If this one has slipped past you over the years I implore you to give it another listen. Quick to judge, Quick to anger, Slow to understand. Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand. Our first instrumental makes an appearance and, of course, it had to be YYZ. The letters YYZ are the airport designation sign for the Toronto International Airport, obviously, a comforting sight to the road weary band.
A wonderfully complex and catchy instrumental from the Moving Pictures album. I encourage you to check out the Rush in Rio version of this song live for the sight of tens of thousands of Portuguese speakers singing along to the song. I recognize that one is a nice difficult arrangement and one is an absurdly difficult arrangement meant for only the grandest of Maestros!
I offer no excuse other than you can digest YYZ a little easier while you don't really listen to La Villa Strangiato so much as you study it.
It draws you in, captures you, confounds you, and amazes you. Many a musician have cut their teeth on perfecting parts of this song. For musicians, no matter if your instrument is drums, bass, or guitar, this is Rush at it's finest.
Album: Hemispheres : Natural Science is not a song you can dance to. Don't even try it. It is a complex mix of time signature changes, tempo changes, thematic changes, and more.
Lyrically, this song is a tour de force of complicated ideologies and thoughts. Starting out as a near ballad the song goes through a variety of stylistic changes before wrapping up later. Like I said, it's not a song you can dance to.
However, if you want to be challenged on thoughts on, well, science, then you probably aren't going to get that from the Bee Gees. You can, on the other hand, dance to them. 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. This is a song about a car. Well, we all know Mr. Peart isn't going to leave it there, it's actually about a dystopian future where cars have been banned yet a young man knows where his uncle keeps the fictional Red Barchetta stored and takes it out for an occasional joy ride much to the dismay of authorities in their giant Air Cars.
Yeah, it's complicated. But it's Rush, what did you expect? I strip away the old debris that hides a shining car. A brilliant red Barchetta from a better vanished time. Here is another classic rock radio staple and this one isn't even on Moving Pictures. Another entry from Permanent Waves is Freewill a song about, well duh, freewill, religion, and spirituality, and such. The pragmatic Peart puts down some heavy lyrics once again. This song, to me at least musically, isn't as strong as some of the others.
It's not that they do anything wrong of course they don't it's just that the tempo of the song is a little clunky to me. Still, this is one of the more mainstream recognizable Rush songs and it is for a reason- it's a solid song with some really provocative lyrics.
I do give Geddy Lee props for screaming " A cell of awareness " which is unlikely to appear in any other song by any group other than Rush. There are those who think that life has nothing left to chance a host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance.
What happens if you asked the members of Rush themselves what their favorite Rush song was? Well someone did, and they said The Pass off of 's Presto. Presto is actually a very under rated album. It falls outside of their peak popularity in the early 's and after the much maligned synthesizer era of the mid's.
The Pass is a sad song yet hopeful. Suicide has been on such an astronomical rise in the United States since this song came out making it, once again, more relevant now than when it was first penned. All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer by the stars. Album: Presto : Here is our first entry off of the debut album for Rush in The first Rush album might not have had the complexity of the Neil Peart era but the first Rush album rocks!
They are often criticized for their first album sounding like a Led Zeppelin clone but Working Man sounds nothing like Zeppelin. I usually don't mind long player Rush songs but Working Man goes just a little too long for my tastes, so I suppose that would be the only criticism I have. The song has gotten some mainstream exposure over the last few years so good for them.
It's a song any working class person can relate to and Alex Lifeson lays down some solid rock and roll riffs on it.
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. Album: Rush : Another modern era addition to our list.
Far Cry is a hard rocking tune. Aside from more good Neil Peart lyrics this song absolutely rocks and sounds very modern and contemporary. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson show they can still play great hard rock well into their fifties One day I feel I'm on top of the world and the next it's falling in on me. I can get back on. One thing I give Neil Peart credit for is that he writes lyrics and phrases no other writer on God's green Earth would put into their songs.
Sometimes Peart can be ham-fisted or even, dare I say it, pretentious. Sometimes, even downright corny especially on early albums but you have to give the guy props for putting down some imaginative stuff.
The Trees feature some high-brow ideas, to be sure, and is the only song written since mankind started writing ten-thousand years ago to use a line like " now there's no more oak oppression.
This song has been a favorite of mine since I was a teen. The trouble with the maples, and they're quite convinced they're right, they say the oaks are just too lofty and they grab up all the light.
While it falls into the much maligned synthesizer era of Rush, I have to defend that era somewhat. While I could do without the layered keyboards I think Neil Peart was at the apex of his lyrical powers during this time. Red Sector A is a song that sucks you right into it's story- a horrible story of concentration camp survival.
Add to that the fact that Geddy Lee's parents, Morris and Mary Weinrib were both concentration camp survivors and listen to him sing these powerful lyrics. In a world full of hate this song gives you much pause to reflect. One of the most powerful pieces of the synthesizer era and the keyboards actually make this song better not worse. Sickness to insanity. Prayer to profanity.
Days and weeks and months go by. Don't feel the hunger, too weak to cry. Album: Grace Under Pressure : A beautifully, catchy, and haunting instrumental from Counterparts and sequel to Where's My Thing? Geddy Lee is front and center on bass guitar here and Alex Lifeson has some wonderfully melodic guitar moments during the song. While this instrumental might not be as well known as YYZ or La Villa Strangiato , it is still one of their most beautiful.
Every instrument is in perfect harmony on this song complimenting each other well. For bass players this is a great song to sharpen your chops on. For guitarists it is a great example of atmosphere. For drummers Album: Counterparts : This is a funky instrumental from the Roll the Bones album. There are some hits and misses on Roll the Bones.
I personally liked the album but even I admit there are a few misfires on there. This is not one of them. Another great bass guitar feature for Geddy Lee. The song also features some great, yet somewhat subdued, guitar riffs from Alex Lifeson. Funky and catchy.
Album: Roll the Bones : The Rush album Counterparts is a favorite of the band. They have often spoken about how they felt there were firing on all cylinders during this record. I am not as enamored with Counterparts as they are. I feel musically it is good but there are many better standouts and I also think that Neil Peart's lyrics are a bit clunky on this album.
There are a few standouts, however, and Animate is one of them. After the synthesizer heavy s it's nice to hear a hard driving song like Animate that is just pedal to the medal from the opening.
Hard driving guitars, bass, and drums. This is good, perfectly seasoned Rush. Polarize me. Sensitize me. Criticize me. Civilize me. Compensate me. Animate me. Album: Counterparts: I am a bigger fan of the fear series than most people. I guess it just speaks to me. I got on-board with Witch Hunt and stayed that way. Again, this song suffers from the time period it was released in.
Many people turned away from Rush around the time Signals was released after gaining a legion of fans through hard rocking offerings like and Moving Pictures. This is not that. This is something different.
Lyrically the song is very good and speaks to the inner fears that most people wrestle with. Pounding in your temples and a surge of adrenaline. Every muscle tense to fence the enemy within. This song doesn't get enough love, especially since we are seemingly living in a world described in this dystopian epic. From the album of the same name in , Neil Peart penned this song when he was still writing very lengthy and fantasy influenced songs.
A Farewell to Kings the album speaks in many songs about good people trying to make the world better while bad people try to hang onto power. The imagery is stark and somewhat bleak. The music even has, I'm not sure how to describe it, sort of a renaissance flare to it. I don't think that's even a thing but it is now. Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise.
Beating down the multitude and scoffing at the wise. While side one of the album was dedicated solely to the story of , side two offered some more radio friendly shorter songs.
While not a classic rock radio staple, A Passage to Bangkok is still a song you might actually hear on the radio from time to time. The song features a recognizable guitar riff and psychedelically inspired lyrics. While the Grateful Dead and Rush are often compared in terms of having passionate fan bases, musically they are very dissimilar.
This song is about as close musically as the two will ever meet. In other words, yes it is about drugs. Wreathed in smoke in Lebanon we burn the midnight oil. The fragrance of Afghanistan rewards a long day's toil. The title song of the first album of the Neil Peart era of Rush. While it lacks the lofty sci-fi themes that would come later, Fly By Night is still a perfectly good, tight, classic rock song.
The guitar riff by Alex Lifeson is not overly complex but it is memorable. The lyrics speak of a coming of age set of emotions and the band blends really well. The song is pretty mainstream sounding but I've seldom heard it on classic rock radio. The song is well constructed and not too over the top to use as an introduction to new Rush fans.
Why try? I know why. The feeling inside me says it's time I was gone. Clear head, new life ahead. It's time I was king now not just one more pawn. Album: Fly by Night : By-Tor and the Snowdog is one of those early Rush epic tale songs apparently inspired by two actual dogs observed by the band at a party to which Peart then penned an epic fantasy tale.
The song is up-beat and driving and fun. Is it silly? A little bit but with the bands famous sense of humor it totally fits. If you haven't listened to By-Tor and the Snowdog in a while it is well worth revisiting, it's probably better than you remember. The Snow Dog, ermine glowing in the damp night, coal-black eyes shimmering with hate.
Album: Fly By Night : This is another early Rush epic that clocks in at just over eleven minutes. This song is musically complex and based on the unfinished poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Neil Peart lyrically gives his spin on the Coleridge story while the band writes a musically complicated set utilizing a number of exotic instruments, especially on percussion.
If you have ever seen photos of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson playing double neck guitars it is likely this song they were playing. The best comment I ever heard about Xanadu is, "Xanadu isn't a song you listen to, it's a song you experience. To taste anew the fruits of life, the last immortal man. Circumstances from the Hemispheres album sort of snuck up on me as a favorite.
I was many years into being a Rush fan before I really took to this song. It is a good driving short rock song from an era where Rush were writing album spanning epics. It also includes one of my favorite Alex Lifeson guitar riffs. The song is also known for featuring one line in French. 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. This song is the first track off of Fly By Night. It is from the era where Neil Peart was enthralled by author Ayn Rand a subject that has became highly controversial over the years.
The song is based on the Ayn Rand novel Anthem which describes a dystopian future where collectivism has lead to the loss of singular identity. The philosophy embedded in the song was associated with the band for years. The lofty ideals and philosophical focus stand in stark contrast to the straight ahead rock songs of the pre-Neil Peart era.
Live for yourself, there's no one else more worth living for. Begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more. This is another song from the synthesizer era of Rush. Again, I know I've stated this before, but if you tune out of the synth era of Rush you are missing some of Neil Peart's best lyrical work. Peart had lost a lot of his ham-fisted and over the top concepts in favor of much more subtlety. This song also features probably one of Rush's best known music videos which got considerable rotation on MTV and still today plays often on the classic video channels.
Left and rights of passage. Black and whites of youth. Who can face the knowledge that the truth is not the truth. Absolute, yeah. This is an eleven minute suite and the longest song on the Moving Pictures album. The song is an audio travelogue describing both New York City and London. Neil Peart uses wonderfully descriptive language and the song is musically complex. Again, it is not a song you can dance to but for students of musical structure and descriptive writing it is a very strong piece.
I feel the sense of possibilities. I feel the wrench of hard realities. The focus is sharp in the city. This is a deep cut off of Permanent Waves that many, even casual, Rush fans might not be familiar with but it is well worth your time to check out.
Of the three singles released off of Permanent Waves Spirit of Radio , Freewill , and Entre Nous this song featured, far and away, the least amount of radio play and wasn't even performed in concert until the Snakes and Arrows tour.
And that became the record. Finding My Way became a symbol to me of saving our first album. He was very tall, lanky. He drove up in this little sports car, drums hanging out from every corner.
He comes in, this big goofy guy with a small drumkit, and Alex and I thought he was a hick from the country. Then he sat down behind this kit and pummelled the drums — and us. As far as I was concerned he was hired from the minute he started playing. Even better, he was happy to write the lyrics. We were prepared to go down with the ship, and we almost did. Incredibly, was the making of the band, with fans flocking to its title track, a sidelong suite about deep breath how the priests of the Temples of Syrinx control life in the Solar Federation, and the struggle of the protagonist to express his individuality after discovering a guitar.
It was inspired by Ayn Rand , which led to accusations that Rush were rightwing propagandists. The Fountainhead gave me comfort.
It was beyond us. I included it here because it surprised me how popular that song was among our fans. They just love it when we go into that crazy mode. Yes, it is an indulgence, but it seemed to be a pivotal moment for us in creating a fanbase that wanted us to be that way. Some attractive boys. A lot of ugly boys. It changed our lives. But we were going through a phase where we decided to take the George Costanza approach to our career. There's not a single chance these dudes weren't blazed when they wrote "The Necromancer," which veers from Sabbath -ish proto-stoner-metal to Lifeson's squealing, harmonic-heavy solo to a climax of fragile acoustic strumming.
The mini-epic drones on for almost 13 minutes — so long, in fact, that the titular pooch from "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" drops by for a visit during the "Return of the Prince" section.
Rush probably could have restrained themselves a bit — lopping four minutes off this track would only improve its reputation with the anti- Caress crowd — but, then again, isn't indulgence the point of a track this stoned? This interlude is too slight to rank high on this list, but its a stunning moment nonetheless. The tense strings, framing an emotional Lee vocal, are a welcome relief from the hard-rock onslaught of Clockwork Angels.
It's rare to fid a legitimately catchy Rush chorus post, but Lee had no trouble on this brooding alt-rocker. Elsewhere, Lifeson unfurls some legitimately psychedelic guitar work during the bridge, and Peart joins in with some tom-tom bashing. The only downside is a glaringly awful copy-paste job at the mark where the backing track comes in a hair too early. Peart examines the dualities of race and sex on this darkly funky track. I like the lyrics to 'Alien Shore' particularly.
Rush had the ambition to craft a nine-minute, multi-part suite — even if they hadn't developed the discipline to pull off that grand feat. Nonetheless, "By-Tor" is a fun exercise in self-indulgence, an excuse to stitch hair-raising drum solos and Who riffs into a stoner-friendly prog tale. Side note: The song was inspired by the band's roadie, who recalled encountering a growling German Shepherd and another, smaller canine during a visit to the home of Anthem Records manager Ray Danniels.
The title-track to Rush's farewell LP is a dynamic piece that alternates between bruising hard-rock and dollops of echoing guitar. Nick R's production is on-point here too, with the instrumental bridge of distantly mic'ed drums. Peart injects the philosophy of author Ayn Rand — a crucial influence on both and Hemispheres — into this sage, atmospheric fairy tale, which chronicles a struggle for equality between the oaks and maples of a particularly argumentative forest.
The drummer later grew out of his Rand phase, as he told Rolling Stone in , chalking up his mindset to youthful idealism. This meditation on mob mentality was intended as a studio-only track — a designated opportunity to indulge with overdubs and not worry whether they could ever pull it off onstage. They filled out the arrangement with extra keyboards and double-tracked drums including cowbell and extra toms , adding to the textural depth of this eerie track.
But "Witch Hunt" remains the weakest — but far from weak — link on their greatest album. A majestic high point of Vapor Trails , with some of Lifeson's most psychedelic guitar work. This track is a nice brush with adult-contemporary alt-rock — a break from the grungy bum-rush of Vapor Trails. This could easily be a Toad the Wet Sprocket song, and that's intended as a compliment.
Rush get full-on atmospheric with Vapor Trails ' pseudo title track, another flirtation with radio-friendly alt-rock. Lifeson washes his hands of distortion, and Peart bashes a snare with a ringing, marching-band style tone. Rush continue riding a wave of Counterparts energy on this vibrant instrumental, which leaps from prog-funk bass riffs to spacey organ and Steve Hackett -ish guitar work.
Fantastic, possibly their best instrumental. Counterparts marked a return to Rush relevancy — the point where songwriting caught back up to technique. Everyone's on fire here: Lee crafts one of his sharpest chorus hooks, and Peart pounds out a funky tom pattern on his all-acoustic kit. You couldn't blame the guy for experimenting with electronic drums, but a player this precise doesn't need any excuse to sound more like a machine.
Hold Your Fire peaked at Number 13 on the Billboard album chart — their lowest debut since 's Hemispheres. But don't blame this New Wave deep cut, starring Lee's deeply soulful, funky bass and Lifeson's echoing riff. One of a few dozen songs Rush never performed live, this airy love ballad offers a moment of reflective calm within the thunder of A Farewell to Kings.
Peart was still in fairly tale mode in the late '70s, so he couldn't resist sneaking in a "dragon" reference. But this one's fairly straightforward in both arrangement and sentiment: " When all around is madness and there's no safe port in view ," Lee sings over a fretless-styled bass and orchestral-like guitar effects.
The formula of modern Rush is simple: If you can remember the chorus after the first listen, it's a keeper. This streamlined hard-rock anthem passes muster — check out Lee's high-range backing vocals with their expertly controlled vibrato. This one builds from crunchy, metallic verses to a gliding chorus in which Lee appropriately sings, " I can't stop thinking big!
The reggae vibes pop up again on Grace Under Pressure 's dynamic opening cut. The band sounds eerily like the Police. In their early days, Rush ripped off Led Zeppelin's molten hard rock with teenage zeal.
Here, on this spellbinding solo instrumental showcase, Lifeson taps into Jimmy Page's Eastern folk side via III , strumming his acoustic string guitar fancifully in open-D tuning. At barely two minutes, it's the shortest song in the band's catalog, and it took him only one real take to nail down.
This is Rush's version of punk-prog, with each player trimming the fat from their playing. One of several of their new-millennium tracks that recalls the distorted thrust of Rage Against the Machine, "Headlong Flight" sounds eerily like "Bulls on Parade" with its main riff. On their swan song LP, Rush often sound obsessed with toughening up their sound — often sacrificing melody in favor of riffs.
Fitting title for this hypnotic single, built around Lifeson's delayed guitar riffs and electronic beats that recall Peter Gabriel circa Security. Lifeson offers some originality to the modern Rush aesthetic here: He mingles jazz chords and bluesy licks on the solo, and his nervous acoustic down-strokes in the verses could pass for a modern indie-rock band.
Lee also experiments with his vocal approach, layering in heavy chorus harmonies and nodding to blue-eyed soul at the climax with soulful runs. But that early formula rarely paid off as well as it did here. The dreamy atmosphere of this Power Windows highlight envelops you like a warm blanket, Lee crooning with a rare softness and sweetness over an instant-classic synth hook. Lifeson wiggles to the forefront on "Kid Gloves," flipping the bird to Lee's synthesizers all the way. He sounds like he's exploding with pent-up anticipation on the guitar solo, which flaunts an Eddie Van Halen -like tremolo bar flair.
A rare Rush song that will leave you reaching for the Kleenex, "The Garden" stands out in the band's catalog for its sweetness and simplicity, its clarity and control.
It's an unusual arrangement for these guys, with Lee crooning softly over a David Campbell string arrangement, Jason Sniderman's twinkling piano and Lifeson's restrained acoustic guitar.
And its delicate quality initially concerned producer Nick Raskulinecz. The piano parts were there, as were the strings, but everything was kind of soft. Nick wanted us to toughen it up some. If this is how the Rush story ends — and by all indications it will be — it's a poignant curtain call. Peart examines the real-life Manhattan Project — the World War II development that resulted in the Trinity nuclear test — on this breathtaking, synth-heavy cut, documenting the very moment when man devolved into beast.
The lyric is so simple, it shouldn't work, but Peart injects this Eastern-tinged rocker with a honorable meditation on finding faith in the universe and other people — and not gods. It's one of Lee's strongest choruses of the modern era. Lee is one of a handful of prog musicians with the chops — and willingness — to get funky.
And on this dynamo single, he smacks the crap out of his bass strings like they owe him a gambling debt. But "The Big Money" is more than just a killer groove — it's also easily one of Rush's most deceptively intricate radio hits, bouncing giddily from atmospheric synths to tribal tom-toms to arena-rock choruses.
The band's early '80s sonic exploration — the brushes with reggae and ska and synth-pop — had coalesced into a color all their own. Lee's bass sounds like a low-end locomotive on this dissonant rocker, which builds to a dizzying chorus with Lifeson's spacey guitars and Peart's swinging drums.
Rupert Hine's warm production brings adds a shimmer to the song — this is some of the most organic engineering of any rock album in the late '80s. Rush were still Led Zeppelin disciples on Fly by Night , but they infused their formative hard rock with a progressive edge and an unrestrained glee. But it's the subtle touches that elevate this one to a classic — look, for example, how Peart shifts to a half-time, hi-hat-heavy groove at the mark.
Peart drew on his own past people-watching for this analytical cut, full of arpeggiated guitar, squelching synths and jazzy hi-hats. Ben Mink, violinist of fellow Canadian prog-rock band FM, adds haunting, dissonant edge to the second half of this atmospheric Signals cut. Peart is at his darkest lyrically, documenting a writer's and dancer's mental and physical decline. Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett was a crucial early influence on Lifeson, and you can hear the ripples on early albums like Fly by Night and Caress of Steel.
Being in a three-piece, there's lots of room. And then you've got to fill it up. Spasmodic riffs and arpeggios, Peart tapping that glockenspiel in the bridge — it's Rush in all their full prog glory. A lot of Rush fans — hell, even Rush members — hate "Lakeside Park," for reasons that are entirely unclear. Without this head-banging fuzz-rock anthem, Rush's debut LP would be an afterthought — a demo-worthy stepping stone to their prog destiny.
But "Working Man," with its Sabbath-styled riffs and blue-collar lyrics, is a stone-cold classic. After a primal, two-minute pummel, they tease an ambitious streak with wild guitar solos, triplet drum fills and tempo changes, climaxing with Lifeson's grandiose fanfare of string bends. Rush had only one flash of brilliance, but they harnessed its power to forge their hard-prog path. Lee, in this rare posts lyric-writing credit, demonstrates a Peart-like maturity.
The track ends with one of Lifeson's most subtle and bluesy solos — you only wish it hadn't been faded out so quickly. But that was Rush in trimming fat at every possible point.
Staccato riffs, anthemic acoustic strums, grooving hi-hats, bits of balladry and balls-out rocking — "Cinderella Man" is one of Rush's most overlooked tracks from the late '70s, a true showcase for every tool in their arsenal. Rush adopted a harder-edged sound for Presto , emphasizing Lifeson's guitars more than they had in a decade.
This propulsive single emphasized the guitarist's high-octave funk attack on the verses, with a spacey synth vibe on the choruses and bridge.
The album went to No. Club in Somebody suggested Aimee Mann, and we listened to her work. Her voice is absolutely beautiful and really possessed a lot of the qualities that we were after, and she was thrilled to come up to Toronto and lend her talents to our song, which I think really elevated the track.
It's a perfect symbiosis of music and lyric, as Lifeson's rippling guitar solidifies the poignancy in Peart's poetry about teenage suicide. The song that nearly broke Rush altogether: Producer Terry Brown, essentially the band's fourth member since 's Fly by Night , was disgusted by "Digital Man"'s reggae-leaning groove that he argued against the song's inclusion on Signals — essentially catalyzing his departure from their studio team.
This Guitar Hero -worthy instrumental originated from a Morse code rhythm Peart overheard from the cockpit of a small plane. The drummer's hands endure a daunting workout on "YYZ," including some precise triplets on the ride cymbal bell. But, like the entirety of Moving Pictures , everybody's on their A-game — Lee alternating between bass and synth, Lifeson incorporating a signature finger-tapped solo.
Peart focused on a less narrative form of grandiosity — one of love — with this lovely rock ballad, tinted with some spacey analog synth on the bridge. Every second of this track is a pure adrenaline rush: the transition from the caffeinated main riff to the synth-scraping chorus is one of the most breathtaking moments in their catalog, as is the way Lee extends his "call me" note at This is Rush at their finest: proggy yet economical, melodic and lyrical, a verse-chorus structure with space for soloing and extra flourishes.
Every single note of this slays. In the final verse, Lee brushes off his old glass-shattering, dog-whistle range — a blast from the then-near past, and that's before mentioning the unexpected jazz-fusion breakdown. On the lyrical front, Peart subtly slams the concept of theism without managing to be a dick about it — not an easy feat. He's explored the same themes many other times but never with such grace.
A bit disjointed but in only the best way possible, Permanent Waves ' nine-minute closer cycles through riffs and tempos and moods like Lee hairstyles in a retrospective video clip. Surreal subject matter that calls for a grandiose arrangement, and Rush deliver. After a gloomy sci-fi death march, Lifeson performs one of his most show-stopping guitar parts — a double-octave lead figure that borders on vintage British metal. That's only the first two minutes. This song is the sound of the titular battle, the hard-rock guillotine claiming her bloody prize.
Surprises aplenty: the downbeat shift at , the climactic tempo slow-down and slow-mo guitar harmonies. Lee's voice is still high and shockingly shrill, but by this point he'd learned to utilize more restraint, picking and choosing moments to shatter glass with his high trills.
A bit longer and even more complex than its Farewell to Kings predecessor, "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres" moves from eerie synth ambience to heady riffs. In one of the coolest headphone Easter eggs in rock history, producer Terry Brown split Lee's double-tracked voice into the left and right channels each time he sings the word "hemispheres" on "Armageddon: The Battle of Heart and Mind.
By , and-a-half minutes was a walk in the park. The first edition of the "Cygnus" saga moves from warped funk to punk-ish hard rock to dark dissonance. The biggest jaw-dropper is the bluesy opening riff, which alternates between bars of 6, 7 and 8 — a complex time-signature that will leave any prog fan smiling if tapping their foot irregularly. There's almost a punk edge to this breakout hit, which helped Permanent Waves peak at Mo.
Another track where Lee wrote himself a quality melody that stands separate from the riff. The reggae breakdown and climactic piano stomp gave this one a commercial appeal no one could have predicted five years earlier. Bristling with energy at a compact , "Fly by Night" packs more unbridled second-by-second fun than any other song in the Rush canon. Lifeson's crunching, descending guitar riff is instant joy — the sound of, well, flying by night and changing your life, and the rhythm section's torrent of proggy fills Lee's chorus triplets, Peart's splash accents achieve a perpetual, cinematic tension, as you wonder when and how the next surprise will emerge.
Even the bridge is built on a quality hook, with Lee singing merrily through a trippy wave of phaser — an effect achieved by running his vocal through a Leslie speaker.
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