The 500 - #448 - The Police - Synchronicity

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• One record per week (ish) & at least two complete listens.
• A blog post for each, highlighting the important details and, when possible, a background story that relates to the record.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.
• Listen to Josh and his guest on The 500 podcast to gather additional information and insights.

It had to happen eventually: Writer's Block. Well, not so much writer's block as a sudden loss of motivation to write. 

Interestingly, I experienced a similar malaise at this time last year when, fortunately, I came across The 500 Podcast which got me back to the keyboard. 

Then, it struck me. I was still trying to process the passing of Rush drummer Neil Peart. I couldn't write about Synchronicity without writing about my favourite band of all time. Curiously, Rush didn't manage to get a record on the 500 list. So, I wrote about Neil, and now I'm ready to move on.

Album # 449
Album Title: Synchronicity
Artist: The Police
Released: June, 1983
My age at release: 17
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Tea in the Sahara
Great Lyric: (So many to choose from)
"Another industrial ugly morning
The factory belches filth into the sky.
He walks unhindered through the picket lines today,
He doesn't think to wonder why.
The secretaries pout and preen like cheap tarts in a red light street,
But all he ever thinks to do is watch.
And every single meeting with his so-called superior
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch.
Many miles away something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish loch" (Synchronicity II)

The Police were one of the first bands that excited my interest for music in the late 70s. The band has four records on The 500 list but, surprisingly, my favourite, Zenyatta Mondatta, is not one of them. The band only had five studio releases in total. So, four out of five making this list is awfully impressive and not surprising. They are exceptional talents. 

With the release of Synchronicity in 1983, The Police were heralded by critics as "The Biggest Band in the World" and rightly so. They were headlining stadiums across the world, performing in front of 70,000 people at a time in some venues.

My friends and I were actually a little disgruntled by their commercial success. This was high school for us and the power of the clique was strong. We had loved The Police when they were an eclectic trio, playing a fusion of punk, reggae and jazz. We had been fans for five years (a lifetime when you are a teenager). 

Now, seemingly suddenly, they were popular with everyone, even the nauseating Preppie Crowd who would have looked down their noses at us for wearing an Outlandos d'Amour T-shirt from a Police Picnic show at the CNE grounds in Toronto.

I have regretted missing that show for years. However, many of my friends were in attendance, some seeing the band for a second or third time. Consequently, we collectively bristled at their new-found celebrity among the great unwashed. Now, it is me who bristles when I reflect on the narrow-minded sensibilities of youth. What can I say? It was high school.

The most salient memory I have about this record involves a time when I angrily "stormed out of my home" over some small injustice involving my parents. I was in Grade 12, in the autumn of 1983, and I was determined ...NEVER TO RETURN.

My friend Stan convinced his mother that my situation was dire and she agreed to let me stay. She was a single mother who was putting herself through university and lived in a small apartment with her three children. I was given a spot on the floor in Stan's room (which he shared with his brother). In retrospect, I suspect she was too exhausted to argue with Stan about bringing home a stray. 

Stan lived humbly and didn't have much of a music collection. Mine, mainly vinyl, was still at home...right beside a comfortable bed in which I should have been sleeping. However, Stan did have Synchronicity on cassette and I had brought my Walkman. I played on my headphones when I was falling asleep on the floor for nearly a week. 

Eventually, I returned home to my comfortable middle-class life and my copy of the record on vinyl. However, the experience left its mark and, whenever I hear it, my back gets a little sore and I swear I can still feel rough, industrial strength carpet on my back. 

Bonus Content

Stan also worked at a nearby Singles Bar called "Sweetwaters" as a busser. While the thirty-something crowd were romancing each other on the dance floor (or in their cars in the parking lot), Stan would "clean-up" packs of cigarettes and lighters from the temporarily abandoned cocktail tables. He didn't smoke, but I did and was elated. Eventually, we were so well stocked that we began selling half-packs on the smoking patios of our respective high schools for a discount price. Unfortunately, our get-rich-quick enterprise went up in smoke. Stan was caught (liberating a pack) by an eagle-eyed customer, who complained. The jig was up. Still, it was good while it lasted and certainly revealed Stan's entrepreneurial spirit that he would eventually leverage into his own successful business in his 20s. 

On the passing of Neil Peart

On Friday, January 10, I learned of the passing of Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. To say that I was obsessed with the music of Rush and the writing of Peart during my teen years would be an understatement. Long before taking on the challenge of writing about The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time I wrote a post about the impact the band had on my formative years.

One of my favourite posters - this was on my bedroom wall from 1980-1985

Now, years later, I want to write a tribute to Neil and his significant impact on my life. However, this is a difficult task given:

• How can I write about teenage emotions when I am no longer close to those feelings? 
• How did that fiery cocktail of earnest passion, precocious intellect and quixotic romanticism that once raged within me become this dull and flickering, nostalgic reminiscence?

It is difficult to explain how important the music of Rush and the lyrics of Neil Peart were without providing some background. In the early 80s, I was a Canadian teenager living in a city subdivision. At the risk of sounding very "kids these days have it easy...." let me share the following:

• There were no digital downloads or streaming services for music (iTunes, Spotify). I built my Rush record collection one album at a time, even taking two buses to track down a copy of Farewell to Kings in a shopping mall on the other side of the city.
• I didn't own a record player until I was 17. I took my albums to the public library and borrowed headphones to use in the music listening booths.
• Visiting the library was additionally important because I needed to research the complex references buried within Neil's lyrics. It was more than 15 years before the launch of Google.

I look back on this time fondly. The challenge of building my Rush collection brought me immense joy. With each purchase, I felt like I revealed another piece in an elaborate puzzle that had been constructed specifically for me. No other music I had listened to reflected so perfectly my emotional state and experiences.

The earliest works by Rush tapped into my love of literature, including mythology, fantasy and science fiction, as well as my growing interest in science and philosophy.

• Fly By Night featured songs such as... 
• Anthem which was inspired by the writings of Ayn Rand on the philosophical tenets of objectivisim. 
• Rivendell, a song about retiring to the fictional world of the elves featured in JRR Tolkien's fantasy series The Lord of the Rings 
• Bytor and the Snowdog an eight-minute, multi-part epic about a battle between good and evil on the edge of the mythical underworld of Hades.
  
• Caress of Steel featured...
• Two epic fantasy tracks: The Necromancer and The Fountains of Lamneth. The latter took up the entire side of the record.
• The song Lakeside Park, which was about a small recreation area on the shores of Lake Ontario in Port Dalhousie. Growing up in nearby St. Catharines, I visited this place regularly. It was one of the many times when I felt as if Neil's words were penned for me.

"Midway hawkers calling 'Try your luck with me!' 
 Merry-go-round wheezing the same old melody.
A thousand ten-cent wonders, who could ask for more
A pocket full of silver - the key to heaven's door.
Lakeside Park, willows in the breeze
Lakeside Park, so many memories
Laughing rides, Midway lights
Shining stars on summer nights."

The next album, 2112, tells the story of the fictional city of Megadon in the year 2112. Individualism and creativity have been outlawed by a cabal of priests who rule from the Temples of Syrinx. A nameless protagonist discovers a guitar hidden in a cave behind a waterfall and excitedly brings it to the priests who ultimately destoy it after telling him:

"Oh yes we know, it's nothing new
It's just a waste of time.
We have no need for ancient ways
Our world is doing fine.
Another toy, that helped destroy
The elder race of man.
Forget about your silly whim
It doesn't fit the plan."

A dystopian tale about corrupt malevolant leaders quashing creativity fit perfectly in my angsty wheelhouse as an early teen. The lyrics are certainly a bit dated - but, I still listen to the album at least once a year.

That, perhaps, is the most remarkable thing about Rush and the lyrics Neil wrote. He grew as a writer in nearly perfect step with my growing maturity and changing tastes. 

By the time Moving Pictures and Signals were released, Neil was nearing his 30s and his writing reflected reality rather than fantasy. Once again, his lyrics in the song Subdivision seemed to have been written for me, the suburban, Canadian teenager. The song captured the entire time, but I will share one lyric that perfectly reflects it: 

"Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth 
That the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth."

Since Neil's death, I have been taking a journey through my "Rush-centric" memories. Such as:

Eagerly anticipating the release of every record since Moving Pictures in February of 1981.

Taking a two-hour train trip to Toronto to purchase Rush records, patches, posters & pins that could not be found in my hometown and finding the building featured on the Moving Pictures album cover. (It's the Ontario Legistlative Building in Queen's Park). 

Seeing them perform live seven times, including their final performance in Toronto in 2015. 

Spending hours reading album liner notes and lyrics as well as newsletters from the Rush Backstage Fan Club. I still have the certificate.

However, the memory that always lingers is a drive with my girlfriend, now wife, to Algonquin Park in August, 1987. We were heading to Pog Lake for a week-long camping adventure with friends. While on Hwy. 11, just past Orillia, the song Time Stand Still played on the car stereo. I distinctly remember reflecting deeply about the lyrics. It has become my favourite Rush song and hearing it or even thinking about the words always fills me with a wistful melancholy that I simultaneously embrace and eschew. (If that makes sense)

Thank you, Neil. 
Rest in Peace.

#OneWord 2020 - Part Two

In my last post,  I reflected on my success with the 2019 goals I set with my #OneWord: Persist.

This is my fifth year participating in the #OneWord social media challenge and I've had varying degrees of success using a single word to narrow my focus. The experience has been positive and beneficial but, this year, I am taking things in a different direction.

My wife and I recently watched a Ted Talk by Susan David in which she discussed the power of emotional courage.

The following quote resonated:

"Only dead people never get stressed, never get broken hearts, never experience the disappointment that comes with failure. Tough emotions are part of our contract with life. You don't get to have a meaningful career or raise a family or leave the world a better place without stress and discomfort. Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life."

I'll admit, I have learned to diminish my emotional response to situations. There was a time when I was aggressively outspoken regarding my feelings about...well...pretty much everything.  At times I was a bit pushy and, regretably, did not take the feelings of others into consideration when ranting and railing over the many injustices of the world (big and small, real or imagined). Some of this I couched in comedy. I felt, incorrectly, that I could say anything I wanted as long as it was "meant to be funny".

I eventually made the conscious decision to censor myself. It was challenging. I still struggle to "read" people and situations. However, with time and practice, I got a lot better. My life improved noticeably. Friendships, career, physical well-being and most importantly, my relationship with my girlfriend (now wife) flourished.

However, am I just internalizing, or bottling, these emotions?
Do I need to start paying the price of admission to a more meaningful life? 
Do I need to embrace discomfort?
I think so. DISCOMFORT is my #OneWord2020

It is important to add the following caveats.

• I will continue to work on my ability to acknowledge the feelings of others and take them into account when acting on my discomfort.
• I will seek guidance from others - especially my wife.
• This will be a slow process and I am not setting goals for myself yet. I have set an alarm for April to update this post. 

I suspect my first challenge with discomfort will be modifying the dependence I have with my smartphone. It brings me great comfort and allows me to disengage with human connections. That has to change if I intend to live a more purposeful and meaningful life.

#OneWord 2020 - Part One

It is said that "one cannot catch up on sleep". According to Matt Walker, a scientist who specializes in brain activity, "sleep is a non-negotiable, biological necessity" for humans who "are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent reason". If that is the case, then I am not sure what I have been doing for the past week. It sure feels as if I am "catching up on sleep" when I'm getting ten or more hours a night. 

Should I disturb him, or just go back to sleep?

I'm a little concerned about next Monday morning, when the alarm goes off at 7:00. 

How difficult will it be to get back into a regular routine?

This is compounded further by the dubious choices I've made with my diet. It's time to put the chocolate, candy, chips, cheese, beer and bourbon well out of reach.

For me, January 1 has, for the past four years, been a day of reflection and a chance to lay down plans for determining my #OneWord. The #OneWord Challenge is a social media movement that encourages individuals to choose a single word as their focus for the year. Some, like me, connect that word to S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Last year, my #OneWord was PERSIST and I set goals in this blog post.

Reflecting on that post and my #OneWord I think I've been reasonably successful:

• My fitness goals were somewhat derailed by three injuries and a bout of shingles - but, I'm persisting. 
• I have persisted with Duolingo Spanish and my study streak is at 565 days.
• I played guitar a little less but, I've been taking piano lessons for three months and I practise regularly.
• I persisted with my writing, averaging a blog post every six days.

In Part Two of this post, I will choose my #OneWord for 2020 and try to establish a few S.M.A.R.T. goals. I also hope to share how I incorporate #OneWord and Goal Setting Lessons with my students.