Hayley's Comet

If I don’t do any extra-credit learning on the weekends (just learning that is imperative to survival - where’s the nearest Chevron, for instance), this entry will make me techincally “caught up” in my quest to learn something every day.

Intrigued by the lyrics of the Rush classic, “Bastille Day” I decided to delve into the actual event and see if what they said held any truth. Since Rush is the “thinking man’s band” I assume they would get their facts straight - misinforming a classic-rock audience of nerds can only lead to each member of a classic rock nerd audience writing angry fan letters correcting the band’s lyrics and asking to be hired as the official “fact checker.” Here are the lyrics for your thoughtful-music listening pleasure:

Theres no bread, let them eat cake
Theres no end to what they’ll take
Flaunt the fruits of noble birth
Wash the salt into the earth

But they’re marching to Bastille Day
The guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Free the dungeons of the innocent
The king will kneel, and let his kingdom rise

Bloodstained velvet, dirty lace
Naked fear on every face
See them bow their heads to die
As we would bow as they rode by

And we’re marching to Bastille Day
The guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Free the dungeons of the innocent
The king will kneel, and let his kingdom rise

Lessons taught but never learned
All around us anger burns
Guide the future by the past
Long ago the mould was cast

For they marched up to Bastille Day
The guillotine — claimed her bloody prize
Hear the echoes of the centuries
Power isn’t all that money buys

Well put, Geddy Lee, though there’s no specific details besides “Bastille Day” and the part about the dungeons that relate exactly to the event.

Simply stated, Bastille Day, which occurs on July 14th, is France’s Independence Day. On this day in 1789 - also the first year Rush went on tour, mind you - the “general populace” marched towards the Bastille, a fortress-like prison which also happened to hold most of the government’s artillery. It imprisoned mainly political naysayers who had written letters against the monarchy of Louis the XVI (no need to count on your fingers, that’s the 16th Louis). The “storming” of the fortress intimidated the owner of the prison, who opened the gates to prevent fighting. This would be just as if the WTO had let those grungy Seattle hippies who were protesting their convention in 1999 right on in the Convention Center, expecting that they would all walk across the street to Gameworks after to enjoy some NASCAR racing or one of those sweet motion simulator game where you ride a snowboard or jet ski. This didn’t quite happen in France so, “possibly because of a misunderstanding, fighting resumed.”

Ninety-eight “stormers” of the Bastille and one sole “defender” died among the stampede, but other officials were assasinated shortly after the fighting between Bastille guards and “the general populace” (Wikipedia’s words, not mine) ceased. Feudalism ended soon after and a declaration of rights was established.

I will celebrate this year on July 14th by listening to Rush and eating French fries, just like I do every day.