Alex Lifeson – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Rush – Tom Sawyer

The influence of this song came from the year 1876. The book was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

My cousin had many of their albums including this one. He told me back in 1981 or so…hey you have to listen to this…he called it “science rock.” I thought how exciting can “science rock” be? This was one of the first songs he played for me by them. I was impressed…I was just beginning to play bass and I liked the song right off the bat.

When the track was finished, Geddy Lee didn’t like the track, he said: “I remember being disappointed in the studio, thinking we really didn’t capture the spirit of the song. We thought it was the worst song on the record at the time – but it all came together in the mix. Sometimes you don’t have the objectivity to know when you’re doing your best work.”

This was on their album Moving Pictures released in 1981. The band just got off a 10-month-long tour. They were going to release their second live album but Neil Peart was excited about the new ideas of songs developed at sound checks throughout the tour. They canceled plans for the live album and started to focus on making this one.

They were helping another Canadian band Max Webster by playing a song called Battlescar on their album Universal Juveniles. A lyricist named Pye Dubois was working with Max Webster on their songs and suggested some lyrics to Rush that were developed into Tom Sawyer. The track is credited to Rush and Pye Dubois.

Their intro to the song live on their 2007 tour was the animated South Park characters singing the song with Cartman making up words in their band Lil Rush. I’ll have the video above the studio version.

The song peaked at #24 in Canada, #44 on the Billboard 100, and #8 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts in 1981. The album Moving Pictures peaked at #1 in Canada, #3 on the Billboard Charts, and #3 in the UK.

This song became one of Rush’s most popular songs and received a lot of radio play. Its success helped the Moving Pictures album achieve widespread acclaim and commercial success. This is about the time I found out about Rush.

Neil Peart: “Tom Sawyer was a collaboration between myself and Pye Dubois, an excellent lyricist who wrote the lyrics for Max Webster. His original lyrics were kind of a portrait of a modern day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful. I added the themes of reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be – namely me I guess.”

Geddy Lee: “The one song that we have to play for the rest of our lives. When we wrote it, we had no idea that it would touch such a nerve with people. In many ways, it’s the quintessential Rush song.”

Tom Sawyer

A modern-day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today’s Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride

Though his mind is not for rent
Don’t put him down as arrogant
His reserve a quiet defense
Riding out the day’s events
The river

What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist
Catch the myth
Catch the mystery
Catch the drift

The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today’s Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you
And the space he invades, he gets by on you

No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren’t permanent
But change is

And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness
Catch the wit
Catch the spirit
Catch the spit

The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide

Exit the warrior
Today’s Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to
The friction of the day

Rush – The Spirit of Radio

A very radio-friendly song by Rush. When I was a teen many local bands covered Rush…usually terrible, but they gave it a try. When I first heard this song…right away I made a connection to another older song written by Paul Simon. Sound of Silence has the lyrics:

And the sign said, “The words of the prophetsAre written on the subway wallsAnd tenement halls

Spirit of the Radio has:

For the words of the profits
Were written on the studio wall
Concert hall

Other than that…the songs have no other connection but I can’t help but think that Peart made that connection with Sound of Silence. That’s one of the reasons I liked it…plus the musical break during that time of the song. It gave the song a huge dynamic.

I always liked the intro by Alex Lifeson, who doesn’t get the credit he deserves compared to Lee and Peart. He is not doing a Van Halen finger tapping or hammer on… during that intro…he is actually picking those notes.

With the lyric “Sound of Salesmen” Peart would listen to bands they were opening for every night saying THIS was the city they loved the most… wherever they were… every night it was the same disingenuous spiel. One of the bands Peart was talking about was KISS who would market anything. Rush did open for KISS many times in the 1970s.

The song was on the Permanent Waves album released on January 18, 1980. The album peaked at #3 in Canada, #4 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #3 in the UK.

The song peaked at #22 in Canada, #51 on the Billboard 100, and #13 in the UK in 1980.

The song is Rush’s only entry on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Rush wasn’t inducted into the Hall until 2013; they were first eligible in 1999.

Neil Peart: “‘The Spirit Of Radio’ was actually written as a tribute to all that was good about radio, celebrating my appreciation of magical moments I’d had since childhood, of hearing ‘the right song at the right time.’ However, [the song’s] celebration of the ideals of radio necessarily seemed like an attack on the reality – on the formulaic, mercenary programming of most radio stations, with music the last of anyone’s concerns. And yes, it was really ironic that such a song became popular on radio, though it was a kind of litmus test. Some radio guys who ‘got it’ could hear the song and think, ‘That’s the way it ought to be,’ while others – the shallow, swaggering salesmen-of-the-air – could be oblivious to the song’s meaning and proudly applaud themselves, ‘That’s about me!’

From Songfacts: Rush released a new animated video for the song on June 12, 2020 in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Permanent Waves. The conceptual clip references milestones and influential broadcasters in FM rock radio history, including an homage to the pioneering Italian radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi. It closes with a personal tribute to the late Rush drummer Neil Peart, who died in January 2020. Fantoons.tv created the visual along with producer Linda Otero and directors David Calcano and Alberto Hadyar.

The Spirit of Radio

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, yeah, your honesty

One likes to believe in the freedom of music
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity, yeah

Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price almost free

For the words of the profits
Were written on the studio wall
Concert hall

And echoes with the sound of salesmen
Of salesmen, of salesmen

Rush – Limelight

I’m not the biggest fan of Rush but there are songs that were masterpieces…and this was one of them. When I heard that guitar riff at the beginning…BOOM…automatically loved the song.

As I listen to interviews and watched their documentary… that I will plug to everyone that would listen. I’ve grown to like them more and more. As a musician myself…yes I respect them as masters of their craft.

They had an unusual songwriting setup in that band. For the most part Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will come up with the music and drummer Neil Peart will supply the often complex lyrics. The drummers I’ve worked with…uh… that would not happen. This song hit me a like a great rock song which it is and is completely understandable.

While Alex and Geddy are outgoing guys…Neil Peart was not. He never hated the fans or anything but he was shy and didn’t feel comfortable with meet and greets etc. As Geddy Lee said (full quote below): “Limelight was probably more of Neil’s song than a lot of the songs on that album in the sense that his feelings about being in the limelight and his difficulty with coming to grips with fame and autograph seekers and a sudden lack of privacy and sudden demands on his time… he was having a very difficult time dealing with.

Neil said that while he was a huge fan of The Who and Keith Moon…he would have never dreamed of following them back to their hotel or meeting them. He just didn’t understand that concept and why. The song is about his feelings toward the fame that hit Rush and changed everything.

Neil Peart was a heavy reader and you could see the influence in many things. William Shakespeare’s 1599 play As You Like It contains the line “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” – a similar phase appears in the lyrics – “All the worlds indeed a stage, and we are merely players.” Rush named one of their albums All The Worlds A Stage.

The song peaked at #18 in Canada, #55 on the Billboard 100, and #4 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks. It was on the album Moving Pictures (My favorite by them) and that one peaked at #1 in Canada, #3 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #3 in the UK. This was the album in my area that had young musicians going out and learning these songs…not an easy task.

While researching this song I saw a headline that best sums it up. “Neil Peart explains his introverted nature through Rush song ‘Limelight.”

Geddy Lee: “Limelight was probably more of Neil’s song than a lot of the songs on that album in the sense that his feelings about being in the limelight and his difficulty with coming to grips with fame and autograph seekers and a sudden lack of privacy and sudden demands on his time… he was having a very difficult time dealing with. I mean we all were, but I think he was having the most difficulty of the three of us adjusting; in the sense that I think he’s more sensitive to more things than Alex and I are, it’s harder for him to deal with those interruptions on his personal space and his desire to be alone. Being very much a person who needs that solitude, to have someone coming up to you constantly and asking for your autograph is a major interruption in your own little world. I guess in the one sense that we’re a little bit like misfits in the fact that we’ve chosen this profession that has all this extreme hype and this sort of self-hyping world that we’ve chosen to live in, and we don’t feel comfortable really in that kind of role.”

Alex Lifeson: “I’ve always enjoyed the elasticity of that solo, particularly the way it sounds on the record. It has a certain tonality I just love. I do like playing the solo live, but I think I prefer listening to it on the album. On record, it has a magical quality to it – it really conveys the pathos of the song and the lyrics. I’ve never been able to re-create that live. I get pretty close, but it’s never exactly the way it is on record. I’ll keep trying, though.”

Neil Peart: “Success puts a strain on the friendship and it puts the strains on your day-to-day relationship, and it’s something that we did go through, you know, we’re not immune to it. But we were able to overcome it just through our closeness and we were able to help each other with difficulties like that and then we could deal with the pressures and things and that.”

Limelight

Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality
Beyond the gilded cage

Cast in this unlikely role
Ill-equipped to act
With insufficient tact
One must put up barriers
To keep oneself intact

Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme

Living in a fish eye lens
Caught in the camera eye
I have no heart to lie
I can’t pretend a stranger
Is a long-awaited friend

All the world’s indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers
Each another’s audience
Outside the gilded cage

Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme

Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme
The real relation
The underlying theme

Rush – Closer To The Heart ….Canadian Week

There are some bands that I would not want to meet in real life. There are other bands that seem like the nicest people in the world and Rush is one of them. With Rush’s music…I normally like sloppy bands…and I mean that in the best way. The Stones, Who, Zeppelin, and Beatles were all sloppy in some ways. With Rush…no sloppiness is allowed…everything is on point.

I would love to meet the two surviving members of Rush. I’ve never been a huge fan but I’ve watched their documentary (Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage) over and over again. I would encourage all of you to watch it. Even if you are not a fan…you WILL like these guys on a personal basis.

I have a great respect for their musical ability. A trio is not easy to play in…I’ve been the bass player in a couple and you have to work to keep it all together. All three of them are/were massively talented. Neil Peart is in the top 5 Rock Drummers of all time without a doubt. Geddy Lee, the same with bass and Alex doesn’t get as much attention as the other two but he is great as well.

I do like their radio hits like Tom Sawyer, Limelight, Working Man, Red Barchetta, and a few others. One thing about some of Rush’s lyrics…I think…hmmm will I be tested on this when I’m finished? I listened to many of their albums with a cousin of mine. I liked Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves, Hemispheres, and some of A Farewell to Kings.

Closer To The Heart has a chorus that is extremely universal. Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson says this song is the ultimate Rush song. It was on their album A Farewell To Kings released in 1977. It was written by Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, Neil Peart, and for the first time… an outside writer…Peter Talbot.

The song peaked at #76 on the Billboard 100, #36 in the UK, and #44 in Canada in 1977-78.

In 1981 a live version peaked at #21 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts.

Geddy Lee: I remember when we had to bring it back into the set for the Rio shows, as there was such a demand to hear it and we’d stopped playing it for a while. It’s always resonated with people for some reason, and it was a hit as far as we’ve ever had a hit. It got us on the radio, the kinds of radio that would never normally associate with us, so it was as close as we ever came to a pop song, especially at that point. Over here in the UK it had that effect, and in the US too.

Closer To The Heart

And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart

The blacksmith and the artist
Reflect it in their art
They forge their creativity
Closer to the heart
Yes, closer to the heart

Philosophers and plowmen
Each must know his part
To sow a new mentality
Closer to the heart
Yes closer to the heart, yeah, oh

Whoa, whoa
You can be the captain
And I will draw the chart
Sailing into destiny
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart
Well closer to the heart, yeah
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart
I said closer to the heart
Well closer to the heart, yeah
Closer to your heart
Closer to your heart, whoa