Man, has it really been twenty years?
When I worked at Amoeba Music recently, I was one of about three people who had a thing for Rush. Three of us. Jim Evens was one. And there was someone else. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Charles. Three of us. Out of a staff of 220. In my estimate, that means at least a hundred of them weren’t fessing up.
Rush was my first concert (December 1985, dude, Power Windows Tour, Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, yeah!) And by first concert I mean the first one I went to by myself. I had already been to see The Grateful Dead and The Allman Bros. Band with my parents. They had nothing to do with this one. If they had, I probably wouldn’t have been dressed in a long overcoat bedecked with cool buttons that said things like, FRANKIE SAY RELAX, FRODO LIVES and WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT, DICKNOSE?. Yes, that’s right. I was a geek.
Anyway, it was two more years before they released Hold Your Fire. Back in those days we didn’t have computers that you could carry around with you and we all had free time and spent a great deal of time outdoors. Nothing to do but drop by Hastings Music once a week and see if Rush (or Yes or Marillion or The Fixx) has put anything new out lately. It was a busy two years for me. In September 1987 I was finally rewarded for my efforts.
Good times…
