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Riding the Thailand Express with Rush

High! Canada Magazine

April 2017

By H.K. Abell



Click Any Image to Enlarge The cannabis positive message behind Rush

Geddy Lee. Alex Lifeson. Neil Peart. Together, they form the legendary musical group RUSH, and they’re as Canadian as Tim Hortons, maple syrup and Home-Grown. Formed in Toronto in the late ‘60s, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, famous for their musical proficiency and unmistakable sound, have built a forty-plus-year career in rock, selling over 40 million albums, 24 of which went gold, 14 went platinum and 3 went multi-platinum. Only two bands surpass them in this, and that’s The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.



Like The Beatles and the Stones, RUSH smoked their share of pot. And maybe your share, too. In fact, guitarist Alex Lifeson figures that they wrote about 80% of their music while high, saying that “pot can be a really creative agent”. Rather than treat marijuana as something destructive and negative, RUSH chooses to celebrate it.



The band’s early work is characterized by drummer and lyricist Neil Peart’s fascination with fantasy, mythology, and science fiction, which explains why RUSH is sometimes referred to as the favourite band of Dungeons and Dragons players everywhere. But it is their larger-than-life music that is so loved by those who enjoy marijuana. With grand, sweeping anthems that explore different movements and themes like a symphony would, RUSH joins the ranks of YES, GENESIS and KING CRIMSON as progressive rock pioneers, creating 20 minute epics that swell and crash like waves on the mind under the sweet enhancement of cannabis.



But it was, of course, their 1976 song A Passage to Bangkok which put them on the map as celebrators of the green leaf, as their lyrics describe a tongue-in-cheek trip through Columbian fields where friendly natives share their crops, then on to Jamaica to try some Acapulco Gold, then across the sea to Morocco, where the trip to Bangkok really begins. Riding the mythical (and mystical) Thailand Express, they stop along the way – only for the best, of course – to smoke in Lebanon, burn some Afghan hash oil, and pass a perfumed Nepal night blowing smoke rings in Kathmandu. The song’s never clear whether they ever get to Bangkok or not, but one thing’s for sure: The Express gets you there.



In later concerts, RUSH added a visual component when they played the song. On the screen behind the band they would play a video showing the various locales from the song, cut with snippets of the infamous 1936 film Reefer Madness, a heavy-handed morality tale depicting cannabis users as violent criminals. The film is generally considered one of the worst films ever made, and is often parodied because of its ludicrous depiction of the euphoric ex p experience of smoking marijuana. Strangely enough, however, it’s the film’s ridiculous assertion of marijuana addiction and descent into madness that misinforms opponents to cannabis to this day, creating a stigma that has been difficult to break.



In an interview in High Times magazine, which published its first issue in 1974, Alex Lifeson remembers getting handed a copy of their first issue, and how it opened his mind to all the different varieties and experiences possible with marijuana. It piqued his curiosity and began a lifelong love of cannabis. He even suggests that the magazine was influential on the writing of A Passage to Bangkok, as the magazine reported on the prices and quality of cannabis from different parts of the world, including the places specifically mentioned in the song.



Of course, that was the 1970’s, and marijuana was an assumed indulgence in the rock world at that time. The band members have all reminisced about good experiences smoking through the years. In an interview with Rolling Stone celebrating 40 years of RUSH, Geddy Lee recalled getting high with Ace Frehley of KISS during their 1975 tour, when both bands were just starting out, and getting up to all kinds of crazy antics to make each other laugh. Alex Lifeson recalls this including cream pies to the face and surprises lurking around every corner, as well as a good amount of partying.



But the world has moved on since then, and while a great many people still oppose marijuana use, others fight to remove the taboo of Reefer Madness and praise not only the plant’s medicinal properties, but its ability to bring joy and pleasure. No longer is marijuana something to be talked about only behind closed doors, but freely among friends, in college classrooms, or on social media. The more people talk about it, the less stigmatic it becomes, and RUSH has always been open about smoking pot as not only something recreational, but something inspirational to song writing.



Geddy Lee has more of an appetite for wine these days, and has a famous collection of over 7500 bottles in his Toronto cellars – a hobby, he says, he began with fellow bandmate Alex Lifeson. In the early days of the band, someone found out that Alex enjoyed wine and began gifting the band with bottles. All of the members of RUSH have their collections, he says. With him it’s bass guitars and wine, with Neil it’s cars, and with Alex, it’s marijuana. Neil Peart joined the band as the drummer for their second album, and came in as the lyricist as well, as Geddy Lee reportedly had no real desire to write lyrics. The lyrics of their early albums were, as mentioned before, full of fantasy and science fiction, which was fairly representative of the tail end of hippie – and in particular, cannabis – culture. Led Zeppelin was writing songs about the Misty Mountains and the darkest depths of Mordor, so when RUSH sang about “Elven songs and endless nights... in this enchanted place”, it didn’t seem out of place for a band to be singing a song about Rivendell – the land of the Elves in Tolkien’s story, ruled over by Elrond (you may remember him as Agent Smith in The Matrix). When it comes to marijuana now, Neil says he enjoys it from time to time, but isn’t the advocate that Alex is. Neil has his collection of classic cars, his motorcycles, his model cars, and of course, being arguably the best drummer ever to keep him satisfied. (Seriously, the best drummer. Dave Grohl cried when he met him. True story.)



Alex Lifeson, on the other hand, loves marijuana the way Geddy Lee loves wine and Neil loves cars, and he’s not shy about it – and why should he be, he figures. Any time Alex has been asked about marijuana, he normalizes it, taking the sting of stigma away. In conversation, he treats marijuana no different than having a glass of wine, and refers to smoking pot as part of a regular routine, where one might have dinner, and then have an after-dinner smoke and a glass of wine while watching some Trailer Park Boys (a show that he is not only a fan of, but has been a guest on).



He recognizes marijuana as a huge creative influence on his songwriting, though he does admit that he’d rather go on stage clear-headed these days, as it can hamper the attention required to perform with such precision, especially as the band’s song wring became more intricate and complex over the course of their long, productive career. Not only does he enjoy writing while smoking pot, he loves getting high and just playing his guitar, just for himself, stretching himself outside the boundaries of RUSH, playing whatever springs to mind, which he calls a pure exercise of joy. This kind of experience, he says, has also been helpful during relationship difficulties, as a way to get to a calmer place together and being able to open up and talk about deeply personal things.



Fully in favour of legalization, Alex celebrates the Liberal Party of Canada’s decision to legalize marijuana, and considers the so-called war on drugs to be an incredible waste of tax dollars that could be better spent on social programs, health care, or a million other societal concerns. He is critical of some of his generational peers, frustrated with those who were very open-minded and liberal when they were younger, especially about the subject of marijuana, and who now have closed their minds and become staunch conservative killjoys. His comments remind me of a line from a Don Henley (of Eagles fame) song: “Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.” It’s that kind of hypocrisy that makes marijuana advocates like Alex Lifeson (and myself) shake our heads.



My opinion? Maybe they just need to smoke a bowl, throw on some 2112 by Canada’s treasured power trio, RUSH, and chill the fuck out.

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