Kevin J. Anderson Part 2: Rush, Neil Peart, and Clockwork Angels
Kevin shares stories about writing the Clockwork Angels books with Neil Peart and gives his thoughts on the album that spawned them.
Thank you for spending part of your day with Michael’s Record Collection. Last week, this newsletter covered bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson’s love of progressive rock and how he tied his Terra Incognita epic fantasy trilogy to a trio of companion rock albums by an all-star cast of musicians. Kevin recently had the means to finish that previously unfinished trio of albums through his Terra Incognita and Roswell Six Kickstarter, which is still open and — I’m happy to report — is doing quite well, far exceeding the goal. I also gave my thoughts on that third Roswell Six album, Terra Incognita - Uncharted Shores.
Kevin’s love of music and the influence it’s had on his life and career was too big for a single issue of this newsletter or episode of the podcast. So, here we are. Part 2 discusses Kevin’s work with legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart on the novelization of the band’s final album, Clockwork Angels. That book led to more Anderson/Peart collaborations in their steampunk universe.
Let's get to the second part of the story, which includes Kevin’s thoughts (and mine) on an excellent final statement from Rush.
Some concept albums have stories that are too good to exist simply on the record. They require expansion. One of those is Clockwork Angels, the final statement in the nearly 40-year recording career of legendary Canadian heavy progressive rockers Rush.
Poetically released in 2012 — exactly a century before the events in Rush’s classic breakthrough album 2112 were set to take place — Clockwork Angels was the band’s final album. And what a way to go out! Few bands ever release an album of the quality of Clockwork Angels, especially if they have been writing and recording music for 40 years. But the epic steampunk concept album is one of the band’s best ever, ending Rush’s recording career on a high note.
The band members were in their late 50s during the making of Clockwork Angels. Not many rock bands get to that stage of their careers still progressing and creating music that excites their fans as much as the records those fans bought and listened to in their high school days. Rush was indeed a rare band, and although rumblings continue about how Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson may still reconvene to play Rush music live, the death of Neil Peart in 2020 almost certainly prevents it from being under the “Rush” banner.
Bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson was a Rush fan before his writing career took off and before he became good friends with Peart. Anderson’s work — and his life — has been inspired by Rush’s music, and he wears his Rush fandom proudly. The writer dedicated his first novel, Resurrection, Inc., to Rush after being influenced by the band’s 1984 Grace Under Pressure album. He sent copies of the book to the band members care of their record company, never expecting he’d hear anything about those gifts again.
Peart wrote him back and the two became pen pals and later friends. It was a gradual thing that culminated in Anderson writing the novelization of Clockwork Angels and its steampunk follow-up books which he co-wrote with Peart.
“We had a correspondence, and he would stay at our house whenever he came to play concerts in the area,” Anderson said. “And we went hiking together, we went up to Yosemite, we climbed various mountains and stuff in Colorado. And he would send me these letters, back when people wrote letters. I would get these seven-page, single-spaced letters from Neil that he would describe all these things he's doing.”
That correspondence became the background for a horror story Anderson wrote.
“He used to tour Africa on the bicycle. He'd just get on a bicycle, and he'd take these tour groups and go and explore these things, or he would do it himself. And he'd write me these luscious letters describing these African villages and the places he saw,” Anderson said. “I got invited to write a short story for this paperback anthology called Shock Rock II. They were like dark fantasy horror stories inspired by rock music. And I thought, well, Neil wrote all these wonderful stories about this drummer bicycling through Africa. What if I do like a Twilight Zone story?
“I've got all these descriptions of Neil and these African villages, and what if we set that in a story where this drummer, bicycling around Africa, goes to this village that makes the very best drums ever, and they have the best sound. Well, the secret is that they're covered with human skin, and there's even more weird stuff going on. I asked Neil if I could basically, like, take a whole bunch of stuff from his letters as the description. I would put the story around it. And we wrote a story called “Drumbeats,” and that was published in the paperback. I thought it was a really, really good story, and it was our first collaboration together.”
For writing the story, Peart and Anderson each made the princely sum of $150. But a partnership was born. That partnership eventually resulted in the Clockwork Angels series.
“He started writing me all these questions, asking me about the steampunk genre with airships and alchemy and gears and Jules Verne kind of stuff, because I had written a novel he really liked called Captain Nemo about the life story of Captain Nemo,” Anderson said. “And I also put steampunk in several of my other novels, and he really liked that. And he was asking me all these questions, because Rush is working on a concept album, a big steampunk fantasy adventure.
“So, I'm being fanboy, like, cool, I'm helping out with this Rush album, and he's writing the lyrics, and he's sending me all the lyrics he's writing for Clockwork Angels. And after they'd recorded the first couple of tracks and they were still working on it, my wife and I went to have lunch with him. We met him at this diner in Santa Monica, and Neil was just so excited. He was loving this album they're working on, and he was telling me about what he pictured for this part of the story, that part of the story. And he said, but this is going to be more than just an album. It's going to be a Broadway musical, and it's going to be a novel, and it's going to be Ice Follies. And I'm like, oh, cool, Ice Follies! And my wife is listening more closely. She said, ‘A novel? Neil, what do you mean by a novel? Who's going to write the novel?’ And he says, ‘Well, Kevin is, of course.’ And so that's how he invited me to write the Clockwork Angels novel.”
The writer and the lyricist/drummer hashed out the details of the story while climbing one of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. The song lyrics were the starting point, with Anderson explaining how the order of events might best serve the story. Anderson would write chapters and send them to Peart for review, getting notes back. The entire time, there was no name for the protagonist. Anderson and Peart used the initials O.H. (representing “our hero”) as a stand-in. That name eventually became Owen Hardy, the protagonist of the Clockwork Angels novelization.
Hardy, who lives in the village of Barrel Arbor, is the original Analog Kid from Rush’s Signals album, loosely based on Anderson himself as a naive kid from Wisconsin. The character leaves his small town and has an epic adventure, running afoul of villains and pirates of sorts, and being taken advantage of, but he experiences a world far beyond anything in his imagination. Anderson placed Rush Easter eggs throughout the novel, tying the book even more closely with the band’s music.
It would seem logical that a collaboration between an author with a worldwide army of loyal readers and the renowned lyricist from one of the most beloved (and biggest) “cult bands” of all time would be a marketing department’s dream, but Anderson’s publishing company didn’t understand the assignment of how to sell copies of a book sitting next to t-shirts, hats, posters, and programs on concert merchandise desks. The two men took the book idea for Clockwork Angels to ECW Press, the Canadian publisher that had released Peart’s travel books. Clockwork Angels became ECW’s first bestseller, and Anderson was only too happy to let Peart know about the good news.
“If I remember right, it was like, on the bestseller list on Neil's 60th birthday,” Anderson said. “And so, I was able to text him right there. I think it was a show in New Hampshire or something. And right before they're going up on stage, I texted him, ‘Not only are you an adequate drummer, you are a New York Times bestselling author,’ and that was a great way to celebrate his birthday.”
Anderson and Peart went on to co-author Clockwork Lives and Clockwork Destiny, although Anderson had to finish the latter after Peart’s passing.
“We had a bunch of notes, but that was when he got diagnosed with his terminal brain cancer,” Anderson recalled. “And so, we would talk about it a little bit whenever we’d get together, but he flat out told me that I would have to write it after he was gone. And after he passed away, I literally wrapped up those notes and I stuck ‘em (away), and I couldn't even look at ‘em.
“It was literally a full year, because it was on the anniversary of his death that I started thinking, ‘But we were going to do this third book, and I kind of owe it to him that we have to do this third book.’ And I took out the notes that we had done, and many tears later, I kept looking at ‘em. I just went, ‘Damn, there's some really great ideas in this, and it would really pull the whole trilogy together.”
Anderson wouldn’t finish without the blessing of Peart’s wife, and she gave her support for the project, allowing Clockwork Destiny to come to life. Because Peart had narrated the audiobook for the first novel of the trilogy, Anderson brought it full circle and narrated the last audiobook.
While the books are outstanding, it’s uncertain how things might have gone if the Clockwork Angels album hadn’t been such an amazing and well-respected offering from Rush. Musically and lyrically, the band’s first full-length concept album is one of Rush’s most respected works.
What the companion book Clockwork Angels does best for the album is fill in the details of the story. Who are the Carnies? What are the Seven Cities of Gold? Who or what are the Wreckers? What exactly are Clockwork Angels? We find out much more from the book about these subjects than the album, but the songs are so damn good, you really just don’t care if you get those details or not while you’re listening. It’s only after reading the book that one can truly appreciate having those blanks filled in.
The band returned to its heavy rock roots on the album, with Lifeson playing riffs as dense as he’s ever written, while Lee and Peart provide thunderous bottom end on bass and drums, respectively. And while nearly all of the songs are heavy, the band retained its penchant for memorable melodic hooks couched in unexpected rhythmic changes and inventive, virtuoso technical precision.
The Clockwork Angels world is governed by The Watchmaker, who Anderson refers to as “an order extremist,” while another villain, The Anarchist (“a freedom extremist”) tries to undermine him at every turn. Owen Hardy gets caught between the two of them during his adventures.
The album opens with “Caravan,” with Owen jumping the titular caravan to Crown City to escape his quiet, mundane life in Barrel Arbor. Like the adolescent narrator in “Subdivisions” off Rush’s Signals album, Owen is drawn like a moth into the city. This is spelled out in the album’s liner notes with the song’s lyrics. Owen has grand designs that won’t be contained by his small village.
I can’t stop thinking big
I can’t stop thinking big
In a world where I feel so small
I can’t stop thinking big
The song establishes that Rush is returning to its heavy, guitar-based rock roots. With only a couple of songs serving as exceptions, Clockwork Angels is Rush at its heaviest, with devastating Lifeson riffs, explosive bass runs that redefine the term “bottom end,” and Peart’s rapid-fire drumming.
With sections progressing through varying tempos, “Caravan” is more than just the start of the Clockwork Angels concept story. It’s a statement of an opening track. Lee’s bass powers the song and is some of his best playing ever. Lifeson rips off one of his unique solos. Subtle keyboards enhance the song without stealing any of the spotlight from Lifeson, while Peart sounds like he must surely have more than four limbs.
“BU2B” opens with a bluesy intro section that is unlike anything the band has put on an album before, then blasts forward with a heavy, chunky riff. Rush truly puts the power in power trio during the heavier sections of this song, while the chorus is infectious. However, it’s an angry song — one that includes our narrator’s realization that everything he knows is based on a faulty premise.
The song provides back story for the Clockwork Angels world as told by Owen, who relates the structured world order overseen by The Watchmaker. In this world, people are told whatever happens to them is what they deserve, because otherwise it would not happen. This, understandably, strikes Owen as somehow wrong. It’s an infuriating revelation for him.
Peart’s lyrics seem prophetic at times when viewed through the lens of the current political landscape, where the historic spin and exaggeration by politicians has been replaced by outright gaslighting.
All is for the best
Believe in what we’re told
Blind men in the market
Buying what we’re sold
Believe in what we’re told
Until our final breath
While our loving Watchmaker
Loves us all to death
The album’s title track is the album’s longest song at seven and a half minutes — just edging “Headlong Flight.” The song is set in Chronos Square, perhaps this world’s equivalent to Times Square, and the Clockwork Angels are a major attraction, which is why the opening of the song sounds almost as if someone is having a religious experience — mirroring what the people in the story are experiencing when they see the Clockwork Angels — prior to the introduction of a heavy Lifeson riff over a delicate Peart drum pattern. The song builds in intensity and then unexpectedly lightens for the first verse. From that point on, the song alternates between heavy and light, with an angular Lifeson solo leading into a dreamy and bluesy bridge section with a lyrical passage borrowing from Proverbs 3:5 and (per the liner notes) an In-N-Out milkshake. It encapsulates The Watchmaker’s governance of his people.
Lean not upon your own understanding
Ignorance is well and truly blessed
Trust in perfect love and perfect planning
Everything will turn out for the best
An attentive listen to the album reveals The Watchmaker walking among his people under the guise of The Pedlar, asking Owen “What do you lack?” It seems like part of the “Clockwork Angels” outro, but it leads into the introduction of the story’s other villain, The Anarchist. The song “The Anarchist” dives into the motivation of this freedom extremist.
The lenses inside of me that paint the world black
The pools of poison, the scarlet mist, that spills over into rage
The things I’ve always been denied
An early promise that somehow died
A missing part of me that grows around me like a cage
The song alternates between a melodic riff and more dissonant heavy playing from Lifeson. As is usually the case, Lifeson provides the perfect solo to fit the song.
With no money in the big city, Owen finds work with a traveling carnival. At this point in the story, he becomes a fugitive, as he catches The Anarchist with a detonator, but when he calls out his warning, the villain tosses the detonator at Owen. He instinctively catches it as the crowd turns to look — a classic case of mistaken identity.
“Carnies” tells that part of the story in song, opening with carnival music before Lifeson’s evil-sounding playing breaks in, with Lee and Peart soon joining, adding to the song’s heft. Another favorite lyric on the album shines a light on Owen’s thoughts.
How I prayed just to get away
To carry me anywhere
Sometimes the angels punish us
By answering our prayers
The band achieves a wonderful groove following the “A wheel of fate, a game of chance” section that serves as the song’s chorus. This is one of the album’s better headphones songs, revealing hidden layers and details.
“Halo Effect” provides a rare break from the heavy songs, with Lifeson playing a beautiful acoustic guitar pattern. The song becomes almost orchestral at times. Rush makes what is otherwise a simple song sound complex through texture and their playing. It’s the shortest “proper” song on the album at just over three minutes, although the connective “BU2B2” (at only a minute and a half) is still to come.
In “Halo Effect,” Owen has been rejected by the object of his infatuation — one of the carnival performers. He’s filled with a combination of self pity and self loathing over projecting his ideals of a “soulmate” onto her. It’s nearly universally relatable, because what teenager hasn’t walked in those shoes before?
“Seven Cities of Gold” has an unconventional bass/drums intro from Lee and Peart, with Lifeson entering the soundstage with otherworldly guitar sounds before the main riff — one of the album’s best and most memorable — kicks in.
In our story, the rejected Owen leaves the carnival behind and goes by ship in search of Cibola, the fabled city of gold. He is ill prepared for the journey into the frozen desert landscape. In fact, our hero is often ill prepared for the adventure he’s on. Planning is not his strong suit.
“The Wreckers” would be my favorite song on the album if “The Garden” didn’t exist. The chorus hook sticks in my head in all the best ways. It’s one of the less heavy offerings on the album, but it would be a mistake to call it “light.” It’s a superb pop/rock song with terrific depth.
In the story, Owen is making his way home from one hardship only to meet another, as his ship is caught in a bad storm. When a light in the dark offers salvation, it turns out to be just the opposite. A nefarious crew leads ships to their doom with a false lighthouse designed to draw ships onto reefs that tear them open, allowing the wreckers to salvage the cargo and leave the crew to die. Owen survives, because if not, that would be an awful end to the novel, but it’s another hardship and trauma for him to absorb, and he becomes even more world wise from the experience.
All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary
Of a miracle too good to be true
All I know is that sometimes the truth is contrary
Everything in life you thought you knew
All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary
’Cause sometimes the target is you
The song is the first part of the album’s best one-two punch, as it’s followed by “Headlong Flight,” a heavier track that soars at breakneck speed (as the title suggests), with tremendous musicianship and energy from the three Canadians, offering a terrific smorgasbord of parts for fans to play along with on air guitar/drums/bass. It’s perhaps the album’s most varied song in terms of time signature, which has obvious appeal to Rush’s core fanbase. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s ask a fellow Rush nerd.
“‘Headlong Flight’ is one of my favorite songs,” Anderson said. “It's such a mature song, like all the journeys, the great adventure, I wish that I could live it all again. When you get older, like we are, you look back on it like man, I did a whole bunch of really great stuff. That’s another one that should have been a hit single somewhere because it’s such a great song.”
Owen is reflecting on his adventures and romanticizing them.
All the journeys
Of this great adventure
It didn’t always feel that way
I wouldn’t trade them
Because I made them
The best I could
Despite Owen’s growth as a character, it’s naive and romantic for him to say he wouldn’t trade a thing — as the liner notes specify, “But on balance, I wouldn’t change anything.” After all, Owen, people died along the way. But it’s the overall sentiment of wanting to experience the wonders of the world again as if for the first time that is important and relatable. The fact that it’s packed into one of the best songs on the album helps.
“BU2B2” is not a track I skip, but perhaps largely because it is so short. It’s better to think of it more as a connecting piece of the story than a standalone song. There’s not much to it, but it sets up the album’s big finish, and it’s necessary to show the change in Owen’s outlook. He’s no longer naive, and in fact is world weary at this point in the tale.
The contrast from “BU2B2” and “Wish Them Well” is stark. It’s a song that serves as good advice in life, as Owen comes to the realization that bitter, cynical, and toxic people are best to walk away from.
Thank your stars you’re not that way
Turn your back and walk away
Don’t even pause and ask them why
Turn around and say goodbye
Owen opts to cut those people out of his life rather than hold grudges and waste energy on people not worthy of it.
The song has a memorable chorus and some of Lee’s best bass lines on the album, which marries well with Peart’s drumming on the bottom end, providing a platform for Lifeson’s power chords.
The album closes with the undisputed masterpiece of Clockwork Angels — “The Garden,” a song that even Peart, who has written countless songs, understood was special.
“One day, Neil wrote me this really excited email,” Anderson said. “He said, ‘I just wrote the most beautiful song I've ever written in my entire career. This is really important to me.’ And he sends me the lyrics to ‘The Garden,’ which is like their most beautiful song that they've ever done. And it's the last song, the last track on their last studio album. And you don't get any better than that. I mean, ‘The Garden’ just still chokes me up. It is such a beautiful, powerful song. What a way to end your career.”
A gorgeous, ethereal intro leads into Lifeson’s emotional acoustic guitar pattern. The lead vocal line is well suited for Lee’s aging voice, and it may be his most stunning performance in a career filled with astonishing vocal work. Lee’s bass is at times an extra lead instrument. Peart provides a much more understated performance on drums than we usually hear from him, as if not wanting to distract from the message and the beauty of “The Garden.”
The chorus was always packed with so much emotion as to elicit tears in the listener, but it’s especially difficult to get through it dry-eyed since Peart’s passing.
The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect
So hard to earn, so easily burned
In the fullness of time
A garden to nurture and protect
Few songs in Rush’s catalog or in rock writ large can match the combination of message, power, and raw emotion. Quite simply, the song achieves a kind of magic that few bands ever capture. Lifeson’s solo goes for feel rather than flair. String sounds provide depth and another layer of startling emotional impact.
As for the story, Owen has committed himself to tending his own garden of love and respect, realizing that was his true quest all along.
“The Garden” is a stunning final statement from the band and one that never fails to make me sit in silence after hearing it. There is no song that can follow it without suffering in comparison. Time and consideration — a pause — must be taken to let it sink in (at least for me). And it caps not only a brilliant album, but a truly remarkable recording career.
“Clockwork Angels is so good, and it really should have gotten more airplay,” Anderson said, lamenting the fact that there are few outlets exposing music fans to new albums by classic bands. “Rush certainly didn’t play the same old stuff. They kept pushing the envelope, and Clockwork Angels is just one of those albums. It almost felt like they knew it was going to be their last album.”
Tracklist:
Caravan (5:39)
BU2B (5:11)
Clockwork Angels (7:31)
The Anarchist (6:52)
Carnies (4:52)
Halo Effect (3:14)
Seven Cities of Gold (6:33)
The Wreckers (5:01)
Headlong Flight (7:20)
BU2B2 (1:28)
Wish Them Well (5:25)
The Garden (6:59)
To order copies of Anderson’s Clockwork trilogy (signed by the author), visit his website at wordfireshop.com. Keep up with Kevin’s writing at his website (wordfire.com).
For more information on all things Rush (the news doesn’t stop just because the band did), visit rush.com.
For the entire second part of my interview with Kevin J. Anderson, check out the video below or stream/download Episode 145 of the Michael’s Record Collection podcast. Kevin talks about how he found out he’d be writing the novelization for Clockwork Angels, the writing process with Neil, how difficult it was to complete the third book after Neil’s passing, his love of Rush’s music and the Clockwork Angels album in particular, and more.
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Exciting stuff. I still haven't got around to reading the Clockwork Angels novel but of course love the album.