All language subtitles for Rush Beyond the Lighjted Stage - English Subtitles 2010

# Living on a lighted stage #

# Approaches the unreal #

# For those who think and feel #

# In touch with some reality #

# Beyond the gilded cage #

Ahh!

Owww! Ohhh!

Oh!

Would you please welcome
from Canada, Rush!

# There's no bread, let them eat cake #

# And there's no end to what they'll take #

# Flaunt the fruits of noble birth #

# And wash the salt into the earth #

# But they're marching to Bastille Day #

# La guillotine claimed her bloody prize #

If you get a band together,
growing up,

you didn't think
about writing your own music,

you learned other songs
and you identified yourself

by the kind of music you played

and all the best players quickly learned
the language was Rush.

The first time I heard Rush,
I was like, "Oh, my God,"

I had no idea this band was this incredible.

I became obsessed.
They were my gods.

I listened to it and I thought,
"Wow! That is amazing playing."

My mind was just totally blown.

I bought every magazine, I had every record,
I cut out every picture,

I would go to sleep at night
with Rush on the heads,

I'd wake up and it was still playing.
I did that.

I, Sebastian Bach,

was member number three

of the Rush backstage club at Toronto,
mother trucker.

Rush is just one of those bands

that has a deep reservoir of rocket sauce.

A lot of bands,
they've only got so much in the bottle.

They use it up sometimes in one song.

These guys were the real deal.

Their bottle was so big
and so filled to the brim,

they were shaking it literally for decades

and still there was sauce coming out.

What makes Rush unique is fearlessness.

It's the quality of starting to write a song

and not caring about what's popular,
what's not.

There's only one band that sounds like that.
What kind of band is Rush? It's Rush.

I believe that when people step back

and actually really look

at who the great bands were,

they are one of those bands

but somehow
they were never popular enough

that they get commonly name-checked
as one of the great bands of all time.

A lot of the other stuff
has been over-explained.

Zeppelin has been over-explained,
the Beatles have been over-explained,

it doesn't tell the whole story,
and you could say,

"Why was this band marginalized.
What was it?" It doesn't matter.

At some point they're there and somebody
has to explain why they're there.

# Living on a lighted stage #

# Approaches the unreal #

# For those who think and feel #

# In touch with some reality #

# Beyond the gilded cage #

# Cast in this unlikely role #

# Ill-equipped to act #

# With insufficient tact #

# One must put up barriers #

# To keep oneself intact #

# Living in the limelight #

# The universal dream #

# For those who wish to seem #

I guess we should start at the
beginning and talk about your upbringing,

where you were born
and what your childhood was like.

OK, how do I start my beginnings?

I was born in Willowdale, Ontario.
I was a nebbishy, quiet kid.

My parents were both Holocaust survivors

and emigrated here after the war.

They basically arrived
with ten bucks in their pocket

and worked their way up
to a lower-middle-class kind of income

and raised me in the suburbs.

When we first moved in,

we were one of the few Jewish families
to live in our neighborhood

and we were constantly living in terror
of being beat up because of that fact,

so it was an exciting time.

When I was twelve, my father passed away

and I had to go to synagogue
in the morning and in the evening

every day for eleven months and one day.

I was not really
allowed to listen to music.

So that whole year was devoid

of what all the other kids
were just starting to get turned on to.

After the year, he really came out

and he was himself.

I said to Gedd, "Mom wants
to buy you a nice present,

"you're such a good,
hard-working kid."

He says, "Mom, next door
Terry has a guitar."

As we drove into the drive I said,
"Here's $50, go to Terry, get your guitar."

And then Alex entered my life
in junior high school.

We liked the same kind of bands

but I think we bonded more
over our goofiness than over music.

My earliest memory of you
is your paisley shirt.

- Your purple paisley shirt.
- Yeah.

It was purple. Burgundy, God...

...corduroys.

I was born in Fernie
in British Columbia.

My parents came over
after the war from Yugoslavia.

We moved to Toronto and I would say
it was a very normal upbringing.

My father usually had two or three jobs
at any given time

and he believed
that if you wanted something,

you went out and you worked for it. Period.

This is when Alex was a youngster

and this is when he was
a Navy League cadet.

He was such a cutie.

One day he came and he said,

"Mom, Dad, if I bring you
a good report card,

"will you buy me a guitar?"

And, you know,
he brought a very good report card

and we promised,
and we didn't even have money,

we just borrowed the money
and bought him a guitar.

I would come home after school
and play until dinner

and then, supposed to do my homework,

I just played the guitar all the time.
I couldn't stop playing.

This wasn't here.

None of these houses,
it's just the school and the field.

Yeah. There's Fisherville.

I remember my homeroom class
was the third window from the end.

Alex was always
the teacher's pet at school,

he always smiled up to the teachers

and, you know, he was a real schmoozer.

We were in the same homeroom.

Did we used to take
all our classes together?

In grade nine we did.

And one year we wrote each other's test.

We had almost finished with the test

and we said at the end, "You sign my name,
I'll sign yours." "OK."

We were bad.

Oh, yeah, I do remember...

That's how bad we were.
We upset the teacher.

We were very similar.

We both felt like we were really
outside the rest of our class,

the rest of our school,
the rest of everything.

And then we discovered this manic love
for music that we both had.

We got this gig, early in September
of 1968, in this church basement.

John Rutsey was a neighbor
that played the drums

and I asked Gedd if he would sit in

because he knew these same songs
that we all knew.

So I said, "Sure," I came down

and we were playing this drop-in center
in Willowdale called The Coffin.

That was The Coffin there.

You used to come in here
and you used to go downstairs.

We had maybe 35 people there,
we got paid $10 to do the show,

for the whole band, not each, ten bucks

and we went to Pancer's Deli afterwards

and the three of us sat in a booth
planning our takeover of the world.

# My head is full of sunshine #

# My world is spinning round #

# Here come the magic people #

# The people with the freedom sound #

# Sound #

When I started
hanging around with Alex and John,

we would come downtown

and there was a coffee shop in Yorkville
called the Upper Crusts

and a lot of musicians would hang out there.

There was another band that we really
idolized at the time called The Paupers.

You could see the guys
from that band hanging around

so we would go in there and order a cup of
tea like they were, trying to be cool,

and we were just
these little suburban hippies.

Always playing with your hair, you know.
Trying to look like you fit in.

I was living on Yorkville Avenue

and I had met the guys
at a concert in a church hall.

Even though they were
sixteen-year-old kids,

they were incredibly good players.

I was a fan immediately.

They were playing
the kind of music that I liked.

Ray said, "You guys need
a manager," and what did we know?

We said, "Yeah, sure.
Get us up to twelve bucks from ten bucks."

And Ray started booking dances

and putting up posters on telephone poles
and we started to grow.

In Ontario at the time,
with a drinking age that high,

the high schools took it upon themselves

to create entertainment for teenagers.

So there was a real circuit to do.

That's really what bands did
back then, you played at a school dance

and hopefully you had a repertoire

that covered lots
of the current popular music,

but that wasn't really our thing.

# I had a woman not too long ago #

# A cool-hearted woman,
let my feelings show #

# Damn, that woman, I do all I got #

# Ooh, all I wanted was to treat her good #

# Can't understand it,
no matter how I tried #

# Till one day my heart grew cold inside #

# Fancy dancer, oh, can't you see #

We played a lot of Sadie Hawkins dances,

we played a lot of dances
where people couldn't dance very well

because we weren't really a dance band.

Everyone would be staying
at the back of the hall,

they wouldn't even be coming near us,
like we were contagious.

We probably bummed out a lot of people
on their high-school memories.

I was trying to do this full time and stay alive

and they were still in high school.

They were a part-time band
playing high schools on weekends

and they were practicing
at Geddy and Alex's house.

We were rehearsing in my
basement and playing with these guys.

They weren't Jewish guys.

We were really loud and it didn't sound
anything like music to my family.

They just thought I was nuts.

They thought I was probably
a drug-taking freak so they were scared,

they were freaked out,
they didn't know what to do.

They didn't know how to handle it.

The whole neighborhood
was just bumping

because the music was so loud
and everything was vibrating.

I really didn't like it
and it wasn't my kind of music.

Perry Como was my kind
of music.

Alex's mom and I
used to talk always on the phone,

crying at each other's shoulder.

It was hard because he wanted to just play
and practice and he couldn't study,

he would go to sleep late,
couldn't get up

and that's why he said,
"I'm quitting grade 12,"

and we were very upset.

Like, I don't wanna make
a bunch of money.

Like, if I make a lot of money that's great,

but I'm not going to go to university
and get a big degree.

Hang on, no.

I don't wanna drive around in a big car

and get people to go, "Hey, there goes Alex,

"he's loaded with money
and, wow, he's really set himself up great."

I don't see why I have to go through
all the bullshit of high school

to learn music.

It's not that we're forcing Alex
to go to university right now or anything.

We're just asking a little favor of him,
just to finish grade 12,

and then he's on his own.

We wanted for him to be something,
to have education.

I was a little bit worried
about his future.

If he doesn't finish high school,
what's gonna happen?

And if the group doesn't succeed,
you know, it was tough.

It was tough to go through that.

You know, the thing is,
my parents were right.

I thought I knew everything.

I have said to you, Alex,
I want you to be free to expand.

You know,
they came from Yugoslavia,

people were getting killed everywhere.

My dad was in prison camps.

They came to Canada
and their kids were everything.

That was, I'm sure,
a great disappointment to them

that I wasn't going to do something
that was more professional.

The whole idea of leaving school
was a stressful decision,

but at that age
I was just wanting to be a kid

and there was so much heaviness
in my family's life.

Being Holocaust survivors,
losing your dad at twelve,

I kind of wanted
to run away from that a little bit.

To my mother it was the equivalent
of joining the circus.

She didn't see any music
in what we were doing,

this was just madness
and she didn't really get it

until she, one day, years later,
saw me on television

and then it kind of...
"Oh, he's an entertainer." You know?

"Now I understand what he's doing."

Once again we're back
at the Laura Secord secondary school

and we've got a great trio of guys here
who call themselves Rush

and I'll let John, the drummer, introduce
the rest of the guys to you right now.

Well, introducing,
on lead guitar and vocals Alex Lifeson.

And on lead vocals and bass guitar,
Geddy Lee.

And sitting behind the drums,
here, myself John Rutsey.

OK, we're gonna see in this number

if we can get you to make
a little noise along with us.

It doesn't take too much,

all you've got to do
is put your hands together like this.

# Well, I've been lyin'
and I've been sneakin' #

# Ooh, yeah, yeah #

# Well, I've been crowin'
and I've been weepin' #

# Ooh, yeah, yeah #

# Ooh, your lovin' makes me feel #

# Makes me feel mighty real #

# Well, I've been Ionely
and I've been duped, yeah #

# Ooh, yes, now, baby, don't stop #

# I know nothin' about you #

The turning point came in 1971,

when the drinking age was lowered
to 18 from 21 in Ontario.

As soon as the drinking age dropped to 18,

it was right at the time we turned 18,

so we could finally start playing in bars

which were better paying,
more serious gigs.

What happened
is Yorkville got shut down by 1970.

They wanted to rid that area of hippies
and the clubs

and shift it onto Young Street
and onto Queen Street as well.

And as soon as the drinking age
went down in '71,

it invited a whole different kind of music

because a drinking crowd
wants a different kind of entertainment

than a listening crowd.

You wanted something harder and heavier.
So a whole new world grew.

The scene in Toronto was vibrant
as far as live bands go.

There were a ton of live venues.

I went into a place called
the Abbey Road pub on Queen Street

and saw Rush one night.

I was watching them, going,
"Wow, there's something going on here."

We went from playing
a couple of high-school dances

in the course of a month,

to playing six nights a week

with matinees on Saturdays sometimes

and playing four or five 40-minute sets.

We started to get
a little more experimental with music

and that was great because that's really
where we learned our chops.

We're gonna do a number
called Garden Road for you!

# Passin' down this garden road,
I've passed it many times #

# Beauty flashing in the yard #

# Covers many vines #

# Each day I seek
the answer that I must know #

# I found my questions
on this garden road #

Initially, I was trying
to get them a record deal

and no one was willing to sign them.

I couldn't get arrested.

So it became obvious that I was gonna
have to come up with the money

and do the record myself.

We looked for, jeez,
I guess about four months,

trying to get a record deal on Rush
in this country

and couldn't get anyone interested at all.

There was just no reaction.

We were willing
to literally give the album away

if somebody would just make
a commitment to promote it.

Couldn't get that.

Part of the general attitude in Canada
is, unfortunately,

the people coming out to see you,
not all of them, but quite a few of them

go, "Well, they're a local band,
how good can they be?"

And it's funny when other people
from the States come out

and they see these so-called local bands,
they go, "Man, these guys are fantastic."

There was no one in Canada to sign you.

There were no record companies here,
they were outposts really.

You had to get an American deal
if you wanted to do anything.

# Cleveland Rocks, Cleveland Rocks! #

Cleveland Rocks on WMMS!

I was up in my office
and I was listening to the new music.

We were deciding
what we were going to play that week

and, suddenly,
I get this thing from Canada.

I remember dropping the needle
on what was the longest cut,

because back in those days in album rock,

you were always looking
for what was called "bathroom songs."

And a bathroom song was something

that if you did have to answer
the call of nature,

the record wouldn't run out.
And then I start listening to the song

and I'm just, "Oh, my God, this is
a perfect record for Cleveland."

Back then it was a factory town.

The song Working Man, every listener
in the audience felt like that.

# I get up at seven, yeah #

# And I go to work at nine #

# I got no time for livin' #

# Yes, I'm workin' all the time #

# It seems to me I could live my life #

# A lot better than I think I am #

# I guess that's why they call me #

# They call me the workin' man #

Phones light up immediately.
"When's the new Led Zeppelin album out?"

"No, no, not a new Led Zeppelin album,
a Canadian band, Rush."

Every time the record gets played,

people are calling,
"Where can we get one?"

We had this cult following going already.

June 1974, I was working
at Mercury Records in Chicago,

it was a Monday morning
and on my desk was an album.

A note comes along with it,

it says, "This is the first album
by a Canadian group called Rush,"

and that it's already selling in Cleveland

and they're looking for a deal
in the United States.

The artists and repertoire person
who would normally listen was not in,

so they took it
to the least qualified guy, me.

I put on the record and got blown away.

I said, "Get the president
of the company on the line.

"We should sign this band."

He said, "Don't make a deal with anyone
until we talk."

And he loved the record
and he really wanted to sign us.

By the end of the day
we'd worked out a deal,

signing the band
within eight hours of hearing it.

We went from getting this offer to getting
an advance, to buying equipment.

Everything was happening
very, very quickly.

I don't think that John really
felt comfortable with what was happening.

We talked about musical differences

and he was a much more
straightahead rock kind of guy.

He was more into Bad Company

whereas Gedd and I were
more into Yes and Genesis

and Pink Floyd and bands like that.

If we'd stayed on the Toronto local circuit,

we probably would have stayed together
and that would have been fine

but suddenly things were turning a page.

John was not a healthy boy,
he had sugar diabetes.

Of course, like any teenager,
he liked to drink and whatever else.

He was not taking care of himself
and I took Geddy and Alex aside and Ray

and I said, "We have to replace John.
For his health."

We can't put him out there on that tour

or we'll be bringing him home in a box.

So I discussed it with John,

of course he was heartbroken,
but he understood.

There was no saying
that John wasn't doing his job.

It wasn't for his ability to drum
that he was let go,

it was for health reasons.

It's like coming to the end of high
school

and you're with all your friends and you
think, "We'll know each other forever,"

and then everybody just goes
in their own direction

and, for the most part,
you never see those people again.

It was a big deal,
we had an American contract,

we were going to the States,

we only had less than a month
to find somebody

and get them in shape for us
to go on the road.

We needed a drummer.
Let's put it like that.

Oh, ho! Broken drumhead!

I thought it would be good
to start at the beginning.

Oh, how predictable.

The very beginning. Where you
were born and where you grew up.

Much of that I don't remember.

I know that I was born on the...

We were living on the family farm
near Hagersville, Ontario, at the time.

We went to the nearest hospital,
which was in Hamilton

and moved to St. Catherine's
when I was about four or so.

I had never been athletic,
I never could play hockey,

I skated on my ankles,
which, for a young Canadian kid,

that's automatically like the hugest curse
a young boy could have.

Well, he was...
In those days, I used to say weird.

He just read everything.

He just read everything there was to read.

He even had to learn to knit

because he had to know how that was done.

It was horrible coming into high
school, once I got interested in rock bands

and started to grow my hair
a little over my ears

and wear bell-bottoms and all that stuff.

The taunting in the hallways

and even physical abuse
out in the smoking area.

The constant misfit sense.

For any kid, especially a sensitive one,
it just wears you down,

so that's why drumming became
an instrument of self-esteem for me.

This was the first time
I was admired for anything.

And that doubled my fervor
about playing drums.

Fortunately, I was in a very serious band
at the time called J.R. Flood.

We'd practice all weekdays

and then weekends we'd be playing
high schools around Ontario

or the nights at Columbus Halls.

In the summer of '74, I was working
behind the parts counter for my dad

at the farm equipment dealer
and this white Corvette pulled up.

A white Corvette doesn't pull up
in a farm equipment dealership that often.

They came and asked

if they could talk to Neil
and take him out for lunch

and I could tell, as Neil came back,
the rest of the afternoon

that he was really troubled with something.

He told me then that these guys
were the managers of Rush

and they wanted Neil to come over
and audition

and he said, "I don't know what to do, Dad."

And I said, "Well, two things.

"First of all, we'll talk it over
with your mother

"but secondly, as far as I'm concerned,

"this is your passion,
this is all you have wanted all your life,"

and I said, "I guess there will always be
a parts department here

"so I think you've got to go for it."

So I borrowed my mom's Pinto,

so perfect,

and loaded my drums into that
and drove up to Ajax.

So this car pulls up with this kind of
gangly guy, really kind of short hair.

My first impression
was that he was kind of goofy.

I remember thinking, "God, he's not nearly
cool enough to be in this band."

I had Rogers with two 18-inch bass drums

and everything set up really high

and kind of weird-Iooking,
and I was kind of weird-Iooking.

And then he started playing,
he pounded the crap out of those drums.

He played like Keith Moon
and John Bonham at the same time.

I was blown away.
As soon as he started playing.

He's playing these triplets
and it was so good.

I think it's very common for musicians,
especially in your early years,

to feel that you totally blew it
and I had that feeling.

I could've played better,
I should've played better, all that stuff,

but, um, they picked me.

# Hey, now, baby #

# Well, I like your smile #

# Won't you come and talk to me #

# For a little while? #

# Well, you're makin' me crazy #

# The way you roll them eyes #

# Won't you come and sit with me? #

# I'll tell you all my lies #

It was like a tornado came and hit my life
and swept it away.

We had two weeks to prepare

and to learn songs
that I'd never heard before

and to gel a little bit as much as we could.

The first show was going to be
in front of 11,000 people

at Pittsburgh Civic Arena,

opening for Manfred Mann
and Uriah Heep.

# The only time she's happy #

# Is when the bullets fly, fly, fly, fly #

# And she'll make you feel
you're better than any other guy #

We found that the biggest
rock audience was Midwest

and we gave Rush
the perfect audience to come into.

It was a great rock audience,
and they loved their rock music.

We had a dressing room
that was just a small kind of room

under the stands at the far end of the arena,

away from the other dressing rooms.

We had this tour manager,
Howard Ungerleider,

who had come in from New York,

he was teaching us how to be professional.

I remember Howard saying,
"You can have booze or something

"and they'll supply it for you."
And we went, "Really? OK. Cool."

I ordered, like, a little bottle
of Southern Comfort

and I think Alex ordered Blue Nun wine
or something like that.

I remember taking a sip of this stuff
and it went straight to my head

and I was completely dizzy
and we hit the stage.

By the time I kind of came to my senses,

the set was over and we were off

and I had no idea how well we'd played.

My immediate thoughts were,
"God, he can sing high."

That was my first thought, and how full
it sounded for just a three piece.

Rush came out and nailed it.

It was obvious that they were going
to move up the ladder pretty quick.

# Hey, baby, it's a quarter to eight #

# I feel I'm in the mood #

# Hey, baby, the hour is late #

# I feel I've got to move #

It was huge. This was the start
of our tour and it was America.

Big, bold, beautiful America
and we were so excited to be doing it.

Here are these three
twenty-year-old guys living a dream.

It was a very exciting time

and we were working eleven days on,
one day off, nine days on, one day off.

We were really working a lot
and traveling all over the place.

The circuit was different back then.

The money certainly wasn't as great

and you wanted to play
five or six times a week.

You could play markets like Johnson City,
Tennessee or Yakima, Washington.

You would talk about how many shows
in Iowa you were going to do.

Every day and we would always
share the driving.

Everybody was sharing rooms.

We had a room rotation schedule
back then. It was kind of fun.

Traveling around in a rental car,
it wasn't even a bus or a van.

Sleeping on your baggage.

Now, you know,
you'd be in traction for a month

if you did a week traveling
like we used to travel for months.

The life of an opening act back then
was hooking up from circuit to circuit.

Sometimes you didn't know
where you were going

because sometimes
your gigs would run out

and you'd be in the States waiting to find out
if you're on another tour.

# Rock 'n' roll! #

# Baby gets tired, everybody knows #

As soon as we heard
that first Rush record,

we just were like, "What is this?
This is like Canadian Zeppelin."

"Yeah! Oh, yeah!"
"What the hell is that?"

And we literally said,
"We want that band to open Canada."

We then took them across America.

With Kiss we probably played 50, 60 shows
in the first couple of tours,

where they were just
this weird band from New York,

and we got very, very close.

# Baby, won't you tell me #

# Baby, rock 'n' roll, yeah, yeah #

# Do you wanna rock 'n' roll? #

Regardless of what
you want to say about Kiss,

musically or otherwise,

there was no harder-working band than Kiss

and there was no band more determined
to put on a spectacular show

and give people
their money's worth than Kiss.

That was a great thing to see
as an opening act.

We were so impressionable
and we were so green.

They were very good to us.

Those guys liked to have a good time,
especially Gene,

and their hotels were always
fun to watch.

Every night after the show,
the girls would line up.

My God! You can even be an ugly bastard
like me and get laid

and none of the Rush guys ever did.

I just never understood it.
I said, "They're not gay?" "No."

"Farm animals?"
"No, that's not it."

I... What the fuck did you do
when you went back to your hotel room?

I even remember one night,
it was in Milwaukee I think,

and there was a female bowling league
sharing the same floor

and they were walking around
in their nightgowns

and their hotel room doors are open
and they're drinking.

All the guys in Rush are in their rooms
just watching TV after a gig.

They probably woke up the next day, going,

"God, these Canadian bands
sure are boring."

That was a "getting to know you"
period for us and Neil.

He was one of the weirdest people
we'd ever met

because we'd never met anyone

that was so literate
and so opinionated before.

And it was hard for him.

He was always and still is the new guy
in some strange way.

Alex and I were bonded, old friends

and he had to kinda
make his way to be part of that.

In some ways he was very serious
and we were totally goofy,

certainly he had a bigger brain than us
and that was a target.

What more perfect, portable education

than having a lot of free time on your hands
and bookstores everywhere?

So for the next few years I'd say,

basically, I started filling those hours
with reading.

And we'd say,
"Look at how many books he reads.

"Look at the words he uses,

"this guy is probably capable
of writing lyrics!"

# Beneath the noble bird #

# Between the proudest words #

# Behind the beauty cracks appear #

# Once with heads held high #

# They sang out to the sky #

# Why do their shadows bow in fear? #

It was really stimulating,
but really a mouthful to sing

in the kind of rocking style
that we were doing at that time.

# Anthem of the heart
and anthem of the mind #

# A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind #

# We marvel after those who sought #

# Wonders in the world,
wonders in the world #

# Wonders in the world they wrought #

We worked on songs as we traveled.

On my little handwritten lyric sheets
for the time

I think I wrote the cities
that all of those songs were written,

they varied widely all over the map.

It was like the Monkees, you know.

Alex would have an acoustic guitar

and we'd be working on a song in a
rental car, in a hotel room after a show.

That's how, pretty much,
Fly By Night was written.

That's the way bands used to do it.

They'd write the record
while they were on the road.

They'd go home and cut it
in two or three weeks

and a new album would appear
every six months.

Pretty amazing to think of that today.

# Why try? I know why #

# This feeling inside me
says it's time I was gone #

# Clear head, new life ahead #

# It's time I was king now,
not just one more pawn #

# Fly by night away from here #

# Change my life again #

# Fly by night, goodbye, my dear #

# My ship isn't coming
and I just can't pretend #

Fly By Night was a little different
from the first record

so the record company wasn't sure

if we were developing in the correct way.

They wanted us
to be more like Bad Company

and not so much like this weird thing
that we were becoming.

By-Tor And The Snow Dog,
what the hell was that all about?

With By-Tor And The Snow Dog,

that was the start of writing
in more of a thematic, multi-piece idea.

And then with Caress Of Steel

we did the whole side
of Fountain Of Lamneth

and the Necromancer was kind of like that,

it was the start of those longer pieces.

Neil had come up
with this concept

and we had to put it all together
and make it work.

It seemed like an evolution
of where they were going.

I thought it had amazing potential.

It's a dark record,

but it was certainly a good record,
I thought.

But that view wasn't shared by everybody.

I know we played Caress Of Steel
once for Paul Stanley.

We'd just got it,
we played it in our van for him one night

and you could see that he just...
he didn't get it.

A lot of people didn't get it,
we were wondering if even we got it.

I think we were pretty high
when we made a lot of that record.

It sounds like it to me.

# My eyes have just been opened #

# And they're open very wide #

# Images around me don't identify inside #

# Just one blur I recognize
the one that soothes and feeds #

# My way of life is easy
and as simple are my needs #

Caress Of Steel was not
well received by the record company.

It was not well received by our agents.

Everything took an awful downturn

and it was off the crest of a wave too,

because we were so in love
with what we'd done,

we were so into it and so proud of it.

When Caress Of Steel pretty much
met a deaf ear, the ensuing tour,

we were opening acts on smaller tours
and playing backwater clubs

and we called it, at the time,
"The Down The Tubes tour".

You would find yourself in places
like Battle Creek, Michigan,

playing to twenty people

wondering why you were still continuing.

Everybody thought that it was over.

Audiences were becoming
smaller and smaller

so we thought the end was near.

At that time, Ted Nugent
was also not breaking,

so the two of us
played a lot of small clubs together.

It was a pretty depressing tour,
we were kinda lost,

figured that we would probably
not survive to see another tour.

And the record company
was really not happy with us

and our management
was trying to defend us.

I remember going to Chicago
and meeting with Mercury Records

to not give up on the band,
to not drop the band.

I nodded to every request they had.

They wanted singles, more commercial,

"Yeah, I'm sure
that's what they're going to do."

That was a terrible winter.

I had no money,
I was sleeping on a friend's couch.

Things couldn't have been bleaker really.

At the record company, everybody was,

"We have to be more commercial here
and think about some singles,"

and just leaning on us at our weakest.

We talked about how we would
rather go down fighting

than try to make the kind of record
they wanted us to make.

We made 2112,
figuring everyone would hate it

but we were going to go out
in a blaze of glory.

We all decided that we would rather
go back to our jobs,

working on a farm

or working as a plumber's mate
for my dad or whatever,

than give in and just be something

that everybody else wants us to be.

We did summon that strength of character
to say, "No, we won't do that.

"We're doing it our way
and if this is the last hurrah, fine."

Back to the farm equipment
dealership for me.

It was a big no -
"No, we're not doing any of that.

"No, you can't tell us what to do
and no, we don't care."

# Whoa, oh, oh, oh #

# Whoa, yeah, yeah, yeah #

# Yeah, yeah #

When the record company heard
a full side concept like the first side of 2112,

people panicked. They thought,
"Wow, we're screwed."

They didn't get it.

This was, like, I ordered salmon

and they brought me a steak -
what the hell is this?

The nature of the story
that evolved in 2112

was the individual against the mass,

and that album did communicate
and reach people

on a level that just blossomed outward
by the classic form of word of mouth.

Obviously, the opening twenty-minute piece
did not get played on the radio.

# I can't wait to share this new wonder #

# Well, the people will all see its light #

# Let them all make their own music #

# The priests praise my name on this night #

Suddenly it was like,
you gotta to check this band out,

and, you know, the first thing that struck you

was the level of musicianship
was just insane.

I remember vividly,
I was in my bedroom with my neighbor

and he'd brought over 2112.

It was just something
I'd never heard before,

just the fact it was a three-piece ripping...
they were pulling off this stuff

that sounded like
a huge prog rock production.

It took me on a journey instantly

and I looked at the album cover
and saw that there were only three of them

and they were wearing
some funky clothes.

But I thought, how can three guys
make such a sound?

I remember the keyboard
sound...

...and all of a sudden it kicked in

and it was just like
a whole new experience to music,

something I'd never heard before.

The drumming was incredible,

the bass playing was incredible
and that was it.

I was hooked on Rush ever since then.

There was a moment in my life,
and I willingly admit this,

that I knew how to play the entire side.

I knew how to play 2112 all the way down.

I knew every note, every moment.

And I think back now,
"How long did I have to fucking learn that?"

I must have sat in the bedroom for a year
to learn that fucking song.

I was into the story.
You know, I read the back

and it was dedicated
to The Fountainhead, the book,

and I went right out and bought
The Fountainhead and read it.

I mean, not too many bands
make a twelve-year-old go out

and buy The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

Goddamn this rock band,
it's got me all fired up about literature.

# Well, yes, we know, it's nothing new #

# It's just a waste of time #

# We have no need for ancient ways #

# The world is doing fine #

As it turned out, the concept record
went through the roof.

They were right.

2112 really bought us
our independence.

The record company has never been in

on a single session that we've ever done.

In fact, when we're done,

it's all packaged
and they accept it the way it is.

They have no choice.

That somehow was
the plateau of untouchable.

Nobody thought they had the right anymore.

So, yeah, 2112 was absolutely
the passepartout, you know,

the skeleton key that opened that door
that we could close behind us.

OK, from now on, we do what we want.

Attention, all planets
of the Solar Federation.

Attention, all planets
of the Solar Federation.

Attention, all planets
of the Solar Federation.

We have assumed control.

We have assumed control.

We have assumed control.

Most critics ignored 2112
or treated Rush, I think, very, very negatively.

I mean, what do critics hate generally?

They hate heavy metal
and they hate progressive music.

I would say probably
most of the reviews were bad.

I don't know if it was discouraging
to read bad press.

I mean, after a while it was like,
"Oh yeah, yeah, whatever."

Usually it's, critics back then particularly,

just trying to be cool,
so they would write all sorts of things.

# What you own is your own kingdom #

# What you do is your own glory #

# What you love is your own power #

# What you live is your own story #

# In your head is the answer #

# Let it guide you along #

# Let your heart be the anchor #

# And the beat of your song #

Geddy's soaring voice was described
in some rather unkind ways.

"A hamster in overdrive."

"The dead howling in Hades."

"Mickey Mouse on helium."

"Strangling a hamster."

"A cat being chased out the door
with a blowtorch up its ass."

It was just constant insults hurled that way.

But it was never like that with the audiences.

We found that we had
a growing audience

that didn't care about any of that press stuff.

They were into the band
and liked what we were trying to do.

We were a little more thoughtful
about the way we wrote music

and certainly how we wrote lyrics
and how we put it all together.

I'd rather read fan reviews

than some guy who always hated us
and didn't stay for half the show.

Critically, we were designated
terminally unhip

and that prevents you
from getting mainstream press.

Our songs were too long
to go on mainstream radio,

so what the hell are we?

Every once in a while
you have an artist that is very sophisticated

but somehow in their sophistication

they don't alienate the common person.

They're really a people's band

and the great hole in their career

has been that they've never been
truly accepted by the intelligentsia.

But with a band like Rush you can't say,

"Well, they can't play, they can't sing."

So what was it? Well, they're nerdy
or they don't fit in a neat box.

The one constant with Rush
throughout the decades

is that it's been difficult
to fit them into any kind of definition.

Their music was hard rock
but at the same time it was orchestral.

The melodies were simple
but at the same time complex.

Nobody could ever put their finger
on exactly what they were.

I think the fashion
that was associated with it

defied definition as well.

We were never very good
at the whole fashion image thing.

Let's face it.
We didn't have a clue.

We desperately just wanted
to wear jeans and T-shirts

but we were raised in a period
that said that's not OK.

So we looked for some way
of standing out in a crowd.

I remember we were in San Francisco

and we were staying
in the Japanese part of town,

so we found
all these kind of kimonos and robes

and we said, "Hey, why don't we try these?"

So that began the period
of the absurdly prophetic robes.

# And the men who hold high places #

# Must be the ones who start #

# To mould a new reality #

# Closer to the heart #

# Closer to the heart #

# The blacksmith and the artist #

# Reflect it in their art #

# They forge their creativity #

# Closer to the heart #

# Yeah, it's closer to the heart #

These were the salad days

because we were transitioning
and we could feel it.

The world was expanding for us.

We were starting to record in England,
starting to get success in England

and to go over there
and to actually have a song in the charts

and play Hammersmith Odeon
was really gratifying,

because all of our heroes
were English rock musicians.

So that gave us a tremendous
amount of confidence.

# Whoa, oh, you can be the captain #

# And I will draw the chart #

# Sailing into destiny #

# Closer to the heart #

# Closer to the heart #

# Well, closer to the heart #

# Yeah, closer to the heart #

As the records progressed,
the palette got bigger and bigger.

Neil was constantly changing
and adding to his drum kit

and we had more choice of guitars
and acoustic guitars.

Bass pedals. The keyboards developed
every time we went into the studio.

Gedd was staying on top of that.

The first time I worked with the band
it was a three piece.

I think we may have had a cowbell.

# Held within the pleasure dome #

# Decreed by Kubla Khan #

# To taste my bitter triumph #

# As a mad immortal man #

# Nevermore shall I return #

# Escape these caves of ice #

# For I have dined on honeydew #

# And drunk the milk of paradise #

# Oh, is it paradise? #

You know, what really helped us
get out of that robe period

was touring with UFO.

They made fun of us relentlessly

and they would hold up signs
and make fun of our lyrics

and I would go up to my microphone

and there'd be a pair of furry slippers

nailed to the stage beside my mic.

They used to call me Glee, and the guys
would be at the side telling me...

"It goes perfect
with your robe, Glee."

It was good for us because, you know,

you go on stage thinking that maybe
there has to be some other thing

but in the end it is always
back to the music for us.

# The trouble with the maples #

# And they're quite convinced they're right #

# They say the oaks are just too lofty #

# And they grab up all the light #

# But the oaks can't help their feelings #

# If they like the way they're made #

# And they wonder why the maples #

# Can't be happy in their shade #

Hemispheres was the album

that broke the camel's back
in terms of long songs.

The Hemispheres side of that album
was incredibly complex,

both thematically and structurally.

# When our weary world was young #

# The struggle of the ancients first began #

# The gods of love and reason #

# Sought alone to rule the fate of man #

We went to
a little farmhouse in Wales

and wrote all that music, arranged it,
learned how to play it.

It was so ambitious and so demanding,

so experimental, all of that.

It was quite manic and our hours
became later and later and later,

and it just went around
so that we were going to bed at noon,

we were getting up at seven o'clock
and having breakfast then

and then working through the night
until the morning,

unending, with no time off.

Even the shorter songs on that record,
like La Villa Strangiato, were really hard,

and, of course,
we were bound and determined

to record La Villa Strangiato
live in one take.

It was so complicated

and went through so many different mood
and time signature changes,

it would have needed to be charted out

in order to keep track of where you were
at any given point.

I think we spent eleven days
trying to record the bed track only

and we finally had to admit defeat.
We had to do it in three parts.

That one, kind of slow,
open solo that Alex plays,

the way he built that up
had a huge impression on me

because he was creating a mood

by playing very, very sparsely
and just slowly amping up the intensity.

I just thought that was the greatest thing

in terms of lead guitar
dynamics and phrasing.

I see them as the high priests
of conceptual metal.

A big influence. Huge.

Probably the hardest song
I ever learned how to play

was La Villa Strangiato.

The drumming is... It takes
everything you've got to get through it.

That was the benchmark of drumming
when I was a kid.

I could play YYZ
but can you play La Villa Strangiato?

We'd written material
that was really a little beyond us,

considering our level of musicianship
at the time.

And that was the thing about Rush,
we were always overreaching.

When you listen to early Rush,
it was like the riffs were simpler.

It got more complex as they kept going.

With the arrangements,
it would be so long,

it would be like
the boys were up there going,

"We did write this, didn't we?
What part of the song are we in?"

If you could learn those songs,

that was a stepping-stone to just
about everything you needed to know.

If you could play those songs
with some proficiency,

you could play pretty much anything else.

Just eerily precise.

Everything was just right on the nuggets.

I bet, if you went in with a computer,

Neil Peart would probably be right
on the beat to, like, an atom.

At least that's how it sounds
when you're listening with the headphones,

you're like, "He's not even human."

Geddy Lee
is still my favorite bass player.

It would be like, "Wow! That guy
who's shredding the bass is also singing

"and playing the keyboards
with his feet and hands?"

And he would move
his microphone a lot with his nose,

he actually figured a way to use it.

If it weren't for the nose,

I don't think he could have done
the keyboards, bass and singing.

I really don't. I think the nose
was what enabled him

to get the microphone
where he needed it to be.

He has a big nose.
Props to the nose!

We knew at the time
we were overreaching ourselves

and we agreed among ourselves in 1978
when we finished Hemispheres,

we're not doing this again,
we're not making this kind of record again.

We knew that was the end of that era,
of the epics.

You've been touring now
for how many years?

Well, professionally,

in the United States and around the world,
about five years.

About five years. How many concerts
do you average a year?

About 200, maybe more.

200 concerts a year for five years.

How long can you keep that up?

As long as we can.
As long as we're still standing.

We were working all the time.

I remember at one point
we counted 17 one-nighters in a row.

We were getting fried and getting stupid.

Not taking care of ourselves,
just burning out.

We didn't like
what we were becoming as people.

In my personal life
I was getting alienated from my wife,

we were just starting to have kids

and once you start
introducing children into your life,

you can't be so selfish. You just can't.

I think we all cherish the fact
that we're pretty normal guys.

I got married when I was young.
I had a family early.

I introduced Geddy's wife to him
when we were teenagers.

Family was the most important
thing to me in my life.

We were trying to remember

music is just one of the things
we had chosen to do with our lives.

Not everything.

If we'd kept going like that,
we would have crashed.

Something started to break.

I think the heaviness of Hemispheres

made us want to run away
from that kind of album

so we ran from Hemispheres
straight into Spirit Of Radio.

# Begin the day with a friendly voice #

# A companion unobtrusive #

# Plays that song that's so elusive #

# And the magic music
makes your morning mood #

Permanent Waves was a joy to me.

We were in Canada, you know,
our families were close,

that's when we discovered Le Studio

and the songs just came together.
Just boom, boom, boom.

OK, the new album.

There are a number of new things,
new approaches to the album.

Tell me what's new about it.

You tell him.

Basically, its newness derives
from experiments

we've conducted
over the last couple of albums.

Through Hemispheres
and Farewell To Kings,

we were experimenting
with a lot of new instruments and sounds

and rhythmic approaches and so on.
This time we found ways

to put those directions into a single stream
and consequently, I think,

the album probably
has a more direct feel to it.

The whole music industry
is going primitive,

new wave, minimal, rock-'n'-roll.
Do you care?

There's gonna be some bands
that have gone back to basics,

but those bands can't do anything
but play basics.

But all the real interesting new-wave bands

seem to be developing and progressing

into more interesting styles.

- Who do you listen to at home?
- All kinds of people.

Recently been Talking Heads
on the turntable a lot.

The Police.

I was a huge fan of The Police,
Ultravox and all these new English bands.

I loved them. It became
a part of our sensibility.

Permanent Waves still had
a couple of longer songs on it

but The Spirit Of Radio
was the emblematic song of that period.

The mix of sounds in it, the approach
to electronic music and reggae,

that's all the stuff I was listening to.

# For the words of the prophets
were written on the studio wall #

# Concert hall #

They seemed to have that knack

of being able
to use time signatures at will

and yet make them feel seamless.

If you're changing time signatures

and your audience aren't really aware of it,

then you've got something special.

Rush find a real interesting way

of drawing a straight line through the song,

whether it's melodically or rhythmically.

And when you put together the sound
of the band being so recognized

and their ability to make sure
there's a lifeline for people out there

who can't quite tap their foot
to an odd time signature,

that makes what Rush does genius

when it comes to still being able
to be played on the radio.

# We are secrets to each other #

# Each one's life a novel
no one else has read #

# Even joined in bonds of love #

# We're linked to one another
by such slender threads #

I think Permanent Waves was, in a way,

the most important stepping stone

because, just like
Caress Of Steel is to 2112,

there would be no Moving Pictures
without Permanent Waves first.

As I define it, that's when we became us.

I think Rush was born
with Moving Pictures really.

# A modern-day warrior,
mean, mean stride #

# Today's Tom Sawyer,
mean, mean pride #

It represents so much
that we learned up to that time

about song writing, about arrangement.

That's when we brought
our band identity together too,

how we like to play individually
and as a band at the same time.

Now when I look back on those songs,

I'm glad to say to people that
I will never get tired of playing Tom Sawyer

because it's difficult to play right,
and any time I do play it right, I feel good.

# No, his mind is not for rent #

# To any god or government #

# Always hopeful, yet discontent #

# He knows changes aren't permanent #

# But change is #

Suddenly we were on the radio
everywhere that summer.

Our concert audiences doubled.

You could picture it in the high-school halls,
"Are you gonna see Rush?"

"Oh, yeah, man. I'm going."
We were that band that year.

We were playing 120,
130 cities in America.

We were going back to places where,

if we were a theatre act
at the start of that tour,

by the end of that cycle

we'd gone back to those places
and we were in the arena.

Their latest release, Moving Pictures,
is number one on Toronto's album charts

and they're close to selling out
an unprecedented three nights

at the full Maple Leaf Gardens.

Here's a cut from Moving Pictures,

platinum after only four weeks of release.

# Suddenly ahead of me #

# Across the mountainside #

# A gleaming alloy air-car #

# Shoots towards me, two lanes wide #

# I spin around with shrieking tires #

# To run the deadly race #

# Go screaming through the valley #

# As another joins the chase #

# Drive like the wind #

# Straining the limits of machine and man #

# Laughing out loud with fear and hope #

# I've got a desperate plan #

# At the one-lane bridge #

# I leave the giants stranded
at the riverside #

# Race back to the farm #

# To dream with my uncle at the fireside #

Moving Pictures was a mixed blessing
to me, in retrospect,

for me, personally in my life.

A lot of strange people
came out of the woodwork.

There was so much attention on us
at that time, that was transitory.

Generally, we were pretty private

and I think Moving Pictures
was the turning point

when there was a lot of pressure
from fans wanting a piece of you

or believing they were connected to you
in some other way.

There was a time
when we first started getting recognized

that I got a little touchy about it

and I remember I started thinking
about this thing,

about fame and how you deal with it.

That was kind of an epiphany

and I said to myself,
"I'm gonna go where I want to go

"and if somebody comes up to me
and is nice and wants an autograph,

"I got time for them. It's no big deal."

Geddy, right?

That's right.

Oh my God, that's Geddy?

Yeah!

- Just making a video of them.
- No problem.

- One is to...
- Sorry.

- One is to Shawny.
- Didn't mean to get in your way. Sorry.

The first one is to Shawny.

And the next one's to Troy.

Thank you. That's it, I promise.
I'm so sorry...

You want his too?
He's the leader of the group.

I can walk around the city
and get recognized from time to time,

Geddy more so. He's got
a very distinctive look about him.

But generally people are very polite,
they don't want too much from you.

I understand that these are your fans
that just love what you do.

There's been a moment in their lives

where your music
has been so important to them

that to take a couple of minutes
and just chat,

shake a hand or hug or something,
it's not a big deal.

I remember when I met them,

I was just struck
by Geddy Lee and Lifeson's friendship,

it seemed like they had
a real deep bond.

Real playful and sort of goofy,

it just seemed like there was
a lot of joy there, a lot of genuine fun.

And then I turned the corner
and then I saw the master, Neil Peart.

He had, sort of, a different vibe going,

just as focused
but a brewing intensity.

Little wisps of darkness.

Neil has a real struggle with fans
and it's not a personal thing.

It's a shyness thing.

He's not able to be as relaxed
around strangers as Alex or I am.

You know, he doesn't mean
to hurt anyone's feelings by it,

he's not trying to be rude,
he's just not comfortable.

OK, I was the world's
biggest Who fan as a kid.

I never dreamed of trying to find their hotel
and knocking on their doors

or interfering in their lives in any way,
that I don't understand.

I love being appreciated,

being respected is awfully good

but anything beyond that
just creeps me out, you know.

Any sense of adulation is just so wrong.

I got a chance to go meet Neil Peart

and I got brought into a room and I started
to tell him, "Hey, I'm the hugest fan ever,"

and I got, sort of,
"the Neil Peart cold shoulder"

and the security guard
removed me from the room.

It was a weird uncomfortable situation.

I love Neil Peart
even though he totally blacklisted me.

But I don't know, if I was Neil Peart
and I walked in the room,

I would probably want to remove me too.

Neil was great. A very intense man
but very... you know.

His line, "I can't pretend a stranger
is a long-awaited friend," that's Neil.

When people have a fantasy,
I don't want to trample on it,

but I also don't want to live it

and people can think that I'm antisocial
or a sourpuss, it's really not.

It doesn't make me mad,
it embarrasses me.

The other guys
are obviously comfortable with it

and they do the meets and greets
every night

and that's fine, they can do it.

One, two, three...

One, two, three...

One, two, three...

Thank you. It's lovely meeting you.

I am so appreciative of our fans.

I bless their hearts every single day,

but they're hard to analyze as a group

because they're so different.

We have hard-core fans.

The old fans that have been there
from the beginning,

they're usually male
and they are really intense.

In the early stages it was very young,
almost 100% male.

And then, as the years went by,

it remained 100% male.

Chicks did not really dig it, you know.

I still don't put on Caress Of Steel
that often with my wife around.

Whoo!

Tonight is my 113th Rush show.

The last time I missed a show anywhere
in Europe was on the Signals tour.

Tonight will be the seventh on this tour.

I've been to two in America, one in Canada,
did all six on the last UK tour.

My name's Pete,
I'm from Cleveland, Ohio.

I just had my 100th show in Stockholm.

# You can choose from phantom fears #

# And kindness that can kill #

# I will choose a path that's clear #

# I will choose free will #

Rush fans are like
Nascar fans. They ain't going anywhere.

They're brand loyalty.
They are a cult band.

When you go to a Rush concert,

there ain't anybody leaving it
till the song is over.

They're waiting for their favorite part,
they're nudging their friend,

they're going, "Look, he played it perfect."
They're riveted to the band.

The band have
that relationship with their audience,

where their audience really feel like
the Rush lyrics communicate to them,

make them feel
like their experience is heard.

I have this memory of sitting
in the basement with my mother.

I actually said to her,
"I wanna play you a song."

And it was very hard to ever
get my parents' attention or anything

so it was, like, a big deal.

"Will you please sit here
and I wanna play you a song."

And I played Entre Nous

and I gave her the lyric sheet
because I wanted her to understand

that this song was connecting
with me on some level.

When I was sixteen years old,
I wasn't as emotionally open.

I was very withdrawn,

so something about that song
allowed me to say,

"Somehow this song is almost
like it's written for me."

Music, when you're growing up,
is such a strong part of like...

"What do you like? What's your identity?"

Rush seemed to be
just a complete added dimension

of not being obsessed with girls
and hair and shit like that.

They seemed to be kind of smart
and, fancying myself as a really smart kid,

I was like, "Oh, that's my deal."

# Not so clearly charted,
it's really just a question of your honesty #

# Yeah, your honesty #

# Glittering prizes
and endless compromises #

# Shatter the illusion of integrity, yeah #

Dum, tss, mm!

I mean, when you're hearing lyrics like that

that are so earnest and sincere,
talking about honesty in art

and asking some
of the tougher intellectual questions,

with that great music behind it,

they really offered something in rock
that was in short supply.

And plus they sang in French
on Circumstances.

"Plus c'est la m�me,
plus c'est la m�me chose."

That was pretty tricky, you didn't hear that
on any Kiss records.

It's like, the dude is singing in French now.

I can't even figure out his English!

It wasn't for everybody,
and it wasn't necessarily cool.

You were kind of like a Rush geek,
a music nerd, a kind of nerd,

and it was sort of nerdy music I suppose.

# Growing up, it all seems so one-sided #

# Opinions all provided #

# The future predecided #

# Detached and subdivided #

# In the mass-production zone #

# Nowhere is the dreamer
or the misfit so alone #

You listen to Subdivisions
and it just seemed like, exactly my life.

You know, I was that kid
who was watching the car

drive away with all the cool kids

going off to a party that I wasn't invited to.

It was just nice to feel like
there was a rock song out there

that spoke to my experience
of trying to be cool

and worrying about being cast out
of a group of friends if you weren't cool.

I wasn't very cool,

but luckily I had a group of friends
that was equally not cool.

I lived in a housing development,
suburbia backyard barbecues,

a lot of the stuff that, I think,
most American kids can relate to.

I remember watching the video,

and I'm like, "Damn, that represents me,
right there."

This one person walking around,
not really being in a group,

it seemed like it was this person
that nobody really could relate to.

- # Subdivisions #
- # In the high-school halls #

# In the shopping malls #

- # Conform or be cast out #
- # Subdivisions #

The thing I loved about Neil

was he took very complex,
metaphysical themes

and he was able to put them in a way
that everybody could understand.

And whether
he was ripping off Shakespeare

or he was quoting his own heart,

he was able to do it in a way
that never felt snobby.

It always felt like
he was in the room talking to you.

Words can carry different freight
for different people, of course.

But those who do have the sensitivity

to pay the kind of attention to lyrics
that I put into them,

it's wonderful to connect that way,

to feel that you're not
playing down to anyone.

We always had the impression
that people are just as smart as we are,

so if we can figure this stuff out,
they can too.

And we're not being that terrible,
damning word, pretentious.

We're not pretending anything.

This is really what turned us on this year.

Lyrically, it's always been a reflection
of my times and the times I observe.

But everyone is a reflection of me.

We could have gone in
and done Moving Pictures all over again

but we're too curious,
we're too dissatisfied with where we're at

and just because we got successful
doesn't mean we're going to stop.

And that's the motivation.
We have to find the better Rush.

There was a big shift
happening on Signals,

the keyboards were becoming
more and more important,

from Geddy's standpoint that is.

And also, one of the biggest things
at that point for me

was Neil getting into the electronic drum kit.

It didn't really appeal to me.

I wanted to still have that element
of the basic acoustic band.

We'd been working with Terry
for ten years at that point

and we really felt the need to expand

and see what it was like
to work with other people

and it was a very tough transition
because we were so close.

Terry was like
the fourth member of the band.

It was Neil who broke the news to me
on the bus and he said,

"Just think of it
like a boyfriend and girlfriend,

"they want to split up for a while,
have a break from each other."

I was surprised

because I figured we would figure it out
and we'd move to the next level.

But it was time for a change

and I didn't really want
to do an electronic band,

which is where I thought it was going.

# An ill wind comes arising #

# Across the cities of the plain #

# There's no swimming in the heavy water #

# No singing in the acid rain #

# Red alert, red alert #

# Red alert #

To be honest with you,
I'd never really heard of Rush in England.

I was a pop producer,

so I was kind of bemused

when I got the call
to come and produce them.

I was coming from that whole
British '80s music scene.

I was trying to bring them into line

with what I perceived to be
the contemporary, modern pop music,

the new technology,
the new keyboard sounds.

We all loved the music of that time.

We were young enough too,

and we didn't have any protective nature
of what Rush was

that they could never be allowed
to be influenced by new-wave music

or could never use an African rhythm.

There was no such thing
as "That doesn't suit Rush."

Those words have never been uttered.

# Ragged lines of ragged gray #

# Skeletons, they shuffle away #

# Shouting guards and smoking guns #

# Will cut down the unlucky ones #

Synthesizers and technology
became a way of sparking your creativity.

I liked it because my need to write melodies

is more satisfied writing on a keyboard.

As a songwriter,
you're always looking for an angle

to give you something fresh.

Coming from a trained
keyboard background,

you always felt kinda left out
in the rock world

because keyboards really weren't that cool.

Rush was one of those bands

that the way they started integrating synths

seemed wildly exciting to me.

Wow, this can actually fill the role
of what a guitar player would have done,

eats up the mid-range
rhythm-section space.

I'd be hard pressed to think of another...

someone else who's done it like that.

Once the keyboards and the shorter songs
became more of their sound,

that's when I kind of
moved on to other things.

I didn't like it
and I still really don't like it that much.

And Geddy would spend
a lot of time on the keyboard

and, as a bass player, I love the bass,

and so when my favorite
bass player's playing the keyboards,

I'm not that psyched about it.

I loved the idea of the keyboards
when we first started.

I think as that part of our sound developed,

there were times where
we just got on the wrong track.

Alex and I had
some real disagreements

about how profound
the keyboard should be.

But Power Windows
is a really important record

because it was
the final and essential blending

of keyboards and guitar to me, for Rush.

With Power Windows,
I found it really, really difficult

to work around the way
the keyboards were developing.

Why am I looking for a different place?

I shouldn't be looking for a different place.

What's going on with these keyboards?

You know, they're not even real.
It's not even a real instrument.

# The more we think we know about #

# The greater the unknown #

# We suspend our disbelief #

# And we are not alone #

# Mystic rhythms #

# Capture my thoughts #

# And carry them away #

I love the synthesizers and I think
it's as important as any of their other work.

The ultimate thing
that people were saying

was they kind of moved
somewhat away from the rock

and they got a little bit more
in the middle of what they did.

To me, Rush middle of the road
is still somebody else's left field.

Certain periods of Rush
are more universal than other periods.

Now, you could say on the one hand
that maybe they're better records.

Maybe that's the best Rush.

Moving Pictures got us
into a much broader world of rock fans

and when there was a shift,
we lost some of those people.

But we realized after time
that there was a core of our fan base

that was as curious
as to where we were going as we were.

Those are the ones that have
sustained us through all these years.

I can't fault them

for not wanting to be a prog rock band
for another 15 years.

They had different periods,
that's what makes them interesting.

# Time stand still #

# I'm not looking back
but I want to look around me now #

# Time stand still #

# See more of the people
and the places that surround me now #

# Time stand still #

Hold your Fire
was the record that told me

that there was a shift
in the way we were writing,

pushing us away from rock.

It was starting to move into a jazzier,
softer kind of tonal area.

Things can go too far in any one direction
and we correct ourselves and eventually go,

"We tried to go along this way
but it's too much."

That was the first thing I said
on the first meeting.

It seems absolutely crazy to me

that one of the few remaining power trios
on this planet,

guitar, bass and drums,

are smothered in keyboards.

And I said, "My interest is to get you back
to being a power trio, but a modern take.

"We'll just find out what that contemporary
definition of power trio really is."

Alex particularly
wanted to assert guitar more

as the dominant instrument
and push the keyboards aside

and Geddy and I went,
"OK, we can do that."

Alex was pretty...

"Let's have a concept,
let's not have keyboards."

And I went along with it.

I was a little bit sad.

Presto and Roll The Bones for me
were very much indicative

of what was going on in the '80s.

They were thin-sounding records,
they didn't have any balls to them.

So when I got in there I was kind of hell-bent
on making a heavy record.

The Caveman pushed us.

He wanted me to use my Fender bass,
go through old Ampeg amps

and record it old school.
Everything was old school.

There were battles, because every engineer
wants Alex to play without his pedals

and all his own synthesizers
that he plugs into.

Alex would ask for his fridge of effects
and I would say, "No."

And he'd say, "I want reverb,"
and I would say, "No."

He'd say, "I fucking want reverb!
If I want reverb, then I want reverb."

I'm like, "No, you sound terrible
with reverb, you're not having any reverb."

So we ended up going to a bar
and drinking about five bottles of Scotch,

had terrible hangovers the next day,
but we ironed it out.

We had a lot of "few drinks together"

and I know what Kevin was going for
and he's right.

Counterparts turned out to be

the record that we envisioned
when we first started working on it.

The songs were thicker
and more hair on them.

That record was a big turning point

in reconnecting with the kind
of rock-and-roll guts of Rush.

# Compensate me #

# Animate me #

# Complicate me #

# Elevate me #

The opening song, Animate,
I think is one of our all-time best.

I love the drive of it,
I love the arrangement.

But I was starting to get conflicted
about my own drumming at that point.

I'd been working so much with sequencers

and with click tracks for so many years,

and I had developed
really good precision of time,

but I felt a stiffness
because of that metronomic need.

I didn't have the looseness
that I wanted to hear

out of my own playing.

After so many years
of being an amazing player,

Neil could have clearly
just decided not to play drums

until it was time
to go play a Rush show.

But instead, he cared enough
about what he did

to try and break down
his current technique

and work with Freddie Gruber
and, sort of, reinvent his playing style.

I was in New York
doing a Buddy Rich tribute recording.

Over that recording session in New York,

I met Freddie and had dinner
and got curious...

What would it be like
to study with a guy like that?

And I had the time so I thought,
"Yes, I'm gonna try this."

Not to make it sound easy, because
when I studied with Freddie I asked myself,

"Can I really do this?
Will I have the discipline?"

It's a huge commitment.

Can you tell me about
when you met Neil? Your first impressions?

He was easy because he wasn't nuts.

And I was, you know,
and it was, like... it was fun.

Didn't have to go to some strange land.

We never played the drums.

We talked about motion

and told a lot of stories
and did some dancing...

We were behind a set of drums

because the approach to what you do
results in what you get. You understand?

Freddie is all about the motion

and it was all about the motion of the hands
and feet that contributed to a dance.

One of the first things he did

was stand up and do a little
soft-shoe dance for me and saying,

"When you're doing that,
is that dance happening on the floor?

"No, it's happening in the air."

So these were revelations to me

to start thinking about not just the hit
but the motions between.

- Time is linear, it's not...
- Dah! Pah!

It's like a pogo stick, you know.

A lot of pop music is played like that.

It's extremely vertical.

It's like people slapping water
when they swim.

- Mm. Yeah.
- It doesn't...

- Inefficient motion.
...breathe.

Put it this way, you could have
a beautiful body and look marvelous...

Thank you.

...but if you're not breathing, it's not alive.

You know, so you got to at least
put the breath in there, huh?

I can play a simple beat now
completely different

from how I would have played
that simple beat 15 years ago.

Not that.

There you go.

It takes a lot of courage being a drummer
the stature that Neil Peart is

to be able to say, "I can improve."

And when he came back out,

and made his appearances
after working with Freddie

and he turned his grip around,
his traditional grip,

he had a different approach,
was so much more relaxed.

That was the most refreshing thing
you could have seen,

is that your hero could also still learn,

that they weren't just done.

When I worked
with my band mates right after that,

on the Test For Echo songs, the other
guys would say, "It still sounds like you,"

at first I was disappointed,
but then I thought "Of course it does."

They thought it sounded the same

but when they went to play with me,
there was a different clock at work now.

# Driven day and night in circles #

# Spinning like a whirlwind of leaves #

# Stealing in and out of back alleys #

# Driven to another den of thieves #

# It's my turn to drive #

# But it's my turn to drive #

# Driven to the margin of error #

# Driven to the edge of control #

# Driven to the margin of terror #

# Driven to the edge of a deep, dark hole #

In mid-August of '97,

we'd finished the Test For Echo tour
earlier that summer

and there was a message to call the office
and it was urgent.

One of the girls told me what had happened.

Neil's daughter was
in a terrible car accident and lost her life.

I mean, it was just such a horrible shock.

It was, and I still feel it today,

it was the start of a whole lot of emotions
that we'd never felt before.

I had not had a friend
who'd gone through anything like this.

Ray called me
and told me about the accident

and I was just in shock as everyone was.

You're just so unprepared
for how devastating it is

and you just don't know what to do
or how to help or any of that.

He could be such a private guy

and when news like this hits,
you don't want to do the wrong thing.

You don't want to try to comfort them

and find out you're only comforting yourself.

Everything to do with the band
ended at that moment.

It just didn't seem important.

It was not something you even
thought about thinking about.

They didn't know
what to do with themselves

so they left Toronto
and got away from all those reminders.

And then Jackie got sick.

After she passed away,
he was lost and so he ran.

He got on his motorcycle and ran.

When his wife died,
he had to do what he needed to do

to just find some kind of peace.

He embarked on a long,
very, very painful journey,

just going and going and going and going.

Everybody was so worried about me,

there was a network among my friends
and loved ones,

"I heard from him today,"
"I got a postcard" or "He called."

They would all reassure each other.

Anything could have happened to me
even by accident, let alone by design.

Fuck, we were so worried about him,
I just...

But he...

you know, he was at arm's length.

Neil needed time but,
to be honest,

I had no real interest in music
for about a year.

I hardly played...
I hardly listened to music.

We were on sabbatical.
We were shut down.

We're talking about a journey
that stretched 55,000 miles

starting from Quebec
and going up to the Arctic

and around Alaska and onto Mexico,
across all of Mexico

from Baja across the whole
Mexican mainland down to Belize.

I'd go to small towns and the back roads,

generally stopping for the night
in hotels along the way

and I don't think
in that whole 55,000 miles,

I don't know if I was ever recognized once

in a little town, at a gas station
or a motel or a diner,

because I'm just a guy sitting there
with a hat on reading a book.

A lot of times I can just slip around
and be a guy.

That's all I want from traveling.

I just want to be a guy
and that's life enough for me.

# The way out is the way in #

# The way out is the way-ay-ay in #

Travel has always been known
as a soothing balm, and even motion,

from the time we're little babies, we want
to be rocked and if the baby's crying,

you can take it for a drive in the car
and it calms down.

That's the way
I described it to myself at that time,

I was so stirred up, my little baby soul
would only be soothed by motion.

I traveled out of the darkest place
a human being can come from,

and it was landscapes, highways
and wildlife that revitalized me.

It was the timeless landscapes.

It gives your tiny existence
a new perspective

when you're among things
that are millions of years old.

# The way out is the way in #

# The way out is the way-ay-ay in #

I remember getting postcards
from him from wherever

and he was using different names.

We have, like, about 6,000 nicknames
for each other

and so I would get a postcard
with that nickname on it,

so I knew who it was from.

They were lifelines, those little contacts.

He knew we were there, somewhere,

and he knew that we would be there
if he wanted us to be there.

All he had to do was reach out.

As far as the band was concerned,
as things went on,

it seemed less and less of a possibility
that we would get back together

and it looked like the band was -

basically, it was four years -
...that the band was done.

Oh, I thought it was...
I thought it was over.

Alex and I would talk about it
once in a while but there was no point.

I don't want to play in Rush
without those other two guys.

You know, there's no replacing
anybody in this band,

it's just not possible.

It is the band, the three of us, you know.

Even though he's the new guy,
he's just as important.

Those two guys
were the most stable thing I had.

My family and loved ones and those that
dared to stay around me through that time,

and so hard to...
I would have walked.

My concern was just that he would be OK

and I thought it was pointless
to think about it beyond that.

After a year and a half,
whatever, two years,

I sensed that he would do it again,
that he would be OK.

I don't think he worked that hard

to be what most people consider
as the best in the world at something

and not go and do it again one day.

I didn't know if it meant that
it would take five years or ten years

but I thought that one day
he'd have to do that again.

When I stopped riding...
...I was ready.

Traveling all that time, it was when
I came to rest and I came out to California

and met my wife-to-be
and I got some stability there

and, with Carrie's help, then realized
that I was wanting to work again.

That's basically what it took,
but I had to stop moving first.

He was a little apprehensive
and thought that perhaps maybe

we might try to talk about
perhaps trying to maybe think about

possibly getting back in the studio
to record a record.

It was really like that.
It was quite a fragile, delicate proposition.

I don't think he knew if he could do it.

He hadn't played his drums
in a hell of a long time.

He's such a perfectionist,
such a fucking monster musician.

I think he was afraid of not being
as good as he once was.

It was an unsureness.
"Can I do this?

"Can I write rock lyrics like it's the
most important thing in the world?

"Can I slave over and over on a drum part,

"refine every detail like it's the most
important thing in the world? I don't know."

We basically booked the studio,
7 days a week, for 14 or 15 months.

Everything had so much weight to it

and for him to get back his chops
was really a slow process.

I could hear my state of mind
in my drumming -

anger, obviously, but confusion.

The state I was in...
it's in the lyrics too, of course,

so many of them had to deal with...
I could not sidestep all of that stuff.

But there was something
that was so pure and truthful

about the energy on Vapor Trails.

It really is a representation of that time,
of the coming back of the band.

# Horizon to horizon #

# Memory written on the wind #

# Fading away like an hourglass #

# Grain by grain #

# Swept away like voices in a hurricane #

# In a vapor trail #

# In a vapor trail #

Coming back to the stage
is way more difficult

'cause the essential existence of a band
is on a stage.

One of the things that keeps me
from quitting touring all the time

is that's what a band does.

So coming back to the stage
was the biggest recovery possible.

Thank you.

And good evening, Hartford,
United States of America,

nice to be back here.

It's been quite long enough, I think.

That was in Hartford, Connecticut
on the Vapor Trails tour

and it was such a dramatic thing
after all this that we'd gone through

that here we were, at our first gig,
back on the road

and we never even thought
we would work again.

I think that was one of the few times
we've had a group hug before the show.

It wasn't lost on us that...
getting to that point...

was almost impossible.

So we looked at each other, gave each
other a hug and said, "OK, let's go."

# For the words of the prophets
were written on the studio wall #

# Concert hall #

The crowd was amazing.
They welcomed us back, really warm.

And Neil was really nervous,

so I figured my job is to go over there
to make him not nervous

so I kept checking on him,
throwing him some shapes

to make sure
he was smiling or laughing.

That's what that night was like. I was
completely folded into the job of performing,

but there were moments
when the three of us connected visually

and we knew what we were doing
and I remember saying to Ray afterwards,

"It would have been a shame
if that never happened again."

It was amazing. And it was amazing
to see how happy he was after the show.

Some demons were gone that night.

Part of the rebirth of the band was suddenly
a willingness to go where we hadn't gone

and to see these legions of fans
was such a positive effect on us.

It was like, "This is a second chance for us
to go back out and play some new places."

We had no idea, going to Brazil,
of any popularity that we might have

and then the S�o Paulo show
was 60,000 people.

By far the largest audience
we singularly had ever played to.

There was a sense of wild
tumultuous impossible masses of people

but so locked in a unifying way
that it was just magical. We elevated.

Having gone through that whole tour,

being in this place
where we had people going totally mental,

playing One Little Victory,

it was a huge victory that we'd survived
the previous five years.

Finishing on such a high note
was quite a trip.

The newness of touring was over...

and I think we had successfully returned.

Oh yeah!

# Modern-day warrior named Tom Sawyer #

# He floated down a river
on a raft with a black guy #

# Doo-doo doo-doo #

# Doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo-doo... #

Hold on! Hold on!

Hold on! Stop! Stop!
Those aren't the right lyrics, fat ass!

I am Geddy Lee and I will sing
whatever lyrics I want!

There's a lot of people
who were 18 in 1978,

guys who were crazy Rush fans.

They're in positions of relative power now.

They're raising their hands and going,

"Yeah, I want to be on this bandwagon now.
I always was there."

Now they had the ability
to bring it to more people than ever before.

My guests tonight
have 24 gold and 14 platinum records.

Please welcome Rush!

Geddy, Neil, Alex,
thank you so much for joining us.

I just wanna remind everybody

that this is your first appearance
on American television in 33 years.

- Correct?
- Yeah.

I think one of the greatest things
to happen to the collective community

that has very much enjoyed Rush
for many years,

was their appearance on the Colbert Report

because I've seen these guys
get beaten up

by the supposed cool people for a long time.

And then, in one fell swoop,

Stephen Colbert puts them on their show
and gives them the hand of coolness.

You're known for some, sort of, long songs.

Have you ever written a song so epic
that by the end of the song

you were actually being influenced
by yourself at the beginning of the song...

...because it happened
so much earlier in your career?

You are yet to be inducted
in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Is there any chance your next album
will be called That's Bullsh...

You could get into
sociological and cultural reasons

why a band like Rush
was publicly marginalized.

You can say, "What was it?
They were too weird? Geddy's voice?"

I like to think that, at the end of the day,
people will step back

and all those labels fall away
because the body of work is significant.

To me, they remain
one of the top bands in the world.

Whether some guy at Rolling Stone
decides they are or not,

is completely irrelevant because, at the
end of the day, rock is a people's game

and the people have generally
and consistently voted for this band.

A generation of rock critics
have kept them from being in Rolling Stone

and from being a part of that conversation.

They were on the other side of this divide
we're talking about,

back when they were held in corners
by Rush fans at parties going,

"But you don't understand!"

They liked Elvis Costello or David Bowie
or something more critically accepted.

Now, it's like we're all so old that even
if you hated Rush in the '80s and '70s,

you gotta give it up for them, you just got to,
or you're just being an old dickhead.

I think that, in many ways,
you're served better

if you're not quite as successful.

If you never become a pop star,
if you don't have top 40 hits.

Then what you have
is a pure memory for people.

They don't think you ever sold out.

Virtue is actually rewarded, I believe.

The thing with us is, we've always
walked along a shore of the mainstream

and we've been attached to it and
connected ourselves to it, time and again

but we've always been a bit outside of it.

We had our own stream
and it wasn't the main one

but it was not too far away
from the main one.

I always like to consider us
the world's most popular cult band.

The Rush fan, while it's a stereotype
that it's mostly guys who like heavy metal,

there are many devoted female fans.
It's kind of like a giant club.

People turn on their kids to Rush,
who turn on their kids to Rush.

It's amazing
that the music's been able to go

from this generation to this generation
and even a younger generation.

Their fans
have stuck with them through all of it.

All their shows are sold out still.

When Snakes and Arrows
came out in 2007,

it charted really well for quite a while

and it was some of the biggest shows
they've ever played.

It's just amazing for them
to come back really strong like that.

It was just like it took off!
It took off again all of a sudden.

It seems like they're bigger now
than they've ever been, which is fantastic.

There's a comfort in knowing
those same three guys are out there.

It's also spectacular to see three guys that
could tolerate each other for all these years

and still make music,
make good music.

How many more times?

Here's that thing you ordered.

It arrived today, this thing you ordered.

Thank you, Lurch.

- No sweat.
- It's that special thing!

Could you turn that off while I use it?

The Three Stooges all at once.

They're just such
a unique and weird concoction

and I get the sense,
and I always have from Rush,

that they're on a righteous path.

There's something there
that's really pure, sincere and honest.

At the root of all of it,
it's also really good, you know.

That matters more than anything else.

There's a magic and a coolness
to them that continues to this day

and that's a testament
to the music's power.

That's how you know,
it's the only way you know.

You check in after 25 years.
"Is it still resonating?"

"Yeah."
It's the only true test.

The test of time.

- Right, shall we?
- Now? What, now?

You mean now?

You mean right now? Now?

I can't go on now.

I've got things to do.

# Pariah dogs and wandering madmen #

# Barking at strangers
and speaking in tongues #

# The ebb and flow of tidal fortune #

# Electrical changes
are charging up the young #

# It's a far cry from the world
we thought we'd inherit #

# It's a far cry from the way
we thought we'd share it #

# You can almost feel the current flowing #

# You can almost see
the circuits blowing #

# One day I feel
I'm on top of the world #

# And the next it's falling in on me #

# I can get back on,
I can get back on #

# One day I feel
I'm ahead of the wheel #

# And the next it's rolling over me #

# I can get back on,
I can get back on #

# Whirlwind life of faith and betrayal #

# Rise in anger, fall back and repeat #

# Slow degrees on the dark horizon #

# Full moon rising, lays silver at your feet #

Maybe you could tell us
where we're going tonight?

We're going to meet with Neil.
We're gonna talk about stuff, I guess,

drink some local wine.

Will there be any discussion
of the next steps for the band?

We don't really want to hang around with
the guy, so yeah, we'll talk about that stuff.

This is just a business meeting.

- Do we ever have business meetings?
- This is the first one.

This will be your 24th record.

What's the motivation to keep doing it?

Chicks.

OK, I call this meeting to order.

Do the thing.
It's so great to drink wine.

It tastes fantastic

and it makes you feel funny.

- Didn't I ever tell you Lurch was a genius?
- You never had to tell me.

- He's a genius.
- He manifests it every single day.

- Why don't we write some songs?
- Right now. Let's start.

- I got a notepad here.
- Are you gonna write lyrics?

- I can write things down.
- What I thought...

What if we do something on the
Frankenstein theme we were talking about?

Like, the life of Frankenstein.

- A concept album?
- I'm getting an inspiration.

- That's a bolt... Perfect.
- Hey, yeah! You know something?

- You got a couple of bolts...
- That's what I'm thinking.

It's a miracle really
that we've ever had a conversation.

Let's not start now!

You know they say if you put 100 monkeys
in a room with typewriters

they'll eventually produce
the works of Shakespeare?

Who's going to clean those typewriters?

- We're getting into a weird area here...
- Monkeys, you know, defecation.

I don't know you anymore.

It's like working
with a whole new person.

- This relationship is...
- I'm so sick of you guys.

This is really helpful for me.

I'm working through something emotionally
and psychologically and this helped a lot.

Yeah, and I quit the fucking stupid band.
I'm out of here.

OK, take your smokes and go then.

As soon as I can get over there, I'm gonna
rise to my knees and kick your ass.

Rise to your knees. That sounds
like the new Rush album title.

That'll be the day.

Oh my God, we are geniuses.

- We're gonna do hockey nights in Canada...
- Hockey, hockey!

...with the drum solo
with the Latino stuff in it.

Boy, that's gonna be one great album.
That's the next album, guys.

We've got it sorted out.

I think we've been successful
in destroying these people's film.

I will remind them
that I said you would regret it.

I just wanted to say that.

I said, "Don't be surprised when
you discover how boring we really are."

Cut!

Now I like Rush.

The louder the better now.