Tom Sawyer

That drum fill. You know the one. It comes right before the first verse, and it’s become so iconic that it’s essentially a meme. But go back and listen to it fresh, and you’ll realize how strange it is. How it shouldn’t work. How it’s somehow both mechanical and organic at the same time.

“Tom Sawyer” is Rush at the peak of their powers—which is saying something for a band that was basically always at the peak of their powers. Geddy Lee’s bass is playing a completely different song than Alex Lifeson’s guitar, and Neil Peart’s drums are doing something else entirely. It should be chaos. Instead, it’s perfection.

The lyrics, co-written with Pye Dubois, are about a modern-day rebel. “A modern day warrior, mean, mean stride.” But it’s not the adolescent rebellion of punk rock. This is cerebral rebellion. Philosophical rebellion. The kind of nonconformity that reads books and thinks carefully about why it’s refusing to conform.

That chorus: “What you say about his company is what you say about society.” It’s a little clunky as poetry, but as a statement of intent, it’s perfect. Judge him by his friends. Judge them by what they reject.

Rush never fit in anywhere. Too prog for the mainstream, too melodic for the prog snobs, too smart for the metalheads. They just kept doing their thing, making increasingly ambitious music for an audience that kept growing despite the critics.

“Tom Sawyer” is their calling card. Four and a half minutes of why being weird is better than being normal.