Subdivisions!

Every morning when I wake up I put on the news and during the commercials I put on VH1 Classic.  This morning one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands came on, Subdivisions by Rush.  While I was grooving (do you groove to Rush?  Rock out?  Jam?) I started thinking about the video and what I thought of it and, jokingly, posted on facebook that I was going to talk about an old video every day.  An old Sig Ep brother of mine said I should blog, so here goes!

Subdivisions was on the 1982 album (you remember record albums don't you?) Signals.  The song is about growing up in the suburbs and the video was shot in and around Toronto and at a local high school.  Part of the video is the band playing in the studio, part is in the halls of the high school and part around town and following some of the lyrics.

The Band: 
My first impression was that Geddy was totally 80's with the mullet and sport jacket with the sleeves pushed up.  Add some stubble and change the colors to white and pink and he would be totally Miami Vice...like, you know, totally. (Although this is about two years before Vice took America by storm!)

Alex has this floppy 80's hair thing going on, but then goes for the tux type collared shirt with a red bow tie!  What the hell was he thinking?!?!?!  Of course Rush admitted that they struggled with "wardrobe" throughout their career in their documentary "Beyond the Lighted Stage."

Neil has a short haircut and a collarless two tone shirt going on.  If you didn't know what he looked like you would think the drummer couldn't make it that day, so some accountant or father of the makeup girl stood in for him!

The Video:

Holy crap did this one take me back to my youth.  Tight jeans, bad hair, bad mustaches, big hair, tight shirts, jean jackets and Member's Only jackets.  I always love videos that sort of tell the story of the song and this one does, showing the "basement bars,"  being cool or being cast out, etc.  It really tells you about the song, while being a good snapshot of the time period.

Well that is about it for today, see you next time!