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There's a message in 21 12
that resonates with people

2
00:00:39,337 --> 00:00:41,805
and has continued to resonate
with people.

3
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That's what has given it
its longevity.

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00:00:44,742 --> 00:00:48,803
l think 21 12 was the first record
that we made

5
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where we sounded like Rush.

6
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21 12 was the beginning of everything for us,

7
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and without which, nothing.

8
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The audience were attracted to Rush
'cause they were heavy.

9
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Progressive heavy rock. One. Period.
End of story.

10
00:01:27,184 --> 00:01:29,243
Sometimes you hit one out of the park

11
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with a concept that resonates
with everybody,

12
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and that's what they did -
it was out there.

13
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21 12 was a seed that spread out
and grew and attracted,

14
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but Moving Pictures
arrived in a fertile field and...

15
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You put Moving Pictures on
and it's hit, hit, hit, hit, hit.

16
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ln the case of Moving Pictures
it was the mainstream success

17
00:02:34,819 --> 00:02:39,449
and the fact that every track
on that record is a killer track.

18
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Our fans, they keep wanting us to play
more songs from Moving Pictures

19
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than any other album.

20
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So, to me, it tells me
that it's just a deep, deep record,

21
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and that's given it
its lasting power.

22
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We formed the band in 1968,
when we were 15 years old

23
00:03:15,726 --> 00:03:17,523
with our original drummer, John Rutsey.

24
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We were playing a lot of Cream,
British blues.

25
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We liked the American blues songs

26
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that had been re-interpreted
by the British rockers.

27
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The fact that we were writing music early,
was very, very important.

28
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With the influence of Led Zeppelin,
we started to get heavier and heavier.

29
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Alex and Geddy, in particular,
were so good for kids that age and...

30
00:03:39,717 --> 00:03:43,448
totally, totally absorbed
with wanting to be musicians.

31
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That first album we recorded
in about a 48-hour space.

32
00:04:04,441 --> 00:04:07,103
We had two full nights
and recorded everything,

33
00:04:07,144 --> 00:04:10,841
and then there was one day
to mix the album, beyond that.

34
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The original mix of the album

35
00:04:13,717 --> 00:04:16,743
was...wanting,
to say the least.

36
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So Terry Brown stepped in.

37
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The didn't really have a handle on
what they were doing at that point.

38
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They were very young.

39
00:04:25,196 --> 00:04:28,029
And it needed somebody to, sort of,

40
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pull all the elements together.

41
00:04:30,100 --> 00:04:31,931
He was our hero, because...

42
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he made us sound
the way we wanted to sound.

43
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We originally released the record
on our own label,

44
00:04:49,286 --> 00:04:51,345
'cause no one would release it
in Canada.

45
00:04:51,388 --> 00:04:53,982
A series of events happened
that were wonderful.

46
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We had a radio station
and a music director in Cleveland,

47
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that loved the record
and started to play it.

48
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The program director there,
Donna Halper, in turn,

49
00:05:02,866 --> 00:05:06,666
called a friend of hers,
Cliff Burnstein, in Chicago,

50
00:05:06,704 --> 00:05:07,898
who was at Mercury Records,

51
00:05:07,938 --> 00:05:09,599
talked to him about it,

52
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talked about the response
that it was getting.

53
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He got a copy.

54
00:05:12,810 --> 00:05:14,402
l just put the album on

55
00:05:14,445 --> 00:05:16,879
and l was blown away from the start.

56
00:05:16,914 --> 00:05:18,575
l made some inquiries,

57
00:05:18,616 --> 00:05:20,447
and by the end of the day
we had signed the band.

58
00:05:20,484 --> 00:05:22,042
ln the space of a couple of months,

59
00:05:22,086 --> 00:05:25,681
we went from being this local bar band,

60
00:05:25,723 --> 00:05:28,886
to having a shot at touring with Uriah Heep,
at the time,

61
00:05:28,926 --> 00:05:32,589
and Rory Gallagher,
and all these great bands

62
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that we looked up to
and had so much respect for.

63
00:05:34,698 --> 00:05:38,794
Alex and l had started writing material
that was more progressive,

64
00:05:38,836 --> 00:05:40,531
a little more complicated,

65
00:05:40,571 --> 00:05:45,065
and John Rutsey really wasn't into
that kind of music.

66
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He was more of a rock'n'roll purist.

67
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So, change was in the air.

68
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John was diabetic,
he had juvenile diabetes.

69
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We were getting very serious
about trying to conquer the US.

70
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When they went out on the road,

71
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he couldn't cope with being
on that kind of rigorous schedule.

72
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The other two guys would have done this
for as long as they could,

73
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until they were successful,

74
00:06:08,632 --> 00:06:11,863
and l'm not sure John
was quite as committed as they were.

75
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We'd spent six years
playing in this band together

76
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and building up
the foundation of the band,

77
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so it was...
it was a sad parting.

78
00:06:21,178 --> 00:06:25,205
So we started auditioning drummers

79
00:06:25,249 --> 00:06:28,150
in the summer of '7 4.

80
00:06:28,185 --> 00:06:31,018
A drummer friend of mine,
from my town of St Catharines,

81
00:06:31,055 --> 00:06:33,717
recommended me
as a possibly suitable drummer

82
00:06:33,757 --> 00:06:36,624
and suggested the audition,

83
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but l had no knowledge
of the band or their music.

84
00:06:39,129 --> 00:06:40,460
He pulled out his drums.

85
00:06:40,497 --> 00:06:43,864
He had double bass drums,
but they were very small,

86
00:06:43,901 --> 00:06:46,529
the smallest double bass drums
l've ever seen.

87
00:06:46,570 --> 00:06:48,800
He set them up,
and because he's quite a tall guy,

88
00:06:48,839 --> 00:06:54,106
he sat behind this drum kit
and he just looked huge behind it.

89
00:06:54,144 --> 00:06:56,977
And he started doing these drum rolls
with his feet,

90
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and it just blew me away.

91
00:06:59,149 --> 00:07:00,810
After we'd met, l really wanted it.

92
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l loved the other two guys right away,

93
00:07:02,986 --> 00:07:05,181
l loved our conversations
about music,

94
00:07:05,222 --> 00:07:07,850
and our shared interests
and sense of humour.

95
00:07:07,891 --> 00:07:09,256
Magic.

96
00:07:09,293 --> 00:07:12,387
Magic.
Could it have gotten any better?

97
00:07:12,429 --> 00:07:16,832
They not only get the benefit of a guy who,
in most people's opinion,

98
00:07:16,867 --> 00:07:19,495
becomes the best rock drummer,
in the world,

99
00:07:19,536 --> 00:07:22,369
but is a hell of a lyricist, as well.

100
00:07:22,406 --> 00:07:24,567
We made our first album together,
Fly By Night,

101
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in the winter of 7 4/75.

102
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So we toured madly all that fall,

103
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and then we were
writing songs along the way.

104
00:07:33,150 --> 00:07:37,086
Right from the get go,
with that first album of the three of us now,

105
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we looked at some longer pieces,

106
00:07:38,789 --> 00:07:41,917
some places we could stretch out a little
that was less jammy.

107
00:08:01,545 --> 00:08:03,410
That was our first experiment

108
00:08:03,447 --> 00:08:05,972
at writing a piece that was made up
of different sections

109
00:08:06,016 --> 00:08:09,713
that were all kind of glued together,
and told a story.

110
00:08:09,753 --> 00:08:12,415
And that's kind of how our style evolved.

111
00:08:12,456 --> 00:08:16,825
Through his lyrics and our desire
to complicate the music more.

112
00:08:16,860 --> 00:08:21,593
lf you liked Yes, and you liked Genesis
for their complexity,

113
00:08:21,632 --> 00:08:26,433
yet you liked Black Sabbath
for their power,

114
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then Rush
was the perfect band for you.

115
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That summer of '75,
a certain gelling came together.

116
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Caress Of Steel l see, in retrospect,
was weird as hell,

117
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but we loved it so much.

118
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lt was a dark record,

119
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and coming off Fly By Night,

120
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it was just a little too much,
too soon.

121
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We suffered a great disappointment

122
00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:07,206
when the rest of the world didn't share
our affection for that record.

123
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We went out on tour after that,
into the fall of '75,

124
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and things were not going well.

125
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We were having trouble getting dates

126
00:09:15,486 --> 00:09:17,784
and a lot of them were ill-attended,

127
00:09:17,821 --> 00:09:20,790
and our road crew started calling it
the down-the-tubes tour.

128
00:09:20,824 --> 00:09:23,452
There was a great deal of pressure
on the band,

129
00:09:23,494 --> 00:09:25,962
from the record company,
from management,

130
00:09:25,996 --> 00:09:29,762
to take a couple steps back and
''think about where you're going, guys.''

131
00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:33,031
l think that a lot of people at the label

132
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were concerned that the progress
wasn't fast enough.

133
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You want a quick pay-off.

134
00:09:39,943 --> 00:09:43,242
And l think that there was, probably,

135
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some pressure on Rush

136
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to become more commercial.

137
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After Caress Of Steel came out,

138
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and wasn't more successful,

139
00:09:52,022 --> 00:09:54,422
Terry Brown and l actually flew to Chicago

140
00:09:54,458 --> 00:09:56,255
and met with Mercury Records,

141
00:09:56,293 --> 00:09:59,023
who were debating
whether to drop the band or not.

142
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We basically created the assumption

143
00:10:02,232 --> 00:10:05,292
that the next record
would be more commercial,

144
00:10:05,335 --> 00:10:07,496
and would be less concept,
of course.

145
00:10:07,538 --> 00:10:08,800
And we got out of Chicago

146
00:10:08,839 --> 00:10:12,570
with the deal intact for one more record,

147
00:10:12,609 --> 00:10:13,837
breathed a sigh of relief,

148
00:10:13,877 --> 00:10:16,846
then it was up to Terry and the band
what they were gonna deliver.

149
00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:20,873
There was really one of two directions
that we could go at that point,

150
00:10:20,918 --> 00:10:24,319
after we toured Caress Of Steel.

151
00:10:24,354 --> 00:10:28,085
That was either to give in
to the pressures or to just say,

152
00:10:28,125 --> 00:10:29,592
''You know, screw it.''

153
00:10:29,626 --> 00:10:31,719
We got mad, we got angry
and thought,

154
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''lf this is our last shot,
we're gonna give it everything.

155
00:10:34,498 --> 00:10:35,829
''We're gonna do it our way.''

156
00:10:35,866 --> 00:10:38,334
So we went into the studio to try

157
00:10:38,368 --> 00:10:42,304
to perfect that whole sidelong thing
one more time,

158
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and that's when the 21 12 idea
came up.

159
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There it is,
the unmistakable opening of 21 12.

160
00:10:50,914 --> 00:10:53,508
And this was Hugh Syme...

161
00:10:53,550 --> 00:10:56,485
playing various synth parts for us,

162
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and then it was all put together
in a collage,

163
00:11:00,357 --> 00:11:05,522
and we finalised this intro
for the piece.

164
00:11:05,562 --> 00:11:08,963
And then we come out of that
into the Overture.

165
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He was a huge fan of Ayn Rand's writing,

166
00:11:20,811 --> 00:11:23,746
and he introduced her writing to us.

167
00:11:23,780 --> 00:11:27,181
Not exclusively that,
he's a very, very broad reader.

168
00:11:27,217 --> 00:11:29,651
l had read, certainly,
a lot of science fiction

169
00:11:29,686 --> 00:11:32,678
and Samuel R. Delany
was a big influence on me.

170
00:11:32,723 --> 00:11:35,283
Around the same time,
l found a copy of The Fountainhead,

171
00:11:35,325 --> 00:11:38,658
and said, ''All the smart kids at school
used to carry that around.''

172
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We all liked the book Anthem,

173
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which is the thing
that kind of inspired 21 12.

174
00:11:53,510 --> 00:11:57,378
Anthem was a novelette
that Ayn Rand wrote

175
00:11:57,414 --> 00:12:00,815
l would say, roughly 1939, 1940,

176
00:12:00,851 --> 00:12:03,012
when she was in the middle of writing
The Fountainhead.

177
00:12:11,995 --> 00:12:17,331
And so Anthem is basically
the story of a society

178
00:12:17,367 --> 00:12:20,063
taken over by a priesthood

179
00:12:20,103 --> 00:12:22,594
of totalitarian dictators

180
00:12:22,639 --> 00:12:26,575
who use mysticism to try and subdue
all the people of society.

181
00:12:26,610 --> 00:12:30,910
Which is so collectivistic
and so totalitarian

182
00:12:30,947 --> 00:12:36,044
that the concept 'l' has been eliminated
from people's minds.

183
00:12:36,086 --> 00:12:38,816
They don't even have the concept 'l',

184
00:12:38,855 --> 00:12:41,824
which means they can't conceive
of themselves as individuals.

185
00:12:41,858 --> 00:12:47,262
That whole idea of the individual
and its libertarian values

186
00:12:47,297 --> 00:12:50,562
played a big role
in the way that album shaped up.

187
00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:52,431
l dreamed up this story

188
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of music being invented
against a dystopian, totalitarian society.

189
00:13:07,384 --> 00:13:09,511
l felt this great sense of injustice

190
00:13:09,553 --> 00:13:12,818
that this mass was coming down on us
and telling us to compromise.

191
00:13:12,856 --> 00:13:15,950
Compromise was the word
that l couldn't deal with.

192
00:13:15,992 --> 00:13:20,395
l grew up a child of the '60s,
and l was a strong individualist,

193
00:13:20,430 --> 00:13:23,695
and believed in the sanctity of,
''You should be able to do what you want.''

194
00:13:23,734 --> 00:13:25,065
Without hurting anyone.

195
00:13:25,102 --> 00:13:28,071
When l realised that the story
was paralleling Anthem,

196
00:13:28,105 --> 00:13:30,073
l had to say something about Ayn Rand

197
00:13:30,107 --> 00:13:32,200
and the association with 21 12,

198
00:13:32,242 --> 00:13:35,905
so l put, ''With acknowledgement
to the genius of Ayn Rand.''

199
00:13:35,946 --> 00:13:38,107
How that came back on to us, afterwards!

200
00:13:38,148 --> 00:13:41,606
We got in trouble with the NME in Britain.

201
00:13:41,651 --> 00:13:44,677
We did an interview and this journalist...

202
00:13:45,589 --> 00:13:50,117
..wrote it up like we were Nazis,
ultra right-wing maniacs.

203
00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:54,256
Growing up as a son of Holocaust survivors,

204
00:13:54,297 --> 00:13:56,629
l found that just...

205
00:13:57,634 --> 00:13:59,397
you know, just so offensive.

206
00:13:59,436 --> 00:14:03,270
The connection with Ayn Rand
definitely was a media turn-off.

207
00:14:03,306 --> 00:14:06,298
There was certainly a...
kind of an association

208
00:14:06,343 --> 00:14:10,439
with the '50s conservativism,

209
00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:12,414
the McCarthy years.

210
00:14:12,449 --> 00:14:15,384
All this stuff
probably made the media think,

211
00:14:15,418 --> 00:14:19,616
''Well, this is just not my kind of band.''

212
00:14:19,656 --> 00:14:23,854
And even though Rand was,
and still is to this day

213
00:14:23,894 --> 00:14:26,124
a controversial figure,

214
00:14:26,163 --> 00:14:30,998
it doesn't mean that Neil
believes everything she says.

215
00:14:31,034 --> 00:14:34,367
You don't have to believe
everything she says

216
00:14:34,404 --> 00:14:37,805
to understand
that there are points in those books

217
00:14:37,841 --> 00:14:41,470
that are worth serious consideration.

218
00:14:41,511 --> 00:14:43,001
lt's about creative freedom.

219
00:14:43,046 --> 00:14:46,015
lt's about belief,
believing in yourself.

220
00:15:00,597 --> 00:15:02,394
lt's a great lesson

221
00:15:02,432 --> 00:15:06,368
in what Joseph Campbell
termed as ''Follow your bliss.''

222
00:15:06,403 --> 00:15:08,564
You better listen to your own heart,

223
00:15:08,605 --> 00:15:12,234
you better do
what you think is correct.

224
00:15:12,275 --> 00:15:15,608
l did not think of politics
and global oppression,

225
00:15:15,645 --> 00:15:17,772
l was...
''These people are messing with me.''

226
00:15:17,814 --> 00:15:19,805
You can say what you want
about Ayn Rand

227
00:15:19,850 --> 00:15:22,148
and all the other implications
of her work,

228
00:15:22,185 --> 00:15:27,919
but her artistic manifesto,
for lack of a better term,

229
00:15:27,958 --> 00:15:31,189
was the one that struck home
with the three of us.

230
00:15:35,065 --> 00:15:38,364
And since this was
the 1812 Overture for us,

231
00:15:38,401 --> 00:15:42,531
we couldn't resist
but to pay homage to Tchaikovsky.

232
00:15:57,254 --> 00:16:01,156
We recorded at Toronto Sound Studios,
which was my studio at the time.

233
00:16:01,191 --> 00:16:04,752
We'd done all the records there,
it was just a natural place to work.

234
00:16:04,794 --> 00:16:07,194
lt was his home
and it became our home.

235
00:16:07,230 --> 00:16:10,859
Small, comfy, cosy control room,

236
00:16:10,901 --> 00:16:13,369
and a moderate-sized live room.

237
00:16:13,403 --> 00:16:16,998
We had a booth set up where Neil
had his drums set inside the booth.

238
00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:22,034
lt was almost like a little cottage
within the studio that he was set up in.

239
00:16:22,078 --> 00:16:23,705
They basically came in and said,

240
00:16:23,747 --> 00:16:27,547
''Here's the record,
how can we make it great?''

241
00:16:27,584 --> 00:16:31,816
We had kind of sketches
of a lot of that material,

242
00:16:31,855 --> 00:16:35,757
but once we got in the studio with Terry,

243
00:16:35,792 --> 00:16:38,784
we put it together
as a kind of a unit.

244
00:16:38,828 --> 00:16:42,423
We recorded most everything
off the floor as a three-piece,

245
00:16:42,465 --> 00:16:47,903
and did any overdubs, vocals,
and maybe guitar solos, after the fact.

246
00:16:47,938 --> 00:16:51,601
21 12, the piece itself,
is so raw and so direct,

247
00:16:51,641 --> 00:16:54,337
it's guitar, bass and drums,
it's loud, angry guitars.

248
00:17:29,312 --> 00:17:33,373
l know that...Temples of Syrinx...

249
00:17:33,416 --> 00:17:34,883
for me, as a listener,

250
00:17:34,918 --> 00:17:37,716
was like the heaviest thing
l'd ever heard in my life.

251
00:17:37,754 --> 00:17:40,450
Certainly the anger
that the guys came in with

252
00:17:40,490 --> 00:17:42,754
is expressed in this tune, for sure.

253
00:17:42,792 --> 00:17:46,250
The playing is very aggressive
and Ged's vocals are very aggressive,

254
00:17:46,296 --> 00:17:47,957
so l think we achieved that.

255
00:17:47,998 --> 00:17:53,334
Anger, this raw determination,
all of that is implicit in the music.

256
00:17:53,370 --> 00:17:55,235
lt was built in, you know.

257
00:17:55,271 --> 00:17:58,434
Anything could be least likely
to make you popular in the world,

258
00:17:58,475 --> 00:18:00,807
but, somehow,
that anger reached people.

259
00:18:08,551 --> 00:18:10,485
Unmistakably Neil.

260
00:18:17,260 --> 00:18:19,524
And couple that with Ged's bass playing.

261
00:18:19,562 --> 00:18:22,554
There's nothing sloppy
about the bottom end of this band.

262
00:18:22,599 --> 00:18:24,464
And that makes a big difference,

263
00:18:24,501 --> 00:18:27,368
because everything on top
sits in a nice place,

264
00:18:27,404 --> 00:18:29,895
'cause the bottom is so well defined
and accurate.

265
00:18:29,939 --> 00:18:31,804
And then, of course, Alex.

266
00:18:42,152 --> 00:18:43,312
Then, all together.

267
00:18:52,128 --> 00:18:57,464
The focus on 21 12
was about the loss of individuality.

268
00:18:57,500 --> 00:19:00,867
And, kind of...state rule

269
00:19:00,904 --> 00:19:02,963
and the oppression of expression.

270
00:19:03,006 --> 00:19:05,270
And, and...

271
00:19:05,308 --> 00:19:09,870
To the extent
of the extinction of music, basically.

272
00:19:09,913 --> 00:19:11,813
And so that record

273
00:19:11,848 --> 00:19:15,807
is about a guy discovering a guitar,

274
00:19:15,852 --> 00:19:18,514
this lost artefact from a former age.

275
00:19:18,555 --> 00:19:21,547
So the guitar is discovered in the cave,

276
00:19:21,591 --> 00:19:23,650
with the water running in the background.

277
00:19:23,693 --> 00:19:25,217
And it's obviously out of tune,

278
00:19:25,261 --> 00:19:27,889
it's been there for hundreds of years,

279
00:19:27,931 --> 00:19:29,922
and the strings are old.

280
00:19:34,204 --> 00:19:38,334
Alex picks it up and we started
with it out of tune

281
00:19:38,374 --> 00:19:41,468
and he starts tuning it
and putting it into tune.

282
00:19:41,511 --> 00:19:44,173
And once he's got it in tune,

283
00:19:44,214 --> 00:19:49,117
he starts playing the intro to this piece.

284
00:19:49,152 --> 00:19:51,086
So it was all done in one take.

285
00:20:37,167 --> 00:20:40,034
They had to step up as melody writers

286
00:20:40,069 --> 00:20:42,765
and as...
almost as architects.

287
00:20:42,805 --> 00:20:46,969
They had to figure out a way
to make that piece stand on its own

288
00:20:47,010 --> 00:20:49,342
and yet have pieces inside of it.

289
00:20:49,379 --> 00:20:52,439
We've always been very democratic
in the band.

290
00:20:52,482 --> 00:20:54,643
We like to share the responsibilities,

291
00:20:54,684 --> 00:20:57,915
Geddy and l write all the music
and Neil writes the lyrics.

292
00:20:57,954 --> 00:21:01,583
So there's an equal sense
to the partnership.

293
00:21:01,624 --> 00:21:06,061
A lot of times, the piece of paper
with the words on it makes a great map.

294
00:21:06,095 --> 00:21:11,032
l would be submitting random lyrics to them
at that time early on and later.

295
00:21:11,067 --> 00:21:16,630
He's really come to rely on my opinion
as his editor, in a way,

296
00:21:16,673 --> 00:21:19,801
and he has great consideration
of the job that l have to do

297
00:21:19,842 --> 00:21:22,504
as a writer of the melodies
and a vocalist.

298
00:21:22,545 --> 00:21:25,105
There's stuff that Geddy
isn't comfortable singing,

299
00:21:25,148 --> 00:21:28,242
or he doesn't see the music in it, that l do,

300
00:21:28,284 --> 00:21:31,082
or maybe only four lines of it
speak to him.

301
00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:33,782
He has to feel those lyrics

302
00:21:33,823 --> 00:21:38,988
and he's not comfortable singing something
that he's not feeling.

303
00:21:39,028 --> 00:21:41,997
And l think Neil understands that
very clearly.

304
00:22:02,018 --> 00:22:05,112
ln 21 12, when the main character

305
00:22:05,154 --> 00:22:07,418
is going up against the priests,

306
00:22:07,457 --> 00:22:09,823
you're going to have an uphill battle

307
00:22:09,859 --> 00:22:12,885
and you're going to be dealing with forces
that are bigger than you,

308
00:22:12,929 --> 00:22:14,658
who think they're better than you,

309
00:22:14,697 --> 00:22:18,531
and are going to do everything
they can to keep you in your place.

310
00:22:18,568 --> 00:22:22,766
And that's, in a sense,
also the story of Rush.

311
00:22:22,805 --> 00:22:25,205
So we're heading
into the presentation now,

312
00:22:25,241 --> 00:22:31,009
where our hero takes his philosophy,
his idea

313
00:22:31,047 --> 00:22:33,038
to the priests...

314
00:22:34,317 --> 00:22:37,809
and the vocal is...

315
00:22:39,022 --> 00:22:41,456
very humble, l would say.

316
00:23:14,357 --> 00:23:17,656
And then, shortly,
we get the reply from the priests,

317
00:23:17,694 --> 00:23:20,254
which is a totally different,
aggressive approach

318
00:23:20,296 --> 00:23:21,456
to the vocal delivery.

319
00:23:37,313 --> 00:23:40,441
Geddy's voice was on the high side,
at the time,

320
00:23:40,483 --> 00:23:44,852
and quite unique and different,
and not particularly radio-friendly.

321
00:23:44,887 --> 00:23:47,117
Part of the problem l had
as a promotion man

322
00:23:47,156 --> 00:23:49,886
was people saying to me,

323
00:23:49,926 --> 00:23:54,124
''That Geddy Lee, you know,
l can't stand his voice.

324
00:23:54,163 --> 00:23:55,687
''Who wants to hear that?''

325
00:23:55,732 --> 00:23:59,133
The fans were coming out in droves
to see the band,

326
00:23:59,168 --> 00:24:01,227
but the press still didn't really get it.

327
00:24:01,270 --> 00:24:03,261
l can remember reading stuff

328
00:24:03,306 --> 00:24:05,866
and it was shocking what they would say.

329
00:24:05,908 --> 00:24:09,207
Geddy's voice has always been
a strength of the band, to me.

330
00:24:09,245 --> 00:24:13,045
Very high, very loud,
very forceful.

331
00:24:21,991 --> 00:24:24,425
lt wasn't any more shocking to me

332
00:24:24,460 --> 00:24:27,952
than Robert Plant or opera.

333
00:24:27,997 --> 00:24:30,522
lt was, in fact,
somewhere in-between the two.

334
00:24:30,566 --> 00:24:32,898
l found that quite intriguing.

335
00:24:32,935 --> 00:24:36,302
We took some fairly harsh criticism,

336
00:24:36,339 --> 00:24:39,137
but we were young and undaunted.

337
00:24:39,175 --> 00:24:40,870
We just ploughed ahead.

338
00:24:41,744 --> 00:24:44,907
OK, we're heading into the Grand Finale.

339
00:24:44,947 --> 00:24:47,939
Where good triumphs over evil.

340
00:24:47,984 --> 00:24:51,818
And we're running
a number of guitars here,

341
00:24:51,854 --> 00:24:54,823
but we've basically got Alex's
signature guitar sound,

342
00:24:54,857 --> 00:24:58,793
which is a double track 335

343
00:24:58,828 --> 00:25:02,491
through Marshall amps.

344
00:25:08,704 --> 00:25:11,901
l had two guitars in the studio with me
at that time.

345
00:25:11,941 --> 00:25:15,342
An ES-335,
the Gibson semi-acoustic hollow body,

346
00:25:15,378 --> 00:25:18,040
one of my first good guitars,

347
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:21,447
and a borrowed Stratocaster.

348
00:25:21,484 --> 00:25:22,815
Couldn't afford it.

349
00:25:40,536 --> 00:25:44,233
ln the 21 12 retelling of the story,

350
00:25:44,273 --> 00:25:49,142
it's a darker, more dystopian vision.

351
00:25:49,178 --> 00:25:53,046
He's a pretty dark character, is Neil.

352
00:25:53,082 --> 00:25:56,108
There's no telling what was going on
in his mind at the time.

353
00:25:56,152 --> 00:26:00,646
l certainly don't think
he would want to just recreate...

354
00:26:00,690 --> 00:26:02,248
the Ayn Rand story,

355
00:26:02,291 --> 00:26:04,259
living happily ever after in the mountains.

356
00:26:04,293 --> 00:26:09,424
lt would have made a much less dramatic
ending for us on a record.

357
00:26:09,465 --> 00:26:13,731
The end of that story
is a little ambiguous,

358
00:26:13,769 --> 00:26:19,639
and there's obviously
some sort of war going on.

359
00:26:40,863 --> 00:26:43,093
That's the good guys,
that's the cavalry,

360
00:26:43,132 --> 00:26:44,429
coming in at the end.

361
00:26:44,467 --> 00:26:47,698
So it actually, to me,
had a happy ending, as it were,

362
00:26:47,737 --> 00:26:50,171
that the Solar Federation
was gonna be shut down

363
00:26:50,206 --> 00:26:54,370
by the vision that our hero has
of this other way of living.

364
00:26:54,410 --> 00:26:57,402
They're the people coming at the end.
That's how l intended it.

365
00:26:57,446 --> 00:26:58,913
When they come to the end

366
00:26:58,948 --> 00:27:01,883
and the voice is going,
''We have assumed control,''

367
00:27:01,918 --> 00:27:04,011
people were just delirious.

368
00:27:04,053 --> 00:27:06,283
l guess l was delirious too.

369
00:27:06,322 --> 00:27:10,122
lt was about the whole epic,
more than anything.

370
00:27:10,159 --> 00:27:14,095
We have assumed control.
We have assumed control.

371
00:27:18,935 --> 00:27:23,304
For 21 12,
they focused their ambition,

372
00:27:23,339 --> 00:27:25,739
and in doing that,

373
00:27:25,775 --> 00:27:29,768
they made a really fantastic
first side of the record.

374
00:27:30,112 --> 00:27:33,411
l think side two of that album
was a very clear statement

375
00:27:33,449 --> 00:27:35,917
that we can write songs

376
00:27:35,952 --> 00:27:38,443
and we can write songs
that people will sing along to.

377
00:27:51,901 --> 00:27:56,998
lt was kind of a relief
from this 20 minutes of intensity

378
00:27:57,039 --> 00:28:00,975
to flip the channel and to experiment
with the other sides of the pan.

379
00:28:01,010 --> 00:28:03,808
There was this pressure -
felt pressure anyway -

380
00:28:03,846 --> 00:28:07,338
from the other guys
to be lighter in tone,

381
00:28:07,383 --> 00:28:09,351
and write some funny songs.

382
00:28:09,385 --> 00:28:11,250
You've got Passage To Bangkok

383
00:28:11,287 --> 00:28:14,688
and this is like, yeah, you know, drugs.

384
00:28:14,724 --> 00:28:18,353
OK? This is what we like to do.
We like to get high.

385
00:28:42,251 --> 00:28:44,742
We know what that song's about,
don't we, Neil?

386
00:28:44,787 --> 00:28:48,245
lt was those times, a lot of things
can only be appreciated in the moment,

387
00:28:48,290 --> 00:28:52,317
but in the mid-'70s there were
things like Thai sticks coming around.

388
00:28:52,361 --> 00:28:57,731
So we thought we had to put in
a good, strong toke, at some point.

389
00:28:57,767 --> 00:29:01,726
So this leads into the solo.
l'll play it for you.

390
00:29:43,979 --> 00:29:48,109
We were just travelling around the US,
and hearing about these exotic things.

391
00:29:48,150 --> 00:29:50,380
We'd never been
to any of these places.

392
00:29:50,419 --> 00:29:54,219
lt was really just this sense of the exotic,
the sense of the unknown.

393
00:29:54,256 --> 00:29:55,985
lt was romantic, in a way.

394
00:30:17,146 --> 00:30:21,981
And it is interesting how,
when we played it on the last tour,

395
00:30:22,017 --> 00:30:26,681
how noticeable the atmosphere became.

396
00:30:26,722 --> 00:30:30,089
We have one of the finest,
most aromatic audiences

397
00:30:30,126 --> 00:30:31,923
you'll ever find in rock'n'roll.

398
00:30:55,885 --> 00:30:57,216
We felt the Twilight Zone

399
00:30:57,253 --> 00:31:02,885
was really one of the most creative
TV programs available.

400
00:31:02,925 --> 00:31:05,723
And we were always shocked
that it even got on the air.

401
00:31:05,761 --> 00:31:08,059
The writing was spectacular,

402
00:31:08,097 --> 00:31:13,034
the visual component
of every single episode

403
00:31:13,068 --> 00:31:14,968
was so unique and so different.

404
00:31:15,004 --> 00:31:16,995
Rod Serling was truly a great artist.

405
00:31:17,039 --> 00:31:18,836
He would tell
these seemingly simple stories

406
00:31:18,874 --> 00:31:22,002
but they would have
such a moral twist and irony,

407
00:31:22,044 --> 00:31:23,341
based on human nature.

408
00:31:23,379 --> 00:31:25,904
Having Rod come out
at the beginning and the end,

409
00:31:25,948 --> 00:31:29,281
doing his little thing with the cigarette,
was just so super cool.

410
00:31:29,318 --> 00:31:32,185
You've heard of trying
to find a needle in a haystack,

411
00:31:32,221 --> 00:31:35,281
well, stay with us now,
and you'll be part of an investigating team

412
00:31:35,324 --> 00:31:37,884
who's mission is not to find
that proverbial needle.

413
00:31:37,927 --> 00:31:39,827
No, their task is even harder.

414
00:31:39,862 --> 00:31:42,456
They've got to find a Martian in a diner.

415
00:31:42,498 --> 00:31:44,363
ln just a moment,
you'll search with them,

416
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:46,834
because you've just landed
in the Twilight Zone.

417
00:31:46,869 --> 00:31:51,101
And we wanted to pay respect

418
00:31:51,140 --> 00:31:53,074
by writing a song.

419
00:31:53,108 --> 00:31:57,272
We did want to try to capture
the atmosphere of the show a little.

420
00:31:57,313 --> 00:32:00,248
lf you watch enough of the show,
sometimes the plots...

421
00:32:00,282 --> 00:32:03,945
He uses a kind of demented
sense of humour

422
00:32:03,986 --> 00:32:07,979
in some of the stories
and then there's always that fatal twist.

423
00:32:08,023 --> 00:32:13,984
That song has a particular feel to it
and tonality,

424
00:32:14,029 --> 00:32:18,489
that's a little bit mysterious
and a little swirly and moves around.

425
00:32:18,534 --> 00:32:22,231
Kind of like most of the episodes
that we watched.

426
00:32:22,271 --> 00:32:26,173
Of course, Neil makes mention of
a number of the episodes in the lyrics.

427
00:32:26,208 --> 00:32:29,268
The two narratives
were probably just vivid enough

428
00:32:29,311 --> 00:32:33,213
and brief enough, that l could
get them into a sing-able verse.

429
00:32:58,874 --> 00:33:02,366
The verses are quite...quite jaunty.

430
00:33:02,411 --> 00:33:03,935
Setting the scene.

431
00:33:03,979 --> 00:33:06,209
Then when we get to the chorus...

432
00:33:07,716 --> 00:33:10,014
we go into this whole,

433
00:33:10,052 --> 00:33:12,384
you know, different mode, tonally.

434
00:33:12,421 --> 00:33:15,083
Different kind of key structure.

435
00:33:15,124 --> 00:33:19,390
Gives it a bit more atmosphere,
a bit more...mood.

436
00:33:22,932 --> 00:33:27,494
And it was fun to throw that whisper track in
to double the chorus vocal.

437
00:33:31,006 --> 00:33:34,237
They always had the dark side
mixed with the lighter side.

438
00:33:34,276 --> 00:33:36,767
That's really what we've done here.

439
00:33:45,754 --> 00:33:48,848
Ray Danniels actually brought
a record into Mercury.

440
00:33:48,891 --> 00:33:52,918
We all sat in the conference room
and listened to it.

441
00:33:52,962 --> 00:33:56,261
The general feeling in the office was...

442
00:33:57,199 --> 00:33:58,928
''We're in trouble.''

443
00:33:58,968 --> 00:34:01,801
This is exactly what we don't need.

444
00:34:01,837 --> 00:34:03,134
They were a bit puzzled,

445
00:34:03,172 --> 00:34:05,299
but there were some people
at the record company

446
00:34:05,341 --> 00:34:09,471
that actually kind of got a charge out of it.

447
00:34:09,511 --> 00:34:13,504
l knew that...
l could do something with this record,

448
00:34:13,549 --> 00:34:16,211
because it wasn't actually all concept,

449
00:34:16,251 --> 00:34:20,483
one side of it was concept,
the other side were a bunch of songs.

450
00:34:20,522 --> 00:34:23,719
Of course, 21 12 was a very,
very successful record

451
00:34:23,759 --> 00:34:25,249
and it bought us our freedom.

452
00:34:25,294 --> 00:34:29,492
From that day on,
nobody ever gave us any kind of trouble.

453
00:34:29,531 --> 00:34:34,730
That was the record that really
moved the band into a different level.

454
00:34:34,770 --> 00:34:37,967
There was like a tribal drum being beaten

455
00:34:38,007 --> 00:34:41,568
throughout the North American continent

456
00:34:41,610 --> 00:34:43,202
and it was driving people toward Rush.

457
00:34:43,545 --> 00:34:47,276
There was a stylistic breaKthrough
on 21 12

458
00:34:47,316 --> 00:34:49,807
that kept evolving.

459
00:34:49,852 --> 00:34:54,289
lt was a time when things like bass pedal
synthesisers were coming out,

460
00:34:54,323 --> 00:34:56,814
we jumped on that,
Geddy had a Minimoog.

461
00:34:56,859 --> 00:34:59,987
And they both started playing
12-string electrics and acoustics.

462
00:35:00,029 --> 00:35:03,260
l started getting keyboard, percussion,
and Temple blocks,

463
00:35:03,298 --> 00:35:07,359
and chimes and all this kind of stuff
that would give us more sounds.

464
00:35:07,403 --> 00:35:11,635
From 21 12 through A Farewell To Kings
and Hemispheres,

465
00:35:11,673 --> 00:35:15,404
there was definitely a development,
melodically and structurally,

466
00:35:15,444 --> 00:35:17,935
they were still doing the longer pieces,

467
00:35:17,980 --> 00:35:20,574
but they were also still experimenting
with the shorter ones.

468
00:35:20,616 --> 00:35:24,347
But Permanent Waves, it showed
what great listeners they were,

469
00:35:24,386 --> 00:35:29,221
because you could hear
that they were taking punk

470
00:35:29,258 --> 00:35:31,783
and so-called new-wave rock
very seriously.

471
00:35:31,827 --> 00:35:34,455
The punk movement kicked off
the new-wave movement,

472
00:35:34,496 --> 00:35:36,225
which grew into so many things,

473
00:35:36,265 --> 00:35:38,699
and brought in reggae music
and electronic dance music.

474
00:35:38,734 --> 00:35:43,228
So we were very open to it, we were
young enough to be influenced by it,

475
00:35:43,272 --> 00:35:45,001
and to change.

476
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:48,567
The difference between 21 12
and Moving Pictures

477
00:35:48,610 --> 00:35:50,407
is startling.

478
00:35:50,446 --> 00:35:54,177
21 12 is a very dark, hard rock album.

479
00:35:54,216 --> 00:35:58,983
You get to Moving Pictures
and you have reggae influences,

480
00:35:59,021 --> 00:36:01,683
and you can hear The Police on there.

481
00:36:01,723 --> 00:36:04,055
Synthesisers are prevalent.

482
00:36:04,093 --> 00:36:09,292
And songs are stand-alone stories.

483
00:36:22,144 --> 00:36:26,604
Neil made Red Barchetta
into a thrilling little short film.

484
00:36:26,648 --> 00:36:31,642
l've seen feature films
that have probably had less content

485
00:36:31,687 --> 00:36:34,588
than is in that song.

486
00:36:34,623 --> 00:36:36,784
The story itself,
called A Nice Morning Drive,

487
00:36:36,825 --> 00:36:42,388
had been published in Road and Track
magazine several years before,

488
00:36:42,431 --> 00:36:44,490
and just stuck in my mind.

489
00:36:44,533 --> 00:36:46,763
The car l loved at the time,
and still do really,

490
00:36:46,802 --> 00:36:50,533
is the Ferrari 166 Mille Miglia Barchetta.

491
00:36:50,572 --> 00:36:52,062
Barchetta, properly.

492
00:36:52,107 --> 00:36:57,636
He just had this fantasy about a time
when cars were not allowed.

493
00:36:57,679 --> 00:37:00,580
We tell this little story,
this cautionary tale,

494
00:37:02,851 --> 00:37:06,150
about beating the car police.

495
00:37:06,188 --> 00:37:08,850
lt's almost like the banned guitar from 21 12,

496
00:37:08,891 --> 00:37:12,622
but it's a banned car and he finds it
and rides it on the highway.

497
00:37:12,661 --> 00:37:14,356
He's talking about, ''Let's have fun,

498
00:37:14,396 --> 00:37:18,127
''let's put the pedal to the metal
and see what this thing can do.''

499
00:37:18,167 --> 00:37:22,695
The beauty of Red Barchetta is...
it's totally a car song.

500
00:37:22,738 --> 00:37:26,139
lt's got all the fetishism
and romanticism

501
00:37:26,175 --> 00:37:30,009
of muscular machines,
but it's a Rush song.

502
00:37:30,045 --> 00:37:31,342
To me, it's about freedom,

503
00:37:31,380 --> 00:37:33,974
it's about how can l get away
from what's happening?

504
00:37:34,016 --> 00:37:38,453
When did we lose all the fun?
When did we lose the spirit?

505
00:37:38,487 --> 00:37:42,082
Red Barchetta, to me, was like
a fight to get the spirit back.

506
00:38:10,018 --> 00:38:12,782
Now we're getting very close
to the solo.

507
00:38:14,156 --> 00:38:17,125
Which starts out with screeching tires and...

508
00:38:27,336 --> 00:38:29,770
lnteresting guitar sound here.

509
00:38:29,805 --> 00:38:32,205
lt's being fed
through a very short delay,

510
00:38:32,241 --> 00:38:34,835
so it has
a very tunnel-like sound to it.

511
00:38:46,788 --> 00:38:50,053
Neil would write the lyrics in such way
that it's ''us against them''

512
00:38:50,092 --> 00:38:53,357
but this time in a fancy sports car.

513
00:38:53,395 --> 00:38:55,556
lt's the music
that carries Red Barchetta.

514
00:38:55,597 --> 00:38:59,397
The story is just a vehicle for it
and Geddy and Alex responded to that

515
00:38:59,434 --> 00:39:04,201
in that sense,
to musically narrate the story,

516
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:06,707
and decorate the story, musically.

517
00:39:06,742 --> 00:39:08,369
That's where it was successful.

518
00:39:26,328 --> 00:39:29,263
l don't know that you
can really appreciate this band

519
00:39:29,298 --> 00:39:31,425
if you haven't seen them live.

520
00:39:31,466 --> 00:39:37,268
These are three guys that make
all of this extraordinary music,

521
00:39:37,306 --> 00:39:42,005
and you have to be at such
a high technical level...

522
00:39:42,044 --> 00:39:43,978
to pull that off.

523
00:39:44,012 --> 00:39:45,980
lt's hard enough in the studio,

524
00:39:46,014 --> 00:39:49,973
but live, to pull that off,
says everything about them.

525
00:40:00,262 --> 00:40:03,060
YYZ was really exciting
for Torontonians,

526
00:40:03,098 --> 00:40:04,793
because it's our airport code,

527
00:40:04,833 --> 00:40:08,894
and it was maybe Rush's nod
to coming home.

528
00:40:08,937 --> 00:40:11,098
We were in an airplane,
flying into Toronto,

529
00:40:11,139 --> 00:40:14,768
listening to the Morse code,
which is YYZ, the airport,

530
00:40:14,810 --> 00:40:16,971
and l just...
The rhythm stuck in my head.

531
00:40:26,021 --> 00:40:30,754
That song really began
as a bass and drum extravaganza.

532
00:40:30,792 --> 00:40:33,192
ln fact, l remember in the rehearsal hall,

533
00:40:33,228 --> 00:40:35,355
Neil and l
putting that track together,

534
00:40:35,397 --> 00:40:37,058
almost without guitar.

535
00:40:41,503 --> 00:40:45,439
l think Alex was out flying his
remote-controlled airplanes.

536
00:40:45,474 --> 00:40:47,465
Neil and l were itching to just jam.

537
00:40:47,509 --> 00:40:50,034
Before we knew it, we had put...

538
00:40:50,078 --> 00:40:53,070
jammed all these moments together

539
00:40:53,115 --> 00:40:56,676
that kind of kicked off
the beginning of that song.

540
00:41:24,446 --> 00:41:27,472
lt gives them a chance to stretch out

541
00:41:27,516 --> 00:41:30,417
and play anything they would like to.

542
00:41:30,452 --> 00:41:32,613
We didn't
have to take into consideration

543
00:41:32,654 --> 00:41:34,087
it was a melody over the top,

544
00:41:34,122 --> 00:41:37,387
because the melody was all written
into the parts of the instrumental.

545
00:41:37,426 --> 00:41:39,485
That's pure, for them.

546
00:41:39,528 --> 00:41:42,258
There's nothing to sully it
or get in the way.

547
00:41:42,297 --> 00:41:45,095
lt's pure Rush as musicians.

548
00:42:02,083 --> 00:42:05,541
YYZ was always a challenge to play,

549
00:42:05,587 --> 00:42:08,954
and for that reason alone,
it is a favourite of ours,

550
00:42:08,990 --> 00:42:12,357
because you always want to feel challenged
whenever you're playing.

551
00:42:12,394 --> 00:42:16,524
He started adding his parts to it
and really took it to another level

552
00:42:16,565 --> 00:42:20,228
especially with some of the solo work
he put on that, it's just magic.

553
00:42:20,268 --> 00:42:22,828
The exotic nature of travel
to Alex's guitar solo,

554
00:42:22,871 --> 00:42:25,931
for sure, he wove in
that kind of Eastern mode,

555
00:42:25,974 --> 00:42:27,874
which gives a sense of the exotic.

556
00:42:46,895 --> 00:42:48,556
Coming to the end of the solo now,

557
00:42:48,597 --> 00:42:51,031
and into the bridge
with all the synths.

558
00:42:55,437 --> 00:42:59,168
And we've got Oberheim, bass pedals,

559
00:42:59,207 --> 00:43:01,903
OB-X,

560
00:43:01,943 --> 00:43:04,912
and some strings.

561
00:43:07,582 --> 00:43:10,517
Gives it a nice full sound
for the bridge part.

562
00:43:15,290 --> 00:43:16,655
All the great power trios,

563
00:43:16,691 --> 00:43:20,092
every guy's got to hold up
his leg of the tripod

564
00:43:20,128 --> 00:43:21,720
or the whole thing collapses.

565
00:43:21,763 --> 00:43:26,462
And each one of these guys
is terrific at holding up his end.

566
00:43:26,501 --> 00:43:28,059
Alex Lifeson is...

567
00:43:29,004 --> 00:43:32,269
he's definitely the rock'n'roll of Rush.

568
00:43:32,307 --> 00:43:34,468
Geddy's playing these crazy bass lines,

569
00:43:34,509 --> 00:43:38,502
and Neil's like the mad scientist
in the back.

570
00:43:38,547 --> 00:43:40,412
The hands of God.

571
00:43:40,448 --> 00:43:42,313
Strong. So strong.

572
00:43:42,350 --> 00:43:43,783
He never lets up.

573
00:43:43,818 --> 00:43:45,877
His drum solos are amazing.

574
00:43:45,921 --> 00:43:49,118
But l'm biased
because l love the guy.

575
00:43:49,157 --> 00:43:51,717
But l listen to his drum solo
every night,

576
00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:54,024
and l never get tired of it.

577
00:44:20,555 --> 00:44:22,580
We went away in the summertime

578
00:44:22,624 --> 00:44:25,923
and worked on the music
in that summer of '79.

579
00:44:25,961 --> 00:44:29,624
And stayed at a house in the country
and it was joyous.

580
00:44:29,664 --> 00:44:32,656
We just loved this total immersion
of working together,

581
00:44:32,701 --> 00:44:36,728
having no responsibilities, all we were
supposed to do was write songs.

582
00:44:36,771 --> 00:44:39,331
Everything seemed to come
relatively quickly

583
00:44:39,374 --> 00:44:41,342
and it was very exciting.

584
00:44:41,376 --> 00:44:46,109
You can labour over something
for hours and hours and hours,

585
00:44:46,147 --> 00:44:50,846
but with Moving Pictures,
there was a really good, positive energy

586
00:44:50,885 --> 00:44:54,821
and a lot of it really came together
quite comfortably,

587
00:44:54,856 --> 00:44:56,824
and with a great deal of fun.

588
00:44:56,858 --> 00:45:01,488
There's a sound to the album
which stands out, as well.

589
00:45:01,529 --> 00:45:04,965
And l think it's become a signature sound.

590
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:08,959
There's certainly
the use of the bass pedals

591
00:45:09,004 --> 00:45:10,869
at the beginning of Tom Sawyer.

592
00:45:10,905 --> 00:45:13,203
ln terms of synthesisers,

593
00:45:13,241 --> 00:45:16,074
this one is a signature sound

594
00:45:16,111 --> 00:45:19,842
that's kind of come
to be identified with the band

595
00:45:19,881 --> 00:45:22,475
and this particular song.

596
00:45:22,517 --> 00:45:26,715
lt's this big growly,
low-end bass pedal sound

597
00:45:26,755 --> 00:45:28,882
which we created on an Oberheim.

598
00:46:06,428 --> 00:46:10,956
The keyboard ''rizz'' thing
plays such a big, important part

599
00:46:10,999 --> 00:46:16,062
and the rhythm of the drums
and the way Neil is playing from the hip

600
00:46:16,104 --> 00:46:17,401
is very, very important.

601
00:46:24,879 --> 00:46:26,346
The main thrust of this point

602
00:46:26,381 --> 00:46:29,873
was to get the drum track
exactly the way we wanted it.

603
00:46:31,352 --> 00:46:34,378
Alex and Ged would play in the studio

604
00:46:34,422 --> 00:46:38,222
and as moral support and as guides for Neil.

605
00:46:38,259 --> 00:46:41,023
Give him all the support he needed.

606
00:46:41,062 --> 00:46:43,394
That's right.
And here's some support now.

607
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:47,391
Let's put some guitar in.

608
00:46:47,435 --> 00:46:48,561
Alrighty.

609
00:46:51,072 --> 00:46:53,267
Puts them all in. l love it.

610
00:46:53,308 --> 00:46:55,606
He's put a thousand guitars in it.

611
00:46:58,079 --> 00:47:00,104
Why don't we strip that back a little?

612
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:08,621
Yeah, so there was a few different styles
of vocal on this song.

613
00:47:16,364 --> 00:47:18,696
That's kind of me singing
in my speaking voice,

614
00:47:18,733 --> 00:47:21,896
which was rare for me at that time.

615
00:47:21,936 --> 00:47:24,404
ln the early days
there was a lot of screeching

616
00:47:24,439 --> 00:47:26,999
and a lot of high-pitched,
high energy.

617
00:47:27,041 --> 00:47:30,477
At this stage in our career,
we were writing more melodies,

618
00:47:30,512 --> 00:47:33,743
and more interesting melodies,
and it enabled me to sing lower

619
00:47:33,782 --> 00:47:36,182
and to add a little harmony
here and there

620
00:47:36,217 --> 00:47:39,243
and try to flesh out
the potential of my voice.

621
00:47:55,870 --> 00:47:59,465
That's like a quintessential
stoner anthem,

622
00:47:59,507 --> 00:48:01,202
as far as l'm concerned.

623
00:48:01,242 --> 00:48:04,439
And it's part of the...
you know,

624
00:48:04,479 --> 00:48:09,678
''The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep.''

625
00:48:09,717 --> 00:48:13,483
lt's like, ''Oh, wow, man.
That's amazing.''

626
00:48:13,521 --> 00:48:17,321
And that took Rush to a whole other level.

627
00:48:17,358 --> 00:48:19,724
There's a whole bunch of people
who just said,

628
00:48:19,761 --> 00:48:23,629
''Yeah, man. That is my life.''

629
00:48:23,665 --> 00:48:25,633
Just those two lines:

630
00:48:25,667 --> 00:48:29,603
''No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government.''

631
00:48:29,637 --> 00:48:32,003
That says volumes about...

632
00:48:33,708 --> 00:48:37,940
what we as rock'n'rollers are about.

633
00:48:54,829 --> 00:48:59,562
We stood up against the government
in the '60s,

634
00:48:59,601 --> 00:49:03,970
we stood up against organised religion

635
00:49:04,005 --> 00:49:07,304
while we were dropping acid
to try to find God.

636
00:49:20,054 --> 00:49:23,854
Tom Sawyer, for a hit song,
was oddly eerie and dark.

637
00:49:23,892 --> 00:49:26,190
The song Tom Sawyer

638
00:49:26,227 --> 00:49:30,323
is a huge staple on rock radio.

639
00:49:31,699 --> 00:49:35,396
We'll be playing Tom Sawyer
as long as there is rock radio.

640
00:49:35,436 --> 00:49:37,427
Obviously Tom Sawyer's their...

641
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:42,136
..Hotel California,
or their Bohemian Rhapsody.

642
00:49:42,176 --> 00:49:44,644
That's their signature song.

643
00:49:59,761 --> 00:50:01,353
We still think it's a wonderful thing

644
00:50:01,396 --> 00:50:04,490
that such a bizarre song
could be so popular.

645
00:50:04,532 --> 00:50:06,898
That alone is a miracle to us.

646
00:50:06,935 --> 00:50:10,701
And the fact that it is the one that has
endured in people's memories

647
00:50:10,738 --> 00:50:13,764
since 1980, it's a song
they remember from their summer.

648
00:50:13,808 --> 00:50:19,269
Tom Sawyer became the anthemic track...

649
00:50:20,515 --> 00:50:22,176
that Rush needed

650
00:50:22,216 --> 00:50:28,416
to become more than
the biggest cult band...in America,

651
00:50:28,456 --> 00:50:32,825
become actually a band
of mass popular acceptance.

652
00:50:32,927 --> 00:50:35,862
That period, in the late '70s,
going into Moving Pictures,

653
00:50:36,130 --> 00:50:38,496
we were suddenly
becoming much more popular,

654
00:50:38,533 --> 00:50:41,058
and there were greater demands
placed upon us.

655
00:50:41,102 --> 00:50:44,401
We had kind of come
to a new level of fandom

656
00:50:44,439 --> 00:50:48,500
and we had new kind of
encounters with fans.

657
00:50:49,310 --> 00:50:51,335
This was very uncomfortable for Neil.

658
00:50:51,379 --> 00:50:54,405
He tried to make sense of it in lyrics,

659
00:50:54,449 --> 00:50:56,883
and tried to explain his point of view.

660
00:51:13,835 --> 00:51:16,133
He's saying,
what exactly does this mean?

661
00:51:16,170 --> 00:51:20,038
And how do l make
some sort of truce with it,

662
00:51:20,074 --> 00:51:24,943
so that l'm appreciating
the good things that come with it,

663
00:51:24,979 --> 00:51:27,641
and l cope with the things
that are kind of annoying?

664
00:51:27,682 --> 00:51:28,910
l used to go see The Who,

665
00:51:28,950 --> 00:51:31,783
but l would never have dreamed
of hanging around backstage

666
00:51:31,819 --> 00:51:35,380
or chasing them to their hotels,
never mind going to their homes.

667
00:51:35,423 --> 00:51:39,291
l was shocked to see that kind of behaviour,
people chasing us around,

668
00:51:39,327 --> 00:51:41,693
and people coming to my house.

669
00:52:07,922 --> 00:52:13,087
l like the fact that some of our songs
discuss these things openly

670
00:52:13,127 --> 00:52:16,324
and give you pause, you know.

671
00:52:16,364 --> 00:52:18,992
''Living in the limelight
The universal dream.''

672
00:52:19,033 --> 00:52:22,764
You meet so many people
that dream of nothing else,

673
00:52:22,804 --> 00:52:24,396
but being famous.

674
00:52:24,439 --> 00:52:28,273
But living it and dreaming of it
are two different things.

675
00:52:28,309 --> 00:52:32,245
That's what the song says,
that's the validity of the song,

676
00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:33,747
from a universal point of view,

677
00:52:33,781 --> 00:52:37,774
not just Neil's personal
wrestling with fame.

678
00:52:37,819 --> 00:52:40,117
l wouldn't want to be famous,
l wanted to be good.

679
00:52:40,154 --> 00:52:41,519
That's a whole other thing.

680
00:52:41,556 --> 00:52:45,492
lt's quite interesting that he wrote it
before this record came out.

681
00:52:45,526 --> 00:52:49,428
He wrote it for the album
which actually made it come true.

682
00:52:49,464 --> 00:52:51,056
And l think, musically...

683
00:52:52,133 --> 00:52:55,364
that song
has some beautiful ups and downs.

684
00:52:55,403 --> 00:53:01,364
lt's very cinematic
in that it's light in the verses

685
00:53:01,409 --> 00:53:03,969
which, l think, reflects,

686
00:53:04,011 --> 00:53:06,502
sort of,
the joy of what we were doing,

687
00:53:06,547 --> 00:53:09,175
and then the bridges and choruses

688
00:53:09,217 --> 00:53:13,745
were much more lonesome.

689
00:53:13,788 --> 00:53:17,315
And then the solo, of course,
is one of my favourites

690
00:53:17,358 --> 00:53:20,225
and it has that kind of character to it

691
00:53:20,261 --> 00:53:24,493
of it's haunting and very lonely,

692
00:53:24,532 --> 00:53:26,500
and it's kind of singular.

693
00:53:26,534 --> 00:53:28,661
We wanted to come up
with something different,

694
00:53:28,703 --> 00:53:33,834
rather than just putting a stock guitar solo
over this fabulous track.

695
00:53:33,875 --> 00:53:37,709
So we spent a lot of time
and Alex came up with some great ideas

696
00:53:37,745 --> 00:53:41,875
and we strung them all together into the solo
that you hear on the record.

697
00:54:11,012 --> 00:54:15,813
As we put all the pieces together
on the tunes for Moving Pictures,

698
00:54:15,850 --> 00:54:18,114
it became very obvious, l think,

699
00:54:18,152 --> 00:54:21,781
that there was something happening here
that was out of our control

700
00:54:21,822 --> 00:54:25,258
and was certainly the best we'd done.

701
00:54:25,293 --> 00:54:30,162
The sound of it and the perception
of the energy on that record

702
00:54:30,198 --> 00:54:31,825
reflected that period of time.

703
00:54:31,866 --> 00:54:34,232
lt seemed to be the right place,
the right time

704
00:54:34,268 --> 00:54:36,702
with some songs
that connected with people.

705
00:54:36,737 --> 00:54:40,366
We just made a record that we liked,
that's what we did every time.

706
00:54:40,408 --> 00:54:43,969
But, suddenly,
just all of the stars were aligned.

707
00:54:44,011 --> 00:54:48,414
l certainly knew that whatever happened
from that moment on,

708
00:54:48,449 --> 00:54:51,213
we would never be going back
to where we came from.

709
00:55:54,715 --> 00:55:57,183
Unlike most bands
who kind of get it right once,

710
00:55:57,218 --> 00:56:00,745
which is a great thing -
if you get it right once you're doing fabulous.

711
00:56:00,788 --> 00:56:02,221
They got it right twice.

712
00:56:02,256 --> 00:56:06,955
Those are the benchmarks,
and l think that 21 12 and Moving Pictures

713
00:56:06,994 --> 00:56:09,053
are the albums that defined them.

714
00:56:09,096 --> 00:56:11,257
There isn't a prog rock band

715
00:56:11,299 --> 00:56:15,827
that doesn't live in the halls Rush built.

716
00:56:15,870 --> 00:56:19,067
They did all the riffs,
all the time signatures,

717
00:56:19,106 --> 00:56:21,904
and all of us
just look at the manual.

718
00:56:21,942 --> 00:56:26,641
When you meet somebody that you
have empathy with and you can work with,

719
00:56:26,681 --> 00:56:30,139
it makes all the difference
in the work that you put out.

720
00:56:30,184 --> 00:56:33,312
They just work really, really well together,
and always have.

721
00:56:33,354 --> 00:56:39,259
lt was a great experience
to be a part of those albums,

722
00:56:39,293 --> 00:56:43,161
and for the mark that they've left.

723
00:56:43,197 --> 00:56:46,928
Rush all along has been trying
to make the music that we love.

724
00:56:46,967 --> 00:56:48,867
That is the simplest expression.

725
00:56:48,903 --> 00:56:50,962
Then we hope that other people
might like it too.

726
00:56:51,005 --> 00:56:54,873
One of the things l really love
about being in Rush,

727
00:56:54,909 --> 00:56:58,367
that we're not afraid to do anything
on a record,

728
00:56:58,412 --> 00:57:01,245
and even if it's
sometimes a terrible mistake,

729
00:57:01,282 --> 00:57:04,547
there's still the willingness
to experiment.

730
00:57:04,585 --> 00:57:08,521
l think that's why the three of us
have stayed together,

731
00:57:08,556 --> 00:57:13,425
because we feel within the confines of Rush
we can try almost anything.

732
00:58:12,515 --> 00:58:16,042
Hugh Syme, who does our album covers,
was in the sessions there,

733
00:58:16,085 --> 00:58:19,077
he had played Mellotron
on the song Tears.

734
00:58:19,122 --> 00:58:24,458
And he had this little ARP,
if l'm remembering correctly.

735
00:58:24,494 --> 00:58:28,692
And, basically, we just recorded
a whole lot of him

736
00:58:28,731 --> 00:58:31,859
just playing around with the ARP,
making space sounds.

737
00:58:31,901 --> 00:58:35,632
'Cause we knew we wanted to start
the song with a kind of sound

738
00:58:35,672 --> 00:58:39,768
that had the imagery
of soaring through space, right.

739
00:58:39,809 --> 00:58:42,209
Moving through time and space.

740
00:58:42,245 --> 00:58:45,214
So he just played around with it,

741
00:58:45,248 --> 00:58:48,547
and afterwards we listened back
to all the bits that he had done,

742
00:58:48,585 --> 00:58:51,452
then we picked one that was the best.

743
00:58:51,487 --> 00:58:56,288
So it was kind of a one-off

744
00:58:56,326 --> 00:59:01,389
kind of combination of improvisation
and playing with buttons and knobs.

745
00:59:01,431 --> 00:59:03,422
l assumed he knew what he was doing

746
00:59:03,466 --> 00:59:06,060
but l think
there was a bit of luck involved.

747
00:59:06,102 --> 00:59:09,560
And now when we play that song live,
l just...

748
00:59:10,573 --> 00:59:14,031
l have that sampled
on one of my samplers,

749
00:59:14,077 --> 00:59:17,137
and l just hit a bass pedal
or play a key,

750
00:59:17,180 --> 00:59:20,013
and it sets that whole thing off,
to start.

751
00:59:20,049 --> 00:59:21,414
Can l have a drum roll?

752
01:04:00,129 --> 01:04:02,996
l don't ever think as though
we invented anything

753
01:04:03,032 --> 01:04:05,557
because our influences were so strong

754
01:04:05,601 --> 01:04:07,762
and so transparent and so genuine.

755
01:04:07,803 --> 01:04:10,601
l've talked before about
going through the late '70s

756
01:04:10,640 --> 01:04:13,131
as music
started to change stylistically.

757
01:04:13,175 --> 01:04:17,874
We were right there, because we were
there as fans, as listeners, so...

758
01:04:17,914 --> 01:04:20,382
What informed us from the beginning

759
01:04:20,416 --> 01:04:23,579
was absolutely the example of others
who came before.

760
01:04:23,619 --> 01:04:26,713
And whatever led us to 21 12

761
01:04:26,756 --> 01:04:31,989
was absolutely set before by The Who
and by Jethro Tull,

762
01:04:32,028 --> 01:04:37,489
absolutely Jethro Tull, doing those
kind of ambitious undertakings too.

763
01:04:37,533 --> 01:04:41,299
There were people like King Crimson,
all kinds of examples being set.

764
01:04:41,337 --> 01:04:43,567
We happened to be a power trio
from Toronto,

765
01:04:43,606 --> 01:04:46,837
so, naturally, we sounded different
than any of those people did

766
01:04:46,876 --> 01:04:51,643
and took it to a different place,
just based on where we came from.

767
01:04:51,681 --> 01:04:55,481
We came from Jimi Hendrix,
Blue Cheer, Cream, The Who,

768
01:04:55,518 --> 01:04:58,146
these were my...
all my first favourite bands.

769
01:04:58,187 --> 01:05:02,214
But when we filter that
through the later sophistication

770
01:05:02,258 --> 01:05:05,091
of the more progressive bands
that l mentioned,

771
01:05:05,127 --> 01:05:07,652
they came together in us.

772
01:05:07,697 --> 01:05:10,894
We were playing a lot of Cream,
British blues.

773
01:05:10,933 --> 01:05:13,697
We liked the American blues songs

774
01:05:13,736 --> 01:05:16,466
that had been reinterpreted
by the British rockers,

775
01:05:16,505 --> 01:05:19,235
John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers,
that kind of stuff.

776
01:05:19,275 --> 01:05:23,871
Eric Clapton, of course,
when he was in Cream, Hendrix,

777
01:05:23,913 --> 01:05:27,474
Pete Townshend was a huge influence,
he was such a great rhythm guitarist,

778
01:05:27,516 --> 01:05:30,383
l really learned a lot from his playing.

779
01:05:30,419 --> 01:05:33,752
But, probably more than anyone
at that time, was Jimmy Page.

780
01:05:33,789 --> 01:05:37,452
l just loved his sound
and his style of playing,

781
01:05:37,493 --> 01:05:41,122
and the way he dressed
and everything that he did.

782
01:05:41,163 --> 01:05:44,724
Every time l would hear
a Bill Bruford or hear a Phil Collins

783
01:05:44,767 --> 01:05:47,327
it's like, OK, that's how good
you have to be now.

784
01:05:47,370 --> 01:05:50,737
The benchmark went up so high
from the early '60s,

785
01:05:50,773 --> 01:05:52,764
all you had to do
was keep a surf beat,

786
01:05:52,808 --> 01:05:54,173
and you could get in a band.

787
01:05:54,210 --> 01:05:57,304
By the late '60s,
you had to be able to play in 7 /8.

788
01:05:57,346 --> 01:06:00,008
You had to be able to transmit
through tempo changes,

789
01:06:00,049 --> 01:06:02,244
and maybe play
some keyboard percussion.

790
01:06:02,284 --> 01:06:03,842
That was what you had to...

791
01:06:03,886 --> 01:06:06,878
Those were the words,
''This is how good you have to be now.''

792
01:06:06,922 --> 01:06:10,323
l think my first bass hero was...

793
01:06:12,261 --> 01:06:14,957
Jack Bruce, probably, Jack Casady.

794
01:06:18,534 --> 01:06:21,025
Obviously, in the progressive period,

795
01:06:21,070 --> 01:06:24,631
Chris Squire was a huge hero of mine.

796
01:06:27,476 --> 01:06:29,808
Those are probably... John Entwistle.

797
01:06:29,845 --> 01:06:33,679
Those are probably the four
most influential guys for me,

798
01:06:33,716 --> 01:06:35,684
early on in...

799
01:06:35,718 --> 01:06:38,846
in...wanting me to be a bass player.

800
01:06:38,888 --> 01:06:44,292
All four of those guys had a very unique
and almost more aggressive sound

801
01:06:44,326 --> 01:06:46,317
than your average bass player.

802
01:06:46,362 --> 01:06:49,195
Much more character
to their sound personality,

803
01:06:49,231 --> 01:06:51,199
and that really attracted me.

804
01:06:51,233 --> 01:06:53,030
My first inspiration was Gene Krupa

805
01:06:53,069 --> 01:06:57,335
because when l was 1 1 or 12
l saw the movie, The Gene Krupa Story,

806
01:06:57,373 --> 01:07:00,706
and Sal Mineo
actually played Gene Krupa

807
01:07:00,743 --> 01:07:04,873
but he did a great job
of miming Gene Krupa's drumming.

808
01:07:04,914 --> 01:07:07,348
lt seemed so glamorous,
exciting and dangerous.

809
01:07:07,383 --> 01:07:10,580
Gene Krupa gets arrested for marijuana in it
and all this stuff.

810
01:07:10,619 --> 01:07:13,554
Sal Mineo was a great looking guy,
as Gene Krupa was too,

811
01:07:13,589 --> 01:07:15,284
always impeccably dressed.

812
01:07:15,324 --> 01:07:19,283
He and Buddy Rich had valets in those
days, to keep them looking that way.

813
01:07:19,328 --> 01:07:21,421
And then, when the mid-'60s...

814
01:07:21,464 --> 01:07:24,900
l started playing in '65 at age 13.

815
01:07:24,934 --> 01:07:27,528
l played along with the AM radio,
in those days.

816
01:07:27,570 --> 01:07:30,038
And many of us, in my generation,

817
01:07:30,072 --> 01:07:32,973
often joke that our six favourite drummers
were all Hal Blaine,

818
01:07:33,008 --> 01:07:36,705
because when l was playing along
to Simon and Garfunkel, or The Byrds,

819
01:07:36,745 --> 01:07:38,576
or The Association.

820
01:07:38,614 --> 01:07:42,141
All of these bands, they were all
Hal Blaine playing drums on them.

821
01:07:42,184 --> 01:07:44,948
l had a little AM radio,
l had a little four-piece drum set,

822
01:07:44,987 --> 01:07:48,354
on the radiator beside me,
a big steam radiator,

823
01:07:48,390 --> 01:07:51,382
l had a plastic radio
that l played along with.

824
01:07:51,427 --> 01:07:53,554
Then when l started buying records,

825
01:07:53,596 --> 01:07:57,054
the first records l bought
were by The Who and Blue Cheer.

826
01:07:57,099 --> 01:07:59,966
And the band l was in at the time,
my first band,

827
01:08:00,002 --> 01:08:03,904
we played a lot of the
San Francisco music by '67,

828
01:08:03,939 --> 01:08:07,568
of the Grateful Dead and Moby Grape
and Jefferson Airplane and all that.

829
01:08:07,610 --> 01:08:10,579
But, by then, my firm and fast hero
was Keith Moon.

830
01:08:10,613 --> 01:08:12,774
l absorbed learning
from these drummers

831
01:08:12,815 --> 01:08:14,442
without knowing it sometimes.

832
01:08:14,483 --> 01:08:17,213
Keith Moon had a wonderful way
of framing the vocals.

833
01:08:17,253 --> 01:08:19,983
You can hear that, it's apparent chaos,
but it's not at all,

834
01:08:20,022 --> 01:08:24,516
it's a very carefully designed chaos
that frames the essence of the song

835
01:08:24,560 --> 01:08:27,825
and it's something that l learned early on
was to do that.

836
01:08:27,863 --> 01:08:29,524
To frame the vocals and come in

837
01:08:29,565 --> 01:08:33,467
and punch up the rhythmic basis
of a vocal phrasing.

838
01:08:33,502 --> 01:08:37,097
l always say l'm grateful to be the lyricist,
l know the lyrics.

839
01:08:37,139 --> 01:08:40,199
l know of bands that record a song
before the lyrics are written

840
01:08:40,242 --> 01:08:42,733
and the poor drummer
has to stay out of the way,

841
01:08:42,778 --> 01:08:44,678
in case there's some singing there.

842
01:08:44,713 --> 01:08:48,205
l love to know that. Of course l want
to stay out of the way but if it's...

843
01:08:48,250 --> 01:08:51,276
We always joke that the three of us
are always soloing

844
01:08:51,320 --> 01:08:52,878
if there's no singing going on.

845
01:08:52,922 --> 01:08:55,117
Also, l love knowing where the phrasing is,

846
01:08:55,157 --> 01:08:59,594
l do a lot that, of punching up
the phrasing where Geddy is.

847
01:08:59,628 --> 01:09:01,687
Live, with my inner monitor,

848
01:09:01,730 --> 01:09:03,994
l'm listening to his singing
and the phrasing

849
01:09:04,033 --> 01:09:05,728
to tell if l have the tempo right.

850
01:09:05,768 --> 01:09:07,395
lf it's a little faster or slower,

851
01:09:07,436 --> 01:09:10,166
the first thing you notice
is the vocal phrasing.

852
01:09:10,206 --> 01:09:13,004
That's still something
that l'm very much glued to

853
01:09:13,042 --> 01:09:17,308
and very grateful that when we're recording
a song l know the lyrics,

854
01:09:17,346 --> 01:09:20,247
so that l can play my part
around them,

855
01:09:20,282 --> 01:09:24,013
either to frame them
or compliment the lyrical phrasing.

856
01:09:29,291 --> 01:09:32,783
lt was in downtown LA, we were
going through a rough part of town

857
01:09:32,828 --> 01:09:36,764
and spray-painted on the wall was
''Freedom isn't free.''

858
01:09:36,799 --> 01:09:40,428
lt's common graffiti now but it wasn't then,
it was like, ''Whoa!''

859
01:09:40,469 --> 01:09:43,836
So, no, the genesis of the song
was that, it was that graffiti,

860
01:09:43,872 --> 01:09:46,306
which l thought was kind of cool.

861
01:09:46,342 --> 01:09:52,076
Then the rest of it
was more about self-actualization.

862
01:09:52,114 --> 01:09:55,550
There's something about waiting
for the winds of change to change you,

863
01:09:55,584 --> 01:09:57,142
and waiting for things to happen.

864
01:09:57,186 --> 01:09:59,711
And l think the way the verses go,

865
01:09:59,755 --> 01:10:03,782
it's like, ''No, you have to go do that thing.

866
01:10:03,826 --> 01:10:05,123
''lt won't come to you.''

867
01:10:05,160 --> 01:10:08,891
So l think l was starting
to see among my generation

868
01:10:08,931 --> 01:10:11,399
there was a sense
of being aggressive or passive,

869
01:10:11,433 --> 01:10:13,833
a sense of:
l'm just waiting to get discovered.

870
01:10:13,869 --> 01:10:16,030
While guys like my band mates and me

871
01:10:16,071 --> 01:10:19,632
were out there,
going around getting discovered,

872
01:10:19,675 --> 01:10:21,472
or working towards it, at least.

873
01:10:21,510 --> 01:10:26,174
But l knew other people
who were just waiting for it to happen.

874
01:10:26,215 --> 01:10:31,152
So that was the dominant inspiration,
l think, that l was after,

875
01:10:31,186 --> 01:10:36,055
and again, inspired by that graffiti
l just loved. ''Freedom isn't free.''

876
01:10:36,091 --> 01:10:39,925
lt's about getting up and going out
and working for what you wanted.

877
01:10:39,962 --> 01:10:43,193
We all had a very strong work ethic.

878
01:10:43,232 --> 01:10:48,329
Speaking personally, my father,
he was an immigrant from Yugoslavia.

879
01:10:48,370 --> 01:10:50,964
After the war,
spent time in a camp in ltaly,

880
01:10:51,006 --> 01:10:53,736
before he was accepted
to come to Canada.

881
01:10:53,776 --> 01:10:56,301
He was a stationary engineer
at Massey Ferguson,

882
01:10:56,345 --> 01:10:59,246
he had his own one-man
plumbing business,

883
01:10:59,281 --> 01:11:02,045
that he used to pick me up
some nights after a gig,

884
01:11:02,084 --> 01:11:05,520
and l'd go and l'd work with him
through the night helping him out.

885
01:11:05,554 --> 01:11:06,953
Plus he drove a cab.

886
01:11:06,989 --> 01:11:10,049
He believed that if you wanted something,
you worked for it.

887
01:11:10,092 --> 01:11:13,255
You didn't complain about it,
or wish you had this or that.

888
01:11:13,295 --> 01:11:16,025
lf you wanted it, get up and work.

889
01:11:16,065 --> 01:11:20,331
And l think we've all
had that same work ethic.

890
01:11:20,369 --> 01:11:21,768
We work very hard

891
01:11:21,804 --> 01:11:24,466
and we take great pride in working hard

892
01:11:24,506 --> 01:11:27,168
and seeing the results of our toil.

893
01:11:27,209 --> 01:11:31,373
l think that song
has a real strong message to it,

894
01:11:31,413 --> 01:11:34,075
that's directed at the whiners
and complainers.

895
01:11:34,116 --> 01:11:36,016
Get up and do it, if you want it.

896
01:11:36,051 --> 01:11:38,144
Don't complain about it,
just get up and do it.

897
01:11:38,187 --> 01:11:40,314
Nothing is for free in this life.

898
01:11:40,356 --> 01:11:42,517
So get on with it.

899
01:11:43,559 --> 01:11:46,687
The opening for the song
was on the 12-string.

900
01:11:46,729 --> 01:11:49,459
Partway through that opening,
the band comes in

901
01:11:49,498 --> 01:11:51,762
and the electric guitar comes in.

902
01:11:51,800 --> 01:11:55,793
And it takes over from the 12,
but l'll play what that part is.

903
01:12:36,011 --> 01:12:37,342
Then the six-string takes over.

904
01:12:37,379 --> 01:12:41,145
Again, it starts with kind of
an arpeggiated beginning,

905
01:12:41,183 --> 01:12:43,617
and l played the bass part
kind of muted.

906
01:12:51,627 --> 01:12:54,653
So it kind of lulls you
into a false sense of security.

907
01:12:57,466 --> 01:12:59,457
Then the vocal melody starts.

908
01:13:03,972 --> 01:13:07,237
Then when the band finally comes in
it comes slamming in,

909
01:13:07,276 --> 01:13:09,073
and then it's off to the races.

910
01:13:42,978 --> 01:13:46,277
We have a double on there,
so there's two vocals, identical.

911
01:13:52,554 --> 01:13:56,115
Ged's vocal tone was something
that just came naturally to him.

912
01:13:56,158 --> 01:13:59,958
That's the way he sang.
lt was effortless for him.

913
01:13:59,995 --> 01:14:02,862
l'm sure he would disagree,
he worked hard at it.

914
01:14:02,898 --> 01:14:04,490
But it wasn't something

915
01:14:04,533 --> 01:14:08,560
that we had to spend hours developing

916
01:14:08,604 --> 01:14:12,165
where the voice came from
in the chest, or the head tone.

917
01:14:12,207 --> 01:14:16,371
He just sang that way.
lt was a natural thing for him to do.

918
01:14:16,411 --> 01:14:20,507
That's what made it so exciting,
he could pop those notes out easily.

919
01:14:20,549 --> 01:14:25,987
A lot of people,
we'll call them the baby boomers

920
01:14:26,021 --> 01:14:30,321
who are coming of age right around the time
this album came out.

921
01:14:31,393 --> 01:14:35,989
A lot of people actually,
maybe felt like,

922
01:14:36,031 --> 01:14:39,159
''We have led very cushy lives.

923
01:14:39,201 --> 01:14:42,602
''We haven't done anything,

924
01:14:42,638 --> 01:14:46,267
''and yet we're living pretty well, here.''

925
01:14:46,308 --> 01:14:47,969
And...

926
01:14:49,077 --> 01:14:51,477
l think that a song
like Something For Nothing

927
01:14:51,513 --> 01:14:52,810
with that theme,

928
01:14:54,049 --> 01:14:55,710
it made people...

929
01:14:57,185 --> 01:15:00,120
No. l'd say it resonated with people

930
01:15:00,155 --> 01:15:02,623
in that it was true.

931
01:15:02,658 --> 01:15:05,354
lt maybe made them feel a little uneasy...

932
01:15:06,628 --> 01:15:09,461
because they were getting
something for nothing,

933
01:15:09,498 --> 01:15:11,432
but they knew they shouldn't be.

934
01:15:11,466 --> 01:15:14,333
They knew there's a price to be paid

935
01:15:14,369 --> 01:15:16,701
and there's something
for them to do themselves

936
01:15:16,738 --> 01:15:22,142
if they want to have a good life,
and an ethical life.

937
01:19:27,923 --> 01:19:33,020
Neil is the single most talented musician
l have ever worked with.

938
01:19:34,996 --> 01:19:39,729
And the most driven musician
l've ever worked with.

939
01:19:39,768 --> 01:19:43,534
l think that really sets his talent apart...

940
01:19:44,940 --> 01:19:46,532
is the fact that...

941
01:19:49,177 --> 01:19:51,304
he's so stubbornly driven

942
01:19:51,346 --> 01:19:57,046
that he won't even play
the same groove twice.

943
01:19:57,085 --> 01:20:01,419
Unless you can really make a case
how that benefits the song.

944
01:20:01,456 --> 01:20:03,048
lt took years for him to realize

945
01:20:03,091 --> 01:20:07,425
that sometimes that same groove
being repeated does benefit the song.

946
01:20:07,462 --> 01:20:11,125
But, to me, that was just a testament
to his striving forward,

947
01:20:11,166 --> 01:20:13,930
to not be a clich�-ridden guy,

948
01:20:13,969 --> 01:20:16,529
and to keep pushing himself.

949
01:20:16,571 --> 01:20:19,199
l think that was inspirational
for Alex and l.

950
01:20:19,241 --> 01:20:21,937
We both are much better musicians

951
01:20:21,977 --> 01:20:24,946
because of working with him
through the years.

952
01:20:24,980 --> 01:20:27,141
He's got a great ear, as well.

953
01:20:27,182 --> 01:20:30,982
A lot of drummers have all the ability

954
01:20:31,019 --> 01:20:33,044
and all the independence,

955
01:20:33,088 --> 01:20:36,080
but he's a composer of drums.

956
01:20:36,124 --> 01:20:39,992
And he tunes his drums
in a particular way

957
01:20:40,028 --> 01:20:42,588
that makes them so musical.

958
01:20:42,631 --> 01:20:46,032
And he combines that musicality

959
01:20:46,067 --> 01:20:48,297
with his independence

960
01:20:48,336 --> 01:20:51,271
and his incredible physical capabilities.

961
01:20:51,306 --> 01:20:56,573
So, for me,
he's just a consummate rock drummer.

962
01:20:57,612 --> 01:20:59,239
And Alex...

963
01:21:01,516 --> 01:21:04,883
is a deeply creative...

964
01:21:07,322 --> 01:21:09,722
original guitar player.

965
01:21:09,758 --> 01:21:12,386
He doesn't sound like anyone else.

966
01:21:12,427 --> 01:21:15,294
There's times we've pushed him
to sound like someone else

967
01:21:15,330 --> 01:21:18,060
and he just keeps sounding like himself.

968
01:21:18,099 --> 01:21:20,932
And that's turned out to be his real strength.

969
01:21:20,969 --> 01:21:22,266
He's...

970
01:21:23,672 --> 01:21:26,470
To be in a three-piece band
and to be a guitarist

971
01:21:26,508 --> 01:21:28,908
is a really tall order.

972
01:21:28,944 --> 01:21:30,172
And to develop a way

973
01:21:30,211 --> 01:21:34,307
that you can be a rhythm player
and a soloist at the same time

974
01:21:34,349 --> 01:21:37,648
and keep the sound...
sounding full

975
01:21:37,686 --> 01:21:40,883
and not, you know, sparse,

976
01:21:42,357 --> 01:21:44,518
was the challenge for him.

977
01:21:44,559 --> 01:21:50,259
He's developed such an interesting way
of creating chords and fingering

978
01:21:50,298 --> 01:21:54,029
and sonically experimenting
with all his devices

979
01:21:54,069 --> 01:21:56,629
to create a tone for himself.

980
01:21:57,872 --> 01:22:01,933
l think he's a very underrated guitarist
in the rock world,

981
01:22:01,977 --> 01:22:05,811
because so much of what he does
is nuanced.

982
01:22:07,182 --> 01:22:09,116
A lot of his...

983
01:22:09,150 --> 01:22:13,109
The way a song sounds is because
of the way he's coloured the sound.

984
01:22:13,154 --> 01:22:14,883
That takes it out of the obvious,

985
01:22:14,923 --> 01:22:17,448
but when you think
that it's a three-piece band

986
01:22:17,492 --> 01:22:19,187
and he's still able to do that.

987
01:22:19,227 --> 01:22:23,527
lt shows you
the kind of depth of his dedication,

988
01:22:23,565 --> 01:22:26,864
to not always be the guy that shouts,
''Look at me!''

989
01:22:26,901 --> 01:22:29,233
A lot of guitar players
are all about ''Look at me''

990
01:22:29,270 --> 01:22:32,535
and he's kind of
taking one for the team.

991
01:22:34,476 --> 01:22:39,140
So he's a great player
and a very spontaneous writer too.

992
01:22:39,180 --> 01:22:41,740
l'm very methodical

993
01:22:41,783 --> 01:22:45,742
and l write,
l compose in a methodical way,

994
01:22:45,787 --> 01:22:47,448
whereas he's very spontaneous.

995
01:22:47,489 --> 01:22:49,719
He'll come up with something,

996
01:22:49,758 --> 01:22:51,988
he won't even realize
what he's just played,

997
01:22:52,027 --> 01:22:53,722
and l have to say,

998
01:22:53,762 --> 01:22:57,220
''Stop. Play that again. That was brilliant.''

999
01:22:57,265 --> 01:22:59,392
And he'll play it again...

1000
01:22:59,434 --> 01:23:03,666
So that's the kind of player he is,
he's very spontaneous.

1001
01:23:08,910 --> 01:23:10,810
That's a lot of pressure
to put a guy under.

1002
01:23:10,845 --> 01:23:13,678
l described before,
as song-writing partners,

1003
01:23:13,715 --> 01:23:17,947
and l think it's quite indicative
of other aspects of them

1004
01:23:17,986 --> 01:23:20,477
and other aspects of our relationship.

1005
01:23:21,523 --> 01:23:23,991
Geddy being quite methodical
in that approach

1006
01:23:24,025 --> 01:23:26,323
and Alex being very spontaneous...

1007
01:23:26,361 --> 01:23:28,795
works together in the chemistry of us...

1008
01:23:28,830 --> 01:23:31,663
and l think that's true as musicians, too.

1009
01:23:31,699 --> 01:23:35,692
Geddy tends to be like me,
wanting to work out a part and refine it,

1010
01:23:35,737 --> 01:23:39,400
and he and l, of course,
just as bass player and drummer,

1011
01:23:39,441 --> 01:23:42,774
are always listening to what each other does
and building on it.

1012
01:23:42,811 --> 01:23:45,439
There was a period in the studio,
last time,

1013
01:23:45,480 --> 01:23:48,540
where Geddy was working at
the computer very methodically,

1014
01:23:48,583 --> 01:23:51,074
moving an arrangement around
and trying different things.

1015
01:23:51,119 --> 01:23:54,919
And Alex is sitting there with
an acoustic guitar, just playing.

1016
01:23:54,956 --> 01:23:57,618
Geddy said, ''What is that?''
''l don't know.''

1017
01:23:57,659 --> 01:24:00,321
So that's when we conceived
the idea of having Alex

1018
01:24:00,361 --> 01:24:04,058
record a spontaneous acoustic piece
as he did in the song called Hope.

1019
01:24:04,099 --> 01:24:05,691
lt came off a reaction like that

1020
01:24:05,733 --> 01:24:09,464
'cause he can just play and play,
and beautiful things keep coming out,

1021
01:24:09,504 --> 01:24:12,166
but if you ask what he just played,
he won't know.

1022
01:24:12,207 --> 01:24:14,732
So you have to be recording him
all the time,

1023
01:24:14,776 --> 01:24:16,801
that is an approach
that we learned...

1024
01:24:16,845 --> 01:24:19,109
You learn to play to your strengths
and weaknesses like that

1025
01:24:19,147 --> 01:24:21,843
and we learned to record
our improvisational stuff.

1026
01:24:21,883 --> 01:24:23,043
We had an experience

1027
01:24:23,084 --> 01:24:27,544
that sums up the personal relation
among the three of us pretty well.

1028
01:24:27,589 --> 01:24:30,558
We hadn't seen each other
since the tour last summer,

1029
01:24:30,592 --> 01:24:33,823
with me being in California
and the two of them in Toronto,

1030
01:24:33,862 --> 01:24:37,161
so it had been a year that we
hadn't actually seen each other.

1031
01:24:37,198 --> 01:24:39,189
And we got together for a meeting...

1032
01:24:40,068 --> 01:24:43,094
and we were supposed
to be talking about our futures,

1033
01:24:43,138 --> 01:24:45,572
and Alex had me in stitches.

1034
01:24:45,607 --> 01:24:49,236
Both, Geddy and l, say he's the
funniest man in the world, bar none.

1035
01:24:49,277 --> 01:24:52,041
We were supposed to be having a meal,
l kept choking,

1036
01:24:52,080 --> 01:24:54,310
there were tears running down my face.

1037
01:24:54,349 --> 01:24:57,011
Gasping.
lt almost killed me, honestly.

1038
01:24:57,051 --> 01:25:00,452
That's what the chemistry
among the three of us...

1039
01:25:00,488 --> 01:25:03,150
At the beginning,
l talked about our first meeting.

1040
01:25:03,191 --> 01:25:06,388
We talked about our ambitions
as serious young musicians,

1041
01:25:06,427 --> 01:25:09,521
we talked about how we loved
Lord Of The Rings and Tolkien books

1042
01:25:09,564 --> 01:25:13,000
and then we were in peals of laughter
over Monty Python skits.

1043
01:25:13,034 --> 01:25:16,800
From the beginning,
we shared those elements.

1044
01:25:16,838 --> 01:25:21,207
A kind of a serious,
dedicated musician on one side,

1045
01:25:21,242 --> 01:25:25,906
and a romantic mystic in the middle,
and then this riotous sense of humour.

1046
01:25:25,947 --> 01:25:29,178
That's still the chemistry
that makes up this band.

1047
01:25:29,217 --> 01:25:34,519
Partly romantic, partly pragmatic,
and partly just crazy.

1048
01:25:39,761 --> 01:25:43,424
lt's kind of a mid-tempo thing
in the verses.

1049
01:25:43,464 --> 01:25:46,831
And it's setting the scene,
telling the story,

1050
01:25:46,868 --> 01:25:50,531
and the choruses are supposed...

1051
01:25:50,572 --> 01:25:53,837
l don't know what you call
the chorus of this song, frankly.

1052
01:25:53,875 --> 01:25:56,867
ln typical Rush fashion,
there is no real chorus,

1053
01:25:56,911 --> 01:26:00,472
there is no real bridge.

1054
01:26:00,515 --> 01:26:04,576
They're all just parts and
they all have their own personality.

1055
01:26:04,619 --> 01:26:08,316
Some of them repeat
and sometimes they don't repeat.

1056
01:26:08,356 --> 01:26:10,085
The signature of Rush, l guess,

1057
01:26:10,124 --> 01:26:13,787
is that we have no signature,
other than...

1058
01:26:13,828 --> 01:26:16,092
We don't know
where the chorus is supposed to go,

1059
01:26:16,130 --> 01:26:18,325
so we make our own rules.

1060
01:26:18,366 --> 01:26:19,628
The heavy part, it's...

1061
01:26:22,537 --> 01:26:25,700
l guess that's the closest
you come to a chorus.

1062
01:26:27,242 --> 01:26:29,972
That whole heavy section.

1063
01:26:30,011 --> 01:26:31,603
Which is like the big...

1064
01:26:33,848 --> 01:26:36,146
That's supposed to represent,
l suppose,

1065
01:26:36,184 --> 01:26:40,348
the big, heavy machinery
of the motor vehicle screaming along.

1066
01:26:43,057 --> 01:26:46,652
But the verses are quite pastoral,

1067
01:26:46,694 --> 01:26:50,152
and kind of ethereal, a little bit.

1068
01:26:50,198 --> 01:26:54,601
l think that's to, kind of,
paint the picture of the countryside,

1069
01:26:54,636 --> 01:26:56,604
and where this character lives,

1070
01:26:56,638 --> 01:26:58,970
and the kind of life he leads.

1071
01:27:00,308 --> 01:27:05,473
Quiet, unassuming country man by day,

1072
01:27:05,513 --> 01:27:09,643
but at night and weekends
he unleashes the beast from the garage

1073
01:27:09,684 --> 01:27:11,242
and takes off.

1074
01:27:11,286 --> 01:27:12,981
That's best exemplified

1075
01:27:13,021 --> 01:27:16,957
when Alex hits that big,
whanging guitar note,

1076
01:27:16,991 --> 01:27:20,392
and the guitar kicks into gear
and there's that whole ''wind in my hair''...

1077
01:27:28,836 --> 01:27:30,463
That's really, the race is on.

1078
01:27:31,806 --> 01:27:35,674
From that point on, through the rest
of the song, it really takes off.

1079
01:27:35,710 --> 01:27:39,737
And if you look closely, you'd see
that the tempo probably takes off,

1080
01:27:39,781 --> 01:27:42,272
and rises faster and faster
to the end of the song.

1081
01:27:42,317 --> 01:27:46,083
So the song ends
at quite a frantic pace,

1082
01:27:46,120 --> 01:27:51,786
and then we return at the end
to that kind of dreamy, frantic period.

1083
01:27:51,826 --> 01:27:55,227
lt kind of ends as it begins.

1084
01:27:55,263 --> 01:27:57,231
There's nice moods through that song,

1085
01:27:57,265 --> 01:27:59,995
that's why it's endured
as one of my favourites.

1086
01:28:00,034 --> 01:28:02,229
lt's certainly
one of my favourites to play.

1087
01:28:07,475 --> 01:28:11,673
l was always a great reader
and was voracious through that time.

1088
01:28:11,713 --> 01:28:15,046
But l was reading as widely,
like John Dos Passos,

1089
01:28:15,083 --> 01:28:17,847
and John Steinbeck,
and Ernest Hemingway.

1090
01:28:17,885 --> 01:28:19,477
A lot of American writers,

1091
01:28:19,520 --> 01:28:22,614
because l'd been through a lot
of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy.

1092
01:28:22,657 --> 01:28:25,990
Reading became,
not only my schoolroom on the road,

1093
01:28:26,027 --> 01:28:27,585
but my sanity.

1094
01:28:27,628 --> 01:28:30,028
People ask,
''When did you get tired of touring?''

1095
01:28:30,064 --> 01:28:31,929
The first month.

1096
01:28:31,966 --> 01:28:33,831
lt was just schlepping around like this,

1097
01:28:33,868 --> 01:28:36,268
when maybe you play 26 minutes that night,

1098
01:28:36,304 --> 01:28:39,296
but the rest of the time is just aimless,

1099
01:28:39,340 --> 01:28:44,277
not only aimless, but empty,
unproductive time.

1100
01:28:44,312 --> 01:28:46,803
You can't do anything except,
l found, reading.

1101
01:28:46,848 --> 01:28:50,215
lt was a way to fill those hours of waiting
in a way that felt good.

1102
01:28:50,251 --> 01:28:54,153
lf nothing else, you've got a book you've read
at the end of that day.

1103
01:28:54,188 --> 01:28:57,954
So l kind of poured myself into that
in those days,

1104
01:28:57,992 --> 01:29:01,189
and read a ton of the English greats

1105
01:29:01,229 --> 01:29:05,427
and then worked into the American greats,
starting by that time.

1106
01:29:05,466 --> 01:29:09,766
But l can't say that they were
a huge influence on lyric writing, per se,

1107
01:29:09,804 --> 01:29:12,432
because it's such a different craft.

1108
01:29:12,473 --> 01:29:16,534
l always say a typical song
has 200 words,

1109
01:29:16,577 --> 01:29:18,875
where a novel might
have forty, fifty-thousand.

1110
01:29:18,913 --> 01:29:20,972
You're dealing
on a whole other canvas.

1111
01:29:21,015 --> 01:29:25,145
Yes, l was learning
from all of those writers about life,

1112
01:29:25,186 --> 01:29:28,417
and about the power of words,

1113
01:29:28,456 --> 01:29:32,722
but l was kind of feeling my own way,
craft-wise, you know?

1114
01:29:34,028 --> 01:29:36,553
Later on l did start to explore
more into poetry

1115
01:29:36,597 --> 01:29:38,428
especially when l was writing lyrics.

1116
01:29:38,466 --> 01:29:43,631
l would be reading T.S. Eliot
or l would be reading Robert Frost

1117
01:29:43,671 --> 01:29:46,139
as a kind of exemplar

1118
01:29:46,174 --> 01:29:49,234
of the highest that verse writing can be.

1119
01:29:50,578 --> 01:29:54,378
Of course, l was a lifelong music fan,
so lyrics in general,

1120
01:29:54,415 --> 01:29:56,440
l already had certain preferences.

1121
01:29:56,484 --> 01:29:58,679
l liked words that made sense.

1122
01:29:58,719 --> 01:30:00,619
l didn't like when they were too repetitive,

1123
01:30:00,655 --> 01:30:03,556
like when the first verse
came around three times,

1124
01:30:03,591 --> 01:30:04,853
not to mention the chorus.

1125
01:30:04,892 --> 01:30:07,292
And l didn't like confessional sorts of songs

1126
01:30:07,328 --> 01:30:10,559
about people's hearts being broken

1127
01:30:10,598 --> 01:30:13,795
by perfidious lovers and stuff.

1128
01:30:13,835 --> 01:30:18,033
So l had preferences, certainly, in lyrics.

1129
01:30:18,072 --> 01:30:22,509
l think they were much more
informed by music, though, that l liked.

1130
01:30:22,543 --> 01:30:25,512
And there were a lot of great lyricists,
when l think back.

1131
01:30:25,546 --> 01:30:29,915
Pete Townshend was a great exemplar
of songwriting and ambition,

1132
01:30:29,951 --> 01:30:31,418
for me, of what could be done.

1133
01:30:31,452 --> 01:30:33,249
l'd often say, as a teenager,

1134
01:30:33,287 --> 01:30:36,154
''Here was a guy who smashed guitars
and read books.''

1135
01:30:36,190 --> 01:30:39,250
lt was a great example.
And Roger Waters was another one.

1136
01:30:39,293 --> 01:30:42,057
A great example of integrity

1137
01:30:42,096 --> 01:30:45,395
and a great example
of artistic ambition.

1138
01:30:45,433 --> 01:30:49,130
So there are people like that
and as widely as Joni Mitchell,

1139
01:30:49,170 --> 01:30:51,604
both Geddy and l
were Joni Mitchell fans.

1140
01:30:51,639 --> 01:30:53,266
Songwriting-wise, Paul Simon.

1141
01:30:53,307 --> 01:30:56,936
These were great songwriters,
and that meant something to us.

1142
01:30:56,978 --> 01:31:00,141
We weren't ready to, perhaps,
embrace that knowledge,

1143
01:31:00,181 --> 01:31:01,910
but we already had the taste for it.

1144
01:31:01,949 --> 01:31:05,544
lan Anderson, Jethro Tull,
another great ambitious artist

1145
01:31:05,586 --> 01:31:08,521
and a real great twist with words, too.

1146
01:31:08,556 --> 01:31:10,217
So these were the exemplars.

1147
01:31:10,258 --> 01:31:12,590
l had read a lot of science fiction,

1148
01:31:12,627 --> 01:31:15,721
and Samuel R. Delany
was a big influence on me,

1149
01:31:15,763 --> 01:31:17,628
American sci-fi writer.

1150
01:31:17,665 --> 01:31:20,600
Only a big influence
because l found one of his books

1151
01:31:20,635 --> 01:31:24,298
in the cupboard of a flat in London
when l moved there in '7 1 .

1152
01:31:24,338 --> 01:31:26,169
l'd read a lot as a young man,

1153
01:31:26,207 --> 01:31:27,868
then, once l got into drums,

1154
01:31:27,909 --> 01:31:30,241
nothing else existed
but drums and music.

1155
01:31:30,278 --> 01:31:32,906
l stopped reading
through my late teens,

1156
01:31:32,947 --> 01:31:36,906
and then when l moved to England...
Here's an interesting connection.

1157
01:31:36,951 --> 01:31:41,786
Samuel R. Delany's...
Lord Of The Flames, l think it's called,

1158
01:31:41,822 --> 01:31:44,416
was in the cupboard of the flat and l read it.

1159
01:31:44,458 --> 01:31:48,451
l thought, ''l don't like science fiction.''
Then l read it. ''Wow!''

1160
01:31:48,496 --> 01:31:51,693
He remains a visionary talent,

1161
01:31:51,732 --> 01:31:53,927
incredibly poetic, gorgeous writing,

1162
01:31:53,968 --> 01:31:56,436
fantastic images...

1163
01:31:56,470 --> 01:31:59,598
of alternate worlds
and times and societies.

1164
01:31:59,640 --> 01:32:02,609
l could go on about
what an important writer he was.

1165
01:32:02,643 --> 01:32:05,077
And how fortuitous
that l should find that writer,

1166
01:32:05,112 --> 01:32:06,943
that novel, in the cupboard.

1167
01:32:06,981 --> 01:32:10,644
Then, around the same time,
at the Oxford Circus tube station,

1168
01:32:10,685 --> 01:32:12,346
l found a copy of The Fountainhead.

1169
01:32:12,386 --> 01:32:15,981
l said, ''All the smart kids
at school used to carry that around.''

1170
01:32:16,023 --> 01:32:17,217
When l was in high school,

1171
01:32:17,258 --> 01:32:20,523
all the junior intellectuals
would have Lord Of The Rings,

1172
01:32:20,561 --> 01:32:22,620
Ulysses, James Joyce,

1173
01:32:22,663 --> 01:32:24,824
and The Fountainhead
or Atlas Shrugged.

1174
01:32:24,865 --> 01:32:27,129
That's what the intellectuals read.

1175
01:32:27,168 --> 01:32:31,366
l was afraid of those.
''l won't understand those.'' And never tried.

1176
01:32:31,405 --> 01:32:35,239
And around the same time
read Samuel R. Delany's sci-fi writing

1177
01:32:35,276 --> 01:32:37,471
and Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.

1178
01:32:37,511 --> 01:32:40,878
Which...became 21 12,

1179
01:32:40,915 --> 01:32:45,181
two, three years later,
a lifetime later, really.

1180
01:32:45,219 --> 01:32:50,020
That's an interesting little moment in time
that sparked a lot later.

1181
01:32:50,057 --> 01:32:52,252
l didn't pay attention to lyrics, growing up,

1182
01:32:52,293 --> 01:32:55,194
l only did later,
when l was writing them.

1183
01:32:55,229 --> 01:32:58,221
Growing up, l loved the music
and l think you sense the care.

1184
01:32:58,265 --> 01:33:01,393
l sensed the care that Pete Townshend
put into his songwriting

1185
01:33:01,435 --> 01:33:03,665
and Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell
and lan Anderson.

1186
01:33:03,704 --> 01:33:07,606
These people cared about what they did.
And that's implicit too.

1187
01:33:07,642 --> 01:33:10,202
People don't have to parse
every line you write

1188
01:33:10,244 --> 01:33:13,680
to understand the internal rhymes
and the shifts of rhythm.

1189
01:33:13,714 --> 01:33:16,615
l think, just the sense
that care has been taken

1190
01:33:16,651 --> 01:33:20,178
is obvious, is sensed, by a listener.

1191
01:33:20,221 --> 01:33:23,384
Certainly, what l understood about music
when l was growing up,

1192
01:33:23,424 --> 01:33:26,882
l didn't know about it technically,
but l sensed what was honest,

1193
01:33:26,927 --> 01:33:28,622
l sensed when care had been taken,

1194
01:33:28,663 --> 01:33:30,824
when somebody really meant
what they said.

1195
01:33:36,070 --> 01:33:39,733
At that point, it wasn't the first time
demos had been done,

1196
01:33:39,774 --> 01:33:42,436
but it was, l think, the first time

1197
01:33:42,476 --> 01:33:47,937
that we put as much time
into the detail of multitracking it,

1198
01:33:47,982 --> 01:33:51,816
and having access to different tracks
and being able to overdub.

1199
01:33:51,852 --> 01:33:54,616
So, yeah,
it was a bit of a change up.

1200
01:33:54,655 --> 01:33:57,715
We basically knew
where we were going.

1201
01:33:57,758 --> 01:33:59,157
But, interestingly enough,

1202
01:33:59,193 --> 01:34:04,790
l notice that one of the big changes on this
is the tempo.

1203
01:34:04,832 --> 01:34:07,630
The demo is quite a few BPM faster, in fact.

1204
01:34:07,668 --> 01:34:09,329
As you will see.

1205
01:34:14,075 --> 01:34:15,372
That's racing along.

1206
01:34:26,754 --> 01:34:28,688
But a lot of the parts are the same.

1207
01:34:28,723 --> 01:34:30,054
ln essence.

1208
01:34:42,837 --> 01:34:47,536
lt just didn't sit in the groove properly
at that tempo.

1209
01:34:47,575 --> 01:34:48,906
As you can tell.

1210
01:34:48,943 --> 01:34:52,777
Admittedly, we're so used
to hearing the final version,

1211
01:34:52,813 --> 01:34:57,045
but it just felt that it was not really
speaking properly at that tempo.

1212
01:34:57,084 --> 01:34:58,346
And singing it too.

1213
01:34:58,385 --> 01:35:02,253
lt gave the lyrics
a little bit more substance

1214
01:35:02,289 --> 01:35:04,621
sung at a slower tempo.

1215
01:35:05,860 --> 01:35:08,294
lt gives you more time to think
about what you're hearing.

1216
01:35:08,329 --> 01:35:11,230
lt was our first tune of that session.

1217
01:35:11,265 --> 01:35:13,825
So we had to set all the gear up

1218
01:35:13,868 --> 01:35:18,805
and the emphasis was on drums
at the very beginning.

1219
01:35:18,839 --> 01:35:21,364
And we spent two or three days

1220
01:35:21,408 --> 01:35:24,138
putting the drum sound together
for this record.

1221
01:35:24,178 --> 01:35:27,341
l think that was
quite an important aspect of it.

1222
01:35:27,381 --> 01:35:29,372
And came up with a drum sound...

1223
01:35:30,217 --> 01:35:33,618
Paul Northfield definitely
pulled out all the stops for us

1224
01:35:33,654 --> 01:35:35,383
on that particular session.

1225
01:35:35,422 --> 01:35:39,654
And we ended up
with the signatory drum sound.

1226
01:35:39,693 --> 01:35:44,426
Alex, myself and Neil would get into
the room and we'd play together,

1227
01:35:44,465 --> 01:35:47,525
but most of the attention
was for the drums.

1228
01:35:47,568 --> 01:35:49,035
You might get lucky sometimes

1229
01:35:49,069 --> 01:35:51,264
and have a guitar or a bass part
you could keep,

1230
01:35:51,305 --> 01:35:55,332
but, generally, we were just moral support
and musical support

1231
01:35:55,376 --> 01:35:57,037
for Neil's performance.

1232
01:36:15,896 --> 01:36:20,094
We'd come in
with a very basic power chord,

1233
01:36:20,134 --> 01:36:23,069
a pass of the intro and the verse

1234
01:36:23,103 --> 01:36:26,095
and, typically, what we would do is,

1235
01:36:26,140 --> 01:36:29,541
we would do one track with
a particular sound and character to it,

1236
01:36:29,577 --> 01:36:31,602
and then we would add a second track.

1237
01:36:33,948 --> 01:36:35,745
Like this.

1238
01:36:35,783 --> 01:36:38,752
Which has a very different sound
from the previous sound.

1239
01:36:41,188 --> 01:36:45,921
Together, they build up to make
one sort of big, powerful sound.

1240
01:36:45,960 --> 01:36:48,224
And then we added a slightly...

1241
01:36:51,031 --> 01:36:53,124
Again, different tonality to that track.

1242
01:36:53,167 --> 01:36:54,862
Then, when they're all combined,

1243
01:36:54,902 --> 01:36:58,497
make for a very broad sound
for the guitar.

1244
01:37:00,407 --> 01:37:04,741
And this, it sounds like we kind of triple
tracked this for all the parts

1245
01:37:04,778 --> 01:37:05,972
and they just kind of...

1246
01:37:06,013 --> 01:37:08,914
l would just play the song
from beginning to end

1247
01:37:08,949 --> 01:37:12,749
and repeat it
until we came to the solo section

1248
01:37:12,786 --> 01:37:14,845
and just do a separate solo.

1249
01:37:41,548 --> 01:37:44,381
lt starts off,
the instrumental section of the song,

1250
01:37:44,418 --> 01:37:46,010
then Alex joins it,

1251
01:37:46,053 --> 01:37:49,284
plays the same line
and breaks off into his solo.

1252
01:37:57,097 --> 01:38:01,830
See now, he's mimicking the synth
and then he breaks out.

1253
01:38:20,988 --> 01:38:24,890
We kind of developed this style where,
because we're three-piece,

1254
01:38:24,925 --> 01:38:27,951
and a lot of times,
in the early days, playing live

1255
01:38:27,995 --> 01:38:31,761
there was no rhythm guitar,
there was no synthesizer.

1256
01:38:31,799 --> 01:38:36,202
So we developed a style
of the rhythm section to be very active.

1257
01:38:36,236 --> 01:38:37,965
So even though Alex was soloing,

1258
01:38:38,005 --> 01:38:41,133
we could be more active
than in an average band

1259
01:38:41,175 --> 01:38:43,336
because we had more space to fill out.

1260
01:38:43,377 --> 01:38:45,538
So it kind of became a style

1261
01:38:45,579 --> 01:38:48,844
and because we were a bit obnoxious
in terms of the rhythm section,

1262
01:38:48,882 --> 01:38:51,476
we don't mind
pushing the boundaries of that.

1263
01:38:51,518 --> 01:38:53,179
And Alex developed a style

1264
01:38:53,220 --> 01:38:56,519
where he slides right on top
of all our busy-ness.

1265
01:38:56,557 --> 01:39:00,994
lt kind of became our personality.

1266
01:39:01,028 --> 01:39:04,156
l think it made me
a better rhythm guitarist.

1267
01:39:04,198 --> 01:39:05,529
Because of that.

1268
01:39:05,566 --> 01:39:07,966
Quite often you needed a foundation

1269
01:39:08,002 --> 01:39:10,994
and where, typically,
it would come from the rhythm section,

1270
01:39:11,038 --> 01:39:12,733
having the guitar take that role

1271
01:39:12,773 --> 01:39:15,640
and letting the rhythm section
go a little wilder,

1272
01:39:15,676 --> 01:39:18,236
was really a benefit to me,

1273
01:39:18,278 --> 01:39:20,769
to develop my style
in the way that l have.

1274
01:39:20,814 --> 01:39:22,805
And give us some character.

1275
01:39:22,850 --> 01:39:26,547
And Tom Sawyer is a good example
of how we're all playing hard

1276
01:39:26,587 --> 01:39:28,111
all at the same time.

1277
01:39:28,155 --> 01:39:29,850
And, somehow, it still works.

1278
01:39:32,292 --> 01:39:34,692
This is just the preamble to the solo.

1279
01:39:36,764 --> 01:39:39,255
So the Moog starts playing this line,

1280
01:39:39,299 --> 01:39:43,133
and then when the bass comes in
it takes over the same pattern.

1281
01:39:43,170 --> 01:39:44,797
lt mimics the Moog part.

1282
01:39:47,241 --> 01:39:49,732
So Alex is joining it now.

1283
01:39:57,384 --> 01:39:59,318
Now, when he breaks into solo...

1284
01:40:01,655 --> 01:40:03,885
.. l take over what the Moog was doing.

1285
01:40:20,307 --> 01:40:23,470
That's why the tone of the guitar
is so critical,

1286
01:40:23,510 --> 01:40:26,479
because the rhythm section is so busy

1287
01:40:26,513 --> 01:40:28,913
the guitar had to sustain
that interest too

1288
01:40:28,949 --> 01:40:31,144
without any rhythm guitar.

1289
01:40:31,185 --> 01:40:33,517
And into Neil's part.

1290
01:40:51,839 --> 01:40:55,969
lt's funny, he doesn't need
much encouragement,

1291
01:40:56,009 --> 01:41:01,276
at the same time, as he got older,
in albums later on,

1292
01:41:01,315 --> 01:41:02,680
he was much more reserved,

1293
01:41:02,716 --> 01:41:05,276
you had to really push him
to do that kind of thing.

1294
01:41:05,319 --> 01:41:08,288
So, you never know.

1295
01:41:40,120 --> 01:41:42,281
l don't really know what it is
about this song

1296
01:41:42,322 --> 01:41:47,191
that it's just kind of
become the quintessential Rush song.

1297
01:41:47,227 --> 01:41:49,661
Obviously, it has to do with the...

1298
01:41:51,098 --> 01:41:53,828
..the kind of playing that's in it.

1299
01:41:53,867 --> 01:41:57,359
There's a lot of emphasis
on musicianship.

1300
01:41:57,404 --> 01:42:02,706
But there's something about
the fundamental groove of the song,

1301
01:42:02,743 --> 01:42:05,473
that also is quite contagious.

1302
01:42:07,915 --> 01:42:10,383
- l don't know if you have any...
- And, lyrically,

1303
01:42:10,417 --> 01:42:13,978
everybody seems to connect
with the whole spirit of the lyrics.

1304
01:42:14,021 --> 01:42:18,958
That shooting-from-the-hip independence,

1305
01:42:18,992 --> 01:42:20,687
and individualism.

1306
01:42:29,469 --> 01:42:31,460
And it's a catchy tune,
on top of that.

1307
01:42:32,706 --> 01:42:34,833
You can almost dance to it.

1308
01:42:35,576 --> 01:42:37,567
But if you try, you'll hurt yourself.

1309
01:42:47,287 --> 01:42:50,188
l like that part. That's the part
you don't hear on the record.

1310
01:42:50,224 --> 01:42:52,556
Where we suddenly just stop playing.

1311
01:42:57,798 --> 01:42:59,322
Geddy definitely stands alone.

1312
01:42:59,366 --> 01:43:03,598
He has a very unique voice.

1313
01:43:03,637 --> 01:43:06,538
He's very thoughtful,
he's a very intelligent guy.

1314
01:43:06,573 --> 01:43:09,872
He is dedicated to quality in all things.

1315
01:43:11,211 --> 01:43:14,544
As a bass player, he's tough to beat.

1316
01:43:14,581 --> 01:43:19,348
He's brilliant, he has this style
that you immediately recognise,

1317
01:43:19,386 --> 01:43:22,480
and he's been such an influence
on so many bass players.

1318
01:43:24,658 --> 01:43:29,823
As an all-round musician,
he has really great sensibilities,

1319
01:43:29,863 --> 01:43:35,426
he's very much the kind of musician
that wants to hear everything first,

1320
01:43:35,469 --> 01:43:37,903
before deciding on
what the right thing is.

1321
01:43:37,938 --> 01:43:41,499
And that's really the great way
that he and l work together.

1322
01:43:41,541 --> 01:43:43,168
l'm much more spontaneous.

1323
01:43:43,210 --> 01:43:45,735
l sort of get excited about something

1324
01:43:45,779 --> 01:43:48,543
and then l kind of move on
to the next thing.

1325
01:43:48,582 --> 01:43:51,813
Whereas he likes to examine it a little more

1326
01:43:51,852 --> 01:43:53,843
and be a little more in-depth.

1327
01:43:53,887 --> 01:43:58,586
For the two of us,
this works perfectly in our relationship.

1328
01:44:02,429 --> 01:44:07,196
He's got the melodic sensibility
that he brings to all our writing,

1329
01:44:07,234 --> 01:44:08,826
and to what Rush is all about.

1330
01:44:08,869 --> 01:44:12,066
Whereas l might bring
more of an edge.

1331
01:44:12,105 --> 01:44:16,371
Neil's lyrics are not typical
of rock lyrics.

1332
01:44:16,410 --> 01:44:20,642
The sort of party, chicks,
the whole thing.

1333
01:44:22,349 --> 01:44:23,873
Love songs.

1334
01:44:23,917 --> 01:44:26,249
Neil always dealt with issues

1335
01:44:26,286 --> 01:44:30,313
and right from that first record
that we did together, Fly By Night,

1336
01:44:30,357 --> 01:44:32,257
a song like Anthem, for example,

1337
01:44:32,292 --> 01:44:35,750
talking about the individual
and the strength of the individual,

1338
01:44:35,796 --> 01:44:39,857
and the merit of selfishness.

1339
01:44:39,900 --> 01:44:41,800
l mean, that was back then.

1340
01:44:43,937 --> 01:44:48,704
lt was refreshing to hear
and read these sort of lyrics,

1341
01:44:48,742 --> 01:44:52,337
and talk about things that people
our age were thinking about

1342
01:44:52,379 --> 01:44:54,904
as they were reaching adulthood,
or growing up,

1343
01:44:54,948 --> 01:44:56,711
or going through their teens.

1344
01:44:56,750 --> 01:45:00,242
These are the issues that you used
to sit in a field with your friends

1345
01:45:00,287 --> 01:45:03,017
and talk about so passionately
all the time.

1346
01:45:03,056 --> 01:45:05,684
Not so much about getting laid, you know?

1347
01:45:06,760 --> 01:45:08,125
You hoped that'd happen.

1348
01:45:08,161 --> 01:45:12,120
But it was all this other stuff
that you had in the back of your mind

1349
01:45:12,165 --> 01:45:13,860
that was moving forward.

1350
01:45:13,900 --> 01:45:16,198
And he reflected that in his lyrics.

1351
01:45:16,236 --> 01:45:20,696
And, again, that's a very, very important part
of what we've become,

1352
01:45:20,741 --> 01:45:23,437
and what we're expected to be.

1353
01:45:28,682 --> 01:45:29,944
YYZ. lt's interesting.

1354
01:45:29,983 --> 01:45:35,182
We were coming back from the studio
when we were making the record.

1355
01:45:35,222 --> 01:45:37,281
Just for a break, back home.

1356
01:45:37,324 --> 01:45:40,782
And a friend of mine,
he was actually my flight instructor,

1357
01:45:40,827 --> 01:45:44,092
he came out and picked us up
in a small plane,

1358
01:45:44,131 --> 01:45:45,655
from...
from the...

1359
01:45:46,833 --> 01:45:52,032
from the little airline
that flew out of this small airport.

1360
01:45:52,072 --> 01:45:55,940
On the way back, they had tuned in
the identifier for Toronto airport,

1361
01:45:55,976 --> 01:45:57,170
which is YYZ.

1362
01:45:57,210 --> 01:45:58,370
So it's...

1363
01:46:01,181 --> 01:46:05,675
And l think it was Neil,
maybe it was Neil and Geddy,

1364
01:46:05,719 --> 01:46:08,779
l was flying the plane at the time,
Neil and Geddy were in the back.

1365
01:46:08,822 --> 01:46:11,552
They said, ''That's a cool rhythm
in that identifier.''

1366
01:46:11,591 --> 01:46:14,492
And you could see YYZ on the radio,
tuned in.

1367
01:46:14,528 --> 01:46:17,986
And that's how that whole beginning part
came about

1368
01:46:18,031 --> 01:46:21,057
to play the Morse code of YYZ

1369
01:46:21,101 --> 01:46:24,195
and it's always about coming home.

1370
01:46:25,172 --> 01:46:28,164
The rhythm stuck in my head.
l said, ''Guys, let's...''

1371
01:46:28,208 --> 01:46:31,905
So then, thematically, we said,
''Let's use that airport...''

1372
01:46:31,945 --> 01:46:36,609
So much a part of our lives,
in those days, and after.

1373
01:46:36,650 --> 01:46:39,551
''Let's use that as a metaphor.''
ln a playful way.

1374
01:46:39,586 --> 01:46:41,679
There was no sense of,
''This part is this part.''

1375
01:46:41,721 --> 01:46:44,451
But there is the sense of bustling
and coming and going,

1376
01:46:44,491 --> 01:46:48,484
and the grand emotion of that middle
section of what airports can be.

1377
01:46:48,528 --> 01:46:50,894
The airport giveth,
the airport taketh away.

1378
01:46:50,931 --> 01:46:52,455
Which is Rick Derringer's song.

1379
01:46:52,499 --> 01:46:56,060
ln our lives,
airports were rich with symbolism.

1380
01:46:56,102 --> 01:46:58,263
Departures, comings and goings.

1381
01:46:58,305 --> 01:47:00,398
Departures and arrivals.

1382
01:47:00,440 --> 01:47:03,739
Separations and meetings.

1383
01:47:03,777 --> 01:47:07,235
That was kind of woven into the song
in a playful...

1384
01:47:07,280 --> 01:47:10,010
The exotic nature of travel too
in Alex's guitar solo,

1385
01:47:10,050 --> 01:47:13,144
for sure, he wove in
that kind of Eastern mode,

1386
01:47:13,186 --> 01:47:15,211
which gives a sense of the exotic.

1387
01:47:15,255 --> 01:47:16,745
When you look at the departures

1388
01:47:16,790 --> 01:47:19,918
you see Amsterdam, and Shanghai,
and all these places.

1389
01:47:19,960 --> 01:47:23,157
Airports are, when you strip away
the modern-day tedium,

1390
01:47:23,196 --> 01:47:24,891
they're pretty romantic places.

1391
01:47:24,931 --> 01:47:29,834
So, all of that, l think,
informs the composition side of YYZ, too.

1392
01:47:29,870 --> 01:47:32,771
Pretty much,
it's about coming back home.

1393
01:47:32,806 --> 01:47:34,967
lt's that call to home.

1394
01:47:35,008 --> 01:47:38,307
Being a band that's spent
so much time on the road,

1395
01:47:38,345 --> 01:47:42,304
whenever we would check in
for that flight home,

1396
01:47:42,349 --> 01:47:45,750
and we would see that YYZ ticket
on our bags,

1397
01:47:45,785 --> 01:47:47,685
it was always really exciting.

1398
01:47:47,721 --> 01:47:51,088
lt's like, ''We're coming home.''

1399
01:47:51,124 --> 01:47:54,992
We wanted to, basically,
put a song together about that,

1400
01:47:55,028 --> 01:47:58,429
even though it's instrumental.

1401
01:47:58,465 --> 01:48:01,525
lt's about our town and it's about,
you know...

1402
01:48:01,568 --> 01:48:03,502
kind of where we came from and...

1403
01:48:04,504 --> 01:48:05,664
Yeah.

1404
01:48:05,705 --> 01:48:07,832
Good to come home.