Rush Lyrics

Rush
L Y R I C S
1974-1996
Rush Fly By Night Caress 2112
of Steel
Farewell Hemispheres Permanent Moving

to Kings Waves Pictures
Grace Under Power Hold Your

Signals
Pressure Windows Fire
Roll The Test for

Presto Bones Counterparts Echo
Rush
1974
Finding My Way
Need Some Love
Take A Friend
Here Again
What You’re Doing
In The Mood
Before And After
Working Man
Rush Lyrics
Finding My Way 1974-1996
Yeah, oh yeah!
Ooh, said I,
I’m comin’ out to get you.
Ooh, sit down.
I’m comin’ out to find you.
Ooh, yeah. Ooh yeah.
Findin’ my way!
I’ve been gone so long

I’ve lost count of the years.
Well, I sang some sad songs,
oh yes, and cried some bad tears.
Look out! I’m comin’.

Whoa, whoa.
Whoa, yeah.
I’m runnin’,
finding my way back home.
Oh yeah!
Yeah, oh yeah!
Ooh, said I,
I’m comin’ back to look for you.
Ooh, sit down.
I’m goin’ by the back door.
Ooh, yeah. Ooh yeah.
Findin’ my way!
You’ve done me no right,

but you’ve done me some wrong.
Left me lonely each night
while I sing my sad song.

Whoa, whoa.
Whoa, yeah.
I’m runnin’,
findin’ my way back home.
I’m comin’.
Ooh, babe, I said I’m runnin’.
Whoa, babe, I said I’m comin’
to get you, mama.
Said I’m runnin’.
Rush
4
Rush Lyrics
Ooh, babe, I said I’m comin’ 1974-1996
for you, babe.
I said I’m runnin’.
Ooh yes, babe, I said I’m comin’
to get you, babe. I said I’m comin’.
Ooh, yeah.
I’m findin’,
I’m findin’ my way back home.
Well, I’ve had it for now,
livin’ on the road.
Ooh, yeah.
Ooh, yeah.
Findin’ my way!
Need Some Love
I’m runnin’ here,

I’m runnin’ there.
I’m lookin’ for a girl.
‘Cause there’s nothin’ I need,
there’s nothin’ I want more
in the whole wide world.
Well, I need it quick

and I need it now,
before I start to fade away.
That’s why I’m searchin’,
that’s why I’m lookin’
each and ev’ry day.
Oo, I need some love.

I said I need some love!
Oo yes, I need some love
This feelin’ I can’t rise above.
Yeah, yeah!
Well I been hustlin’ here,

I been hustlin’ there.
I been searchin’ for about a week.
And I started feelin’
this strange sensation.
My knees are startin’ gettin’ weak.
Well I need what keeps

a young man alive;
I’m sayin’ I need it now.
I’m gonna get the message
across to you
someway, somehow.
Rush
5
Rush Lyrics
Oo, I need some love. 1974-1996
I said I need some love!
Oo yes, I need some love
This feelin’ I can’t rise above.
Oo, yeah yeah!
Take A Friend
Well, I’m lookin’ at you,

and I’m wond’rin’ what you’re gonna do.
Looks like you got no friends,
no one to stick with you till the end.
Take yourself a friend.

Keep ‘em till the end.
Whether woman or man,
it makes you feel so good,
so good.
Yes, you think you’re all right,

and now you’re lonely ev’ry night.
Well, you need a friend,
someone on whom you can always depend.

Kep ‘em till the end.
so good.
Yes, you need some advice.

Well, let me put it to you nice.
I said you need a friend,
someone who’ll stick with you to the end.

Kep ‘em till the end.
so good.
Rush
6
Rush Lyrics
Here Again 1974-1996
I said I played this song

so many times before
that the melody keeps repeating
growing new ideas,
flowing chords and notes
like a mountain river bleeding.
Well, I say as I look back,

And all the thoughts I’ve had,
They reflect just what I’m learning.
Yes, you know that the hardest part,
Yes, I say it is to stay on top,
On top of a world forever churning.
Well, you say you can laugh,

But I can see that your eyes are glass.
Well, do you see, can’t you see, what I’m feeling?
Yes, I’ve seen your face before.
Why, I’ve seen it everywhere,
Showing up to me without a scent revealing.
Well, I said will it ever change?

Will it stay the same?
I’d surely like to know before it’s over.
Well, I said I played some.
I said it won’t be long,
Won’t be long before I stop and play it over.
Oh, oh I’ve, I’ve seen your face before.

Is it ever gonna, ever gonna change again?
Oh, oh I’ve, I’ve been in one place too long.
Is it ever gonna, ever gonna change again?
Rush
7
Rush Lyrics
What You’re Doing 1974-1996
Well, I see you standin’ there

with your finger in the air.
Ev’rything we do,
you wanna leave it up to you.
Who do you think you are?

You think you are a star,
try’n’ to run the town,
always try’n’ to put us down.
Well, you think that you’re right.

You think you’re out of sight.
Tell me something, mister;
why’d you have to make us so uptight?
Well, you say you’ve been try’n’.

You know that you’re ly’n’.
I think you need some groovin’.
Who do you think you’re foolin’ now?
Well, you better start changin’.

You life needs rearrangin’.
You better do some talkin’
or you better do some walkin’ now.
Yeah, you think that you’re right.

You think you’re out of sight.
I know what you’re doing,

all that you been doin’ wrong.
I don’t know what you’re feelin’,
oh, but you been feelin’ long.
Well, you think that you’re right.

Rush
8
Rush Lyrics
In The Mood 1974-1996
Hey now, baby,

well, I like your smile.
Won’t you come and talk to me.
for a little while.
Well, you’re makin’ me crazy,

the way you roll them eyes.
Won’t you come and sit with me.
I’ll tell you all my lies.
Hey baby, it’s a quarter to eight.

I feel I’m in the mood.
Hey baby, the hour is late.
I feel I’ve got to move.
Well, hey now, baby,

Don’t you talk so fast.
I’m just try’n’ to make these good times,
I’m try’n’ to make it last.
Ev’rything’s getting hazy.

Now honey, where’d you go?
I just want to find out, baby,
where’d you learn what you know?

Well, hey now, baby,

said, I like your style.
You really got me, baby,
way down deep inside.
Oo, you drive me crazy.

Baby, you’re the one.
I just want to rock-and-roll you woman,
until the night is gone.

Rush
9
Rush Lyrics
Before And After 1974-1996
Love won’t see my comin’

on a Sunday noon today.
Still don’t believe we’re fadin’,
but now the world should wait.
And now you’re fina’lly list’nin’

to what I have to say.
Well, the time is right,
and it is today.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe we could talk about it

and try to get it straight.
After all these years, baby,
maybe it’s too late.
But I really need to

have you by my side,
And that’s the only feelin’,
baby, I can’t hide.
Well you aren’t list’nin’,

I ain’t talkin’,
we ain’t gettin’ nowhere.
I keep tryin’ to get

through to you baby.
All you do is stare.
I don’t wanna see that.

I need you by my side.
Well, I don’t want to be your lover.
Babe, I wanna be your man.
Well, now my story’s over, baby,

and I ain’t gonna tell it twice.
Well, you better start list’nin’,
or get out of my life.
Or you’re gonna be left out,

I said left out in the cold.
Yeah, before you get my lovin’,babe,
you’ll be too old.

Well, I’m talkin’ to you baby.

Well, I said
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rush
10
Rush Lyrics
Working Man 1974-1996
I get up at seven, yeah,

and I go to work at nine.
I got no time for livin’.
Yes, I’m workin’ all the time.
It seems to me
I could live my life
a lot better than I think I am.
I guess that’s why they call me,
they call me the workin’ man.
They call me the workin’ man.

I guess that’s what I am.
I get home at five o’clock,

and I take myself out a nice, cold beer.
Always seem to be wond’rin’
why there’s nothin’ goin’ down here.
It seems to me
I could live my life
a lot better than I think I am.
I guess that’s why they call me,
they call me the workin’ man.
They call me the workin’ man.

Well they call me the workin’ man.

Rush
11
Fly By Night
1975
Anthem
Best I Can
Beneath, Between and Behind
By-Tor and the Snowdog
Fly By Night
Making Memories
Rivendell
In The End
Rush Lyrics
Anthem 1974-1996
Know your place in life is where you want to be

Don’t let them tell you that you owe it all to me
Keep on looking forward; no use in looking ‘round
Hold your head above the ground and they won’t bring you down
Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind

A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind
We marvel after those who sought
New wonders in the world, wonders in the world,
Wonders in the world they wrought.
Live for yourself — there’s no one else

More worth living for
Begging hands and bleeding hearts will
Only cry out for more
Well, I know they’ve always told you

Selfishness was wrong
Yet it was for me, not you, I
Came to write this song
Best I Can
I’ve got a livin’ that’s rough, a future that’s tough

You know what I mean
Blankers and boasters, all the bluffers and posers
I’m not into that scene
You can tell me that I got no class

Look around, you’ll see who’s laughin’ last
Don’t give me speeches ‘cause they’re oh so droll
Leave me alone, let me rock and roll
Got an itchin’ to rock, a hate for small talk

I’m funny that way
Got my sights on the stars, won’t get that far
But I’ll try anyway
I just like to please, don’t like to tease
I’m easy like that
Don’t like long rests, I must confess
I’m an impatient cat
I do the best that I can

I’m just what I am
I do the best I can
Well, I know what I am
Rock and roll-in’s a scream, makin’ millions my dream

Well, I do that a lot
I’ll just give it a try, won’t let good times pass me by
They’re all I’ve got Fly By Night
13
Rush Lyrics
Beneath, Between And Behind 1974-1996
Ten score years ago, defeat the kingly foe

A wondrous dream came into being
Tame the trackless waste, no virgin land left chaste
All shining eyes, but never seeing
Beneath the noble birth

Between the proudest words
Behind the beauty, cracks appear
Once, with heads held high
They sang out to the sky
Why do their shadows bow in fear?
Watch the cities rise

Another ship arrives
Earth’s melting pot and ever growing
Fantastic dreams come true
Inventing something new
The greatest minds, and never knowing...
The guns replace the plow, facades are tarnished now

The principles have been betrayed
The dreams’s gone stale, but still, let hope prevail
History’s debt won’t be repaid
By-Tor And The Snow Dog
The Tobes of Hades, lit by flickering torchlight

The netherworld is gathered in the glare
Prince By-Tor takes the cavern to the north light
The sign of Eth is rising in the air.
By-Tor, knight of darkness,
Centurion of evil, devil’s prince.
Across the River Styx, out of the lamplight

His nemesis is waiting at the gate
The Snow Dog, ermine glowing in the damp night
Coal-black eyes shimmering with hate.
By-Tor and the Snow Dog
Square for battle, let the fray begin.
The battle’s over and the dust is clearing

Disciples of the Snow Dog sound the knell
Rejoicing echoes as the dawn is nearing
By-Tor in defeat retreats to Hell
Snow Dog is victorious
The land of the Overworld is saved again.
Fly By Night
14
Rush Lyrics
Fly By Night (original lyrics) 1974-1996
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
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
Is enough of a reason
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
Fly By Night
15
Rush Lyrics
Making Memories 1974-1996
There’s a time for feelin’ as good as we can

The time is now, and there’s no stoppin’ us
There’s a time for livin’ as high as we can
Behind us you will only see our dust.
You know we’re havin’ good days

And we hope they’re gonna last
Our future still looks brighter than our past
We feel no need to worry
No reason to be sad
Our mem’ries remind us, maybe road life’s not so bad.
Just keep smilin’, move onward ev’ry day

And try to keep our thoughts away from home
We’re trav’lin’ around, no time to settle down
And satisfy our wanderlust to roam.
Well from sea to shining sea, and a hundred points between

Still we go on diggin’ ev’ry show
The cities in the land all extend a welcome hand
Till morning when it’s time for us to go.
Rivendell
Sunlight dances through the leaves

Soft winds stir the sighing trees
Lying in the warm grass
Feel the sun upon your face
Elfin songs and endless nights
Sweet wine and soft relaxing lights
Time will never touch you
Here in this enchanted place
You feel there’s something calling you

You’re wanting to return
To where the misty mountains rise and friendly fires burn
A place you can escape the world
Where the dark lord cannot go
Peace of mind and sanctuary by loud water’s flow
I’ve traveled now for many miles

It feels so good to see the smiles of
Friends who never left your mind
When you were far away
From the golden light of coming dawn
Till the twilight where the sun is gone
We treasure ev’ry season
And ev’ry passing day
Fly By Night
16
Rush Lyrics
We feel the coming of a new day 1974-1996
Darkness gives way to light a new way
Stop here for a while until the world,
The world calls you away
Yet you know I’ve had the feeling
Standing with my senses reeling
This is the place to grow old till
I reach my final day.
In The End
Well, I can see what you mean

It just takes me longer
And I can feel what you feel
It just makes you stronger
I know, I know, I know

Oh, the feeling grows
I see, I see, I see
It’s got to be
You can take me for a little while
You can take me, you can make me smile in the end
Well, I can do what you do

You just do it better
And I can cry like you cry
It just makes me sadder
Well, I can shine like you shine

It doesn’t make me brighter
But if I think like you think
It don’t make my load much lighter
Fly By Night
17
Caress Of Steel
1976
Bastille Day
I Think I'm Going Bald
Lakeside Park
The Necromancer
I. Into Darkness
II. Under The Shadow
III. Return of the Prince
The Fountain of Lamneth
I. In the Valley
II. Didacts and Narpets
III. No One at the Bridge
IV. Panacea
V. Bacchus Plateau
VI. The Fountain
Rush Lyrics
Bastille Day 1974-1996
There’s no bread, let them eat cake

There’s no end to what they’ll take
Flaunt the fruits of noble birth
Wash the salt into the earth
But they’re marching to Bastille Day
La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Free the dungeons of the innocent
The king will kneel, and let his kingdom rise
Bloodstained velvet, dirty lace

Naked fear on every face
See them bow their heads to die
As we would bow as they rode by
And we’re marching to Bastille Day

La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Sing, o choirs of cacophony
The king has kneeled, to let his kingdom rise.
Lessons taught but never learned

All around us anger burns
Guide the future by the past
Long ago the mould was cast
For they marched up to Bastille Day

La guillotine — claimed her bloody prize
Hear the echoes of the centuries
Power isn’t all that money buys
I Think I’m Going Bald
I looked in the mirror today

My eyes just didn’t seem so bright
I’ve lost a few more hairs
I think I’m going bald
I think I’m going bald
Seems like only yesterday
We would sit and talk of dreams all night
Dreams of youth
And simple truths
Now we’re so involved
So involved with life
Walk down vanity fair

Memory lane everywhere
Wall Street shuffles there
Dressed in flowing hair
Caress Of Steel
19
Rush Lyrics
Once we loved the flowers 1974-1996
Now we ask the price of the land
Once we would take water
But now it must be wine
Now we’ve been
And now we’ve seen
What price peace of mind
Take a piece of my mind
My life is slipping away

I’m aging every day
But even when I’m grey
I’ll still be grey my way
Lakeside Park
Midway hawkers calling

Try your luck with me
Merry-go-round wheezing
The same old melody
A thousand ten cent wonders
Who could ask for more
A pocketful of silver
The key to heaven’s door
Lakeside Park
Willows in the breeze
Lakeside Park
So many memories
Laughing rides
Midway lights
Shining stars on summer nights
Days of barefoot freedom

Racing with the waves
Nights of starlit secrets
Crackling driftwood flames
Drinking by the lighthouse
Smoking on the pier
Still we saw the magic
Fading every year
Everyone would gather

On the twenty fourth of May
Sitting in the sand
To watch the fireworks display
Dancing fires on the beach
Singing songs together
Though it’s just a memory
Some memories last forever
Caress Of Steel
20
Rush Lyrics
The Necromancer 1974-1996
I. Into Darkness
As grey traces of dawn tinge the eastern sky, the three travelers, men of
Willow Dale, emerge from the forest shadow. Fording the River Dawn, they turn south, journeying
into the dark and forbidding lands of the Necromancer.
Even now the intensity of his dread power can be felt, weakening the body and
saddening the heart. Ultimately they will become empty, mindless spectres,
stripped of will and soul. Only their thirst for freedom gives them hunger for
vengeance...
Silence shrouds the forest

As the birds announce the dawn
Three trav’llers ford the river
And southward journey on
The road is lined with peril
The air is charged with fear
The shadow of his nearness
Weighs like iron tears
II. Under the Shadow
Shreds of black cloud loom in overcast skies. The Necromancer keeps watch
with his magic prism eyes. He views all his lands and is already aware
of the three helpless invaders trapped in his lair...
Brooding in the tower

Watching o’er his land
Holding ev’ry creature
Helplessly they stand
Gaze into his prisms
Knowing they are near
Lead them to the dungeons
Spectres numb with fear
They bow defeated
III. Return of the Prince
Enter the Champion.

Prince By-Tor appears to battle for freedom from chains of long years.
The spell has been broken...the Dark Lands are bright, the Wraith of the
Necromancer soars away...in the night.
Stealthily attacking
By-Tor slays his foe
The men are free to run now
From labyrinths below
The Wraith of Necromancer
Shadows through the sky
Another land to darken
With evil prism eye... Caress Of Steel
21
Rush Lyrics
The Fountain Of Lamneth 1974-1996
I. In the Valley
I am born
I am me
I am new
I am free
Look at me
I am young
Sight unseen
Life unsung
My eyes have just been opened

And they’re open very wide
Images around me
Don’t identify inside
Just one blur I recognize
The one that soothes and feeds
My way of life is easy
And as simple are my needs
Yet my eyes are drawn toward

The mountain in the east
Fascinates and captivates
Gives my heart no peace
The mountain holds the sunrise
In the prison of the night
Till bursting forth from rocky chains
The valley floods with light
Living one long sunrise

For to me all things are new
I’ve never watched the sky grow pale
Or strolled through fields of dew
I do not know of dust to dust
I live from breath to breath
I live to climb that mountain to
II. Didacts and Narpets
Listen...
III. No One At the Bridge
Crying back to consciousness

The coldness grips my skin
The sky is pitching violently
Drawn by shrieking winds
Seaspray blurs my vision
Waves roll by so fast
Save my ship of freedom Caress Of Steel
22
Rush Lyrics
I’m lashed helpless to the mast 1974-1996
Call out for direction
And there’s no one there to steer
Shout out for salvation
But there’s no one there to hear
Cry out supplication
For the maelstrom is near
Scream out desperation
But no one cares to hear
Remembering when first I held

The wheel in my own hands
I took the helm so eagerly
And sailed for distant lands
But now the sea’s too heavy
And I just don’t understand
Why must my crew desert me
When I need a guiding hand
IV. Panacea
The whiteness of confusion

Is unfolding from my mind
I stare around in wonder
Have I left my life behind
I catch the scent of ambergris

And turn my head... surprised
My gaze is caught and held
And I am helpless, mesmerized
Panacea — liquid grace

Oh let me touch your fragile face
Enchantment falls around me
And I know I cannot leave
Here’s a meaning for my life

A shelter from the storm
Pacify my troubles with
Her body, soft and warm
Naked in our unity
A smile for every tear
Gentle hands that promise me
Comfort through the years
Yet I know I must be gone
Before the light of dawn
Panacea — passion pure

I can’t resist your gentle lure
My heart will lie beside you
And my wandering body grieves
Caress Of Steel
23
Rush Lyrics
V. Bacchus Plateau 1974-1996
Another endless day

Silhouettes of grey
Another glass of wine
Drink with eyes that shine
To days without that chill at morning
Long nights time out of mind
Draw another goblet

From the cask of ’43
Crimson misty memory
Hazy glimpse of me
Give me back my wonder
— I’ve something more to give
I guess it doesn’t matter
— There’s not much more to live
Another foggy dawn

The mountain almost gone
Another doubtful fear
The road is not so clear
My soul grows ever weary
And the end is ever near
VI. The Fountain
Look... the mist is rising

And the sun is peaking through
See, the steps grow lighter
As I reach their final few
Hear, the dancing waters
I must be drawing near
Feel, my heart is pounding
With embattled hope and fear
Now, at last I fall before

I thought I would be singing
But I’m tired... out of breath
Many journeys end here
But, the secret’s told the same
Life is just a candle
And a dream must give it flame I’m in motion
I am still
The key, the end, the answer I am crying
Stripped of their disguise I am still
Still it’s all confusion I’m together
And tears spring to my eyes I’m apart
Though I’ve reached a signpost I’m forever
It’s really not the end At the start
Like Old Sol behind the mountain
I’ll be coming up again... Still I am, the same...
Caress Of Steel
24
2112
1976
2112
I. Overture
II. Temples of Syrinx
III. Discovery
IV. Presentation
V. Oracle: The Dream
VI. Soliloquy
VII. The Grand Finale
A Passage To Bangkok
The Twilight Zone
Lessons
Tears
Something For Nothing
Rush Lyrics
2112 1974-1996
I. Overture
“And the meek shall inherit the earth.”
II. 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.
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.

Our great computers fill the hallowed halls.
All the gifts of life are held within our walls.
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
Sounds 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.
2112
26
Rush Lyrics
IV. Presentation 1974-1996
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.
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.
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.
2112
27
Rush Lyrics
V. Oracle: The Dream 1974-1996
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..
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. The Grand Finale
Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation

We have assumed control.
2112
28
Rush Lyrics
1974-1996
A Passage To Bangkok
Our first stop is in Bogota

To check Colombian fields
The natives smile and pass along
A sample of their yield
Sweet Jamaican pipe dreams
Golden Acapulco nights
Then Morocco, and the East,
Fly by morning light
We’re on the train to Bangkok

Aboard the Thailand Express
We’ll hit the stops along the way
We only stop for the best
Wreathed in smoke in Lebanon

We burn the midnight oil
The fragrance of Afghanistan
Rewards a long day’s toil
Pulling into Katmandu
Smoke rings fill the air
Perfumed by a Nepal night
The Express gets you there
The Twilight Zone
A pleasant faced man steps up to greet you

He smiles and says he’s pleased to meet you
Beneath his hat the strangeness lies
Take it off, he’s got three eyes
Truth is false and logic lost
Now the fourth dimension is crossed
You have entered the Twilight Zone

Beyond this world strange things are known
Use the key, unlock the door
See what your fate might have in store
Come explore your dreams’ creation
Enter this world of imagination
Wake up lost in an empty town

Wondering why no one else is around
Look up to see a giant boy
You’ve just become his brand new toy
No escape, no place to hide
Here where Time and Space collide
2112
29
Rush Lyrics
Lessons 1974-1996
Sweet memories Flashing very quickly by

Reminding me Giving me a reason why
I know that My goal is more than a thought
I’ll be there When I teach what I’ve been taught
You know we’ve told you before

But you didn’t hear us then
So you still question why
You didn’t listen again
Sweet memories I never thought it would be like this

Reminding me Just how close I came to missing
I know that This is the way for me to go
You’ll be there When you know what I know
Tears
All of the seasons

And all of the days
All of the reasons
Why I’ve felt this way
So long
So long
Then lost in that feeling

I looked in your eyes
I noticed emotion
And that you had cried
For me
I can see
What would touch me deeper

Tears that fall from eyes
That only cry?
Would it touch you deeper
Than tears that fall from eyes
That know why?
A lifetime of questions
Tears on your cheek
I tasted the answers
And my body was weak
For you
The truth
2112
30
Rush Lyrics
Something For Nothing 1974-1996
Waiting for the winds of change

To sweep the clouds away
Waiting for the rainbow’s end
To cast its gold your way
Countless ways
You pass the days
Waiting for someone to call

And turn your world around
Looking for an answer to
The question you have found
Looking for
An open door
You don’t get something for nothing

You don’t get freedom for free
You won’t get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dreams might be
What you own is your own kingdom

What you do is your own glory
What you love is your own power
What you live is your own story
In your head is the answer
Let it guide you along
Let your heart be the anchor
And the beat of your own song
2112
31
Farewell To Kings
1977
A Farewell to Kings
Xanadu
Closer To The Heart
Cinderella Man
Madrigal
Cygnus X-1
Rush Lyrics
A Farewell to Kings 1974-1996
When they turn the pages of history

When these days have passed long ago
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow
We turned our gaze
From the castles in the distance
Eyes cast down
On the path of least resistance
Cities full of hatred

Fear and lies
Withered hearts
And cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons
Dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude
And scoffing at the wise
The hypocrites are slandering

The sacred halls of Truth
Ancient nobles showering
Their bitterness on youth
Can’t we find
The minds that made us strong
Can’t we learn
To feel what’s right and wrong
Cities full of hatred

Fear and lies
Withered hearts
And cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons
Dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude
And scoffing at the wise
Can’t we raise our eyes
And make a start
Can’t we find the minds
To lead us closer to the Heart
Farewell To Kings
33
Rush Lyrics
Xanadu 1974-1996
“To seek the sacred river Alph

To walk the caves of ice
To break my fast on honey dew
And drink the milk of Paradise...”
I had heard the whispered tales

Of immortality
The deepest mystery
From an ancient book. I took a clue
I scaled the frozen mountain tops
Of eastern lands unknown
Time and Man alone
Searching for the lost — Xanadu
Xanadu — To stand within The Pleasure Dome

Decreed by Kubla Khan
To taste anew the fruits of life
The last immortal man
To find the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
Oh, I will dine on honey dew
And drink the milk of Paradise
A thousand years have come and gone

But time has passed me by
Stars stopped in the sky
Frozen in an everlasting view
Waiting for the world to end
Weary of the night
Praying for the light
Prison of the lost — Xanadu
Xanadu — Held within The Pleasure Dome

Decreed by Kubla Khan
To taste my bitter triumph
As a mad immortal man
Nevermore shall I return
Escape these caves of ice
For I have dined on honey dew
And drunk the milk of Paradise
Farewell To Kings
34
Rush Lyrics
Closer To The Heart 1974-1996
And the men who hold high places

Must be the ones to start
To mould a new reality
Closer to the Heart
The Blacksmith and the Artist

Reflect it in their art
Forge their creativity
Closer to the Heart
Philosophers and Ploughmen

Each must know his part
To sow a new mentality
Closer to the Heart
You can be the Captain

I will draw the Chart
Sailing into destiny
Closer to the Heart
Cinderella Man
A modest man from Mandrake

Travelled rich to the city
He had a need to discover
A use for his newly-found wealth
Because he was human

Because he had goodness
Because he was moral
They called him insane
Delusions of grandeur
Visions of splendour
A manic depressive
He walks in the rain
Eyes wide open

Heart undefended
Innocence untarnished
Cinderella Man
Doing what you can
They can’t understand
What it means
Cinderella Man
Hang on to your plans
Try as they might
They cannot steal your dreams Farewell To Kings
35
Rush Lyrics
In the betrayal of his love he awakened 1974-1996
To face a world of cold reality
And a look in the eyes of the hungry
Awakened him to what he could do
He held up his riches

To challenge the hungry
Purposeful motion
For one so insane
They tried to fight him

Just couldn’t beat him
This manic depressive
Who walks in the rain
Madrigal
When the dragons grow too mighty

To slay with pen or sword
I grow weary of the battle
And the storm I walk toward
When all around is madness
And there’s no safe port in view
I long to turn my path homeward
To stop awhile with you
When life becomes so barren

And as cold as winter skies
There’s a beacon in the darkness
In a distant pair of eyes
In vain to search for order
In vain to search for truth
But these things can still be given
Your love has shown me proof
Cygnus X-1
Book One — The Voyage

Prologue
In the constellation of Cygnus

There lurks a mysterious, invisible force
The Black Hole
Of Cygnus X-1
Six Stars of the Northern Cross

In mourning for their sister’s loss
In a final flash of glory
Nevermore to grace the night...
Farewell To Kings
36
Rush Lyrics
1 1974-1996
Invisible
To telescopic eye
Infinity
The star that would not die
All who dare

To cross her course
Are swallowed by
A fearsome force
Through the void

To be destroyed
Or is there something more?
Atomized — at the core
Or through the Astral Door —
To soar...
I set a course just east of Lyra

And northwest of Pegasus
Flew into the light of Deneb
Sailed across the Milky Way
On my ship, the ‘Rocinante’

Wheeling through the galaxies,
Headed for the heart of Cygnus
Headlong into mystery
The x-ray is her siren song

My ship cannot resist her long
Nearer to my deadly goal
Until the Black Hole —
Gains control...
Spinning, whirling,
Still descending
Like a spiral sea,
Unending
Sound and fury

Drowns my heart
Every nerve
Is torn apart....
To be continued
Farewell To Kings
37
Hemispheres
1978
Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres

I. Prelude
II. Apollo: Bringer of Wisdom
III. Dionysus: Bringer of Love
IV. Armageddon: The Battle of Heart and Mind
V. Cygnus: Bringer of Balance
VI. The Sphere: A Kind of Dream
Circumstances
The Trees
La Villa Strangiato (Instrumental)
Rush Lyrics
Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres 1974-1996
I. Prelude
When our weary world was young

The struggle of the ancients first began.
The gods of Love and Reason
Sought alone to rule the fate of Man.
They battled through the ages,

But still neither force would yield.
The people were divided,
Every soul a battlefield.
II. Apollo: Bringer of Wisdom
“I bring truth and understanding,

I bring wit and wisdom fair,
Precious gifts beyond compare.
We can build a world of wonder,
I can make you all aware.
I will find you food and shelter,
Show you fire to keep you warm
Through the endless winter storm.
You can live in grace and comfort
In the world that you transform.”
The people were delighted

Coming forth to claim their prize
They ran to build their cities
And converse among the wise.
But one day the streets fell silent,
Yet they knew not what was wrong.
The urge to build these fine things
Seemed not to be so strong.
The wise men were consulted,
And the Bridge of Death was crossed
In quest of Dionysus,
To find out what they had lost.
III. Dionysus: Bringer of Love
“I bring love to give you solace

In the darkness of the night,
In the Heart’s eternal light.
You need only trust your feelings;
Only love can steer you right.
I bring laughter, I bring music,
I bring joy and I bring tears.
I will soothe your primal fears.
Throw off those chains of reason
And your prison disappears.” Hemispheres
39
Rush Lyrics
The cities were abandoned, 1974-1996
And the forests echoed song.
They danced and lived as brothers;
They knew love could not be wrong.
Food and wine they had aplenty
And they slept beneath the stars.
The people were contented
And the Gods watched from afar.
But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared,
Bringing wolves and cold starvation,
And the hearts of men despaired.
IV. Armageddon: The Battle of Heart and Mind
The Universe divided

As the Heart and Mind collided,
With the people left unguided
For so many troubled years.
In a cloud of doubts and fears,
Their world was torn asunder into hollow Hemispheres.
Some fought themselves, some fought each other.

Most just followed one another,
Lost and aimless like their brothers,
For their hearts were so unclear,
And the truth could not appear.
Their spirits were divided into blinded Hemispheres.
Some who did not fight

Brought tales of old to light.
My Rocinante’ sailed by night
On her final flight.
To the heart of Cygnus’ fearsome force
We set our course.
Spiralled through that timeless space
To this immortal place.
V. Cygnus: Bringer of Balance
I have memory and awareness,

But I have no shape or form.
As a disembodied spirit,
I am dead and yet unborn.
I have passed into Olympus
As was told in tales of old,
To the city of Immortals,
Marble white and purest gold.
I see the gods in battle rage on high,

Thunderbolts across the sky.
I cannot move, I cannot hide, Hemispheres
I feel a silent scream begin inside. 40
Rush Lyrics
Then all at once the chaos ceased. 1974-1996
A stillness fell, a sudden peace.
The warriors felt my silent cry
And stayed their struggle, mystified.
Apollo was atonished;

Dionysus thought me mad.
But they heard my story further,
And they wondered, and were sad.
Looking down from Olympus

On a world of doubt and fear,
Its surface splintered
Into sorry Hemispheres.
They sat a while in silence,

Then they turned at last to me.
“We will call you Cygnus,
The god of Balance you shall be.”
The Sphere: A Kind of Dream
We can walk our road together

If our goals are all the same.
We can run alone and free
If we pursue a different aim.
Let the truth of love be lighted,
Let the love of truth shine clear.
Sensibility, armed with sense and liberty,
With the Heart and Mind united in a single perfect Sphere.
Circumstances
A boy alone, so far from home,

Endless rooftops from my window.
I felt the gloom of empty rooms
On rainy afternoons.
Sometimes, in confusion,
I felt so lost and disillusioned,
Innocence gave me confidence
To go up against reality.
All the same, we take our chances,

Laughed at by Time,
Tricked by Circumstances.
Plus ca change,
Plus c’est la meme chose,
The more that things change,
The more they stay the same.
Hemispheres
41
Rush Lyrics
Now I’ve gained some understanding 1974-1996
Of the only world that we see.
Things that I once dreamed of
Have become reality.
These walls that still surround me
Still contain the same old me,
Just one more who’s searching for a world that ought to be.
The Trees
There is unrest in the forest,

There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.
The trouble with the maples,

(And they’re quite convinced the’re right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
But the oaks can’t help their feelings
If they like the way they’re made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can’t be happy in their shade.
There is trouble in the forest,

And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream ‘Oppression‘
And the oaks, just shake their heads
So the maples formed a union

And demanded equal rights.
“The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light.”
Now there’s no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.
Hemispheres
42
Permanent Waves
1980
The Spirit of Radio

Freewill
Jacob's Ladder
Entre Nous
Different Strings
Natural Science
1. Tide Pools
2. Hyperspace
3. Permanent Waves
Rush Lyrics
The Spirit of Radio 1974-1996
Begin the day with a friendly voice,

A companion unobtrusive
Plays the 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 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.
For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall,
Concert hall
And echoes with the sounds of salesmen.
Permanent Waves
44
Rush Lyrics
Freewill 1974-1996
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 playthings,
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 Free Will.
There are those who think that they were dealt a losing hand,
The cards were stacked against them- they weren’t born in Lotus-Land.
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.
Each of us-
A cell of awareness-
Imperfect and incomplete.
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt that’s far too fleet.
Jacob’s Ladder
The clouds prepare for battle

In the dark and brooding silence.
Bruised and sullen stormclouds
Have the light of day obscured.
Looming low and ominous
In twilight premature
Thunderheads are rumbling
In a distant overture...
All at once, the clouds are parted.

Light streams down in bright unbroken beams...
Follow men’s eyes as they look to the skies.

The shifting shafts of shining weave the fabric of their dreams...
Permanent Waves
45
Rush Lyrics
Entre Nous 1974-1996
We are secrets to each other

Each one’s life a novel
No-one else has read.
Even joined in bonds of love,
We’re linked to one another
By such slender threads.
We are planets to each other,

Drifting in our orbits
To a brief eclipse.
Each of us a world apart,
Alone and yet together,
Like two passing ships.
Just between us,

I think it’s time for us to recognize
The differences we sometimes fear to show.
Just between us,
I think it’s time for us to realize,
The spaces in between
Leave room for you and I to grow.
We are strangers to each other,

Full of sliding panels,
An illusion show.
Acting well-rehearsed routines
Or playing from the heart?
It’s hard for one to know.
We are islands to each other,

Building hopeful bridges
On a troubled sea.
Some are burned or swept away,
Some we would not choose,
But we’re not always free.
Permanent Waves
46
Rush Lyrics
Different Strings 1974-1996
Who’s come to slay the dragon,

Come to watch him fall?
Making arrows out of pointed words,
Giant killers at the call?
Too much fuss and bother,
Too much contradiction and confusion.
Peel away the mystery,
Here’s a clue to some real motivation.
All there really is,

The two of us,
And we both know why we’ve come along.
Nothing to explain,
It’s a part of us
To be found within a song.
What happened to our innocence,

Did it go out of style?
Along with our naivete’,
No longer a child.
Different eyes see different things,
Different hearts beat on different strings.
But there are times
For you and me, when all such things agree.
Natural Science
1. Tide Pools
When the ebbing tide retreats
Along the rocky shoreline,
It leaves a trail of tidal pools
In a short-lived galaxy.
Each microcosmic planet
A complete society.
A simple kind mirror

To reflect upon our own.
All the busy little creatures
Chasing out their destinies.
Living in their pools,
They soon forget about the sea...
Wheels within wheels in a spiral array,

A pattern so grand and complex,
Time after time we lose sight of the way,
Our causes can’t see their effects.
Permanent Waves
47
Rush Lyrics
2. Hyerspace 1974-1996
A quantum leap forward
In time and in space,
The universe learned to expand.
The mess and the magic,

Triumphant and tragic,
A mechanized world out of hand.
Computerized clinic
For superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band.
In their own image,

Their world is fashioned.
No wonder they don’t understand.
3. Permanent Waves
Science, like nature
Must also be tamed
With a view towards its preservation.
Given the same
State of integrity,
It will surely serve us well.
Art as expression,
Not as market campaigns
Will still capture our imaginations.
Given the same
State of integrity,
It will surely help us along.
The most endangered species,

The honest man,
Will still survive annihilation.
Forming a world
State of integrity,
Sensitive, open and strong.
Wave after wave will flow with the tide, and bury the world as it does.
Tide after tide will flow and recede, leaving life to go on as it was...
Permanent Waves
48
Moving Pictures
1981
Tom Sawyer
Red Barchetta
YYZ
Limelight
The Camera Eye
Witch Hunt
Vital Signs
Rush Lyrics
Tom Sawyer 1974-1996
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.
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.
Moving Pictures
50
Rush Lyrics
Red Barchetta 1974-1996
My uncle has a country place

That no one knows about.
He says it used to be a farm,
Before the Motor Law.
And on Sundays I elude the Eyes,
And hop the Turbine Freight
To far outside the Wire,
Where my white-haired uncle waits.
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.
I strip away the old debris

That hides a shining car.
A brilliant red Barchetta
From a better, vanished time.
I fire up the willing engine,
Responding with a roar.
Tires spitting gravel,
I commit my weekly crime...
Wind-
In my hair-
Shifting and drifting-
Mechanical music-
Adrenalin surge...
Well-weathered leather,
Hot metal and oil,
The scented country air.
Sunlight on chrome,
The blur of the landscape,
Every nerve aware.
Suddenly ahead of me,

Across the mountainside,
A gleaming alloy air-car
Shoots towards me, two lanes wide.
I spin around with shrieking tires,
To run the deadly race,
Go screaming through the valley
As another joins the chase.
Moving Pictures
51
Rush Lyrics
Drive like the wind, 1974-1996
Straining the limits of machine and man.
Laughing out loud
With fear and hope, I’ve got a desperate plan.
At the one-lane bridge
I leave the giants stranded at the riverside.
Race back to the farm, to dream with my uncle at the fireside.
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 fisheye 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.
Moving Pictures
52
Rush Lyrics
The Camera Eye 1974-1996
I
Grim-faced and forbidding,
Their faces closed tight,
An angular mass of New Yorkers
Pacing in rhythm,
Race the oncoming night,
They chase through the streets of Manhattan.
Head-first humanity,
Pause at a light,
Then flow through the streets of the city.
They seem oblivious

To a soft spring rain,
Like an English rain
So light, yet endless
From a leaden sky.
The buildings are lost

In their limitless rise.
My feet catch the pulse
And the purposeful stride.
I feel the sense of possibilities,

I feel the wrench of hard realities.
The focus is sharp in the city.
II
Wide-angle watcher
On life’s ancient tales,
Steeped in the history of London.
Green and grey washes

In a wispy white veil
Mist in the streets of Westminster.
Wistful and weathered,
The pride still prevails,
Alive in the streets of the city.
Are they oblivious

To this quality?
A quality
Of light unique to
Every city’s streets.
Pavements may teem

With intense energy,
But the city is calm
In this violent sea.
Moving Pictures
53
Rush Lyrics
Witch Hunt (Part III of Fear) 1974-1996
The night is black,

Without a moon.
The air is thick and still.
The vigilantes gather on

The lonely torchlit hill.
Features distorted in the flickering light,

The faces are twisted and grotesque.
Silent and stern in the sweltering night,
The mob moves like demons possesed.
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right,
Confident their ways are best.
The righteous rise

With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will.
Madmen fed on fear and lies

To beat and burn and kill.
They say there are strangers who threaten us,

In our immigrants and infidels.
They say there is strangeness, too dangerous
In our theatres and bookstore shelves,
That those who know what’s best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves.
Quick to judge,
Quick to anger,
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice

And fear
Walk hand in hand.
Moving Pictures
54
Rush Lyrics
Vital Signs 1974-1996
Unstable condition,
A symptom of life,
In mental and environmental change.
Atmospheric disturbance,
The feverish flux
Of human interface and interchange.
The impulse is pure;

Sometimes our circuits get shorted
By external interference.
Signals get crossed
And the balance distorted
By internal incoherence.
A tired mind become a shape-shifter,

Everybody need a mood lifter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to deviate from the norm.
An ounce of perception,
A pound of obscure.
Process information at half speed.
Pause, rewind, replay,
Warm memory chip,
Random sample, hold the one you need.
Leave out the fiction,

The fact is, this friction
Will only be worn by persistence.
Leave out conditions,
Courageous convictions
Will drag the dream into existence.
A tired mind become a shape-shifter,

Everybody need a soft filter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm...
Moving Pictures
55
Signals
1982
Subdivisions
The Analog Kid
Chemistry
Digital Man
The Weapon
New World Man
Losing It
Countdown
Rush Lyrics
Subdivisions 1974-1996
Sprawling on the fringes of the city

In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown
Growing up it all seems so one-sided

Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone
Subdivisions —
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions —
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth
Drawn like moths we drift into the city

The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night
Some will sell their dreams for small desires

Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory of lighted streets on quiet nights...
Signals
57
Rush Lyrics
The Analog Kid 1974-1996
A hot and windy August afternoon

Has the trees in constant motion
With a flash of silver leaves
As they’re rocking in the breeze
The boy lies in the grass with one blade

Stuck between his teeth
A vague sensation quickens
In his young and restless heart
And a bright and nameless vision
Has him longing to depart
You move me —
You move me —
With your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and winter skies
You move me —
You move me —
Open sea and city lights
Busy streets and dizzy heights
You call me —
You call me —
The fawn-eyed girl with sun-browned legs

Dances on the edge of his dream
And her voice rings in his ears
Like the music of the spheres
The boy lies in the grass, unmoving

Staring at the sky
His mother starts to call him
As a hawk goes soaring by
The boy pulls down his baseball cap
And covers up his eyes
Too many hands on my time

Too many feelings —
Too many things on my mind
When I leave I don’t know
What I’m hoping to find
When I leave I don’t know
What I’m leaving behind...
Signals
58
Rush Lyrics
Chemistry 1974-1996
Signals transmitted
Message received
Reaction making impact —
Invisibly
Elemental telepathy
Exchange of energy
Reaction making contact —
Mysteriously
Eye to I
Reaction burning hotter
Two to one
Reflection on the water
H to O
No flow without the other
Oh but how
Do they make contact
With one another?
Electricity? Biology?
Seems to me it’s Chemistry
Emotion transmitted
Emotion received
Music in the abstract —
Positively
Elemental empathy
A change of synergy
Music making contact —
Naturally
One, two, three —

Add without subtraction
Sound on sound
Multiplied reaction
H to O
No flow without the other
Oh but how
Do we make contact
With one another?
Signals
59
Rush Lyrics
Digital Man 1974-1996
His world is under observation —

We monitor his station
Under faces and the places
Where he traces points of view
He picks up scraps of conversation —

Radio and radiation
From the dancers and romancers
With the answers — but no clue
He’d love to spend the night in Zion

He’s been a long while in Babylon
He’d like a lover’s wings to fly on
To a tropic isle of Avalon
His world is under anaesthetic —

Subdivided and synthetic
His reliance on the giants
In the science of the day
He picks up scraps of information —

He’s adept at adaptation
‘Cause for strangers and arrangers
Constant change is here to stay
He’s got a force field and a flexible plan

He’s got a date with fate in a black sedan
He plays fast forward for as long as he can
But he won’t need a bed —
He’s a digital man
The Weapon (Part II of Fear)
We’ve got nothing to fear — but fear itself?

Not pain or failure, not fatal tragedy?
Not the faulty units in this mad machinery?
Not the broken contacts in emotional chemistry?
With an iron fist in a velvet glove

We are sheltered under the gun
In the glory game on the power train
Thy kingdom’s will be done
And the things that we fear are a weapon to be held against us...
He’s not afraid of your judgement

He knows of horrors worse than your Hell
He’s a little bit afraid of dying —
But he’s a lot more afraid of your lying
Signals
60
Rush Lyrics
And the things that he fears are a weapon to be held against him... 1974-1996
Can any part of life — be larger than life?

Even love must be limited by time
And those who push us down that they might climb —
Is any killer worth more than his crime?
Like a steely blade in a silken sheath

We don’t see what they’re made of
They shout about love, but when push comes to shove
They live for the things they’re afraid of
And the knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them...
New World Man
He’s a rebel and a runner

He’s a signal turning green
He’s a restless young romantic
Wants to run the big machine
He’s got a problem with his poisons

But you know he’ll find a cure
He’s cleaning up his systems
To keep his nature pure
Learning to match the beat of the Old World man

Learning to catch the heat of the Third World man
He’s got to make his own mistakes

And learn to mend the mess he makes
He’s old enough to know what’s right
But young enough not to choose it
He’s noble enough to win the world
But weak enough to lose it —
He’s a New World man...
He’s a radio receiver

Tuned to factories and farms
He’s a writer and arranger
And a young boy bearing arms
He’s got a problem with his power

With weapons on patrol
He’s got to walk a fine line
And keep his self-control
Trying to save the day for the Old World man

Trying to pave the way for the Third World man
Signals
61
Rush Lyrics
He’s not concerned with yesterday 1974-1996
He knows constant change is here today
He’s noble enough to know what’s right
But weak enough not to choose it
He’s wise enough to win the world
But fool enough to lose it —
He’s a New World man...
Losing It
The dancer slows her frantic pace

In pain and desperation,
Her aching limbs and downcast face
Aglow with perspiration
Stiff as wire, her lungs on fire,

With just the briefest pause —
The flooding through her memory,
The echoes of old applause.
She limps across the floor

And closes her bedroom door...
The writer stare with glassy eyes —

Defies the empty page
His beard is white, his face is lined
And streaked with tears of rage.
Thirty years ago, how the words would flow

With passion and precision,
But now his mind is dark and dulled
By sickness and indecision
And he stares out the kitchen door

Where the sun will rise no more...
Some are born to move the world —

To live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about
The things we’d like to be
Sadder still to watch it die

Than never to have known it
For you — the blind who once could see —
The bell tolls for thee...
Signals
62
Rush Lyrics
Countdown 1974-1996
Lit up with anticipation

We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
Circling choppers slash the night

With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
Floodlit in the hazy distance

The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon
Crackling speakers, voices tense

Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount
The air is charged — a humid, motionless mass

The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick — you could cut it with a knife
Technology — high, on the leading edge of life
The earth beneath us starts to tremble

With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding
Scorching blast of golden fire

As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound
Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers

High in the air
In fascination — with the eyes of the world
We stare...
Signals
63
Grace Under Pressure
1984
Distant Early Warning

Afterimage
Red Sector A
The Enemy Within
The Body Electric
Kid Gloves
red lenses
Between the Wheel
Rush Lyrics
Distant Early Warning 1974-1996
An ill wind comes arising

Across the cities of the plain
There’s no swimming in the heavy water —
No singing in the acid rain
Red alert
Red alert
It’s so hard to stay together

Passing through revolving doors
We need someone to talk to
And someone to sweep the floors —
Incomplete
Incomplete
The world weighs on my shoulders

But what am I to do?
You sometimes drive me crazy —
But I worry about you
I know it makes on difference

To what you’re going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg —
And I worry about you...
Cruising under your radar

Watching from satellites
Take a page from the red book —
Keep them in your sights
Red alert
Red alert
Left and rights of passage

Black and whites of youth
Who can face the knowledge
That the truth is not the truth?
Obsolete
Absolute

65
Rush Lyrics
Afterimage 1974-1996
Suddenly —
You were gone
From all the lives
You left your mark upon
I remember —
How we talked and drank
Into the misty dawn
— I hear the voices
We ran by the water

On the wet summer lawn
— I see the foot prints
I remember —
— I feel the way you would

— I feel the way you would
Tried to believe
But you know it’s no good
This is something
That just can’t be understood
I remember —
The shouts of joy
Skiing fast through the woods
— I hear the echoes
I learned your love for life

I feel the way that you would
— I feel your presence
I remember —
I feel the way you would

This just can’t be understood...

66
Rush Lyrics
Red Sector A 1974-1996
All that we can do is just survive

All that we can do to help ourselves is stay alive...
Ragged lines of ragged grey

Skeletons, they shuffle away
Shouting guards and smoking guns
Will cut down the unlucky ones
I clutch the wire fence until my fingers bleed

A wound that will not heal — a heart that cannot feel —
Hoping that the horror will recede
Hoping that tomorrow, we’ll all be freed
Sickness to insanity
Prayer to profanity
Days and weeks and months go by
Don’t feel the hunger — too weak to cry
I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gate

Are the liberators here — do I hope or do I fear?
For my father and my brother, it’s too late
But I must help my mother stand up straight...
Are we the last ones left alive?

Are we the only human beings to survive?...
The Enemy Within (Part I of Fear)
Things crawl in the darkness

That imagination spins
Needles at your nerve ends
Crawl like spiders on your skin
Pounding in your temples

And a surge of adrenaline
Every muscle tense — to fence the enemy within
I’m not giving in to security under pressure

I’m not missing out on the promise of adventure
I’m not giving up on implausible dreams
Experience to extremes —
Experience to extremes
Suspicious-looking stranger
Flashes you a dangerous grin
Shadows across your window —
Was it only trees in the wind?

67
Rush Lyrics
Every breath a static charge — 1974-1996
A tongue that tastes like tin
Steely-eyed outside to hide the enemy within...
To you — is it movement or is it action?

It is contact or just reaction?
And you — revolution or just resistance?
Is it living, or just existence?
eah, you — it takes a little more persistence
To get up and go the distance...
The Body Electric
One humanoid escapee

One android on the run
Seeking freedom beneath a lonely desert sun
Trying to change its program

Trying to change the mode — crack the code
Images conflicting into data overload
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
S.O.S
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
In distress
1-0-0-1-0-0
Memory banks unloading

Bytes break into bits
Unit One’s in trouble and it’s scared out of its wits
Guidance systems break down

A struggle to exist — to resist
A pulse of dying power in a clenching plastic fist...
It replays each of the days

A hundred years of routines
Bows its head and prays
To the mother of all machines...

68
Rush Lyrics
Kid Gloves 1974-1996
A world of difference
A world so out of touch
Overwhelmed by everything
But wanting more so much —
Call it blind frustration

Call it blind man’s bluff
Call each other names —
Your voices rude — your voices rough
Then you learn the lesson
That it’s cool to be so tough
Handle with kid gloves

Then you learn the lessons
Taught in school won’t be enough
Put on your kid gloves
That it’s cool to be so tough
A world of indifference
Heads and hearts too full
Careless of the consequence
Of constant push and pull
Anger got bare knuckles

Anger play the fool
Anger wear a crown of thorns
Reverse the golden rule
That it’s tough to be so cool

Then you learn the weapons
And the ways of hard-knock school
That it’s tough to be so cool

69
Rush Lyrics
red lenses 1974-1996
i see red
it hurts my head
guess it must be something
that i read
it’s the colour of your heartbeat

a rising summer sun
the battle lost — or won
the flash to fashion
and the pulse to passion —
feels red
inside my head
and truth is often bitter —
left unsaid
said red red
thinking about the overhead —
the underfed
— couldn’t we talk about something else instead?
we’ve got mars on the horizon

says the national midnight star
(it’s true)
what you believe is what you are
a pair of dancing shoes —
the soviets are the blues —
the reds
under your bed
lying —
in the darkness
dead ahead
and the mercury is rising

barometer starts to fall
you know it gets to us all
the pain that is learning
and the rain that is burning —
feel red
still — go ahead
you see black and white —
and i see red
(not blue)

70
Rush Lyrics
Between the Wheels 1974-1996
To live between a rock and a hard place

In between time —
Cruising in prime time — soaking up the cathode rays
To live between the wars in our time —

Living in real time —
Holding the good time — Holding on to yesterdays...
You know how that rabbit feels

Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb — but the wheels of time —
Just pass you by...
Wheels can take you around

Wheels can cut you down
We can go from boom to bust

From dreams to a bowl of dust
We can fall from rockets’ red glare
Down to “Brother can you spare —”
Another war — another waste land —
And another lost generation...
It slips between your hands like water

This living in real time
A dizzying lifetime
Reeling by on celluloid
Struck between the eyes

By the big-time world
Walking uneasy streets —
Hiding beneath the sheets —
Got to try and fill the void...

71
Power Windows
1985
The Big Money

Grand Designs
Manhattan Project
Marathon
Territories
Middletown Dreams
Emotion Detector
Mystic Rhythms
Rush Lyrics
The Big Money 1974-1996
Big money goes around the world

Big money underground
Big money got a mighty voice
Big money make no sound
Big money pull a million strings
Big money hold the prize
Big money weave a mighty web
Big money draw the flies
Sometimes pushing people around

Sometimes pulling out the rug
Sometimes pushing all the buttons
Sometimes pulling out the plug
It's the power and the glory
It's a war in paradise
It's a cinderella story
On a tumble of the dice

Big money take a cruise
Big money leave a mighty wake
Big money leave a bruise
Big money make a million dreams
Big money spin big deals
Big money make a mighty head
Big money spin big wheels
Sometimes building ivory towers

Sometimes knocking castles down
Sometimes building you a stairway --
Lock you underground
It's that old-time religion
it's the kingdom they would rule
It's the fool on television
Getting paid to play the fool

Big money give and take
Big money done a power of good
Big money make mistakes
Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul...
Power Windows
73
Rush Lyrics
Grand Designs 1974-1996
A to B --
Different degrees...
So much style without substance

So much stuff without style
It's hard to recognize the real thing
It comes along once in a while
Like a rare and precious metal beneath a ton of rock
It takes some time and trouble to separate from the stock
You sometimes have to listen to a lot of useless talk
Shapes and forms against the norms --

Against the run of the mill
Swimming against the stream
Life in two dimensions is a mass production scheme
So much poison in power, the principles get left out

So much mind on the matter, the spirit gets forgotten about
Like a righteous inspiration overlooked in haste
Like a teardrop in the ocean, a diamond in the waste
Some world-views are spacious -- and some are merely spaced
Against the run of the mill

Static as it seems
We break the surface tension with our wild kinetic dreams
Curves and lines -- of grand designs...
Manhattan Project
Imagine a time when it all began

In the dying days of a war
A weapon -- that would settle the score
Whoever found it first would be sure to do their worst --
They always had before...
Imagine a man where it all began

A scientist pacing the floor
In each nation -- always eager to explore
To build the best big stick
To turn the winning trick --
But this was something more...
The big bang -- took and shook the world

Shot down the rising sun
the end was begun -- it would hit everyone
When the chain reaction was done
The big shots -- try to hold it back
Fools try to wish it away
The hopeful depend on a world without end
Whatever the hopeless may say Power Windows
74
Rush Lyrics
Imagine a place where it all began 1974-1996
They gathered from across the land
To work in the secrecy of the desert sand
All of the brightest boys
To play with the biggest toys --
More than they bargained for...
Imagine a man when it all began

The pilot of "Enola Gay"
Flying out of the shockwave on that August day
All the powers that be, and the course of history,
Would be changed for evermore...
Marathon
It's not how fast you can go

The force goes into the flow
If you pick up the beat
You can forget about the heat
More than just survival
More than just a flash
More than just a dotted line
More than just a dash
It's a test of ultimate will

The heartbreak climb uphill
Got to pick up the pace
If you want to stay in the race
More than just blind ambition
More than just simple greed
More than just a finish line
Must feed this burning need --
In the long run...
From first to last

The peak is never passed
Something always fires the light that gets in your eyes
One moment's high, and glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightening that flashes and fades
In the summer sky
Your meters may overload

You can rest at the side of the road
You can miss a stride
But nobody gets a free ride
More than high performance

More than just a spark
More than just the bottom line
Or a lucky shot in the dark --
In the long run...
Power Windows
75
Rush Lyrics
You can do a lot in a lifetime 1974-1996
If you don't burn out too fast
You can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance --
First you've got to last...
Territories
I see the Middle Kingdom between Heaven and Earth

Like the Chinese call the country of their birth
We all figure that our homes are set above
Other people than the ones we know and love
In every place with a name
They play the same territorial game
Hiding behind the lines
Sending up warning signs
The whole wide world

An endless universe
Yet we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don't feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can't really feel
What international means
In different circles, we keep holding our ground
In different circles, we keep spinning round and round
We see so many tribes -- overrun and undermined

While their invaders dream of lands they've left behind
Better people -- better food -- and better beer
Why move around the world when Eden was so near?
The bosses get talking so tough
And if that wasn't evil enough
We get the drunken and passionate pride
Of the citizens along for the ride
They shoot without shame

In the name of a piece of dirt
For a change of accent
Or the colour of your shirt
Better the pride that resides
In a citizen of the world
Than the pride that divides
When a colourful rag is unfurled
Power Windows
76
Rush Lyrics
Middletown Dreams 1974-1996
The office door closed early

The hidden bottle came out
The salesman turned to close the blinds
A little slow now, a little stout
But he's still heading down those tracks
Any day now for sure
Another day as drab as today
Is more than a man can endure
Dreams flow across the heartland

Feeding on the fires
Dreams transport desires
Drive you when you're down --
Dreams transport the ones who need to get out of town
the boy walks with his best friend

Through the fields of early May
They walk awhile in silence
One close -- one far away
But he'd be climbing on that bus
Just him and his guitar
To blaze across the heavens
Like a brilliant shooting star
The middle-aged madonna

Calls her neighbour on the phone
Day by day the seasons pass
And leave her life alone
But she'll go walking out that door
On some bright afternoon
To go and paint big cities
From a lonely attic room
It's understood
By every single person
Who'd be elsewhere if they could
So far so good
And life's not unpleasant
In their little neighbourhood
They dream in Middletown...
Power Windows
77
Rush Lyrics
Emotion Detector 1974-1996
When we lift the covers from our feelings

We expose our insecure spots
Trust is just as rare as devotion--
Forgive us our cynical thoughts
If we need too much attention --
Not content with being cool
We must throw ourselves wide open
And start acting like a fool
If we need too much approval
Then the cuts can seem too cruel
Right to the heart of the matter

Right to the beautiful part
Illusions are painfully shattered
Right where discovery starts
In the secret wells of emotion
Buried deep in our hearts
It's true that love can change us

But never quite enough
Sometimes we are too tender
Sometimes we're too tough
If we get too much attention
It gets hard to overrule
So often fragile power turns
To scorn and ridicule
Sometimes our big splashes
Are just ripples in the pool
Feelings run high
Power Windows
78
Rush Lyrics
Mystic Rhythms 1974-1996
So many things I think about

When I look far away
Things I know -- things I wonder
Things I'd like to say
The more we think we know about
The greater the unknown
We suspend our disbelief
And we are not alone --
Mystic rhythms -- capture my thoughts

And carry them away
Mysteries of night escape the light of day
Mystic rhythms -- under northern lights
Primitive things stir
The hearts of everyone
We sometimes catch a window

A glimpse of what's beyond
Was it just imagination
Stringing us along?
More things than are dreamed about
Unseen and unexplained
We suspend our disbelief
And we are entertained
Mystic rhythms -- capture my thoughts

And carry them away
Nature seems to spin
A supernatural way
Mystic rhythms -- under city lights
Or a canopy of stars
We feel the powers and we wonder what they are
We feel the push and pull of restless rhythms from afar
Power Windows
79
Hold Your Fire
1987
Force Ten
Time Stand Still
Open Secrets
Second Nature
Prime Mover
Lock and Key
Mission
Turn the Page
Tai Shan
High Water
Rush Lyrics
Force Ten 1974-1996
Tough times demand tough talk

demand tough hearts demand tough songs
demand --
We can rise and fall like empires

Flow in and out like the tide
Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
We can hit and miss like pride
We can circle around like hurricanes

Dance and dream like lovers
Attack the day like birds of prey
Or scavengers under cover
Look in -- to the eye of the storm

Look out -- for the force without form
Look around -- at the sight and the sound
Look in look out look around --
We can move with savage grace

To the rhythms of the night
Cool and remote like dancing girls
In the heat of the beat and the lights
We can wear the rose of romance

An air of joie de vivre
Too-tender hearts upon our sleeves
Or skin as thick as thieves'
rising falling at force ten

we twist the world and ride the wind
Look in -- look the storm in the eye

Look out -- to the sea and the sky
Look around -- at the sight and the sound
Look in look out look around --
Hold Your Fire

81
Rush Lyrics
Time Stand Still 1974-1996
I turn my back to the wind

To catch my breath,
Before I start off again.
Driven on without a moment to spend
To pass an evening with a drink and a friend
I let my skin get too thin

I'd like to pause.
No matter what I pretend
Like some pilgrim --
Who learns to transcend --
Learns to live
As if each step was the end
Time stand still -- I'm not looking back

But I want to look around me now
See more of the people and the places that surround me now
Freeze this moment a little bit longer

Make each sensation a little bit stronger
Experience slips away...
I turn my face to the sun

Close my eyes.
Let my defences down --
All those wounds that I can't get unwound
I let my past go too fast

No time to pause --
If I could slow it all down
Like some captain, whose ship runs aground --
I can wait until the tide comes around
Make each impression a little bit stronger

Freeze this motion a little bit longer
The innocence slips away...
Summer's going fast, nights growing colder

Children growing up -- old friends growing colder
Experience slips away...
Hold Your Fire

82
Rush Lyrics
Open Secrets 1974-1996
It went right by me --
At the time it went over my head
I was looking out the window
I should have looked at your face instead
It went right by me --
Just another wall
There should have been a moment
When we let our barriers fall
I never meant what you're thinking --
That is not what I meant at all...
Well I guess we all have these feelings

We can't leave unreconciled
Some of them burned on our ceilings
Some of them learned as a child
The things that we're concealing

Will never let us grow
Time will do its healing
You've got to let it go
Closed for my protection --

Open to your scorn
Between these two directions
My heart is sometimes torn
I lie awake with my secrets

spinning around my head
something that somehow escaped me --
Something you shouldn't have said
I was looking out the window
I should have looked at your face instead...
I find no absolution
In my rational point of view
Maybe some things are instinctive
But there's one thing you could do
You could try to understand me --
I could try to understand you...
Hold Your Fire

83
Rush Lyrics
Prime Mover 1974-1996
Basic elemental instinct to survive

Stirs the higher passions
Thrill to be alive
Alternating currents in a tidewater surge

Rational resistance to an unwise urge
(anything can happen)
From the point of conception

To the moment of Truth
At the point of surrender
To the burden of proof
From the point of ignition

To the final drive
The point of the journey is not to arrive
Basic temperamental filters on our eyes

Alter our perceptions
Lenses polarize
Alternating currents force a show of hands

Rational responses force a change of plans
From a point on the compass

To magnetic north
The point of the needle moving back and forth
From the point of entry --

Until the candle is burned
The point of departure is not to return
I set the wheels in motion

turn up all the machines
activate the programs
and run behind the scene
I set the clouds in motion

turn up light and sound
activate the window
and watch the world go 'round --
Hold Your Fire

84
Rush Lyrics
Second Nature 1974-1996
A memo to a higher office

Open letter to the powers-that-be
To a God, a king, a head of state
A captain of industry
To the movers and the shakers --
Can't everybody see?
It ought to be second nature --

I mean, the places where we live!
Let's talk about this sensibly --
We're not insensitive
I know progress has no patience --
But something's got to give
I know you're different --

You know I'm the same
We're both too busy
To be taking the blame
I'd like some changes
But you don't have the time
We can't go on thinking
It's a victimless crime
No one is blameless
But we're all without shame
We fight the fire -- while we're feeding the flames
Folks have got to make choices --

And choices got to have voices
Folks are basically decent
Conventional wisdom would say
Well, we read about the exceptions
In the papers every day
It ought to be second nature --

At least, that's what I feel
"Now I lay me down in Dreamland" --
I know perfect's not for real
I thought we might get closer --
But I'm ready to make a deal
Today is different, and tomorrow the same

It's hard to take the world the way that it came
Too many rapids keep us sweeping along
Too many captains keep on steering us wrong
It's hard to take the heat --
It's hard to lay blame
To fight the fire -- while we're feeding the flames
Hold Your Fire

85
Rush Lyrics
Lock And Key 1974-1996
I don't want to face the killer instinct --

Face it in your or me
We carry a sensitive cargo

Below the waterline --
Ticking like a time bomb
With a primitive design
Behind the finer feelings --

This civilized veneer --
The heart of a lonely hunter
Guards a dangerous frontier
The balance can sometimes fail --

Strong emotions can tip the scale --
Don't want to silence a desperate voice

For the sake of security
No one wants to make a terrible choice
On the price of being free
I don't want to face the killer instinct -- face it in you or me
So we keep it under lock and key...
It's not a matter of mercy

It's not a matter of laws
Plenty of people will kill you for some fanatical cause
It's not a matter of conscience --

A search for probable cause
It's just a matter of instinct -- a matter of fatal flaws
No reward for resistance

No assistance -- no applause...
we don't want to be victims

on that we all agree, so we lock up the killer instinct --
and throw away the key...
Hold Your Fire

86
Rush Lyrics
Mission 1974-1996
Hold your fire --

Keep it burning bright
Hold the flame 'til the dream ignites --
A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission
I hear their passionate music

Read the words that touch my heart
I gaze at their feverish pictures
The secrets that set them apart
When I feel the powerful visions

Their fire has made alive
I wish I had that instinct -- I wish I had that drive
Spirits fly on dangerous missions

Imaginations on fire
Focused high on soaring ambitions
Consumed in a single desire
In the grip of a nameless possession --

A slave to the drive of obsession --
A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission...
I watch their images flicker

Bringing light to a lifeless screen
I walk through their beautiful buildings
And I wish I had their dreams
But dreams don't need to have motion

To keep their spark alive
Obsession has to have action --
Pride turns on the drive
It's cold comfort

To the ones without it
To know how they struggled --
How they suffered about it
If their lives were exotic and strange

They would likely have gladly exchanged them
For something a little more plain
Maybe something a little more sane
We each pay a fabulous price

For our visions of paradise
But a spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission...
Hold Your Fire

87
Rush Lyrics
Turn the Page 1974-1996
Nothing can survive in a vacuum

No one can exists all alone
We pretend things only happen to strangers
We've all got problems of our own
It's enough to learn to share our pleasures

We can't sooth pain with sympathy
All that we can do is be reminded --
We shake our heads at the tragedy
Every day we're standing in a time capsule

Racing down a river from the past
Every day we're standing in a wind tunnel
Facing down the future coming fast
It's just the age

It's just a stage --
We disengage -- We turn the page...
Looking at the long-range forecast

Catching all the names in the news
Checking out the state of the nation
Learning the environmental blues
Truth is after all a moving target

Hairs to split, and pieces that don't fit
How can anybody be enlightened?
Truth is after all so poorly lit
Tai Shan
High on the sacred mountain

Up the seven thousand stairs
In the golden light of autumn
There was magic in the air
Clouds surrounded the summit

The wind blew strong and cold
Among the silent temples
And the writing carved in gold
Somewhere in my instincts
The primitive took hold...
I stood at the top of the mountain

And China sang to me
In the peaceful haze of harvest time
A song of eternity --
Hold Your Fire

88
Rush Lyrics
If you raise your hands to heaven 1974-1996
You will live a hundred years
I stood there like a mystic
Lost in the atmosphere
The clouds were suddenly parted

For a moment I could see
The patterns of the landscape
Reaching to the eastern sea
I looked upon a presence
Spanning forty centuries...
I thought of time and distance

The hardships of history
I heard the hope and the hunger
When China sang to me...
High Water
When the waters rose in the darkness

In the wake of the endless flood
It flowed into our memory -- it flowed into our blood
When something broke the surface

Just to see the starry dome --
We still feel that relation
When the water takes us home
In the flying spray of the ocean
The water takes you home --
Springing from the weight of the mountains

Like the heart of the earth would burst
Flowing out from marble fountains
In the dreams of a desert thirst
Something swam through the jungles

Where the mighty rivers roam --
Something breaks the silence
When the water takes you home
I hear the wordless voices
When the water takes me home --
Waves that crash on the shoreline

Torrents of tropical rain streaming down
Beyond our memory
Streaming down inside our veins
When something left the ocean

To crawl high above the foam --
We still feel that elation
When the water takes us home
In a driving rain of redemption Hold Your Fire
The water takes me home... 89
Presto
1989
Show Don't Tell

Chain Lightning
The Pass
War Paint
Scars
Presto
Superconductor
Anagram (for Mongo)
Red Tide
Hand Over Fist
Available Light
Rush Lyrics
Show Don't Tell 1974-1996
How many times do you hear it?

It goes on all day long
Everyone knows everything
And no one's ever wrong
Until later
Who can you believe?

It's hard to play it safe
But apart from a few good friends
We don't take anything on faith
Until later
Show Don't Tell
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME

You've figured out the score
I've heard it all before
I don't care what you say
You can twist perceptions

Reality won't budge
You can raise objections
I will be the judge
And the jury
I'll give it due reflection

Watching from the fence
Give the jury direction
Based on the evidence
I, the jury

Hey - order in the court
Let's try to keep it short
Enough of your demands
Witness take the stand

Hey - order in the court
Let's try to keep it short
I don't care what you say
Presto
Let's see exhibit A
91
Rush Lyrics
Chain Lightning 1974-1996
Energy is contagious
Enthusiasm spreads
Tides respond to lunar gravitation
Everything turns in synchronous relation
Laughter is infectious
Excitement goes to my head
Winds are stirred by planets in rotation
Sparks ignite and spread new information
Respond, vibrate, feed back, resonate
Sun dogs fire on the horizon

Meteor rain stars across the night
This moment may be brief
But it can be so bright
Hope is epidemic
Optimism spreads
Bitterness breeds irritation
Ignorance breeds imitation
Sun dogs fire on the horizon

Meteor rain stars across the night
This moment may be brief
But it can be so bright
Reflected in another source of light
When the moment dies
The spark still flies
Reflected in another pair of eyes
Dreams are sometimes catching

Desire goes to my head
Love responds to your invitation
Love responds to imagination
Respond, vibrate, feed back, resonate
Presto
92
Rush Lyrics
The Pass 1974-1996
Proud swagger out of the schoolyard

Waiting for the world's applause
Rebel without a conscience
Martyr without a cause
Static on your frequency

Electrical storm in your veins
Raging at unreachable glory
Straining at invisible chains
And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge

Staring down into a heartless sea
Can't face life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be
All of us get lost in the darkness

Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back
And slam the door on me
It's not as if this barricade

Blocks the only road
It's not as if you're all alone
In wanting to explode
Someone set a bad example

Made surrender seem all right
The act of a noble warrior
Who lost the will to fight
And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge

Staring down into a heartless sea
Done with life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be
No hero in your tragedy

No daring in your escape
No salutes for your surrender
Nothing noble in your fate
Christ, what have you done?
Presto
93
Rush Lyrics
War Paint 1974-1996
Girl before the mirror

Appraises her disguise
Child become a mother
Tries to fix her eyes
No more of his excuses
It has to be today
She can keep her fantasy
If she can get away
Paint her name on a one-way street

Painted cheeks with angry heat
Wounded pride on painted eyes
Paint the night with battlecries
All puffed up with vanity

We see what we want to see
To the beautiful and the wise
The mirror always lies
Boy before the mirror

Checks his camoflauge
Polishes his armor
And the charger in the garage
No more lame excuses
It has to be tonight
He can take the princess
If he can take the fight
Pound the drums with martial beat

Pound the streets with marching feet
Wounded pride, distorted eyes
Paint the night with battlecries
All puffed up with vanity

We see what we want to see
To the powerful and the wise
The mirror always lies
Boys and girls together

Mistake conceit for pride
- ambition for illusion
- dreams for self-delusion
Girls and boys together
See what it is we lack
Boys and girls together
Let's paint the mirror black
Paint it black
Presto
94
Rush Lyrics
Scars 1974-1996
I've stood upon my mountaintop

And shouted at the sky
Walked above the pavement
With my sense amplified
- I get this feeling
All my nerves are naked wires

Tender to the touch
Sometimes super-sensitive
But who can care too much?
Scars of pleasure
Scars of pain
Atmospheric changes
Make them sensitive again
Each emotional injury

Leaves behind its mark
Sometimes they come tumbling out
Like shadows in the dark
When I think about all I have seen

And all I'll never see
When I think about the people
Who have opened up to me
Snow falls deep around my house

And holds the winter light
I've heard the lions hunting
In the Serengeti night
Forests turned to factories

And river, sea, and sky
Hungry child in the desert
And the flies that cloud her eyes
Pleasure leaves a fingerprint

As surely as mortal pain
In memories they resonate
And echo back again
Presto
95
Rush Lyrics
Presto 1974-1996
If I could wave my magic wand...
I am made from the dust of the stars

And the oceans flow in my veins
Here I hide in the heart of the city
Like a stranger coming out of the rain
The evening plane rises up from the runway

Over constellations of light
I look down into a million houses
And wonder what you're doing tonight
If I could wave my magic wand

I'd make everything all right
I'm not one to believe in magic

But I sometimes have a second-sight
I'm not one with a sense of proportion
When my heart still changes overnight
I had a dream of a winter garden

A midnight rendezvous
Silver, blue, and frozen silence
What a fool I was for you
I had a dream of the open water

I was swimming away out to sea
So deep I could never touch bottom
What a fool I used to be
If I could wave my magic wand

I'd set everybody free
I'm not one to believe in magic

Though my memory has a second-sight
I'm not one to go pointing my finger
When I radiate more heat than light
Don't ask me
I'm just improvising
My illusion of careless flight
Can't you see
My temperature's rising
I radiate more heat than light
Don't ask me
I'm just sympathizing
My illusions a harmless flight
Can't you see
My temperature's rising
I radiate more heat than light
Presto
96
Rush Lyrics
Superconductor 1974-1996
Packaged like a rebel or a hero

Target mass appeal
To make an audience feel
He really means it
Package the illusion of persona

Careful to conceal
The fact that she's only too real
She's got to screen it
Hit you in a soft place

A melody so sweet
A strong and simple beat
That you can dance to
Watch his every move

SUPERCONDUCTOR
Orchestrate illusions
SUPERCONDUCTOR
Watch his every move
SUPERCONDUCTOR
Hoping you'll believe
Designing to deceive
That's entertainment
He can put a target on the market

Bask in your applause
Reality withdraws
Now he believes it
The role becomes the actor

She's addicted to applause
The stage a world because
She never leaves it
Hit you in a soft place

With sentimental ease
They know the fantasies
That you romance to
Watch her every move

SUPERCONDUCTOR
She can manipulate reactions
SUPERCONDUCTOR
Watch her every move
SUPERCONDUCTOR
Pin the donkeys on her tail
Fantasy for sale
That's entertainment...
Presto
97
Rush Lyrics
Anagram (for Mongo) 1974-1996
There's a snake coming out of the darkness

Parade from paradise
End the need for eden
Chase the dreams of merchandise
There is tic and toc in atomic

Leaders make a deal
The cosmic is largely comic
A con they couldn't conceal
There is no safe seat at the feast

Take your best stab at the beast
The night is turning thin
The saint is turning to sin
Raise the art to resistance

Danger dare to be grand
Pride reduced to humble pie
Diamonds down to sand
Take heart from earth and weather

The brightness of new birth
Take heart from the harvest
Shave the harvest from the earth
Reasoning is partly insane

Image just an eyeless game
The night is turning thin
The saint is turning to sin
Miracles will have their claimers

More will bow to Rome
He and she are in the house
But there's only me at home
Rose is a rose of splendor

posed to respond in the end
lonely things like nights,
I find, end finer with a friend
I hear in the rate of her heart

A tear in the heat of the art
The night turns thin

The saint turns to sin
Presto
98
Rush Lyrics
Red Tide 1974-1996
Nature has some new plague

To run in our streets
History some new wrinkle
We are doomed to repeat
Fugitives at the bedroom door
Lovers pause to find an open store
Rain is burning on the forest floor
And the red tide kisses the shore
THIS IS NOT A FALSE ALARM

THIS IS NOT A TEST
Stay out of the sun

It only burns my skin
Sky full of poison
And the atmosphere's too thin
Bless the sun, the rain no more
River running like an open sore
Black wind falling to the ocean floor
and the red tide washes ashore
THIS IS NOT A FALSE ALARM

THIS IS NOT A TEST
Nowhere we can fly away
Nowhere we can rest
The party is disrupted by
An uninvited guest
Deadline approaches
For the weary land
It used to be something
But we let it run down in our hands
Too late for debate, too bad to ignore
Quiet rebellion leads to open war
Bring a sea-change to the factory floor
As the red tide covers the shore
Now's the time to turn the tide

Now's the time to fight
Let us not go gently
To the endless winter night
Now's the time to make the time
While hope is still in sight
Let us not go gently
To the endless winter night
Presto
99
Rush Lyrics
Hand Over Fist 1974-1996
Hand over fist

Paper around the stone
Scissors cut the paper
Cut the paper to the bone
Hand over fist
Paper around the stone
Scissors cut the paper
And the rock must stand alone
I could disappear into the crowd

But not if I keep my head in the clouds
I could walk away so proud
It's easy enough if you don't laugh too loud
I thought I was okay alone

Wait for the postman and the telephone
Lost in a world of my own
I thought I could run alone
Thought I could run through the night alone
Hand over hand

Doesn't seem so much
Hand over hand
Is the strength of the common touch
You talk as we walk along

You never imagined I could be so wrong
Humming your favorite song
You know I've hated that song for so long
How can we ever agree?

Like the rest of the world
We grow farther apart
I swear you don't listen to me
Holding my hand to my heart
Holding my fist to my racing heart
Take a walk outside myself

In some exotic land
Greet a passing stranger
Feel the strength in his hand
Feel the world expand
I feel my spirit resist

But I open up my fist
Lay hand over hand over
Hand over fist
Presto
100
Rush Lyrics
Available Light 1974-1996
The restless wind

Has seen all things
In every kind of light
Rising with the full moon
To go howling through the night
The sleepless wind

Has heard all things
Between the sea and sky
In the canyons of the city
You can hear the buildings cry
Oh the wind can carry

All the voices of the sea
Oh the wind can carry
All the echoes home to me
Run with wind and weather

To the music of the sea
All four winds together
Can't bring the world to me
Chase the wind around the world
I want to look at life -
In the available light
Play of light
A photograph
The way I used to be
Some half-forgotten stranger
Doesn't mean that much to me
Trick of light
Moving picture
Moments caught in flight
Make the shadows darker
Or the colors shine too bright
Oh the light can carry

All the visions of the sea
Oh the light can carry
All the images to me
Run to light from shadow

Sun gives me no rest
Promise offered in the east
Broken in the west
Chase the sun around the world
Presto
101
Rush Lyrics
All four winds together 1974-1996
Can't bring the world to me
Shadows hide the play of light
So much I want to see
Chase the light around the world
I'll go with the wind

I'll stand in the light
Presto
102
Roll The Bones
1991
Dreamline
Bravado
Roll The Bones
Face Up
Where's My Thing?
The Big Wheel
Heresy
Ghost Of A Chance
Neurotica
You Bet Your Life
Rush Lyrics
Dreamline 1974-1996
He’s got a road map of Jupiter

A radar fix on the stars
All along the highway
She’s got a liquid-crystal compass
A picture book of the rivers
Under the Sahara
They travel in the time of the prophets

On a desert highway straight to the heart of the sun
Like lovers and hereos, and the restless part of everyone
We’re only at home when we’re on the run
On the run
He’s got a star map of Hollywood

A list of cheap motels
All along the freeway
She’s got a sister out in Vegas
The promise of a decent job
Far away from her hometown
They travel on the road to redemption

A highway out of yesterday — that tomorrow will bring
Like lovers and heroes, birds in the last days of spring
We’re only at home when we’re on the wing
On the wing
WHEN WE ARE YOUNG

WANDERING THE FACE OF THE EARTH
WONDERING WHAT OUR DREAMS MIGHT BE WORTH
LEARNING THAT WE’RE ONLY IMMORTAL —
FOR A LIMITED TIME
Time is a gypsy caravan

Steals away in the night
To leave you stranded in Dreamland
Distance is a long-range filter
Memory a flickering light
Left behind in the heartland
We travel in the dark of the new moon

A starry highway traced on the map of the sky
Like lovers and heroes, lonely as the eagle’s cry
We’re only at home when we’re on the fly
On the fly
We travel on the road to adventure

On a desert highway straight to the heart of the sun
Like lovers and hereos, and the restless part of everyone
We’re only at home when we’re on the run
On the run... Roll The Bones
104
Rush Lyrics
Bravado 1974-1996
If we burn our wings

Flying too close to the sun
If the moment of glory
Is over before it’s begun
If the dream is won —
Though everything is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost
When the dust has cleared

And victory denied
A summit too lofty
River a little too wide
If we keep our pride —
Though paradise is lost
And if the music stops

There’s only the sound of the rain
All the hope and glory
All the sacrifice in vain
[And] if love remains
Though everything is lost
Roll The Bones
Well, you can stake that claim —

Good work is the key to good fortune
Winners take that praise
Losers seldom take that blame
If they don’t take that game
And sometimes the winner takes nothing
We draw our own designs
But fortune has to make that frame
We go out in the world and take our chances

Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances
Roll the bones
Why are we here?

Because we’re here
Roll the bones
Why does it happen?
Because it happens
Roll the bones
Roll The Bones
105
Rush Lyrics
Faith is cold as ice — 1974-1996
Why are little ones born only to suffer
For the want of immunity
Or a bowl of rice?
Well, who would hold a price
On the heads of the innocent children
If there’s some immortal power
To control the dice?
We come into the world and take our chances

Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances
Roll the bones
Jack — relax.
Get busy with the facts.
No zodiacs or almanacs,
No maniacs in polyester slacks.
Just the facts.
Gonna kick some gluteus max.
It’s a parallax — you dig?
You move around
The small gets big. It’s a rig
It’s action — reaction —
Random interaction.
So who’s afraid
Of a little abstraction?
Can’t get no satisfaction
From the facts?
You better run, homeboy —
A fact’s a fact
From Nome to Rome, boy.
What’s the deal? Spin the wheel.

If the dice are hot — take a shot.
Play your cards. Show us what you got —
What you’re holding.
If the cards are cold,
Don’t go folding.
Lady Luck is golden;
She favors the bold. That’s cold
Stop throwing stones —
The night has a thousand saxophones.
So get out there and rock,
And roll the bones.
Get busy!
Roll The Bones

106
Rush Lyrics
Face Up 1974-1996
You turn my head

I spin my wheels
Running on empty —
You know how that feels
I’m on a roll now —

Or is it a slide?
Can’t be too careful
With that dangerous pride
If I could only reach that dial inside
And turn it up
FACE UP — Or you can only back down

FACE UP — Hit the target, or you better hit the ground
FACE UP — There’s still time to turn the game around
FACE UP — Turn it up —
Or turn that wild card down
Turn it up
Don’t complain
Don’t explain
I don’t think my new resolve
Can stand the strain
I’m in a groove now —

Or is it a rut?
I need some feedback
But all the lines are cut
I get so angry, but I keep my mouth shut
And turn it up
You get all squeezed up inside

Like the days were carved in stone
You get all wired up inside
And it’s bad to be alone
You can go out, you can take a ride

And when you get out on your own
You get all smoothed out inside
And it’s good to be alone
Turn it up
Roll The Bones

107
Rush Lyrics
The Big Wheel 1974-1996
Well, I was only a kid — didn’t know enough to be afraid

Playing the game, but not the way the big boys played
Nothing to lose — maybe I had something to trade
The way the big wheel spins
Well, I was only a kid, on a holy crusade

I placed no trust in a faith that was ready-made
Take no chances on paradise delayed
So I do a slow fade
PLAYING FOR TIME

Don’t want to wait for heaven
LOOKING FOR LOVE
For an angel to forgive my sins
PLAYING WITH FIRE
Chasing something new to believe in
LOOKING FOR LOVE
Well, I was only a kid, cruising around in a trance

Prisoner of fate, victim of circumstance
I was lined up for glory, but the tickets sold out in advance
Well, I was only a kid, gone without a backward glance

Going for broke, going for another chance
Hoping for heaven — hoping for a fine romance
If I do the right dance
Wheel goes round, landing on a twist of faith

Taking your chances you’ll have the right answers
When the final judgment begins
Wheel goes round, landing on a leap of fate

Life redirected in ways unexpected
Sometimes the odd number wins
Roll The Bones

108
Rush Lyrics
Heresy 1974-1996
All around that dull gray world

From Moscow to Berlin
People storm the barricades
Walls go tumbling in
The counter-revolution
People smiling through their tears
Who can give them back their lives
And all those wasted years?
All those precious wasted years —
Who will pay?
All around that dull gray world

Of ideology
People storm the marketplace
And buy up fantasy
The counter-revolution
At the counter of a store
People buy the things they want
And borrow for a little more
All those wasted years
All those precious wasted years
Who will pay?
Do we have to be forgiving at last?

What else can we do?
Do we have to say goodbye to the past?
Yes I guess we do
All around this great big world

All the crap we had to take
Bombs and basement fallout shelters
All our lives at stake
The bloody revolution

All the warheads in its wake
All the fear and suffering
All a big mistake
All those wasted years
All those precious wasted years
Who will pay?
Roll The Bones

109
Rush Lyrics
Ghost Of A Chance 1974-1996
Like a million little doorways

All the choices we made
All the stages we passed through
All the roles we played
For so many different directions

Our separate paths might have turned
With every door that we opened
Every bridge that we burned
Somehow we find each other

Through all that masquerade
Somehow we found each other
Somehow we have stayed
In a state of grace
I DON’T BELIEVE IN DESTINY

OR THE GUIDING HAND OF FATE
I DON’T BELIEVE IN FOREVER
OR LOVE AS A MYSTICAL STATE
I DON’T BELIEVE IN THE STARS OR THE PLANETS

OR ANGELS WATCHING FROM ABOVE
BUT I BELIEVE THERE’S A GHOST OF A CHANCE
WE CAN FIND SOMEONE TO LOVE
AND MAKE IT LAST
Like a million little crossroads

Through the backstreets of youth
Each time we turn a new corner
A tiny moment of truth
[For] so many different connections

Our separate paths might have made
With every door that we opened
Every game we played
Roll The Bones

110
Rush Lyrics
Neurotica 1974-1996
You just don’t get it

What it is ... well, you’re not really sure
You move like you’re walking on this ice
Talking like you’re still insecure
Time is a spiral — Space is a curve

I know you get dizzy, but try not to lose your nerve
Life is a diamond you turn into dust
Waiting for rescue, and I know you just
Don’t get it
Neurotica — Exotica
It’s just Erotica — Hypnotica
It’s just Psychotica — Chaotica
It’s just Exotica — Neurotica

Baby, don’t you ask yourself why?
If you don’t like the answer — forget it
You know I hate to see you cry
Fortune is random — Fate shoots from the hip

I know you get crazy, but try not to lose your grip
Life is a diamond you turn into dust
Looking for trust, and I know that you just
Don’t get it
SNAP!
Hide in your shell, let the world go to hell
It’s like Russian roulette to you
SNAP!
Sweat running cold, you can’t face growing old
It’s a personal threat to you
SNAP!
The world is a cage for your impotent rage
But don’t let it get to you
SNAP!
Roll The Bones

111
Rush Lyrics
You Bet Your Life 1974-1996
Just another hunter, like a wolf in the sun

Just another junkie on a scoring run
Just another victim of the things he has done
Just another day — in the life of a loaded gun
THE ODDS GET EVEN — You name the game

THE ODDS GET EVEN — The stakes are the same
YOU BET YOUR LIFE
Just another winner, pours his life down the drain

Just another island in a hurricane
Just another loser, like a cat in the rain
Just another day — in the path of a speeding train

YOU BET YOUR LIFE
anarchist reactionary running-dog revisionist

hindu muslim catholic creation/evolutionist
rational romantic mystic cynical idealist
minimal expressionist post-modern neo-symbolist
armchair rocket scientist graffiti existentialist

deconstruction primitive performance photo-realist
be-bop or a one-drop or a hip-hop lite-pop-metallist
gold adult contemporary urban country capitalist
Just another gypsy with a plastic guitar

Just another dancer with her eyes on the stars
Just another dreamer who was going too far
Just another drunk — at the wheel of a stolen car

YOU BET YOUR LIFE
Roll The Bones

112
Counterparts
1993
Animate
Stick It Out
Cut To The Chase
Nobody's Hero
Between Sun And Moon
Alien Shore
Speed Of Love
Double Agent
Leave That Thing Alone
Cold Fire
Everyday Glory
Rush Lyrics
Animate 1974-1996
POLARIZE ME
SENSITIZE ME
CRITICIZE ME
CIVILIZE ME
COMPENSATE ME
ANIMATE ME
COMPLICATE ME
ELEVATE ME
Goddess in my garden
Sister in my soul
Angel in my armor
Actress in my role
Daughter of a demon-lover
Empress of the hidden face
Priestess of the pagan mother
Ancient queen of inner space
Spirit in my psyche
Double in my role
Alter in my image
Struggle for control
Mistress of the dark unconscious

Mermaid of the lunar sea
Daughter of the great enchantress
Sister to the boy inside of me
My counterpart — my foolish heart

A man must learn to rule his tender part
A warming trend — a gentle friend
A man must build a fortress to defend
A secret face — a touch of grace

A man must learn to give a little space
A peaceful state — a submissive trait
A man must learn to gently dominate
Counterparts
114
Rush Lyrics
Stick It Out 1974-1996
Trust to your instincts

If it’s safely restrained
Lightning reactions
Must be carefully trained
Heat of the moment

Curse of the young
Spit out your anger
Don’t swallow your tongue
STICK IT OUT
Don’t swallow the poison

SPIT IT OUT
Don’t swallow your pride
STICK IT OUT
Don’t swallow your anger
SPIT IT OUT
Don’t swallow the lies
Natural reflex
Pendulum swing
You might be too dizzy
To do the right thing
Trial under fire

Ultimate proof
Moment of crisis
Don’t swallow the truth
STICK IT OUT
Each time we bathe our reactions

In artificial light
Each time we alter the focus
To make the wrong moves seem right
You get so used to deception

You make yourself a nervous wreck
You get so used to surrender
Running back to cover your neck
STICK IT OUT
Counterparts
115
Rush Lyrics
Cut To The Chase 1974-1996
It is the fire that lights itself

But it burns with a restless flame
The arrow on a moving target
The archer must be sure of his aim
It is the engine that drives itself

But it chooses the uphill climb
A bearing on magnetic north
Growing farther away all the time
Can’t stop — moving
Can’t stop — moving
Can’t stop
YOU MAY BE RIGHT

IT’S ALL A WASTE OF TIME
I GUESS THAT’S JUST A CHANCE
I’M PREPARED TO TAKE
A DANGER I’M PREPARED TO FACE
CUT TO THE CHASE
It is the rocket that ignites itself

And launches its way to the stars
A driver on a busy freeway
Racing the oblivious cars
It’s the motor of the western world

Spinning off to every extreme
Pure as a lover’s desire
Evil as a murderer’s dream
Young enough not to care too much

About the way things used to be
I’m young enough to remember the future —
The past has no claim on me
I’m old enough not to care too much

About what you think of me
But I’m young enough to remember the future
And the way things ought to be
WHAT KIND OF DIFFERENCE

CAN ONE PERSON MAKE?
CUT TO THE CHASE
Counterparts
116
Rush Lyrics
Nobody’s Hero 1974-1996
I knew he was different, in his sexuality

I went to his parties, as a straight minority
It never seemed a threat to my masculinity
He only introduced me to a wider reality
As the years went by, we drifted apart

When I heard that he was gone
I felt a shadow cross my heart
But he’s nobody’s —
Hero — saves a drowning child

Cures a wasting disease
Hero — lands the crippled airplane
Solves great mysteries
Hero — not the handsome actor

Who plays a hero’s role
Hero — not the glamor girl
Who’d love to sell her soul
If anybody’s buying
NOBODY’S HERO
I didn’t know the girl, but I knew her family

All their lives were shattered
in a nightmare of brutality
They try to carry on, try to bear the agony
Try to hold some faith
in the goodness of humanity

When I heard that she was gone
But she’s nobody’s —
Hero — the voice of reason

Against the howling mob
Hero — the pride of purpose
In the unrewarding job
Hero — not the champion player

Who plays the perfect game
Not the glamor boy
Who loves to sell his name
Everybody’s buying
NOBODY’S HERO

When I heard that you were gone
Hero Counterparts
117
Rush Lyrics
Between Sun And Moon 1974-1996
There is a lake between sun and moon

Not too many know about
In the silence between whisper and shout
The space between wonder and doubt
This is a fine place

Shining face to face
Those bonfire lights in the mirror of sky
The space between wonder and why
ahh yes to yes to ahh ahh to yes

why the sun why the sun
There is a fine line between love and illusion —

A fine place to penetrate
The gap between actor and act
The lens between wishes and fact
This is a fine place

To hesitate
Those bonfire lights in the lake of sky
The time between wonder and why
Some need to pray to the sun at high noon

Some need to howl at the midwinter moon
Reborn and baptized in a moment of grace
We just need a break —
From the headlong race
ahh yes to yes to ahh ahh to yes

why the sun why the sun
This is a fine place, shining face to face

These bonfire lights in the mirrored sky
The space between wonder and why
Counterparts
118
Rush Lyrics
Alien Shore 1974-1996
You and I, we are strangers by one chromosome

Slave to the hormone, body and soul
In a struggle to be happy and free
Swimming in a primitive sea
You and I, we must dive below the surface

A world of red neon, and ultramarine
Shining bridges on the ocean floor
Reaching to the alien shore
For you and me — Sex is not a competition

For you and me — Sex is not a job description
For you and me — We agree
You and I, we are pressed into these solitudes

Color and culture, language and race
Just variations on a theme
Islands in a much larger stream
For you and me — Race is not a competition

For you and me — Race is not a definition
For you and me — We agree
Reaching for the alien shore
You and I, we reject these narrow attitudes

We add to each other, like a coral reef
Building bridges on the ocean floor
For you and me — We hold these truths to be self-evident

For you and me — We’d elect each other president
For you and me — We might agree
But that’s just us
Counterparts
119
Rush Lyrics
The Speed Of Love 1974-1996
Love is born with lightning bolts

Electro-magnetic force
Burning skin and fireworks
A storm on a raging course
Like a force of nature,

Love can fade with the stars at dawn
Sometimes it takes all your strength
Just to keep holding on
At the speed of love
A radiance that travels
My heart goes out to you.
Love is born with solar flares

From two magnetic poles
It moves towards a higher plane
Where two halves make two wholes
Like a force of nature,

Love shines in many forms
One night we are bathed in light
One day carried away in the storms
Nothing changes faster
Than the speed of love
My heart goes out to you
We don’t have to talk

We don’t even have to touch
I can feel your prescence
In the silence that we share
Got to keep moving
Got to keep on shining
My heart goes out to you
Counterparts
120
Rush Lyrics
Double Agent 1974-1996
Where would you rather be?

Anywhere but here
When will the time be right?
Anytime but now
On the edge of sleep,

I was driting for half the night
Anxious and restless,
pressed down by the darkness
Bound up and wound up so tight
So many decisions, a million revisions
Caught between and light...
Wilderness of mirrors
World of polished steel
Gears and iron chains
Turn the grinding wheel
I run between the shadows
Some are phantoms, some are real
Where would you rather be?

Anywhere but here
When will the time be right?
Anytime but now
The doubt and the fear
I know would all disappear
Anywhere but here
On the edge of sleep,

I heard voices behind the door
The known and the nameless,
familiar and faceless
My angels and my demons at war
Which one will lose — depends on what I choose
Or maybe which voice I ignore...
Streets of cold desire
My precious sense of honor
Just a shield of rusty wire
I hold against the chaos —
And the cross of holy fire
So easy to deceive
My precious sense of rightness
Is sometimes so naive
So that which I imagine
Is that which I believe
Counterparts
121
Rush Lyrics
On the edge of sleep, I awoke to a sun so bright 1974-1996
Rested and fearless, cheered by your nearness
I knew which direction was right
The case had been tried by the jury inside
The choice between darkness and light...
Cold Fire
It was long after midnight

When we got to unconditional love
She said sure, my heart is boundless
But don’t push my limits too far
I said if love was so transcendant

I don’t understand these boundaries
She said just don’t disappoint me —
You know how complex women are
I’ll be around
If you don’t let me down
Too far
It was just before sunrise

When we started on traditional roles
She said sure I’ll be your partner
But don’t make too many demands
I said if love has these conditions

I don’t understand those songs you love
She said this is not a love song
This isn’t fantasy-land
I’ll be around
If you don’t push me down
Too far
DON’T GO TOO FAR —

The phosphorescent wave on a tropical sea
Is a cold fire
DON’T CROSS THE LINE —
The pattern of moonlight on the bedroom floor
Is a cold fire
DON’T LET ME DOWN —
The flame at the heart of a pawnbroker’s diamond
Is a cold fire
DON’T BREAK THE SPELL —
The look in your eyes as you head for the door
Is a cold fire
Love is blind if you are gentle

Love can turn to a long, cold burn
Counterparts
122
Rush Lyrics
Everyday Glory 1974-1996
In the house where nobody laughs

And nobody sleeps
In the house where love lies dying
And the shadows creep
A little girl hides, shaking,
With her hands on her ears
Pushing back the tears, ‘til the pain disappears
Mama says some ugly words

Daddy pounds the wall
They can fight about their little girl later
Right now they don’t care at all
No matter what they say...
EVERYDAY PEOPLE
EVERYDAY SHAME
EVERYDAY PROMISE
SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES
EVERYDAY SUNRISE
ANOTHER EVERYDAY STORY
RISE FROM THE ASHES —
A BLAZE OF EVERYDAY GLORY
In the city where nobody smiles

And nobody dreams
In the city where desperation
Drives the bored to extremes
Just one spark of decency

Against a starless night
One glow of hope and dignity
A child can follow the light
No matter what they say
If the future’s looking dark

We’re the ones who have to shine
If there’s no one in control
We’re the ones who draw the line
Though we live in trying times —
We’re the ones who have to try
Though we know that time has wings —
We’re the ones who have to fly
Counterparts
123
Test For Echo
1996
Test For Echo

Driven
Half The World
The Color Of Right
Time And Motion
Totem
Dog Years
Virtuality
Resist
Limbo
Carve Away The Stone
Rush Lyrics
Test For Echo 1974-1996
Here we go — vertigo
Video vertigo
Test for echo
Here we go — in slo-mo
Video vertigo
Test for echo
Some kind of trouble on the sensory screen

Camera curves over caved-in cop cars
Bleacher-creatures, would-be desperados
Clutch at plausible deniability
Don’t touch that dial —
We’re in denial
Until the showcase trial on TV
Some kind of pictures on the sense o’clock news

Miles of yellow tape — silhouetted chalklines
Tough-talking hood boys in pro-team logo knock-offs
Conform to uniforms of some corporate entity
Don’t change that station
It’s Gangster Nation
Now crime’s in syndication on TV
What a show — vertigo

Video vertigo
Test for echo
Touch and go — in slo-mo

Video vertigo
Test for echo
Some kind of drama live on satellite

Hidden camera coverage from the crime scene to the courtroom
Nail-biting hood boys in borrowed ties and jackets
Clutching at the straws of respectability
Can’t do the time?
Don’t do the crime
And wind up in the perp walk on TV
Test For Echo

125
Rush Lyrics
Driven 1974-1996
Driven up and down in circles

Skidding down a road of black ice
Staring in and out storm windows
Driven to a fool’s paradise
BUT IT’S MY TURN TO DRIVE
Driven to the margin of error

Driven to the edge of control
Driven to the margin of terror
Driven to the edge of a deep, dark hole
Driven day and night in circles

Spinning like a whirlwind of leaves
Stealing in and out back alleys
Driven to another den of thieves
BUT IT’S MY TURN TO DRIVE
Driven in — Driven to the edge

Driven out — On the thin end of the wedge
Driven off — By things I’ve never seen
Driven on — By the road to somewhere I’ve never been
IT’S MY TURN TO DRIVE
The road unwinds towards me

What was there is gone
The road unwinds before me
And I go riding on
Test For Echo

126
Rush Lyrics
Half The World 1974-1996
Half the world hates

What half the world does every day
Half the world waits
While half gets on with it anyway
Half the world lives

Half the world makes
Half the world gives
While the other half takes
Half the world is

Half the world was
Half the world thinks
While the other half does
Half the world talks

With half a mind on what they say
Half the world walks
With half a mind to run away
Half the world lies

Half the world learns
Half the world flies
As half the world turns
Half the world cries

Half the world laughs
Half the world tries
To be the other half
Half of us divided
Like a torn-up photograph
Half of us are trying
To reach the other half
Half the world cares

While half the world is wasting the day
Half the world shares
While half the world is stealing away
Test For Echo

127
Rush Lyrics
The Color Of Right 1974-1996
I don’t have an explanation

For another lonely night
I just feel this sense of mission
And the sense of what is right
Take it easy on my now —

I’d be there if I could
I’m so full of what is right
I can’t see what is good
It’s a hopeless situation

Lie awake for half the night
You’re not sure what’s going on here
But you’re sure it isn’t right
Make it easy on yourself

There’s nothing more you can do
You’re so full of what is right
You can’t see what is true
A quality of justice
A quantity of light
A particle of mercy
Makes the color of right
Gravity and distance

Change the passage of light
Gravity and distance
Change the color of right
Time And Motion
Time and motion

Wind and sun and rain
Days connect like boxcars in a train
Fill them up with precious cargo

Squeeze in all that you can find
Spontaneous elation
And the long-enduring kind
Time and motion

Flesh and blood and fire
Lives connect in webs of gold and razor wire
Spin a thread of precious contact

Squeeze in all that you can find
Spontaneous relations
And the long-enduring kind
Test For Echo
128
Rush Lyrics
The mighty ocean 1974-1996
Dances with the moon
The silent forest
Echoes with the loon
Time and motion

Live and love and dream
Eyes connect like interstellar beams
Superman in Supernature
Needs all the comfort he can find
Spontaneous emotion
And the long enduring kind
Totem
I’ve got twelve disciples and a Buddha smile

The Garden of Allah, Viking Valhalla
A miracle once in a while
I’ve got a pantheon of animals in a pagan soul

Vishnu and Gaia — Aztec and Maya
Dance around my totem pole
I believe in what I see

I believe in what I hear
I believe that what I’m feeling
Changes how the world appears
Angels and demons dancing in my head

Lunatics and monsters underneath my bed
Media messiahs preying on my fears
Pop culture prophets playing in my ears
I’ve got celestial mechanics

To synchronize my stars
Seasonal migrations — daily variations
World of the unlikely and bizarre
I’ve got idols and icons, unspoken holy vows

Thoughts to keep well-hidden —
Sacred and forbidden
Free to browse among the holy cows
That’s why I believe
Angels and demons inside of me

Saviors and Satans all around me
Sweet chariot, swing low, coming for me
Test For Echo

129
Rush Lyrics
Dog Years 1974-1996
In a dog’s life
A year is really more like seven
And all too soon a canine
Will be chasing cars in doggie heaven
It seems to me
As we make our own few circles ‘round the sun
We get it backwards
And our seven years go by like one
Dog years — It’s the season of the itch

Dog years — With every scratch it reappears
In the dog days

People look to Sirius
Dogs cry for the moon
But these connections are mysterious
It seems to me
While it’s true that every dog will have his day
When all the bones are buried
There is barely time to go outside and play
Dog years — It’s the season of the itch

Dog years — With every scratch it reappears
Dog years — For every sad son of a bitch
Dog years — With his tail between his ears
I’d rather be a tortoise from Galapagos

Or a span of geological time
Than be living in these dog years
In a dog’s brain
A constant buzz of low-level static
One sniff at the hydrant
And the answer is automatic
It seems to me
As well make our own few circles ‘round the block
We’ve lost our senses
For the higher-level static of talk
Test For Echo

130
Rush Lyrics
Virtuality 1974-1996
Like a shipwrecked mariner adrift on an unknown sea

Clinging to the wreckage of the lost ship Fantasy
I’m a castaway, stranded in a desolate land
I can see the footprints in the virtual sand
Net boy, net girl

Send your signal ‘round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free
Net boy, net girl

Send your impulse ‘round the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea
Astronauts in the weightlessness of pixellated space

Exchange graffiti with a disembodied race
I can save the universe in a grain of sand
I can hold the future in my virtual hand
Let’s dance tonight

To a virtual song
Press this key
And you can play along
Let’s fly tonight

On our virtual wings
Press this key
To see amazing things
Like a pair of vagabonds who wave between two passing trains

Or the glimpse of a woman’s smile through a window in the rain
I can smell her perfume, I can taste her lips
I can feel the voltage from her fingertips
Net boy, net girl

Send your heartbeat round the world
Test For Echo

131
Rush Lyrics
Resist 1974-1996
I can learn to resist

Anything but temptation
I can learn to co-exist
With anything but pain
I can learn to compromise

Anything but my desires
I can learn to get along
With all the things I can’t explain
I can learn to resist

Anything but frustration
I can learn to persist
With anything but aiming low
I can learn to close my eyes

To anything but injustice
I can learn to get along
With all the things I don’t know
You can surrender

Without a prayer
But never really pray
Pray without surrender
You can fight

Without ever winning
But never ever win
Without a fight
Test For Echo

132
Rush Lyrics
Carve Away The Stone 1974-1996
You can roll that stone

To the top of the hill
Drag your ball and chain
Behind you
You can carry that weight

With an iron will
Or let the pain remain
Behind you
Chip away the stone

(Sisyphus)
Chip away the stone
Make the burden lighter
If you must roll that rock alone
You can drive those wheels

To the end of the road
You will still find the past right
Behind you
Try to deny
The weight of the load
Try to put the sins of the past night
Behind you
Carve away the stone

(Sisyhpus)
Carve away the stone
Make a graven image
With some features of your own
You call roll the stone

To the top of the hill
You can carry that weight
With an iron will
You can drive those wheels
To the end of the road
You can try to deny
The weight of the load
Roll away the stone

(Sisyhpus)
Roll away the stone
If you could just move yours
I could get working on my own
Test For Echo

133
lndex
2112 Cygnus X-1 36
I. Overture 26 Cygnus X-1 Book ll: Hemispheres
II. Temples of Syrinx 26 1. Prelude 39
III. Discovery 26 3. Dionysus: Bringer of Love 39
IV. Presentation 27 4. Armageddon: The Battle of Heart and Mind
V. Oracle: The Dream 28 40
VI. Soliloquy 28 5. Cygnus: Bringer of Balance 40
Apollo: Bringer of Wisdom 39
A
D
adventure 67, 104
Afterimage 66 death 39
Alien Shore 119 Different Strings 47
Anagram 98 Digital Man 60
Analog Kid, The 58 Distant Early Warning 65
ancient 27, 33, 34, 39, 53, 114 dog 14, 92, 112, 130
Animate 114 Dog Years 130
Anthem 13 Double Agent 121
Available Light 101 dragon 36, 47, 63
dream 13, 14, 19, 24, 28, 29, 31, 35, 41, 42, 45,
B 51, 52, 55, 57, 58, 62, 63, 67, 71, 73, 74,
76, 77, 79, 81, 85, 87, 89, 92, 93, 94, 96,
baby 9, 111
98, 104, 116, 123, 129
Bastille Day 19
Dreamline 104
beer 11, 76
Driven 126
Before And After 10
dungeon 19, 21
Beneath, Between and Behind 14
Best I Can 13 E
Between Sun And Moon 118
Between the Wheels 71 earth 14, 19, 26, 45, 63, 76, 89, 98, 104
Big Money, The 73 echo 14, 19, 40, 44, 62, 66, 95, 101, 125
Big Wheel, The 108 Emotion Detector 78
Body Electric, The 68 Enemy Within, The 67
Bravado 105 Entre Nous 46
By-Tor And The Snow Dog 14 evening 82, 96
Everyday Glory 123
C
F
Camera Eye, The 53
captain 35, 82, 85 Face Up 107
Carve Away The Stone 133 fantasy 94, 97, 109, 122, 131
Chain Lightning 92 Farewell to Kings, A 33
Chemistry 59 Fear
Cinderella Man 35 Part I: The Enemy Within 67
Circumstances 41 Part II: The Weapon 60–133
cities 14, 16, 33, 39, 40, 65, 77 Part III: Witch Hunt 54
Closer To The Heart 35 Finding My Way 4
Cold Fire 122 fire 16, 62, 63, 75, 77, 85, 87, 92, 108, 115, 116,
Color Of Right, The 128 121, 122
Countdown 63 fireworks 20, 120
Cut To The Chase 116 fly 15, 60, 71, 87, 99, 104, 123, 131
Cygnus 37, 39, 40, 41 Fly By Night 15
Force Ten 81 L
forest 21, 40, 42, 95, 99, 129
Fountain of Lamneth Lakeside Park 20
I. In the Valley 22 Lessons 30
II. Didacts and Narpets 22 light 14, 16, 20, 22, 23, 26, 28, 29, 34, 37, 39,
III. No One At the Bridge 22 40, 41, 42, 45, 53, 54, 57, 58, 75, 79, 81,
IV. Panacea 23 84, 87, 88, 92, 95, 96, 101, 104, 115, 116,
V. Bacchus Plateau 24 118, 120, 121, 122, 123, 128
VI. The Fountain 24 Limelight 52
free 19, 21, 22, 31, 41, 44, 46, 67, 75, 86, 96, Losing It 62
119, 129, 131 lost 4, 19, 29, 30, 34, 39, 40, 41, 53, 70, 71, 89,
freedom 20, 21, 22, 31, 44, 68 93, 100, 105, 130
Freewill 45 love 3, 5, 10, 20, 31, 36, 39, 41, 46, 50, 60, 61,
66, 76, 78, 81, 92, 99, 104, 105, 108, 116,
G 117, 118, 120, 122, 123, 129
Ghost Of A Chance 110 M
government 50
grace 23, 28, 36, 39, 81, 110, 114, 118 machine 44, 51, 52, 60, 61, 68, 76, 84
Grand Designs 74 Madrigal 36
magic 20, 21, 44, 48, 63, 88, 96
H Making Memories 16
Manhattan Project 74
Half The World 127 Marathon 75
Hand Over Fist 100 Middletown Dreams 77
heart 13, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, mind 13, 14, 16, 20, 23, 28, 33, 40, 41, 50, 55,
40, 41, 44, 46, 47, 52, 58, 67, 69, 70, 75, 58, 62, 74, 127
77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 86, 87, 89, 93, 96, 98, mirror 19, 47, 94, 118, 121
100, 104, 114, 117, 120, 122 Mission 87
heaven 20, 45, 76, 77, 89, 108, 130 money 19, 73
Here Again 7 moon 15, 54, 101, 104, 118, 122, 129, 130
Heresy 109 morning 16, 24, 29, 44
High Water 89 mountain 7, 16, 22, 24, 26, 34, 51, 88, 95
history 14, 33, 53, 75, 89, 99 music 26, 27, 39, 44, 51, 58, 59, 87, 101, 105
home 4, 11, 15, 16, 28, 36, 41, 76, 89, 104, 106 Mystic Rhythms 79
honesty 44
human 35, 55, 67 N
humanity 53, 117
hurricane 81, 112 Natural Science 47
Necromancer, The
I I. Into Darkness 21
II. Under the Shadow 21
I Think I'm Going Bald 19 III. Return of the Prince 21
imagination 29, 48, 67, 79, 87, 92 Need Some Love 5
imagine 74, 100, 121 Neurotica 111
In The End 17 New World Man 61
In The Mood 9 night 4, 6, 9, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26,
integrity 44, 48 28, 29, 34, 36, 39, 40, 53, 54, 57, 60, 63,
79, 81, 92, 94, 95, 98, 99, 100, 101, 104,
J 106, 120, 121, 123, 126, 128, 133
Jacob's Ladder 45 Nobody's Hero 117
K O
Kid Gloves 69 Open Secrets 83
king 14, 15, 19, 33, 85 oppression 42
kingdom 19, 31, 60, 73, 76
knowledge 61, 65
P R
pagan 114, 129 radio 44, 60, 61
paradise 34, 73, 87, 98, 105, 108, 126 rain 26, 35, 41, 53, 65, 70, 89, 92, 96, 99, 105,
Pass, The 93 112, 128, 131
Passage To Bangkok, A 29 reality 35, 36, 41, 52, 91, 97, 117
Places reason 15, 16, 30, 39, 98, 117
Acapulco 29 Red Barchetta 51
Afghanistan 29 Red Sector A 67
Astral Door 37 Red Tide 99
Babylon 60 Resist 132
Bacchus Plateau 24 Rivendell 16
Bogota 29 river 7, 14, 21, 34, 50, 52, 88, 89, 95, 99, 104,
Bridge of Death 39 105
China 89 Rocinante 37, 40
Cygnus X-1 36 Roll The Bones 105
Deneb 37
Dreamland 104 S
Florida 63
Scars 95
Fountain of Lamneth 22, 24
sea 16, 23, 37, 46, 47, 53, 58, 81, 89, 93, 95,
Galapagos 130
96, 99, 101, 114, 119, 122, 131
Hades 14
Second Nature 85
Katmandu 29
shadow 14, 21, 67, 95, 101, 102, 117, 121, 123
Lakeside Park 20
ship 14, 15, 22, 37, 46, 82, 131
Lebanon 29
Show Don't Tell 91
London 53
smile 9, 15, 16, 17, 23, 28, 29, 123, 129, 131
Lotus Land 45
society 47, 50
Lyra 37
Something For Nothing 31
Mandrake 35
song 4, 7, 13, 16, 20, 26, 31, 37, 40, 44, 47, 81,
Manhattan 53
88, 100
Milky Way 37
soul 21, 24, 39, 73, 114, 117, 119, 129
Morocco 29
space 29, 40, 46, 48, 50, 111, 114, 118, 131
Nepal 29
Speed Of Love, The 120
Olympus 41
Spirit of Radio, The 44
Overworld 14
star 8, 13, 20, 26, 34, 36, 37, 40, 45, 63, 70, 77,
Pegasus 37
79, 92, 93, 96, 104, 110, 112, 116, 120, 123,
Rivendell 16
129
River Alph 34
Stick It Out 115
River Dawn 21
storm 23, 36, 39, 45, 81, 93, 109, 120, 126
River Styx 14
Subdivisions 57
Serengeti 95
sun 16, 24, 58, 62, 63, 68, 70, 74, 82, 92, 99,
Sirius 130
101, 104, 105, 112, 118, 122, 128, 130
Temples of Syrinx 26
Superconductor 97
Thailand 29
Twilight Zone 29 T
Westminster 53
Willow Dale 21 Tai Shan 88
Xanadu 34 Take A Friend 6
Zion 60 Tears 30
Presto 96 tears 4, 21, 24, 39, 62, 109
pride 50, 53, 76, 81, 87, 94, 98, 105, 107, 115, Territories 76
117 Test For Echo 125
Prime Mover 84 The Trees 42
time 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 24, 27, 29, 34, 41,
46, 47, 51, 58, 61, 71, 74, 82, 83, 85, 86,
88, 89, 91, 93, 99, 104, 107, 108, 110, 111,
115, 116, 118, 121, 123, 125, 128, 130
Time And Motion 128
Time Stand Still 82
Tom Sawyer 50
Totem 129
tragedy 60, 88, 93
travel 16, 21, 35, 104, 120
trees 16, 42, 58, 67
truth 19, 29, 30, 33, 36, 39, 40, 41, 57, 65, 70,
84, 88, 110, 115, 119
Twilight Zone, The 29
U
universe 40, 48, 76, 131
V
Virtuality 131
Vital Signs 55
W
War Paint 94
water 16, 20, 24, 59, 65, 66, 71, 89
weapon 60, 61, 69, 74
Weapon, The 60
What You're Doing 8
wind 16, 22, 31, 51, 58, 65, 67, 81, 82, 88, 92,
99, 101, 128
window 15, 41, 67, 79, 83, 84, 126, 131
wisdom 39, 85
wish 28, 52, 74, 87, 118
Witch Hunt 54
Working Man 11
world 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 17, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 34,
36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 48, 50, 52, 60, 61,
62, 63, 65, 69, 71, 73, 74, 76, 81, 84, 85,
93, 97, 100, 101, 105, 109, 111, 116, 119,
121, 127, 129, 131
X
Xanadu 34
Y
years 4, 10, 14, 21, 23, 28, 34, 40, 51, 62, 68,
89, 109, 117, 130
You Bet Your Life 112
...where credit is due
All lyrics downloaded from:
the National Midnight Star
http://syrinx.umd.edu/rush.html
All graphics downloaded from:

Perchance to dream
http://web2.airmail.net/pscott/perchance02.html#top
Created using:
T his PDF document was
designed to put the enitre
chronology of Rush lyrics in one
Adobe® Photoshop®
Adobe® PageMaker®
navigatiable publication that Adobe® Acrobat® Exchange™
could be readily downloaded
from the web. This document can
either be printed or viewed
Created January, 1998
using Adobe® Acrobat® Reader,
Laura E. Livingston
which can be downloaded from: Seattle, WA
[email protected]
http://adobe.com/

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Rush

Farewell Hemispheres Permanent Moving

Grace Under Power Hold Your

Roll The Test for

I’ve been gone so long

Look out! I’m comin’.

You’ve done me no right,

Look out! I’m comin’.

Need Some Love

I’m runnin’ here,

Well, I need it quick

Oo, I need some love.

Well I been hustlin’ here,

Well I need what keeps

Well, I’m lookin’ at you,

Take yourself a friend.

Yes, you think you’re all right,

Take yourself a friend.

Yes, you need some advice.

Take yourself a friend.

I said I played this song

Well, I say as I look back,

Well, you say you can laugh,

Well, I said will it ever change?

Oh, oh I’ve, I’ve seen your face before.

Well, I see you standin’ there

Who do you think you are?

Well, you think that you’re right.

Well, you say you’ve been try’n’.

Well, you better start changin’.

Yeah, you think that you’re right.

I know what you’re doing,

Well, you think that you’re right.

Hey now, baby,

Well, you’re makin’ me crazy,

Hey baby, it’s a quarter to eight.

Well, hey now, baby,

Ev’rything’s getting hazy.

Hey baby, it’s a quarter to eight.

Well, hey now, baby,

Oo, you drive me crazy.

Hey baby, it’s a quarter to eight.

Love won’t see my comin’

And now you’re fina’lly list’nin’

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maybe we could talk about it

But I really need to

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well you aren’t list’nin’,

I keep tryin’ to get

I don’t wanna see that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, now my story’s over, baby,

Or you’re gonna be left out,

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I’m talkin’ to you baby.

I get up at seven, yeah,

They call me the workin’ man.

I get home at five o’clock,

They call me the workin’ man.