I'm On The Train To Bangkok

Sometimes, when I’m thinking about what would be interesting to post, I try to consider things that may not already have been over-blogged. Invariably that leads me to post some unknown Midwestern punk band, or, as in today’s post, some ancient classic rock.

What’s interesting to me when I post the old stuff is the number of hits the post will get. From my observations, the majority of MP3 bloggers seem to be people in their 20s and the music, by and large, comes from “indie” musicians. Deer Tick gets blogger buzz; Clapton doesn’t seem to need it. Hence my question: Why the uptick when I post classic rock? That seeming anomaly has always fascinated me. Is it possible that while the bloggers are young, it's a bunch of us old dudes lurking the blogs?

Anyway, that brings us ‘round to today’s post: A 35-year-old Rush song from their classic 2112 album. “A Passage to Bangkok” is the opening track on what used to be Side Two of the album. A lot of fans consider this song as a sort of travelogue for weed: “Our first stop is in Bogota / To check Columbian fields / The natives smile and pass along / A sample of their yield.”

If you’re a Rush fan, you don’t need any more information about the significance of the 2112 album. If you have to ask your dad who Rush is, this should serve as an introduction since it was one of their more accessible (read: radio-friendly) songs.

A Passage to Bangkok.mp3

Labels: classic rock

posted by aikin @ 9:29 AM