5/25: One Little Victory

Cue the Bender GIFs, because I'm back, baby!

Celebrate the moment
As it turns into one more
Another chance at victory
Another chance to score

I’M BACK, BABY!

COVID absolutely sucked, but it looks like I am finally, finally on the other end of it. I’m not 100% yet, of course, but asymptotically I’m approaching it: My cough is dryer and less frequent, and my fatigue is much eased (though I still can’t through the day without a short nap).

Better yet, I feel like my brain functioning is mostly back to normal. To an extent. About certain things, I still can’t summon a fuck to give. Maybe those fucks are forever gone.

Anyway, for all intents and purposes, I’m back. And I’ve been saving this song for exactly this day, because what better song could fit getting over COVID than a messy, raw, hardscrabble song of survival?

Put a gun to my head and make me choose my favorite three Rush songs, this one is #2. After my best friend died, “One Little Victory” became a personal anthem. It helped me put one foot in front of the other, and find reasons to thumb my nose at despair.

It has by far and away my favorite drum rhythm of any song ever: The opening 45 seconds of this song are so defiant, so declarative, a master reveling in his own greatness and the sheer joy of creating art with beloved friends.

Though it’s harder to find these days, I actually prefer the non-remixed version of “One Little Victory.” The 2013 remix cleans up the song, taking out some of the muddiness and rawness—but this was a song that really benefited from that sound; I felt the imperfections perfectly mirrored how we messily claw forward through grief, each day one little victory over the ones that came before. Rush’s trademark precision just doesn’t really fit with grief; it’s not a precise emotion.

(Also, while I’m not a drummer, I’ll swear to my grave that the 2013 remix ever-so-slightly changed that opening drum rhythm I love so much, taking out a double hit on the toms that throws me every time I hear it.)

Anyhoo, enjoy your health, enjoy your long weekend, and enjoy this absolute banger of a song—one of the best my guys ever wrote.