The world of rock and roll is full of saccharine love ballads saturated with empty promises. Declarations of everlasting courtship were often sung towards nonexistent individuals for the sake of making a quick buck off the profitable \u201cpower ballad.\u201d There\u2019s no denying that there\u2019s some sincerity in those songs, yet a lot of them rely on a similar statement: \u201cI love you, I miss you, please come back,\u201d etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the early 90s, drummer Neil Peart was already established as one of the most proficient lyricists of the rock genre. He wrote songs covering philosophy, social hierarchy, anxiety and freedom of choice, but despite a wide range of topics, romance was not a common theme in Rush\u2019s discography until 1991\u2019s Roll the Bones<\/em>. One of their singles, titled Ghost of a Chance, <\/em>is <\/em>a no-bullshit love song about the fascinating process of finding \u201cthe one.\u201d No hollow, cliched statements to be found, Ghost of a Chance <\/em>takes an observational perspective, and it puts all the rock ballads you\u2019ve ever swooned over to shame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because everything Peart points out in the verses is true: every choice we make, every door we open, it all leads us to something. And for most folks, the successful ones at least, those doors might lead them to a lover. Peart clarifies in the pre-chorus that, \u201cI don\u2019t believe in destiny\/or the guiding hand of fate\u201d nor does he believe in astrological prophecies, or guardian angels; rather, he accepts life and its many possibilities for what it is. \u201cI believe there\u2019s a ghost of a chance\/we can find someone to love\/and make it last,\u201d he declares, at the very end of the chorus, leading into an echoey Lifeson guitar lick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While it\u2019s a very blunt, dare I say nihilistic take on the process of finding that special someone, there\u2019s an aura of hope around it. Take the lines \u201cSomehow we find each other\/through all that masquerade\/somehow we found each other\/somehow we have stayed.\u201d The lyrics simultaneously question the very existence of fate while acknowledging it. Somehow, somehow, somehow. Peart denies the guidance of a higher power while understanding there\u2019s got to be something special behind our path towards everlasting love, even if it isn\u2019t exactly magical in nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m a spiritual person. I look to tarot readers, who will pull their four of wands and two of cups and steer me in the right direction. I look at my parents and suddenly the concept of meeting one\u2019s soulmate feels as achievable as breathing, at least with patience. With that being said, Ghost of a Chance<\/em> covers a variety of beliefs and stances on the soulmate debate. There\u2019s never going to be any scientific proof towards the existence of that\u201cinvisible string,\u201d or the claim that Leo and Taurus is a doomed combination, or the idea that a respective God has crafted someone just for you. What is true, however, is that the doors we open and paths we choose to take always lead us to a fate of some sort. There are millions of instances where one\u2019s fate happens to be love. Even though we can\u2019t control everything that leads us to love, there\u2019s comfort in knowing that the butterfly effects of life just might take us there. There\u2019s a Ghost of a Chance<\/em> life will take us there. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world of rock and roll is full of saccharine love ballads saturated with empty promises. Declarations of everlasting courtship were often sung towards nonexistent individuals for the sake of making a quick buck off the profitable \u201cpower ballad.\u201d There\u2019s no denying that there\u2019s some sincerity in those songs, yet a lot of them rely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":7462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[265,530,657],"tags":[60,576,59,129,97],"yoast_head":"\n