This is probably an exceptionally stupid question, but I’m going to ask it anyway.
Rush aren’t exactly known as lyrical masters, and Getty Lee really can’t sing, and I know that they’re more of a guitar based band, but…
What on earth is Tom Sawyer about? Can it really be as nonsensical as it seems?
A friend suggested that it was the product of a drug induced haze, but I countered that pretty much every song by Pink Floyd is the product of a drug induced haze and they don’t have the same problem.
As to if Tom Sawyer seems less absurd while IN a drug induced haze…uh, no it doesn’t. Don’t ask me how I know that.
Wow, I couldn’t disagree more. But here is what I was able to dig up:
" ‘Tom Sawyer’ was a collaboration between myself and Pye Dubois, an excellent lyricist who wrote the lyrics for Max Webster. His original lyrics were kind of a portrait of a modern day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful. I added the themes of reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be - namely me I guess." - Neil Peart, in the December 1985 Backstage Club newsletter
It always seems to me to be more about agents provocateurs, or real-life trolls. Those that make others take dangerous chances or incite them to violent actions and sit back and laugh at the results. Then when everyone has been duly riled or following some fashion he’ll change everything again.
Next time I listen to it I’ll try the suggestions listed above and see if I come to any deeper conclusion, k?
Wow, of all the criticisms of Rush (and one can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a criticism of Rush), I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone criticize Neil Peart’s lyrical abilities.
I think the most accurate criticism of the lyrics to Tom Sawyer is that they are very much unlike the Mark Twain character Tom Sawyer, who is generally slavishly attendant to conventions, in contrast, for example, to Huck Finn.
But as to the meaning of the lyrics of the song, I don’t see any reason to disbelieve their explanation - the lyrics seem to be a pretty straightforward description of an unconventional, independent free-thinker in a wide open expansive world.
Ok - I don’t think I’m expressing myself very well. I guess my major objection (if you can call it that) is that the lyrics are so…hokey. I assumed that I was missing some deep thought or something, but apparently I’m not.
Perhaps I just prefer lyrics that are less obvious. (That sounds obnoxious, but I don’t mean it that way.)
I thought your concern was that they were “nonsensical”, as if they were the product of a drug induced haze. Now your concern is that they are too obvious?
Hey, you don’t like the lyrics? No skin off my nose. They aren’t my favorite lyrics, nor are they much representative of most Rush lyrics.
But you could at least try to nail down what it is you don’t like about them.
I just looked the lyrics up and was surprised to see that the line that I thought was “No worries, no worries” is actually “The world is, the world is.”
The songTom Sawyer reminds me of a friend from college whose personality was pretty much summed up by the lyrics. It was no coincidence that this was one of his favorite songs. Here’s to you, J-P, wherever you are.
I agree with whoever said the Tom Sawyer in the song more closely resembles Huck Finn. The book’s Tom Sawyer was more caught up in fantasies of being a pirate or an adventurer of some sort, as in the later chapters of Huckleberry Finn where Tom hatches a Count of Monte Cristo-like scheme to free Jim from Aunt Sally’s house.
I just looked the lyrics up here. I can’t say I’m getting much out of the song. Okay, he’s a tough guy with mean mean pride, and he thinks for himself rather than being a sellout.
What you say about his company is what you say about society…? So he represents society by thinking for himself? Riiiight.
He gets high on you and the energy you trade… Me, I’m just lost.
I, too, am suprised about Rush not being known as lyrical masters. Rush has, for the most part, always had great lyrics that went deeper than a lot of other bands. My personal favorite is Losing It, from Signals.
“Tom Sawyer” is not a good representative sample of Rush lyrics to rag on–Pye Dubois was never known (at least in his collaborations with Peart) to be a lyrical genius. He also co-wrote “Between Sun and Moon” from “Counterparts,” which contains the deathless chorus:
“Oh–oh, yes to yes, to oh, to yes–
Why the sun? Why the sun?”
But when you look at some of the songs folks already mentioned above (“Subdivisions,” “Losing It,” plus things like “Natural Science” and the whole “2112” suite) I think Neil Peart’s lyrical efforts hold up fairly well to most other bands of the era.
So he represents society by thinking for himself? Riiiight.