A Simple Kind Mirror: The Lyrical Vision of Rush [Paperback]

Leonard Roberto (Author)

Book Description

With over 35 million albums sold in their thirty-year career, the Canadian rock trio Rush clearly has been embraced by discerning music fans around the world. The band's musical and lyrical depth and complexity has inspired everything from comic books to novels. Fans on all levels extract varying degrees of meaning and emotion from the band's extensive and ever-changing catalog.This book is one fan's labor of love; an exploration of how the band's lyrical panorama changed from the fantastic to the realistic, from sci-fi adventures to gritty portraits of how humans face the modern world. This is by no means a definitive work exposing what the band's implicit messages and themes convey-that is beyond anyone's scope save that of the band itself. Rather, A Simple Kind Mirror is a song-by-song journey through Rush's 1980 to 1996 offerings, placing the social commentaries covered within.The beauty of this band is that fans can identify with them on many levels and process their messages in personal and individual ways. In A Simple Kind Mirror, Len Roberto explores the foundation of hope and inspiration Rush carries throughout its portfolio.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Len Roberto has read everything available on Rush in print and online. This book is a personal and open attempt to record honestly what this music has meant to him and to share it with other fans.Len resides in Connecticut and is married to a wonderful companion. No doubt his daughter will be exposed to Rush?s music from an early age!

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse Star (January 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595213626
• ISBN-13: 978-0595213627
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,368,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Entertainment > Pop Culture
  • #47 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Popular

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Simplistic interpretations of Rush songs, March 26, 2002

By 

Mark C. Daniels (Albany, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Simple Kind Mirror: The Lyrical Vision of Rush (Paperback)

This "book" began it's life as an e-Book, available as a download for a small fee. It reads like something you'd find on a Rush fan's personal website... especially the passages in which the author tells us "when I'm in (x) mood, I like to listen to (x) song." Furthermore, his observations about the meaning of Rush's songs are always obvious in nature.

Roberto's "book" of song interpretations includes EVERY song that Rush released from "PERMANENT WAVES" (1980) to "TEST FOR ECHO" (1996). In this respect - the sheer quantity of songs discussed - it surpasses Carol Selby Price's book on Rush lyrical analysis "Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush." Price only analyzes a handful of songs in her book, and none of them are post-1990 ("PRESTO").

In every other consideration, this book is dramatically inferior to Price's book. At eighty pages total, "A Simple Kind Mirror" allots less than a page (and sometimes only a few sentences) to each song discussed. Len Roberto doesn't dig very deeply into the songs, and only scratches the surface when it comes to the depth of meaning in Neil Peart's lyrics. There's really nothing here that Rush fans haven't grokked themselves from listening to the songs. Price, with her background in Philosophy, offers us much more.

Regarding the writing STYLE, I'm pleased to report that "Simple Kind Mirror" isn't riddled with spelling, grammatic, and syntax errors like so many Rush-related books. Roberto seems to possess an above-average vocabulary, and each sentence is well constructed. HOWEVER... throughout the book's 80 pages, one finds many sentences which seem like non-sequitirs given the sentences that precede them. (Roberto will offer us a theory about the meaning of a lyric, and in the next sentence give us a further idea that doesn't seem to fit the first. It's as if we're reading his stream-of-consciousness meanderings, and only by entering his brain could we understand how he arrived where he did.)

I really can't recommend this title. If it's a scholarly and in-depth interpretation of Peart's lyrics that you're after, skip this book and buy Carol Selby Price's "Mystic Rhythms" instead.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Gets 1 star because they wouldn't let me give ZERO stars., June 27, 2003

By 

esroberto "esroberto" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Simple Kind Mirror: The Lyrical Vision of Rush (Paperback)

For anyone who can barely speak English, this is a great book -- it's so oversimplified and generalized and structured for the average 8 yr old that it's the most unreadable waste of paper that trees have ever given life for. It's just awful. It's actually too terrible to be funny. Avoid it like the plague.

Here's some of the author's brilliance paraphrased: "So like, the song's like Spirit of Radio, you know, like the Radio has a spirit, like it's alive, but everybody knows a radio can't have a spirit, right? Or maybe it can if you think about it!"

Plainly stated, if you're of the mindset and level of intellect that Rush's work appeals to you, then you're way overqualified to bother with this tragic waste of ink. Get Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush if you're that into the lyrics; if you're that into the band, Robert Telleria's Rush: Merely Players is about THE best thing I've ever read. If you want further insight into the mind behind the lyrics, read either Masked Rider or Ghost Rider by Neil himself -- THOSE are both literary masterpieces.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Puts "Simple" in "Simple Kind Mirror", June 2, 2004

By 

Nate Prudhon "Natron2112" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Simple Kind Mirror: The Lyrical Vision of Rush (Paperback)

While the writing style of this book is very simple, it also seems the author knew it was sparse on content by the way he used so many filler words. If there were more complex ideas he could have been more straightforward with the writing, but as it is he's lucky he got so many pages out of the few ideas he discusses. I literally could have written a better book with deeper discussion without further research, which the author claims to have done. (How is it possible to read everything about Rush online? Does that now include this review?)

If you're writing a book about lyrics, don't even mention the instrumentals (more filler). About "Where's My Thing?" Roberto claims: "Continuing the Rush tradition of incuding an instrumental track on every album" (46). Aside from the English problems of that phrase, I could only find instrumentals on 5 of thier 16 (at the time) studio albums. If I was writing a book about the lyrics of a band that's something I probably woudn't get wrong. There are also other errors and weak filler observations. I hope an editor got fired.

I consider myself a hard-core fan. Maybe check this out if you're a very casual fan or just getting into Rush lyrics and you're young. Otherwise, try Mystic Rhythms if you want to read about their lyrics on a more meaningful level.

A couple things I liked about the book: (1) it's short, so less painful, and (2) I'm finished with it, so less painful.