fly by night

Rush sounded the knell and started a progressive new chapter with this anthem of the heart of mind.  After their self titled debut album and tour, the Toronto trio auditioned for a new drummer, because John Rutsley decided life on the road didn't agree with his diabetes.  Neil Peart had given up on the music business after spending more than a year in London, but decided to try out for the slot and joined in July of 1974 just before the band's first US tour.  

'Fly By Night' was recorded from December 1974 through January 1975 at Toronto Sound Studios in Toronto, Canada.  Produced by Rush and Terry Brown, the album features Geddy Lee on lead vocals, bass guitar, and classical guitar;  Alex Lifeson on guitar;  and Neil Peart on percussion.  

Peart also took on the role as the group's primary lyricist:   "I was a student of words and a student of rhythm. I think as a listener of music, lyrics were strictly tertiary for me. First there was the song and then there was the musicianship, and then, after I already liked the song, there were the lyrics. There's no way I'll ever like the lyrics to a song that I don't like. It's an essential relationship. So I never really paid a lot of attention to lyrics until after I started writing them, and then it became a craft, like drumming. If I weren't a drummer I don't think I'd spend a lot of time thinking about drumming or drummers. It's something I became aware of as my involvement with words became more and more active and intense. At that point I started to become more aware of the techniques. I learned about rhymes and learned what's a real [sic] good rhyme and what's a false rhyme, what's a rhyme for the sake of convenience and what's a carefully constructed one. I have a very rigid set of values in those terms. I'll never rhyme just for the sake of it. I hate semi-rhymes...I find that the more layers a word or series of words offers to me, the more satisfied I am." 

Lee would express at the time:   "It showed a progression from the first album...We're very happy with it. We recorded it as an album. Singles would be nice, but that's incidental...All the music in that relates to the story.  It has visual sounds, monsters, screeching animals. It's where we want to head."

Lifeson looks back:    "We were trying to be quite individual with Fly by Night, which was the first record that Neil, Geddy and I did together. ["Anthem"] was the signature for that album. Coincidentally, the name of our record company, which is Anthem Records in Canada, came from this song...Neil [Peart, drummer] was in an Ayn Rand [author of "The Fountainhead"] period, so he wrote the song about being very individual. We thought we were doing something that was different from everybody else."

'Fly By Night' took the band to number nine on the Canadian album charts and was eventually certified platinum in both Canada and the US.  






http://www.rush.com/






"Fly By Night"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEVDZl5UvN4



Airport scurry flurry faces
Parade of passers by
People going many places
With a smile or just a sigh
Waiting waiting pass the time
Another cigarette
Get in line - gate thirty-nine
The time is not here yet (end)

Why try? I know why
The feeling inside me says it's time I was gone
Clear head, new life ahead
I want to be king now not just one more pawn

Fly by night, away from here
Change my life again
Fly by night goodbye my dear
My ship isn't coming and I just can't pretend

Moon rise, thoughtful eyes
Staring back at me from the window beside
No fright or hindsight
Leaving behind that empty feeling inside

Start a new chapter
Find what I'm after
It's changing every day
The change of a season
And not for good reasons

To want to get away

Quiet and pensive
My thoughts apprehensive
The hours drift away
Leaving my homeland
Playing a lone hand
My life begins today







"By-Tor And The Snow Dog"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1vlx2a_aDE










'Fly By Night' 
full album:



All lyrics by Neil Peart except where noted. All music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson except where noted.

Side one

1. "Anthem"   4:26
2. "Best I Can" (Lee) 3:24
3. "Beneath, Between & Behind" (Music: Lifeson) 3:00
4. "By-Tor & the Snow Dog      8:37
      I: At The Tobes Of Hades
      II: Across The Styx
      III: Of The Battle
            a. Challenge And Defiance
            b. 7/4 War Furor
            c Aftermath
            d. Hymn Of Triumph
      IV: Epilogue"  



Side two

5. "Fly by Night" (Music: Lee) 3:20
6. "Making Memories"   2:56
7. "Rivendell" (Music: Lee) 5:00
8. "In the End" (Lee, Lifeson) 6:51

permanent waves

Rush chose a path that's clear with the emotional feedback of new wave modern music.   The band would debut some new material during a mini-tour of the US supporting their previous album 'Hemispheres'.  For 'Permanent Waves', Terry Brown did the arrangements, production, and mixing with engineer Paul Northfield and assistant engineer Robbie Whelan.  The sessions at  at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec featured Geddy Lee on lead vocals, bass guitar, Oberheim polyphonic, Minimoog, Taurus pedal synthesizer, and OB-1;   Alex Lifeson on electric and acoustic six- and twelve-string guitars, and Taurus pedals;   and Neil Peart on drums, timpani, timbales, orchestra bells, tubular bells, wind chimes, bell tree, triangle, crotales, and cover concept;    with Erwig Chuapchuaduah on steel drums;  Hugh Syme providing piano on "Different Strings", as well as art direction, design, and cover concept.  Paula Turnbull was the cover girl.  

Peart reveals:    "Le Studio is a wonderful place, nestled in a valley of the Laurentian Mountains about sixty miles north of Montreal. It is situated on 250 acres of hilly, wooded land, surrounding a private lake. At one end of the lake is the studio, with the luxurious and comfortable guest house situated at the other, about a mile away. We commuted by bicycle, rowboat, on foot, or in laziness or bad weather, by car. We arrived in the full, ripe glory of autumn, and were there through a genuine Indian Summer, and we heralded the coming of snow and winter, all in our four week stay! The recording facilities are, of course, nothing les than excellent in every way. The room itself features one whole wall of glass, overlooking a spectacular view of the lake and the mountains. This is in direct contrast to most studios, which are more in the way of being isolated, timeless vaults, which in that respect of course, are not necessarily bad. Here, though, we worked in the light of the sun, and one could watch the changing seasons in idle moments, rather than a dimly lit, smoky view of musical and electronic hardware. Our engineer, Paul Northfield, soon proved himself to be a helpful, capable, and congenial member of the project, as did all of the excellent people who were employed there. I don't think we have ever been so well treated anywhere...We began our great labors by working on the individual sounds of the instruments. This consists of the musician banging away at his particular object, while the engineering types experiment with different microphones, mic positionings, and their own arcane world of knob-twiddling, faders, echoes, equalization, etc., refining the sound to a true and/or pleasing reproduction of the original. Once this has been accomplished, the three of us will play together, probably going over the song we plan to record first, and considerably more work is put into the sounds, to make them sit together properly ... Often times. Alex and Geddy will have a musical idea, maybe individually. They'll bring it into the studio and we'll bounce it off one another, see what we like about it, see if we find it exciting as an idea and then we get a verbal idea of what the mood of it is. What the setting would be. If I have a lyrical idea that we're trying to find music for, we discuss the type of mood we are trying to create musically. What sort of compositional skills I guess we'll bring to bear on that emotionally. The three of us try to establish the same feeling for what the song should be. Then you bring the technical skills in to try to interpret that properly, and achieve what you thought it would... I came into [writing the lyrics] by default, just because the other two guys didn't want to write lyrics. I've always liked words. I've always liked reading so I had a go at it. I like doing it. When I'm doing it, I try to do the best I can. It's pretty secondary. I don't put that much importance on it. A lot of times you just think of a lyrical idea as a good musical vehicle. I'll think up an image, or I'll hear about a certain metaphor that's really picturesque. A good verbal image is a really good musical stimulus. If I come up with a really good picture lyrically, I can take it to the other two guys and automatically express to them a musical approach ... The work continued as we plowed through a mountain of overdubs. Alex and I splashed oars in the lake with shivering hands to record the "Tide Pool" effects, voices and guitar sounds were sent out over the lake to make use of it's natural echo, the tympani was recorded outdoors, guitar amps were strung all over the building to take advantage of as many different sounds as possible. The parade of guitars, synthesizers, vocals, percussion, and experiments went on, and the days wore away. But... we finished early! We had about three days at the end to spare, in which we could make some rough mixes of the songs to take home and listen to before the real mixing began. As straightforward and logical as this again must sound, it was the first time that such a thing had ever happened. In the past we had always had to begin mixing the day after the recording was finished, giving no opportunity to get away from the material, and return to it with a fresh, objective ear."

'Permanent Waves' became a major breaththrough, charting at number thirty-eight in the Netherlands;  twenty-six in Sweden;  twenty-one in Norway;  four in the US; and number three in Canada and the UK.  

Lifeson says:  "We were pretty straightforward rock until 2112. Then the album after that, A Farewell To Kings, took us in a slightly new direction which we're still heading in. Our latest, Permanent Waves, sounds very natural to me; it sounds like us. There's nothing radically new or different on it. It's just another step, like Hemispheres was to A Farewell To Kings. And yet, the feedback we're getting on Permanent Waves is that a lot of people think it's very new, very fresh, and something quite different for us. I can see some things-it's not quite as serious as, say, Hemispheres was. And there's just the feel of the LP; it's a happy kind of record. But overall it's pretty much the same stuff that we've been doing-only further on down the road, and the production's better."

Lee considers:  "I think we achieved success a long time ago,  The fact that we can go out and tour for eight months and do exactly what we want to do and make the kind of records exactly the way we want to make them, that's my personal idea of success...As far as I can see, new wave, old wave, yellow wave - it's all the same. The water doesn't come and go. The waves do."

http://www.rush.com/








"The Spirit of Radio"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHTsIiyIg8I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b-vC_Hcgps


Begin the day
With a friendly voice
A companion, unobtrusive
Plays that song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood 

Off on your way
Hit the open road
There is magic at your fingers
For the spirit ever lingers
Undemanding contact
In your happy solitude 

Invisible airwaves 
Crackle with life 
Bright antennae bristle 
With the energy 
Emotional feedback 
On a timeless wavelength 
Bearing a gift beyond price, 
Almost free

All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty 

One likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity 

For the words of the profits 
Are written on the studio wall, 
Concert hall,
Echoes with the sounds, of salesmen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlTVbx6b9L8





"Freewill"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpOyQhgM1FU


There are those who think that life has nothing left to chance
A host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance

A planet of play things
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
'The stars aren't aligned
Or the gods are malign...'
Blame is better to give than receive

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose freewill

There are those who think
That they were dealt a losing hand
The cards were stacked against them
They weren't born in Lotusland

All preordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate
Kicked in the face
You can't pray for a place
In heaven's unearthly estate

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose freewill

Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt that's far too fleet

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose freewill





"Jacob's Ladder"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvsw_Jq4UcE



"Natural Science"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0EFpL7eTCc







'Permanent Waves'
full album:


https://myspace.com/officialrush/music/album/permanent-waves-15555
Permanent Waves from Rush on Myspace.




All lyrics written by Neil Peart; all music composed by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.

Side one
1. "The Spirit of Radio"   4:59
2. "Freewill"   5:24
3. "Jacob's Ladder"   7:28
Side two
4. "Entre Nous"   4:37
5. "Different Strings"   3:50
6. "Natural Science"  9:17
I: Tide Pools  2:09
II: Hyperspace  2:22
III: Permanent Waves  4:46

grace under pressure

Rush tried to change the program and fight the enemy within of blind frustration and cold war paranoia with the synthesized sheen of this progressive pop positivism.  After recording ten consecutive albums with producer Terry Brown, the band decided to work with Peter Henderson for 'Grace Under Pressure'.  Neil Peart would explain:   "It was a vague thing because it didn't arise out of dissatisfaction with Terry Brown. It was simply based on our response to other people's music and how they were writing and recording songs. We wanted new inputs so we talked to a lot of producers and asked them how they got certain sounds and how they recorded certain groups. The decision to work with someone fresh came as the end result of this research. We felt we needed a new approach and a different chemistry...We recorded the album with the implicit idea of maintaining spontaneity...To me, the lyrical message is always secondary and the music is always first. I take as much trouble with the lyrics as I do because it's the old Anglo-Saxon adage of "if something's worth doing, it's worth doing well," as my father used to say. But I don't envision the lyrics as being the focal point of Rush - it isn't to most people. If I respond to a song musically, then I'll check out the lyrics. But if a song doesn't draw me musically, then it won't draw me lyrically either...My beautiful lakes up north are being killed by sulfurous emissions and so-called environmentalists are contributing to the problem. Then I think of friends and more universal problems. I'm not really an eternal pessimist - I'm on record as being an optimist - but I'm worried about the world's problems and I feel it's about time to face things. However, I'm not introspective. I find a lot of things Roger Waters writes are introspective and very dark. I'm not like that...'Grace Under Pressure' is a really important umbrella that has to stand over all these songs. Judged individually, some of the songs can seem to be too dark for words. But if you make a point from a humanistic point of view, the people in...say, "Red Sector A," the concentration camp, are being graceful under pressure. Despite those horrific conditions, hey tried to retain some semblance of normal living conditions - something they can hold on to. One idea for the album cover was someone reaching out from behind barbed wire to clutch a flower."


Alex Lifeson would express:   "We just felt the need for a change. We'd made, I don't know, something like eleven records with Terry...and being 'almost a fourth member', that was what me problem was. We just thought we were at a point in our relationship where we felt we knew each other too well, there was nothing new happening. It was kind of a difficult thing, to break the news to Terry, but it had to be done...So we started hunting around...we started listening to a lot of records, produced by people we liked and admired. We ended up with a long list of potential contenders and started to contact them. After a long, involved series of interviews and discussions, we decided to go with Steve (Simple Minds, U2, Big Country) Lillywhite. He was interested and he committed himself at a certain point to producing us. Everything seemed to be going along just fine...then, at the eleventh hour, just as we'd started to write the new material, his office called and said that he'd changed his mind, that he didn't feel he was right for the project...So - panic. What'll we do? We decided to go ahead and continue writing and in the meantime contact a few other producers, to see if they were interested. It was tough, but eventually Peter Henderson took up the gauntlet. We met up and, I don't know, he just said all the right things...we talked and felt real comfortable with him. We just clicked...The Sound on this LP, I think, is denser and more aggressive than our last couple of records. That's what we needed. The balance of power has shifted once again. Neil's writing some excellent, astonishingly straight-forward lyrics now. I think we've got the essence back togethcr for this new record...Where you work as long on a project as we did on 'Grace Under Pressure'...it's like giving birth. We started on the album in August last year and worked through until the middle of March '84, with very few serious breaks. That took a great deal out of us, both emotionally and physically. It was a very difficult project, the difficulty compounded by the confusion and uncertainty over producers...but, by the same token, at the end of the day, it was enormously enjoyable and satisfying...So - 'Grace Under Pressure' was the most important thing in our lives for a long period of time. In their haste to condemn us, I'm not sure if people always understand that...'Grace Under Pressure'? Yeah, it is pretty apt, isn't it?"

Geddy Lee says:   "We've just tried to sharpen the focus a bit...We as a band are torn because we're a performing band. We sit here and go 'Well, we like the way the Tears for Fears album sounds. It would be nice to get a similar sound on Rush records.' But after analyzing an album like that, we realize it was made with a machine that only sounds like it hits a drum on every beat. There are no other drums. No wonder all the synthesizers sound so clear - there's no guitar, or at least none that anyone's hitting with any kind of fervor...It's a different animal. We try to apply some of these things to Rush, but we have a drummer with the largest drum kit ever created. The guy likes to use everything, every overhead cymbal. So all of a sudden, you have this whole range of ferocity coming through in an area where these other bands and albums don't have anything. 'And now, here's Alex Lifeson, lead guitar player.' He's not content to have a sound that's not emotional, that doesn't move him. To try and get that soul with all this new technology and crystal clarity is a tall order. That's what we've been chasing. Making 'Grace Under Pressure', we realized part of that is just not meant to be."


The sessions were produced by Rush and Peter Henderson at Le Studio in Quebec with Geddy Lee on bass guitars, synthesizers, and vocals;  Alex Lifeson on guitars and synthesizers;  and Neil Peart on drums, percussion, and electronic percussion.   After two consecutive number albums in their native Canada, 'Moving Pictures' and 'Signals') 'Grace Under Pressure' peaked at number four.  It also charted at forty-three in Germany, twenty-seven in the Netherlands, eighteen in Sweden, fourteen in Finland, ten in the US, and five in the UK.  






http://www.rush.com/








'The Body Electric'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Dju2i4FZw



'Distant Early Warning'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrDj5XvZXX4



'Red Sector A'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzXDi_f9PUY



'Afterimage'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aalJT3GS_m8






'Grace Under Pressure' 
full album:



1. "Distant Early Warning"   4:56
2. "Afterimage"   5:04
3. "Red Sector A"   5:10
4. "The Enemy Within" (Part I of Fear) 4:33
5. "The Body Electric"   5:00
6. "Kid Gloves"   4:18
7. "Red Lenses"   4:42
8. "Between the Wheels"   5:44



live:

hemispheres

Rush spent months in the studio working out the battle between heart and mind on the complex extended suites of their final purely progressive proclamation.  Continuing to build on the achievements of  'Caress of Steel', '2112', and 'A Farewell to Kings'; 'Hemispheres' shows them improving their production and complexity.  The album was arranged and produced by Rush and Terry Brown at Rockfield Studios in Wales and Advision Studios in London with Geddy Lee on vocals, bass guitar, Oberheim polyphonic, Mini Moog, and Moog Taurus pedals; Alex Lifeson on electric and acoustic guitars, classical guitar, guitar synthesizer, and Moog Taurus pedals; and Neil Peart on drums, orchestra bells, bell tree, timpani, gong, cowbells, temple blocks, wind chimes, and crotales.

Lifeson recalls:    "It was the longest time we'd ever spent on an album.  By the time we got to Trident studios in London for the mixing, we'd been in Britain for two and a half months, one month longer than we'd expected. But the thing is that Hemispheres was a different album altogether and it headed off in various directions."

Lee says:  "We've had long pieces of music on three straight studio albums.  'Hemispheres' is well-paced, a little more bouncy than 'A Farewell to Kings'.  Certainly we're satisfied with it; but I miss writing tunes...Our last albums have been weighty works to digest; but they've been necessary in our evolution as a progressive rock outfit.  Still, I miss singing songs...After recording 'Hemispheres' we all felt so drained and sapped of our energy.  The album required a lot more attention than we have ever given to recording.  The title song was a dense piece of music.  With the exception of 'Xanadu'(on 'A Farewell to Kings' , it was the first time we tried to layer the sound on our albums ...We don't think in terms that we have to make this album better because the last one was good or sold well.  This is another album of ours and every album in a point in Rush's history and if it'snot getting better, something's wrong.  Every album has to be the perfect Rush album."

Peart came up with the lyrics after reading Adam Smith's 'Powers of Mind'.   Peart considers:   "The initial focus of our music has to always change to keep us interested ...  It depends really on what we're coming at it with. Often times. Alex and Geddy will have a musical idea, maybe individually. They'll bring it into the studio and we'll bounce it off one another, see what we like about it, see if we find it exciting as an idea and then we get a verbal idea of what the mood of it is. What the setting would be. If I have a lyrical idea that we're trying to find music for, we discuss the type of mood we are trying to create musically. What sort of compositional skills I guess we'll bring to bear on that emotionally. The three of us try to establish the same feeling for what the song should be. Then you bring the technical skills in to try to interpret that properly, and achieve what you thought it would...I came into [being the band's lyricist] by default, just because the other two guys didn't want to write lyrics. I've always liked words. I've always liked reading so I had a go at it. I like doing it. When I'm doing it, I try to do the best I can. It's pretty secondary. I don't put that much importance on it. A lot of times you just think of a lyrical idea as a good musical vehicle. I'll think up an image, or I'll hear about a certain metaphor that's really picturesque. A good verbal image is a really good musical stimulus. If I come up with a really good picture lyrically, I can take it to the other two guys and automatically express to them a musical approach."

'Hemispheres' went to number forty-seven in the US, and fourteen in Canada and the UK.  

http://www.rush.com/







'Hemispheres'
full album:



Side one
1. "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres" 18:08
    I. Prelude - 0:00
    II. Apollo (Bringer of Wisdom) – 4:30
    III. Dionysus (Bringer of Love) – 7:00
    IV. Armageddon (The Battle of Heart and Mind) – 09:06
    V. Cygnus (Bringer of Balance) - 12:00
    VI. The Sphere (A Kind of Dream) – 17:02"

Side two
2. "Circumstances"   3:42
3. "The Trees"   4:46
4. "La Villa Strangiato (An Exercise in Self-Indulgence)"  9:35
    I. Buenas Noches, Mein Froinds! - 0:00
    II. To Sleep, Perchance to Dream... - 0:27
    III. Strangiato Theme - 2:00
    IV. A Lerxst in Wonderland - 3:16
    V. Monsters! - 5:49
    VI. The Ghost of the Aragon - 6:10
    VII. Danforth and Pape - 6:45
    VIII. The Waltz of the Shreves - 7:26
    IX. Never Turn Your Back on a Monster! - 7:52
    X. Monsters! (Reprise) - 8:03
    XI. Strangiato Theme (Reprise) - 8:17
    XII. A Farewell to Things - 9:20"

2112

Rush took a dramatic leap forward with this epic marriage of progressive and hard rock and hit platinum for the first time. Inspired by the individualistic philosophy of Ayn Rand's "Anthem", the title track is an album length suite comprised of seven sections that tell the story of a futuristic dystopia where the priests of the temples of Syrinx control all facets of life. When a man finds a guitar hidden behind a waterfall, he learns to play it and innocently presents it to the priests who destroy it. He goes home and dreams of a utopia where people are free to express themselves. When he awakens to his own reality again, he commits suicide leading into the hard rocking finale and a mysterious rebellion that assumes control. The second side of the album is a more straightforward set of songs that mix acoustic and hard rock.





“And the meek shall inherit the earth”







http://www.rush.com/











2112 suite (part one)


I: "Overture" – 4:34 (0:00—4:34)
II: "The Temples of Syrinx" – 2:11 (4:34—6:45)
III: "Discovery" – 3:29 (6:45—10:14)





2112 suite (part two)


IV: "Presentation" – 2:00 (10:14—12:14)
V: "Oracle: The Dream" – 2:21 (12:14—14:35)
VI: "Soliloquy" – 2:14 (14:35—16:49)
VII: "Grand Finale" – 3:44 (16:49—20:33)




full suite:


live:



I. OVERTURE
-------------------------------------------------------------
"And the meek shall inherit the earth."

II. THE TEMPLES OF SYRINX
-------------------------------------------------------------

We've taken care of everything
The words you hear the songs you sing
The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes.

It's one for all and all for one
We work together common sons
Never need to wonder how or why.

We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
Our great computers fill the hallowed halls.
We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
All the gifts of life are held within our walls.

Look around this world we made
Equality our stock in trade
Come and join the Brotherhood of Man
Oh what a nice contented world
Let the banners be unfurled
Hold the Red Star proudly high in hand.

We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
Our great computers fill the hallowed halls.
We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
All the gifts of life are held within our walls.

Lyrics by Neil Peart
Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

III. DISCOVERY
-------------------------------------------------------------

What can this strange device be?
When I touch it, it gives forth a sound
It's got wires that vibrate and give music
What can this thing be that I found?

See how it sings like a sad heart
And joyously screams out its pain
Chords that build high like a mountain
Or notes that fall gently like rain.

I can't wait to share this new wonder
The people will all see its light
Let them all make their own music
The Priests praise my name on this night.

Lyrics by Neil Peart
Music by Alex Lifeson

IV. PRESENTATION
-------------------------------------------------------------
I know it's most unusual
To come before you so
But I've found an ancient miracle
I thought that you should know

Listen to my music
And hear what it can do
There's something here as strong as life
I know that it will reach you.

The Priests:

Yes, we know it's nothing new
It's just a waste of time
We have no need for ancient ways
The world is doing fine

Another toy will help destroy
The elder race of man
Forget about your silly whim
It doesn't fit the plan.

I can't believe you're saying
These things just can't be true
Our world could use this beauty
Just think what we might do.

Listen to my music
And hear what it can do
There's something here as strong as life
I know that it will reach you.

The Priests:

Don't annoy us further
We have our work to do.
Just think about the average
What use have they for you?

Another toy will help destroy
The elder race of man
Forget about your silly whim
It doesn't fit the plan.

Lyrics by Neil Peart
Music by Alex Lifeson

V. ORACLE: THE DREAM
-------------------------------------------------------------
I wandered home though the silent streets
And fell into a fitful sleep
Escape to realms beyond the night
Dream can't you show me the light?

I stand atop a spiral stair
An oracle confronts me there
He leads me on light years away
Through astral nights, galactic days

I see the works of gifted hands
That grace this strange and wondrous land
I see the hand of man arise
With hungry mind and open eyes

They left the planet long ago
The elder race still learn and grow
Their power grows with purpose strong
To claim the home where they belong
Home, to tear the Temples down...
Home, to change..

Lyrics by Neil Peart
Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

VI. SOLILOQUY
-------------------------------------------------------------
The sleep is still in my eyes
The dream is still in my head
I heave a sigh and sadly smile
And lie a while in bed
I wish that it might come to pass
Not fade like all my dreams

Just think of what my life might be
In a world like I have seen
I don't think I can carry on
Carry on this cold and empty life
Oh...noo.

My spirits are low in the depths of despair
My lifeblood spills over..

VII. GRAND FINALE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATTENTION ALL PLANETS OF THE SOLAR FEDERATION
ATTENTION ALL PLANETS OF THE SOLAR FEDERATION
ATTENTION ALL PLANETS OF THE SOLAR FEDERATION
WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL
WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL
WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL















'The Twilight Zone'

"Enter this world of imagination..."





'Something for Nothing'

"You don't get freedom for free "













Side two
"A Passage to Bangkok"   3:32
"The Twilight Zone"   3:16
"Lessons" (Lyrics: Lifeson) 3:51
"Tears" (Lyrics: Lee) 3:30
"Something for Nothing" (Music: Lee)






full album: