Posted on 04/30/2002 2:34:10 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
The long awaited album from the rock band Rush who has sold in excess of 40 million albums worldwide is about to release one of their strongest efforts to date. I have had the opportunity to own this album for the last 2 weeks and it will be released to the public on May 14th. I am posting some lyrics to a few of the new songs on the album as Neil Peart (who lost his daughter and wife in 1997 in the span of 10 months),touches on the morning of 9-11,our fears, our rage, our hopes, and what was lost and can hopefully be gained.
For those not in the know Neil is a Libertarian and well versed writer who has paid tribute to Ayn Rand on many songs. So here are a few selections to read and take in. Also as a slight review for this album I must say that the album has hit a home run and the tour begins June 28th in Hartford,CT.
Notice the tribute to let's roll in there and the other meanings in between the song.
Freeze (Part IV of "Fear")
--------------------------
The city crouches steaming, in the early morning half light
The sun is still a rumor, and the light is still a threat
Slipping through the dark streets and the echoes and the shadows
Something stirs behind me and my palms begin to sweat
Sometimes I freeze until the light comes
Sometimes I fly into the night
Sometimes I fight against the darkness
Sometimes I'm wrong
Sometimes I'm right
Cold immortal scream caught like a creature in the headlights
Into a desperate panic, or a tempest of blind fury
Like cornered beast
Or a conquering hero
The madness threatens
Closing
And i'm frozen in the shadows
I'm not prepared to run away
And i'm not prepared to fight
I could stand to reason
Or surrender to a reflex
I will trust my instincts
Or surrender to my fright
Sometimes we freeze
Until the light comes
Sometimes we [roll]
And sometimes we rise
Sometimes we fight
Against the darkness
Sometimes we fly
Into the night
Blood running cold
Mind going numb
Into a dark night
Of a desparate panic
Or a tempest of blind fury
Like a cornered beast
Or a conquering hero
Sometimes i freeze
Sometimes i fly
Sometimes I freeze
Until the light comes
Sometimes I fly
Into the night
Into the night
Into the night
Ceiling Unlimited
-----------------
It's not the heat it's the inhumanity
Lurking through the sweat of a summer street
Machine gun images pass like malice through the looking glass
The slack-jaw gaze of true profanity
Feels more like surrender than defeat
If culture is the curse of the thinking class
Ceiling unlimited
World so wide
Turn and turn again, turn again
Feeling unlimited
Still unsatisfied
Changes never end, never end
The vacant smile of true insanity
Dressed up in the mask of tragedy
Programmed for the guts and glands of idle minds and idle hands
I rest my case, at least my vanity
Dessed up in the mask of comedy
If laughter is a storm for a drowning man
Ceiling unlimited
Windows open wide
Look and look again, look again
Feeling unlimited
Eyes on the prize
Changes never end, never end
Winding like an ancient river
The time is now again
Wandering like an ancient river
The time is now again
Winding like an endless river
Peaceable Kingdom
-----------------
All this time we're talking and sharing our rational views
A billion other voices are spreading other news
All this time we're living and trying to understand
While a billion other choices are making their demands
Talk of a peaceable kingdom
Talk of a time without fear
The ones we wish would listen
Are never going to hear
Justice against the Hanged Man
Knight of Wands against the hour
Swords against the kingdom
Time against the Tower
All this time we're shuffling and laying out all our cards
While a billion other dealers are slipping past our guards
All this time we're hoping and praying we all might learn
While a billion other teachers are teaching them how to burn
Dream of a peaceable kingdom
Dream of a time without war
The ones we wish could hear us
Have heard it all before
Away toward the clearing sky
The Hermit against the Lovers
Oh, the Devil against the Fool
Swords against the kingdom
The Wheel against the rules
All this time we're builded like bonfires in the dark
A billion other blazes are shooting off their sparks
Every spark a drifting ember of desire
To fall upon the earth and spark another fire
A global angel on the fly
Away toward the clearing sky
Vapor Trail
-----------
Stratospheric traces
Of our transitory flight
Trails of condensation
Held in narrow bands of white
The sun is turning black
The world is turning gray
All the stars fade from the night
The ocean drain away
Horizon to horizon
Memory written on the wind
Fading away like an hourglass
Grain by grain
Swept away like voices in a hurricane
In a vapor trail
In a vapor trail
Atmospheric phases
Make the transitory lapse
Vaporize the memories
That freeze the fading past
Silence all the songbirds
Stilled by the killing frost
For it's burned to ashes
Every name is lost
Horizon to horizon
Memory written on the wind
Washed away like footprints in the rain
Swept away like voices in a hurricane
In a vapor trail
In a vapor trail
Washed away like footprints in the rain
Swept away like voices in a hurricane
In a vapor trail...
Actually, I kind of forgot about my screen name. It's also close to where I live now. Well, Hamilton, actually, which is YHM or YQM or something like that (the airport, I mean).
As to Fear being a trilogy, well, when you start with part 3 and count down to part 1, it does look that way. No reason they can't do a part 4, however. I think Rush is playing at Molson park for the Toronto show, so I could probably still get tickets for the lawn or whatever. Sorry to say, I don't really have anyone to go with, so I didn't get tickets right away.
Like I stay, I still buy every new Rush album, but I thought they'd gotten into a bit of a rut lately, and I guess my tastes have changed somewhat over the years, also. These days I'm really into the Dave Matthews Band.
I've been a Rush fan since HS (1976) so I'm interested in hearing the rest of the album soon as it's released.
By Christa Titus
It is and it isn't a coincidence that "One Little Victory" -- a song that celebrates personal triumph -- is the lead single from Rush's forthcoming album, "Vapor Trails" (due May 14 via Atlantic Records), the first collection of new music from the Canadian progressive rock trio in six years.
"It's a coincidence in the sense that nobody planned to have a song like that," bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee explains. "The way the song turned out, there's so many kind of symbolic things about that song that relate to our condition that it seemed really appropriate to come out with that first."
The condition Lee refers to is the hiatus the band went on in 1997, when drummer/chief lyricist Neil Peart lost his daughter and then, not long afterward, his wife. All music business was put aside to give him the time he needed to recover before deciding when he wanted to return to Rush -- if he wanted to return at all.
Peart's health was the foremost concern of Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, but they did occasionally wonder if Rush would ever record again. "Generally, it was kind of best to put it out of your mind and focus on [Peart's] well-being and his recovery," Lee says of that time. "It was more important for us to be his friends at that point than his bandmates, and that's what we did."
In the interim, the pair contributed to 1999's "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" soundtrack, and Lee released a well-received solo album, "My Favorite Headache." Meanwhile, Lifeson produced Universal act Lifer and played guitar and produced a few as-yet-unreleased tracks for 3 Doors Down.
The sessions for "Vapor Trails" -- captured at Reaction Studios in Toronto -- spanned 14 months, beginning in early January 2001. Maintaining a comfortable atmosphere in which the trio could reconnect and work took precedence over finishing a record by a certain deadline.
The resulting 13-track album, produced by the band and Paul Northfield, is a non-stop wallop of energy that shows the trio still in perfect rhythmic step with each other. In fact, it sounds rejuvenated and more cohesive than ever. The cuts "Ceiling Unlimited," "Peaceable Kingdom," and "Out of the Cradle" recapture the vibe of the band's early '80s catalog, whereas "Secret Touch," "Nocturne," and "Freeze" contain pure power-rock jams that should keep fans hailing Rush as musical gods. Peart once again wrote most of the lyrics, and his humanist musings, coupled with some crafty time changes, make the songs "Sweet Miracle" and "Ghost Rider" especially poignant.
Rush kicks off a North American tour June 28 in Hartford, Conn. The tour is billed as "An Evening With Rush," and will not feature an opening act. Dates are expected to stretch into the fall and offer in the neighborhood of 30 songs each night.
Excerpted from the May 4, 2002, issue of Billboard. The full original text of the article is available in the Billboard.com members section.
Jump to the ground as the Turbo slows to cross the borderline.
Run like the wind, as excitement shivers up and down my spine.
Down in his barn, my uncle preserved for me an old machine, For fifty-odd years.
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream.
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