The lyrics are loosely based on a character Mark Twain created in his first novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The book was published 1876....
A modern day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride
Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist, catch the myth
Catch the mystery, catch the drift
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you
No, his mind is not for rent
To any God or government
Always hopeful yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness, catch the wit
Catch the spirit, catch the spit
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide
Exit the warrior
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to the friction of the day
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride
Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist, catch the myth
Catch the mystery, catch the drift
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you
No, his mind is not for rent
To any God or government
Always hopeful yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness, catch the wit
Catch the spirit, catch the spit
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide
Exit the warrior
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to the friction of the day
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As a drummer, philosopher and appreciator of unique and interesting personalities, I have appreciated Neil Peart in various capacities for some time. As an undergraduate philosophy student (presently working on my Ph.D.) we were assigned in senior seminar to write about our favorite living philosopher. I turned in a twenty page treatise on Neil Peart and the look on my professors face was priceless. Without reading it, he handed it back and told me to grow up and do the assignment, stating "He's not even an academic. How could he be a philosopher?" (such attitudes are commonplace) I told him that if he didn't think differently after reading it I would quit school. He could tell I was serious. The next day, handing me a paper with the first letter of our alphabet scribed widely across the top, he asked me, embarrassed, if I would burn him a CD with "some of their stuff" :-)
As far as lyrical meaning, it is important to note that, while influenced by Twain, Rand and various others, he is (in his own words), "a disciple of no one." Through his lyrics we can piece together a personal philosophy, a proprietary blend, of anti-idealism/objectivism/individualism (Freewill, The Pass, TOM SAWYER, Show Don't Tell, Vital Signs, etc...), fatalism (Roll The Bones, a personal favorite), existentialism (again, Roll The Bones, Limelight, the title "All The World's A Stage") and several other philosophical influences.
Tom Sawyer (not Diane Sawyer, Ricky. hehe) is, in both the book and song, the personification of a sort or type of person, the sort of person breaking away from the status quo, exploring and, importantly, the sort who represents both a normative and actual shifting of the human paradigm in the direction of his (man's) rational evolution. This fits, to a greater or lesser extent, with Freud's idea that man evolves in such a way as to shed his dependence on ideals (religion, social norms) and replace that dependence with a greater implementation of reason (leading to self-reliance, a deeper self-awareness and sense of responsibility for ones own "destiny"). Tom Sawyer has thus been a different people at different transitional points in man's evolution (our history). "Todays" Tom Sawyer is exactly what the song says; a leader to the next step in realizing pure reason or rationality; the "space he invades," is his days work, to explore the unknown as progress towards truth; the "friction of the day," is the resistance he faces from both people's unwillingness to embrace change as well as the intellectual rigor of tackling what hasn't already been explored (the guy who cuts a path through the forest faces resistance from the brush leaving those who follow behind with little to do but be complacent and stagnate). He (TS) does all of this with a mind filled only by his own conclusions (i.e. "not for rent"), and via the power coming from honest intellectual reciprocity or dialectical process ("he gets high on you," "he gets by on you"). As far as "riding out the days events," the song is referring to fate controlling what life gives to us, even though it is our responsibility (and can be a point of pride if done well) to live our own life with what fate hands us. In RUSH's "Roll the Bones," Peart refers to the same notion, "we draw our own designs, but fortune has to make that frame."
The philosophical analysis could go on and on. Tom Sawyer is an intellectually (ideologically) dense song, as are many other of Peart's lyrics. It would take a while to thoroughly unpack them and I feel bad writing as much as I have. Sorry about that. I'm new, and haven't yet developed any restraint :-)
Going to university isn't the only way to get a quality and meaningful education.
Primarily it is a description of today's rebel hero, Tom Sawyer.
This person is independent and self-aware.
Several in TS recurr in other Rush songs:
..."He knows that changes aren't permanent...but Change is": change is the only constant
..."Love and life are deep...maybe as his eyes are wide": reality is defined by our perception of it.
He said, "A portrait of a modern day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful. I added the themes of reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be - namely me I guess."
I'm doing a presentation on the parallels between American novels and music, using this song (of course) as an example. When I looked deeper at it, I became confused. To me, it sounds like Peart and Pubois are talking more about Huckleberry Finn and less about Tom Sawyer, though both are rebels in their own way. However, Tom, rebels for his own selfish purposes (someone else said that on here too and I completely agree). Huck, on the other hand, rebels even though he believes helping a Negro would 'send him to hell'. Still confused about it, but maybe I'm thinking too hard which is possible... ahhh
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society When you question this power of the tyrants (the hidden hand), you are questioning the decency of society itself. They have made it so through mass media manipulation, to make you feel guilty about questioning them. Catch the mist, catch the myth
Catch the mystery, catch the drift. That is the mystery. We're being lead around by con men and bullshiters. No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government (The powers that be have no homeland and answer to no one. Don't put him (them) down as arrogant
His(there) reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river
That's a very good analysis of the meaning of the lyrics. I never gave it that much thought before I came in here. Guess I'll have to start thinking now, damn it! Wonder why some dudes get so tetchy about things - nobody can say for sure what the creator really meant except him/herself. I write 'poems' when in the mood and I'm guessing not many would interpret what I meant the lyrics to mean.
One of the problems of understanding this is that the writer winged the song.
I also want to take on something one of the previous posters said.
When he says "change is not permanent, but change is." he is not saying change is the only constant, but rather change is a constant.
I do not want to get into a detailed analysis of this song, so I have not included line by line proof. I am not getting paid for this.
He is not saying that change is a constant in particular because that is a cliche. He is saying the changes aren't permanent where changes are little things that you are trying to change "But change is" is to say that true change is actually permanent. If you truly change yourself it is permanent or it is not really change.
That just about says it all.