From: joemahoney1950@gmail.com   
      
   My friends, it is well known that in their youths, the members of Rush, like   
   many young men, were somewhat lost.  They had a phase as a Zeppelin soundalike   
   (fortunately not going so far as to emulate Jimmy Page's interest in Crowley);   
   they entered into a    
   "progressive" phase with traces of Yes and King Crimson influence, etc.  And   
   lyrically, Neil is known to have dabbled in fantasy, scienxe fiction, and   
   philosophy (fortunately sticking to existential sorts and not delving into   
   empiricism or analytic    
   philosophy; that would have been ruinous.  But by Rush's own admission,   
   everything came together for them on Permanent Waves.  They had grown up.    
   They had, as Neil admits, "found themselves."  But in what, precisely, had   
   they found themselves?   
      
   The answer comes immediately with the "Spirit of Radio."  Not the mind of   
   radio; not th brain of radio; but the SPIRIT of radio.  This, my friends,   
   refers to none other than the HOLY SPIRIT.  And Neil's beloved "companion   
   unobtrusive" is none other than    
   Christ Himself.   
      
      
   They follow this Christian classic with an attack on atheistic materialism in   
   "Free Will."  Science can not explain free will; neither can philosophy.    
   Laughably, many philosophers deny what he experience and know every minute of   
   our lives; that we MAKE    
   CHOICES.  If we were just matter, this would be impossible.  But we are not   
   mere bodies; we also have the SOUL. My friends, God and His Word explain free   
   will quite easily indeed.   
      
   Next comes a paean to the Heavenly Phenomenon of "Jacob's Ladder":    
   Mysterious, wondrous, indisputable evidence of God.  A MIRACLE -- a theme Neil   
   would return to again and again, driving home the intensity of the power of   
   his faith.   
      
   Then comes "Entre Nous."  Yes, I too am put off by the French.  But it is only   
   a decoy, a Trojan's Horse against atheism and science.  "Just between us,"   
   Geddy sings intimately, "I think it's time for us to realize/The differences   
   we sometimes feared to    
   show."  In emulating Christ so stringently, Neil has found it difficult at   
   times to own up to his flawed, sinful, HUMAN nature in contrast to Christ's   
   perfection.  But now he acknowledges it.   
      
   "Different Strings," an effort of Geddy's, comes next." There are those who   
   feel Geddy is the lesser Christian to Neil.  No; his is merely less voluble.    
   There is, Geddy sings, "Too much contradiction and confusion."  Too much   
   philosophy, in other words.    
    But the key to some "real motivation" is that there are only two of us:  Man,   
   humble but striving, and Christ, in his perfection.   
      
   The album closes with "Natural Science," in which Neil marvels at tide pools,   
   noting their beauty and order, and recognizing in them microcoisms for OUR   
   world, for God's Creation, proof of his Wisdom, Goodness, and Power.  It also   
   hints at another    
   developing interest of Neil's, that of CHRISTIAN science.     
      
   So what exactly are Rush's "Permanent Waves"?  Why, as should be quite clear,   
   they are the waves created when Jesus parted the Red Sea.   
      
   And the promiscuous woman on the album's cover?  Why she is the trollop in   
   Luke 7:36 - 50, who weeps upon Jesus' feet, and is forgiven by him for her   
   sins.   
      
   Joe   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)