him particularly often these days. I’m now learning to play the guitar, slowly, which means I listen to a lot more ‘guitar rock’ than I did for a while, looking for things I want to learn to play. I’m learning to play in large part because of Michael. I have his guitar, and playing guitar reminds me of him. He tried to teach me back in college, but it didn’t really stick. Now, so many years later, my fingers not as nimble as they were, but sliding along the neck of his guitar, I feel him looking over my shoulder.
We were friends not quite as long as Neil and his bandmates, but a long time. Thirty-three years, more or less. And still when I hear certain opening chords, my mind goes back and I hear Michael’s voice.
Insufficiently Obsequious 