Don't think that the drenching irony of bringing back this lost gem from the GUP album in 2005 (for the R30 Tour) and then for the Snakes & Arrows Tour was lost of a number of us paying attention here in the good ole US of A.
The lyrics practically describe what America has been living through in the last decade or so.
The juxtaposition of a pop culture awash in stupidity and meaningless affect while soldiers come home and drown in their own shattered psyches, alcohol & drugs and (for far too many) eventual suicide.
We are two very separate and incongruous nations in that respect.
Neil was looking at what happened to those who lived between the two World Wars (often called the "Lost Generation" - a phrase used by Hemingway who, as another commenter mentioned, was the source of the album title) and was beginning to see parallels to our own modern culture in the early 80s and now the 21st century.
Considering the tone of his disappointment with what we've become (excellently expressed on Snakes & Arrows with Armor And Sword and The Way The Wind Blows) it didn't surprise me that the band played this two tours in a row probably at the suggestion of Peart.
What scares me is we have enough ego-maniacs who believe in "American exceptionalism" who somehow think that the "boom" will never go "bust" so we're burning America out as a world power. I think we're past the point of....
"Wheels can take you around
Wheels can cut you down
We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust"
@atlbobr69 AND the boom to bust, bowl of dust is an allusory reference to the people of that generation who had settled in the midwest, over farmed the land and suffered through droughts.
@atlbobr69 AND the boom to bust, bowl of dust is an allusory reference to the people of that generation who had settled in the midwest, over farmed the land and suffered through droughts.
Oh the 'Lost Generation' is attributable to Ms. Stein. Hemingway casually borrowed it.
Oh the 'Lost Generation' is attributable to Ms. Stein. Hemingway casually borrowed it.
Don't think that the drenching irony of bringing back this lost gem from the GUP album in 2005 (for the R30 Tour) and then for the Snakes & Arrows Tour was lost of a number of us paying attention here in the good ole US of A.
The lyrics practically describe what America has been living through in the last decade or so.
The juxtaposition of a pop culture awash in stupidity and meaningless affect while soldiers come home and drown in their own shattered psyches, alcohol & drugs and (for far too many) eventual suicide.
We are two very separate and incongruous nations in that respect.
Neil was looking at what happened to those who lived between the two World Wars (often called the "Lost Generation" - a phrase used by Hemingway who, as another commenter mentioned, was the source of the album title) and was beginning to see parallels to our own modern culture in the early 80s and now the 21st century.
Considering the tone of his disappointment with what we've become (excellently expressed on Snakes & Arrows with Armor And Sword and The Way The Wind Blows) it didn't surprise me that the band played this two tours in a row probably at the suggestion of Peart.
What scares me is we have enough ego-maniacs who believe in "American exceptionalism" who somehow think that the "boom" will never go "bust" so we're burning America out as a world power. I think we're past the point of....
"Wheels can take you around Wheels can cut you down
We can go from boom to bust From dreams to a bowl of dust"
@atlbobr69 AND the boom to bust, bowl of dust is an allusory reference to the people of that generation who had settled in the midwest, over farmed the land and suffered through droughts.
@atlbobr69 AND the boom to bust, bowl of dust is an allusory reference to the people of that generation who had settled in the midwest, over farmed the land and suffered through droughts.
Oh the 'Lost Generation' is attributable to Ms. Stein. Hemingway casually borrowed it.
Oh the 'Lost Generation' is attributable to Ms. Stein. Hemingway casually borrowed it.