From: norbertkosky69@gmail.com   
      
   On Sunday, January 28, 2007 at 3:21:22 PM UTC-5, Diet Troll wrote:   
   > "Behind my little desk in Elora, looking out at the beginnings of   
   > spring. Patches of brown grass and plowed earth show through the   
   > snow. And that special smell is in the air. Manure."   
   > -- Neil Peart, late March, 1985   
   > "A strange thing happened on our first day back," Neil confessed in   
   > his essay on the making of Power Windows. The "first day back" refers   
   > to Rush's return to Canada from Miami, where they had played a few   
   > shows; the "strange thing" refers to the birth of the song "Emotion   
   > Detector." In contrast to the other songs the band had been working   
   > on, "Emotion Detector" appeared virtually overnight. Neil penned the   
   > lyrics with unusual rapidity; and when he presented them to his   
   > bandmates, the trio found that the words perfectly fit the music Geddy   
   > and Alex had been working on. "Et voila!" Neil exulted in the   
   > language of love, "'Emotion Detector' was born."   
   > Pleased as Neil was with his new progeny, "Emotion Detector" would   
   > prove puzzling in some respects. "When we lift our covers from out   
   > feelings," the lyric begins, "We expose our insecure spots/Trust is   
   > just as rare as devotion/Forgive us our cynical thoughts." Neil went   
   > out of his way to keep the song's viewpoint vague. He used the plural   
   > pronoun "we" instead of the first person singular pronoun "I" in spite   
   > of, or -- more likely, given Neil's secretiveness -- *because of* the   
   > intimate nature of what he recounts. The lyric depicts a fascinating   
   > transition on Neil's part. Initially, he's in the company of a   
   > mysterious stranger, unsure of what he can safely divulge to this   
   > person. But by the end of the lyric, Neil has conquered his   
   > inhibitions. He is confident and high-spirited; his previously   
   > repressed feelings now "run high." He's a veritable one-man parade!   
   > But what effected this remarkable change? A hint of an answer is   
   > found in the song's chorus, where we find that the "heart of the   
   > matter" has been penetrated; the "beautiful part" has been exposed;   
   > and "secret wells" have been plumbed. But what exactly is this all   
   > that about? What is an "emotion detector," anyway? It sounds like   
   > the name of some arcane gadget. The lyric sheds no explicit light on   
   > this question. Perhaps careful scrutiny of the circumstances   
   > surrounding the inception of "Emotion Detector" will illuminate these   
   > things.   
   > It's been noted that the lyric to "Emotion Detector" emerged   
   > immediately in late March of 1985; it practically spilled from Neil, a   
   > spontaneous emission. The lyric was *inspired* -- but by what? Let's   
   > review the facts. According to Neil's essay on the making of PoW, he   
   > and his colleagues had been working together on the album since   
   > February. However, one gets the sense from Neil's essay that the trio   
   > were plodding along listlessly. In early March, they flew to Miami to   
   > play a few gigs -- but Neil doesn't say a word about how these   
   > performances went. Afterward the trio headed to Lakeland, FL. -- and   
   > this is where things start to get interesting; this is where Neil's   
   > notes abruptly start to exhibit signs of life. And it was during his   
   > stay in Lakeland that Neil first came face to face with one James   
   > "Jimbo" Barton -- a man recruited nominally as Rush's new engineer.   
   > Up to this point in his essay, Neil had declined to utter *one word*   
   > about the character or appearance of his bandmates or of anyone else   
   > involved in the album. But Neil reversed this policy when it came to   
   > Jimbo Barton. Jimbo, Neil divulges, is an "irrepressible   
   > Australian." Jimbo is "full of high spirits and confidence." And   
   > Neil could not resist adding a further detail about Jimbo: "He is a   
   > nice dresser."   
   > For now let's put aside Neil's praise for Jimbo's flash to fashion.   
   > Jimbo is irrepressible, confident, and high-spirited. Don't these   
   > qualities sound oddly familiar? Indeed, aren't these precisely the   
   > characteristics Neil celebrates at the end of "Emotion Detector"? It   
   > cannot be a coincidence. "Emotion Detector" was penned immediately   
   > after Neil's encounter with Jimbo; and it celebrates Jimbo's   
   > qualities. "Emotion Detector" was inspired by Jimbo, and it depicts   
   > Jimbo's liberating influence on Neil.   
   > How did Jimbo transmit his irrepressibleness, his confidence, his high   
   > spirits to Neil? By becoming his lover, of course. Hailing from   
   > Australia, that bastion of gayness, Jimbo employed his confidence to   
   > wear down Neil's resistances. Blunt and direct, Jimbo got right to   
   > the heart of the matter, gripping Neil's beautiful part in his   
   > calloused palms. Finally, Jimbo consummated the relationship,   
   > gleefully probing Neil secret well, passing on his high feelings (not   
   > to mention copious quantities of fluif) in the process. And on   
   > returning to Elora in late March, Neil simply *had* to immortalize   
   > this affair in a song, confident Rush fans were too stupid to ever   
   > have any inkling what he was really going on about. Neil's memories   
   > of his homosexual liaison were intensified by the scent of manure in   
   > the air -- an odor Neil now regarded as "special."   
   > Just one mystery in Neil's lyric remains unraveled. What *is* an   
   > emotion detector? Remember that the feelings, the emotions celebrated   
   > in this song aren't any feelings; they are gay feelings. Now let's   
   > return to Neil's description of Jimbo as a "nice dresser." In a   
   > sense, this comment of Neil's is a red herring, intended to throw Rush   
   > fans off the fact that, during their time together, Neil and Jimbo   
   > were stark raving naked. But on first meeting Neil, Jimbo was surely   
   > dressed -- if only in the ridiculous attire of the flamboyantly gay   
   > Aussie bushman (necklaces of crocodile teeth, patches of kangaroo fur,   
   > etc.). It was thanks to this primitive if affected dress that Neil   
   > detected Jimbo's homosexuality. And there's our answer: The   
   > mysterious "emotion detector" is simply Neil's term for gaydar! Et   
   > voila!   
      
   You've got a case there.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)