robp

A-ha, I stand corrected!!! I'm glad you caught me on that -- now I did my research and sure enough, he was on the back cover of 2112. http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/Wallpaper1.htm http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/wallpaper/2112back.jpg The problem is, my cd doesn't have that on the back! It just has the track list, not the original album art....so that's why I didn't know he was on there (until now). Well if I was never wrong, then I'd never have the chance to learn anything new! So thanks for calling that to my attention! And he definitely does stand for the "man against the masses". Not sure if anyone posted these quotes yet: "All [the naked man] means is the abstract man against the masses. The red star symbolizes any collectivist mentality." - Neil Peart, Creem, 1982 "The man is the hero of the story. That he is nude is just a classic tradition ... the pureness of his person and creativity without the trappings of other elements such as clothing. The red star is the evil red star of the Federation, which was one of Neil's symbols. We basically based that cover around the red star and that hero." - Hugh Syme, "From Brainwaves to Tidal Waves: The Story Behind Rush's Album Covers", Creem, 1983

Well.........that doesn't sound too different from the mental battle between "Reason" and "Pleasure" (i.e. Love) depicted in Hemispheres! ;-)

Yes that is also the man from Hemispheres... I would say you're correct, that he represents "resistance against tyranny", at least in the context of the Star & Man logo. But -- just to make sure the Rush references are 100% correct -- I wanted to add that in the context of Hemispheres he represents the libido (the "Dionysus" section of the lyric), whereas the suit-and-tie man represents the rational, logical side of us (the "Apollo" section of the lyric). And of course the struggle between those two sides of our mind (and therefore many of the conflicting desires we encounter throughout life) is the entire premise behind Hemispheres.... AFAIK, Rush did not come up with that Star/Man logo until some time after Hemispheres (if I'm wrong on that feel free to correct me!), so I'm not really sure who/what they had in mind in regards to the Hero from 2112. Lastly (just an FYI), the link to that image is from my old ISP and apparently they're offline. At least every time I try to connect I get "CONNECTION REFUSED FROM INTAC.COM". Same image, new location: http://rush.robpagano.com/images/webring.jpg (You can find more Rush info at http://rush.robpagano.com)