Red Barchetta Broken Down

Like many young nerds who came of age during the 1980s, I loved the music of RUSH--driving, compelling rock beats with intricate, literate lyrics about outsiders and the harshness of the modern world. The tune "Red Barchetta" (Moving Pictures, 1981) in particular seemed crafted for a 16-year-old just learning to drive, even though I was stuck with a goose-shit-green VW Rabbit rather than a vintage sports car. It's a song about a dystopian future in which automobiles are outlawed, though the hero of the song sneaks off each week to drive a sleek red car at high speeds. It's full of killer guitar riffs that sound like engines and evocative lyrics describing a science fiction world, and how can you not love that? Lately, though, I listened to this song with fresh ears, and the contrast between my young impressions and those of my middle-aged self alarmed me somewhat. Let's break down this song line by line and unpack some of the baggage associated with it, shall we?

Red Barchetta

Music and Lyrics by Geddy Lee, Neal Peart and Alex Lifeson

My uncle has a country place Here we learn about the nightmare future in which gas

That no one knows about engines are outlawed, and the totalitarian state restricts

He says it used to be a farm travel and watches its citizens. Terrifying, right? Except

Before the Motor Law in today's world, we are trying to cut back on fossil fuels,

And on Sundays I elude the Eyes and there are cameras everywhere. In the '80s I didn't

And hop the turbine freight want to live in a world like this; now, I kind of feel like

To far outside the wire "Meh. Could be worse."

Where my white-haired uncle waits

Jump to the ground as the turbo slows I accepted this with little thought for years. Old cars turn

To cross the borderline up in barns all the time, and people restore and preserve

Run like the wind as excitement shivers these vehicles in pristine condition. Except think about it:

Up and down my spine Cars have been outlawed for fifty years, the song says.

For down in his barn Where is this old codger getting the parts and supplies to

My uncle preserved for me maintain this beast? It's not like it's a production car (say,

An old machine a VW Rabbit). No, it's a rare vintage roadster. Suddenly

For fifty odd years my disbelief has trouble staying suspended.

To keep it as new has been his dearest dream

I strip away the old debris Now maybe the old guy is a genius mechanic,with his own

That hides a shining car machine shop. Maybe there's an underground market for

A brilliant red Barchetta obsolete car parts. Maybe there's even plenty of leftover

From a better vanished time. tires, because sure. But can you please explain to me

Ooh fire it up the willing engine where these guys get fuel for a 50-year-old car in a world

Responding with a roar that has outlawed gasoline engines?

Tires spitting gravel I commit my weekly crime.

Wind Now just shut up a minute and listen to this verse and the

In my hair music, because no one has ever described high perform-

Shifting and drifting ance driving better.

Mechanical music

Adrenaline surge

Well weathered leather, hot metal and oil

The scented country air

Sunlight on chrome, the blur of the landscape

Every nerve aware.

Suddenly ahead of me Aha! Conflict! Our hero encounters two modern vehicles

Across the mountainside that pursue him through the valley--aircars, which I assume

A gleaming alloy aircar shoots toward me to be hovercraft or ground effect vehicles like those found in

Two lanes wide David Drake's Hammer's Slammers stories. But they are

I spin around with shrieking tires two lanes wide, which begs the question: what has the

To run the deadly race Red Barchetta been riding on all this time? Aircars don't

Go screaming through the valley need roads, so why are the roads maintained? Have you

As another joins the chase seen a road neglected even for a couple of years, let alone

fifty-odd?

Ride like the wind

Straining the limits of machine and man Furthermore, I always figured these cars were the cops of

Laughing out loud with fear and hope the day. Wouldn't they coordinate their chase better? After

I’ve got a desperate plan all, this kid has been out here every Sunday! And they

At the one lane bridge don't even check to see if a one-lane bridge is coming up!

I leave the giants stranded

At the riverside Oh, well, at least our totalitarian government doesn't have

Race back to the farm helicopters or satellite surveillance, so our hero can do this

To dream with my uncle at the fireside. all again next week. No way they'll be waiting.

Don't get me wrong: I love this song. I just never gave thought to the inconsistencies in my interpretation, and I certainly never thought before that the hero was kind of a criminal!

Before RUSH purists sneer at me, Yes, I know that "Red Barchetta" is based on the short story "A Nice Morning Drive" by Richard Foster, 1973. The story explains a lot that was not made clear in the song, but that's kind of my point. For years I listened to the song, accepting the world it portrayed--but only when you get old and crotchety do you start to think, "Slow down, you young punk!"

Accent Ague

Like many pasty white geeks, I learned my "English Accent" from countless repetitions of Monty Python sketches and movie bits. I also learned my Scottish, Irish, and Australian accents from the Pythons. Since then I have become a man of a thousand accents--all of them terrible. In the confines of my gaming group, I break into accents with little or no provocation, and if I'm not careful, they can bleed into one another, changing from Russian to German to Australian without warning. Still, accents are a staple of any game I run, since they help define the NPCs for the players, instantly providing a personality and even a physical description, if the accent is taken from a familiar actor or show.

In fact, I never gave much thought to accents until the group ran back-to-back campaigns set in the 1860s and 1870s--a "Weird West" Fate campaign and a Wild Talents "This Favored Land" campaign. Although the characters and the objectives were utterly different, both raised uncomfortable questions about race for me and my friends. In the Weird West game, I warned everyone that I planned to play many NPCs as prejudiced or outright racists, and since one of the guys chose to play a freed slave, they would have to deal with that when they encountered it. The player said he understood that, but that he himself was against the use of the N-word, and could we just take it as written, without saying it in game? We all agreed. But during the game, it fell to me to portray black people, freed and slave alike--and for the first time I felt self-conscious about the accents I used. And it wasn't just me. The GM of our Wild Talents game also struggled with the use of "black accents".

I started wondering if it was racist of us to use certain accents to portray NPCs, especially those who were not Caucasian. Was it okay to put on a French accent but not a Middle Eastern accent? If so, why? Surely my French accent is just as atrocious, based as it is on Pepe LePew--in other words, an imitation of Mel Blanc's imitation of Charles Boyer. Would I feel comfortable putting on an English accent in front of an English friend, and would I feel the same way if I did a hip-hop accent in front of a black friend? I couldn't answer definitively because it would depend in most cases on the friend and how well they knew me. In the interest of full disclosure, my entire game group consists of pasty-white American men of a certain age. We would welcome women and/or men of other ethnic backgrounds, if any of them could stand us.

Certainly my intent is never to insult or demean an ethnic group, nationality, or region when I do a voice in game. I'm a cast of thousands for my players, using accents in place of verbal description to bring flavor and life to the NPCs they encounter. It's a short cut, a way to tell my players who they are dealing with. That's part of the problem, I think: stereotypes are short cuts as well, made when we meet someone and are trying to decide how to think of them, and often those stereotypes lead to negative connotations. But of course, not everyone with a certain accent fits that stereotype, and if you play them ONLY as a stereotype, then you are letting your prejudices dominate the game. On the other hand, if different NPCs with the same accent nevertheless behave as individuals, some of them good, some bad, some indifferent, then you are exploring and challenging those prejudices, and I think that's a valuable thing.

#politics #roleplaying #gaming #race

The Investigator Is In

Studs liked his building and he liked his office. It smelled of mice and stale paper. The L in the poolhall sign flickered and buzzed all day so that half the time the sign said "Poo." The whole place oozed desperation, and it suited Studs just fine.

Next Chapter

#noir #legotown #snapjudgment #lego #studsfedora #humor