Fantasy NERDS

progressive rock lyricists, songwriters, and musicians, fantasy narratives originating from both literature and their own creative minds alike had a home in the rock genre’s larger-than-life, epic music. Across its many subgenres, classic rock music provides a vessel for retellings of classic myths and stories from fictional literature. From an unsung, George Martin-produced 1960s group The Action’s song “Icarus” to “Flight of Icarus” written by metal icons Iron Maiden in 1983, classic rock songwriters have illustrated the ability for stories to be retold and recycled over and over through rock music, but each time with a new sound and perspective.

A popular literary source of songwriting inspiration for classic rock songwriters is J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth and its characters. Perhaps the most popular is “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin, released in 1969, which features explicit references to Middle Earth in its lyrics. Our hero is a traveler, who has recently made a stop, but has “smelled the rain, and with it pain” and is ready to “ramble on” around the world to “find the queen of all [his] dreams.”

Along the way, he explores the “darkest depths of Mordor,” where he watches Gollum steal his girl. On a musical level, the instrumentation alternates between a folk- instrumentation of “Rivendell” and lead album, Fly By Night. The quiet, calm singer Geddy Lee’s lilting vocals signal a departure from Rush’s electric guitar and drum-heavy sound. Certainly, this is no “Working Man,” the epic closer from their self-titled debut, as Fly By Night was the first Rush record to feature Neil Peart on the drums and the fantastical

Tolkien’s Elven kingdom in Middle Earth, is a standout track, as it does not sound anything like the rest of Fly By Night.

“Rivendell” features fingerpicked acoustic guitar and atmospheric synthesizers, while Peart’s instantly recognizable percussion is absent. Vocalist Geddy Lee takes on the role of a traveler seeking refuge in Rivendell, an “enchanted place” with “elven songs and endless nights, sweet song and relaxing lights.” Lee directly summons the listener to “stop here for a while.” Ultimately, Neil Peart’s lyrics draw at every Tolkien fan’s thrill in traveling to Middle Earth (“You feel there’s something calling you. You’re wanting to return to where the Misty Mountains rise and friendly fires burn”), which he describes as “a place you can escape the world, where the dark lord cannot go, peace of mind and sanctuary by loud water’s flow.” Listening to verse after verse of “Rivendell” evokes the same feeling of diving into a Tolkien story and reading his poetic songs, but through the sonic realm.

Peart penned many of his own, original stories and fantasy worlds and incorporated them into Rush songs later in their career, from 20-minute suites like “2112: Overture” and “Cygnus X-1 - Book OneThe Voyage” to the simplistic yet imageryrich storytelling and “mechanical music” of “Red Barchetta.” Many other classic rock - and especially progressive rockbands, built songs around their original fantasy narratives. One of my personal favorites is “Siberian Khatru” by Yes. During my freshman year, I was introduced to “Siberian Khatru” by my COLL 150 professor. I couldn’t stop listening to “Siberian Khatru” because you notice something new and exciting with every listen, facilitated by its lofty runtime of 8 minutes and 55 seconds. To further convey my love for this song, I used to measure the distance between two points on campus by the number of times I could listen to Siberian Khatru as I walked. Caf, for example, was one thrilling Siberian Khatru away from my dorm. For me, it was a means of escape from an isolating semester of Zoom classes. “Siberian Khatru” inspires daydreaming and creativity like no other song, and there is nothing like it. This song has it all: an electric guitar hook that grabs you from 0:00 (seriously, you have to listen to the version from the original Close to the Edge album because the 2003 remaster cuts out the critical first 3 seconds), lyrics that don’t make any sense (what is a Siberian Khatru exactly? No one knows), an electric sitar solo (!), baroque mellotron, chorally complex vocal harmonies only Yes can pull off – and that’s just the first 4 minutes. The breakdown at the 7-minute mark is life changing. Yes vocalist Jon Anderson stated in an interview that “khatru” means “as you wish” in the Yemeni dialect of Arabic, but this clarifies nothing. At the end of the day, the narrative of “Siberian Khatru” isn’t the primary focus; Yes is describing a new world and you’re being immersed in it, watching the “river running right on over [your] head.”

Fantasy narratives can be found around every corner in the expansive world of classic rock. These are merely deep dives into three songs built on and around phenomenal fantasy narratives. I implore you to do just as the most fantastic classic rockers have done and embrace your inner fantasy nerd.