{"id":7814,"date":"2020-01-10T21:29:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-11T03:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=7814"},"modified":"2020-01-10T21:38:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T03:38:53","slug":"the-professor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2020\/01\/10\/the-professor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Professor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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My sister was five years older than me, and music (and books) were her refuge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because she tended to hang out with people a bit older than her, the music she listened to was definitely well ahead of what I bought as a kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day on her bedroom floor was an album with a glowing red star on the cover and “RUSH 2112.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d heard the band on the radio, mostly the hits from their debut album (the song: “Working Man”) and the title track from Fly By Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Rush’s 2112<\/em> was different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Concept<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Rush’s 2112<\/em> was not the first concept album I heard at the time (my dad was a Jethro Tull fan, so that went to Thick as a Brick<\/em>). But 2112 was the first concept album that found me lying on my stomach on the floor, listening to the music and reading the lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn’t get enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn’t just music…it was a whole side of an album dedicated to a story that enthralled me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving Pictures<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To say I looked up to my big sister is an understatement. And when it came to my step brother, my adoration for another human being bordered on worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summers were spent visiting my father in Kansas, and the summer after Rush’s Moving Pictures<\/em> came out found the three of us all agreeing that there were fewer things better in the world than that damn album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, “Tom Sawyer” was the tune the world loved, but it was “Red Barchetta” — again, a song that was all about story — that hooked me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went much deeper than my sister and step brother. For them, Rush was just another cool band. But for me, every song was a secret to unlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving to Texas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 1984, my mother and step father told me we were moving to Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could think of no greater hell than to leave my friends and a love for certain bands behind in northern Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was happy to discover in my first week in Texas that someone in the Lone Star State played Dungeons and Dragons. And through that friendship, I found other friends…all into Rush and D&D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More friends followed — the people who affected me for the better in those times were all shaped by a love for a band that made it okay to be a geek…or a writer…or a musician…or an artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I Want to Write…<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I always wanted to be a writer, but it was only in my very early teens that I seriously considered it. And from that moment, because youth works in hyper-time, I felt I needed to hurry to meet my goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, in 1982, came a Rush album (Signals<\/em>) that seemed written for me. Not just because “Subdivisions” summed up what it was like living in the cracks of so many in-betweens, but because the song “Losing It” started a clock in my goofy little mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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