re: The Story Behind "Red Barchetta" by Rush

When Moving Pictures came out I skipped Period 2 Chemistry in High School and went to buy it at Sears. I had spent the preceding summer vacation driving around Yellowstone National Park while listening to 2112 and Hemispheres in the back seat of my parents 1978 Monte Carlo. I was WAY primed for Rush. Covalent bonding and electron orbits were not important that day. Since I only played albums once, to record them on Maxell XL 90 cassettes, I did that that morning before returning to school just after lunch. There was a gathering at my car after school, everyone was blown away by Moving Pictures...La Villa Strangiato level blown away - with the whole album. We lived Moving Pictures, then Fair Warning, and then Diary of a Madman ad infinitum in 1981. I also was going out with one of the hottest girls in school. 1981 was just a great year.