This Post Is Dedicated to Joe “I Totally Love RUSH” Hill
Posted on September 16, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 30 Comments
You are today’s Tom Sawyer, Joe. Never forget that, my friend.
Whatever
FURIOUSLY REASONABLE
WHATEVER
Taunting the tauntable since 1998
John Scalzi, proprietor – JS
Athena Scalzi, contributor – AMS
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Is this some kind of a clever clue/hint for fans? Is his next book a creepy retelling of a Mark Twain book? :)
Almost a perfect start to the weekend.
….and now I want to go see Rush in concert again.
This made my day. I can see that Joe Hill is a gentleman and a scholar. I too totally love RUSH.
The Spanish subtitles really make it complete.
Rush really is awesome in concert. I think the fact that they can laugh at themselves like that is part of why they’re still around after all these decades. I don’t remember if that South Park bit was on the same tour where they had Jerry Stiller on the big screen calling them out on stage at the beginning.
For those of you unfamiliar with Rush’s live shows, those are big chicken rotisseries behind Geddy instead of amps. They replaced the coin-operated tumble dryers that he had on previous tours.
Joe Hill has excellent taste.
“….Mean, mean pride…”
@PopsicleMud
The Jerry Stiller video was from 2004’s R30: Thirtieth Anniversary tour; the South Park video was from 2007’s Snakes and Arrows tour. I had the good fortune to attend both concerts.
I dunno, John Scalzi. Joe Hill kind of owned you in his tweet about the spoon in the garbage disposal.
Why do I hear an echo of diabolical laughter…?
As someone who has been following the twitter conversation, I can safely tell the rest of the commentate that Joe Hill is most likely *not* a Rush fan as he agreed with Warren Ellis on the effect of listening to Rush.
http://twitter.com/#!/warrenellis/status/114715860295360512
“He floated down the river on a raft with a black guy”
I never get tired of that clip.
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night…
I speak no Spanish, but I’m understanding the captions more easily than whatever the hell the Rush guy is singing. Not that I’m getting more than 50% from the captions, but I can barely make out a word of the actual singing. But I don’t suppose anyone listens to Rush for profound lyrics. Do they?
Just looked up the lyrics, BW. They make a lot less sense than I thought they did. While not quite word salad, they do give the impression of having been written by free association while in an altered state of consciousness.
I meant the lyrics to “Tom Sawyer,” not the lyrics to “Joe Hill.”
Wow. I’ve always hated Rush since a college boyfriend of mine overplayed them until I wanted to stab myself in the eye. However, they sound amazing live. Impressive.
@ #13, #14, #15.
Here, as per the vid Rush is a rock and roll group.
–
I’ve /heard/ that there is a group who’s lyrics make sense. But?
Usually, singers/performers are quite dehydrated and under very hot lamps and are doing
the best they can to get the audience to scream and have a great party and don’t quite recall
which continent they are on.
–
“altered state of consciousness”
Heh, yes, that.
Joe Hill is awesome if he loves Rush. :-)
I saw Rush on the Snakes and Arrows tour and the crowd ate the South Park video up. But there was also a video intro by Doug and Bob McKenzie that was just as popular.
Xopher:
It’s my understanding that Joe Hill is in fact named after the Joe Hill of the song. Cool, huh?
It’s funny seeing some folks here dissing Rush for their lyrics. Usually detractors go straight for Geddy’s voice. Although I’m a fan I can understand it if Geddy’s voice isn’t exactly the curds in your poutine.
Rush and the webcomic Questionable Content are two of my guilty pleasures, so I broke up when I got to the punch-line of this recent installment.
Who’s Joe Hill?
Why do you hate Canada*, John?
And dude, you’re getting into a chest-bumping cheeserock smackdown with the guy who invented Judas Coyne. Is Jane Sagan a ROCK BAND character? No, sadly, she is not. Hill is pwning you, as I like to say to the kids when their friends are in earshot. (“MOOOOOOM!”)
*Anyone who remembers the draconian application of Canadian content laws to rock stations back in the day will remember that they were therefore forced to play a frag-ton of Rush and Honeymoon Suite.
Ell – I’m sure that’s cool, but I had no idea who Joe Hill (the current one) was until I just looked him up. Stephen King’s son, huh? Interesting.
mythago – And Geddy Lee good-naturedly took part in a satire about that (“Take off…to the Great White North!”).
The South Park clip reminds me of when I saw Brian Wilson in concert in the late 1990s, and he opened the show with a cover of “Brian Wilson” by the Barenaked Ladies. :)
Joe Hill is an award-winning writer of horror novels and stories (Heart Shaped Box, Twentieth Century Ghosts, Horns) and comics (Locke and Key).
Xopher @25: I think I still have that around somewhere. On vinyl. #veryold
Love ’em or hate ’em: Rush do age graciously and don’t take themselves too seriously.
If the South Park clip wasn’t indicative enough, then check out the tenth and eleventh picture of the “Time Machine” tour book. I dare both John Scalzi and Joe Hill to pose as Alex Lifeson did…;-).
(BTW: the video was recorded in Ahoy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. I’m somewhere in that audience…;-)
I have seen Rush more times than I can count. Always a good show. Also an inspiration to see a clip of them here on whatever, taking into account many of their beloved songs, (and album sides) were inspired by Ayn Rand.