1982 by Jian Ghomeshi

Author:Jian Ghomeshi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Canada

stereos

cars

computers

phones

doughnuts

As you can see, there were many items that were considered better if they were bigger in 1982. Before everyone had personal computers, the bigger they were, the more impressive they were. The first computers were the size of a bungalow. Those were really good computers. Now, everyone wants a tiny computer that they can put in their pocket.

All this attraction to big was also true when it came to Rush. Rush were bigger than most bands. And the fact that Rush were bigger meant that they were better. It’s not that they had more members than other groups. They didn’t. But they had big amps and big stage shows, and Neil Peart had the biggest drum kit on any stage. Rush had songs that were longer than other bands’ songs, just like my father’s Buick was longer than most other cars. Rush were only three guys, but they had a BIG sound. Nineteen eighties big. So, when Tom Rivington gave me his large headphones and cued up the music on his giant stereo to the big drum solo in “YYZ,” he knew I would be impressed. And what I heard blew my mind. I mean, it was actually blowing my mind with the volume, the drum riffs, and the impressive sonic array of noises being piped into my ears.

Soon after my experience at Tom Rivington’s house, I became a true Rush fan. I started by buying the new live album at the time, Exit … Stage Left. I continued collecting Rush records with Moving Pictures (1981) and then Permanent Waves (1980) and then 2112 (1976). I worked my way through Rush’s back catalogue the same way I’d done with Bowie, and with the Beatles in Grades 7 and 8, and with the Clash in ’82. I took regular trips to Sam’s or A&A on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto to buy these albums. In the early 1980s, the act of buying music was itself a testament to how much you appreciated and wanted the records. It was no simple task. These days, you might hear a song you like, and so you click a button on your computer and it ends up in your collection. You click this button on your tiny computer, because smaller is better. The item you buy is now so small it’s only a few words on your screen. It’s not even plastic or vinyl or anything. But in 1982, you had to want the music badly enough to put in the time.

Let me explain for those of you who weren’t around what it was like to buy music back in the day—back in the ’80s. (I’m qualifying this as “back in the ’80s” because I realize that “back in the day” can also refer to the 1970s, the 1990s, or the 2000s, depending on whether you’re really old or not really old.) For each Rush album I ended up buying—not to mention my increasingly bulging Bowie back catalogue—I had to make significant plans in advance.

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