Listening to good music when you are young, in adolescence for example, is one thing.

You barely have a hobby and certainly don’t work. You haven’t had the chance yet to experience the “pull” of a working profession. The motivation that makes you observe things, copy or improve them.

It’s a mix of feeling and thinking that comes with maturity.

I decided to take a journey through my progressive rock collections. The idea is to pick a band and listen everything it’s produced in order; from track one of the first album to the last of the last album before the end of the band.

It’s quite a ride.

I started with Rush. One of my favorites. And since I’m not in a rush (no pun intended), I’m listening to the first albums very slowly. I have them on repeat for two or three days.

And I’m doing this way for a reason.

There is too much detail. Too much well crafted music art on each song. Too much genius.

Details I didn’t realize (or care) when I first listened to all those songs in the past. I have the impression I just wanted to tell my friends I had listened to the album and liked.

It’s so enjoyable to think on the effort the band and its producers took at the time to come up with such piece of work.

No wonder the success, the fame and admiration! They all happen for a reason!

It’s crazy how some of us (me included) take a lifetime to stop and listen with the right focus.

I wrote this piece while listening to Rush’s Cygnus X-1 Book II from the album Hemispheres. Mind blowing…