Tom Sawyer

A young man, the song tells us, is not to be judged because he doesn't feel compelled to adhere to his society's values. In fact, he should be admired for that very reason.

That, the song tells us over and over, without telling us what Tom Sawyer is for or against – besides the fact that he is good for not adhering to his society's values, et cetera, et cetera. He's not beholden to "God" (or "god"?) or government (Canada? Ontario? ANY government?), but he likes to play video games – that's as specific as it gets. What if his society or government accidentally adopted a position he agreed with? Would he still rebel against them because rebelling is the point? Is everything his society does bad? Is this band from Canada or Nazi Germany? If Canada builds roads and hospitals and goes to war against Nazi Germany, does Tom Sawyer still oppose that? Is he for anything?

The subtext which is essential to the song's anthemic power is that the listener himself (and it's not an accident that "he" is the pronoun) is like Tom Sawyer – the listener who is a huge Rush fan and feels that his parents, his church, or the cool kids at school unfairly judge him – and he has found, in Rush, a community that doesn't judge him and tells him, in fact, that Rush approves of him and thinks he's great for all the reasons that his nemeses judge him. But, in point of fact, Rush doesn't know that individual young man, and made their millions by pooling all of their album purchases (now $9.49 – cheaper in the past) together. "We hear you," Rush tells them, without hearing them individually. "We approve of you," Rush tells them, without knowing them individually. Then go home to large houses bought with those unknown young men's money, as do the record company executives who made a lot of money off of this, too.

Individuality is a fine thing and rejecting authority is admirable in many times and places, but "Tom Sawyer" doesn't comment on any times or places, and just says it's OK because it's OK. And isn't self-aware enough to see the hypocrisy in the rock industry telling swarms of young men to rebel against authority when it's one of those authorities they ought to be questioning, but aren't, because the song has a great hook.

God and government will lead you astray, the song tells us, but video games and rock music liberate you. Just don't think of the price of the album or the quarters that you pump into the machine as a tithe, or then you'd realize, hey, maybe you should rebel against Rush and Atari as well. And, gosh, those roads that the government built weren't such a bad idea after all.