11/23: Nobody's Hero (LIVE)

IMO, this is one of the best Rush performances ever recorded!

Hero, not the handsome actor
Who plays a hero's role
Hero, not the glamour girl
Who'd love to sell her soul
If anybody's buying
Nobody's hero

I’ve listened to a lot of Rush’s live performances over the past twelve months, and in my opinion, this is one of the best the band ever recorded.

I think it has a lot to do with what Geddy and Alex bring to Neil’s excellent lyrics. In the studio, “Nobody’s Hero” was a lovely, gentle meditation on difference and the meaning of strength, like something you might hear around the campfire (drums and electric guitar and all).

Live, however, “Nobody’s Hero” becomes a protest anthem against how we lionize suffering and make martyrs out of our dead.

I love how Geddy sings the chorus, like he’s genuinely mystified and more than a little offended that anybody could think someone who died from a preventable cause was ‘heroic’, rather than a terrible and unnecessary loss. (Given his family history with the Holocaust, I suspect this is a message that resonates deeply with him.) Layered on top of this, the mournful strings and the harsh reverb of the electric guitar shatter any sense of gentleness the studio version might have had. Especially in the solo, Alex knows just how long to let the notes linger, until they feel like little daggers.

In this performance, “Nobody’s Hero” comes alive. It becomes a musical rebellion against the stories we tell about those who can’t correct the record. It makes me recall the famous lines from Hamilton: You have no control who lives/ who dies/ who tells your story. “Nobody’s Hero” plays with the same idea, just with even more edge and righteous anger.