Signals - The Album
Signals - The Album
Rush - Signals (1982)
Released in September 1982
Mercury/Polygram
Produced by Rush and Terry Brown
Time/Songs:
(5:33) Subdivisions
(4:46) The Analog Kid
(4:56) Chemistry
(6:20) Digital Man
(6:22) The Weapon (Part II of Fear)
(3:41) New World Man
(4:51) Losing It
(5:49) Countdown
On the Signals Cover:
The map of the imaginary secondary school on the back of the album cover
was named after Montreal Expo slugger Warren Cromartie.
"Well, I was given the word "Signals." It was such a broad concept
that it was baffling for all of us. We really had trouble with that
one, and I decided that, with such a phenomenally important word with
the kind of potency it potentially had, to go with something really
dumb, really inane. But something which would still tie in with songs
such as "Chemistry," and the subdivision aspect of the fire hydrants,
lawns, and neighborhood dogs."
- Hugh Syme
"Well, we wanted the album to sound different and we also thought that the
packaging should have a different feel. When we were talking about
Signals,
Hugh had this concept of taking the idea down to a basic human level -
territorial or even sexual. So that's how the design with the dog and the
fire hydrant came about. The little map on the back features make-believe
subdivisions, with a lot of silly names and places. The red dots represent
all the fire hydrants and basically the whole thing maps out a series of
territories."
- Geddy Lee
- from the book Success Under Pressure
Album Notes
Alex Lifeson on the sound of Signals
"Moving Pictures, for instance, was a very lush,
full-sounding Lp,
where the guitars were double, triple and even quadruple tracked. But with
Signals we wanted to get a more angular sound, where
everything had its
place and there was a little more perspective to all the instruments. The
focus was not so much on the guitar being 'here' and the drums being
'there' -- it was a little more spread out in different percentages. So
that took a bit of experimenting, which in turn meant more time in the
studio."
- Alex Lifeson from the book Success Under Pressure
The band on Signals
"'Signals' is definitely the direction that we've wanted to go in
for a long time. It's something that comes from maturity and having
been through the whole techno side of things. We've played in all
those weird times and made all those big points that we've wanted to
make. Now it seems that there's a bigger concern for communication
and that's what this album is all about."
- Geddy Lee, 1982 Sounds Interview
"'Signals' is a little more accessible and everything's a little
more straightforward and a little more concise. It's been done in
terms that everyone can relate to, you don't have to sit down and
go through everything.
"We never really were that serious, you do a couple of things that
may seem that way and you're labelled no matter what you do. You're
always labelled as something like, 'Here's Rush, a 'heavy metal
heady' type band!'. I don't know, most of the time you couldn't
give a fuck, you have a good time and that's it!"
- Alex Lifeson, 1982 Sounds Interview
"I guess that 'Signals' has more to do with writing about people
and less about ideals. 'Permanent Waves' was probably our first
album that was in touch with reality --- it was about people dealing
with technology instead of people dealing with some futuristic
fantasy world or using symbols for people. Now I'm trying to make
those symbols into real people and real conflicts in real people's
lives. I still want to write about ideals, I'm not interested in
writing about the sewer of life."
- Neil Peart, 1982 Sounds Interview
What was the theme behind Subdivisions?
After ploughing through countless children's adventure stories, Neil
went on to develop a passion for fantasy and science fiction works, which
provided him with an element of escapism from the grim reality of everyday
life in suburbia. In fact, this was a theme he later touched upon with the
song "Subdivisions", from the Signals Lp, which he describes
as "an exploration of the background from which all of us (and probably most of
our audience) have sprung."
- from the book Success Under Pressure
Subdivisions
------------
Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone
Subdivisions --
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions --
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth
Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night
Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory of lighted streets on quiet nights...
The Analog Kid
--- ------ ---
A hot and windy August afternoon
Has the trees in constant motion
With a flash of silver leaves
As they're rocking in the breeze
The boy lies in the grass with one blade
Stuck between his teeth
A vague sensation quickens
In his young and restless heart
And a bright and nameless vision
Has him longing to depart
You move me --
You move me --
With your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and winter skies
You move me --
You move me --
Open sea and city lights
Busy streets and dizzy heights
You call me --
You call me --
The fawn-eyed girl with sun-browned legs
Dances on the edge of his dream
And her voice rings in his ears
Like the music of the spheres
The boy lies in the grass, unmoving
Staring at the sky
His mother starts to call him
As a hawk goes soaring by
The boy pulls down his baseball cap
And covers up his eyes
Too many hands on my time
Too many feelings --
Too many things on my mind
When I leave I don't know
What I'm hoping to find
When I leave I don't know
What I'm leaving behind...
Songs that just work out
"Very often the guys will have worked out something
musically and made a tape of it for which they have nothing
particular in mind. 'Grand Designs', on the last album, was done
that way. They had the musical ideas laid out and just made a
little tape for me with guitar, keyboards and drum machine, and I
had that. So, again, if I'm stumped on something that I've been
working on, I pull out that tape and try to close my mind off for
a minute and listen to the tape. 'Chemistry' was a true
collaboration between the three of us. The other guys had a
couple of key phrases they wanted to express, so they gave me the
music. That was easy because all the groundwork was done.
Playing with words comes so much easier than having to dream up
the whole thing."
- Neil Peart, Guitar for the Practicing Musician interview 1986
Chemistry
---------
Signals transmitted
Message received
Reaction making impact --
Invisibly
Elemental telepathy
Exchange of energy
Reaction making contact --
Mysteriously
Eye to I
Reaction burning hotter
Two to one
Reflection on the water
H to O
No flow without the other
Oh but how
Do they make contact
With one another?
Electricity? Biology?
Seems to me it's Chemistry
Emotion transmitted
Emotion received
Music in the abstract --
Positively
Elemental empathy
A change of synergy
Music making contact --
Naturally
One, two, three --
Add without subtraction
Sound on sound
Multiplied reaction
H to O
No flow without the other
Oh but how
Do we make contact
With one another?
Digital Man
------- ---
His world is under observation --
We monitor his station
Under faces and the places
Where he traces points of view
He picks up scraps of conversation --
Radio and radiation
From the dancers and romancers
With the answers -- but no clue
He'd love to spend the night in Zion
He's been a long while in Babylon
He'd like a lover's wings to fly on
To a tropic isle of Avalon
His world is under anaesthetic --
Subdivided and synthetic
His reliance on the giants
In the science of the day
He picks up scraps of information --
He's adept at adaptation
'Cause for strangers and arrangers
Constant change is here to stay
He's got a force field and a flexible plan
He's got a date with fate in a black sedan
He plays fast forward for as long as he can
But he won't need a bed --
He's a digital man
Alex talks about the song:
When we write a song I think in context of a space for the solo.
It's left at that. We work on the arrangement to get it tight. When
we go into the studio to get the basic tracks down, I spend a couple
of days and start doing my solos then. That is usually the first time I
think about or work on my solos. Occasionally, I'll throw something
down while we're writing just to fill in that space. Very seldom do I
use anything. On "The Weapon" I used a couple of things that came
out during those writing sessions. Normally I spend a couple of days
on solos and work from scratch. We work on getting a sound. I try to
get a feel for what the solo should be doing and then pursue
different directions. I might pursue something for hours and do a
collage. I'll drop in a whole different section to see how it feels.
Then I relearn the solo when we get ready to go back on the road.
- Alex Lifeson, Guitar Magazine interview July 1984
In "The Weapon" [Signals], there's a short bass solo during the fade-out,
and you rarely do solos. Was this an afterthought?
"There are a couple of tracks on the last few records where just before the
fade-out, I try to put my two cents in [laughs]. I did that on "Red Lenses."
As it's fading out, I like to get loose--it's almost a reaction to being
so structured through the whole song."
- Geddy Lee, Guitar Player interview April 1986
The Weapon (Part II of Fear)
--- ------ ---------------
We've got nothing to fear -- but fear itself?
Not pain or failure, not fatal tragedy?
Not the faulty units in this mad machinery?
Not the broken contacts in emotional chemistry?
With an iron fist in a velvet glove
We are sheltered under the gun
In the glory game on the power train
Thy kingdom's will be done
And the things that we fear are a weapon to be held against us...
He's not afraid of your judgement
He knows of horrors worse than your Hell
He's a little bit afraid of dying --
But he's a lot more afraid of your lying
And the things that he fears are a weapon to be held against him...
Can any part of life -- be larger than life?
Even love must be limited by time
And those who push us down that they might climb --
Is any killer worth more than his crime?
Like a steely blade in a silken sheath
We don't see what they're made of
They shout about love, but when push comes to shove
They live for the things they're afraid of
And the knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them...
How did New World Man come about?
"It wouldn't have been on the record if we didn't have four
minutes space available. We tend to have pretty strict ideas on how long an
album should be and basically it's just a matter of value. Our shortest
albums are about 18 minutes a side and that's a pretty good value. I
couldn't see us going below that; it doesn't make sense to me. But, at the
same time, we're now recording digitally and so we do have certain
considerations as to how the whole thing's going to sound when you cut it.
There, you're dealing with quality, which is again down to value for
money."
"I think what it really boiled down to was that we'd worked so hard getting
all these slick sounds that we were all in the mood to put something down
that was real spontaneous. In the end, the whole song took one day to write
and record. It's good to put something together like that."
- Geddy Lee from the book Success Under Pressure
New World Man
--- ----- ---
He's a rebel and a runner
He's a signal turning green
He's a restless young romantic
Wants to run the big machine
He's got a problem with his poisons
But you know he'll find a cure
He's cleaning up his systems
To keep his nature pure
Learning to match the beat of the Old World man
Learning to catch the heat of the Third World man
He's got to make his own mistakes
And learn to mend the mess he makes
He's old enough to know what's right
But young enough not to choose it
He's noble enough to win the world
But weak enough to lose it --
He's a New World man...
He's a radio receiver
Tuned to factories and farms
He's a writer and arranger
And a young boy bearing arms
He's got a problem with his power
With weapons on patrol
He's got to walk a fine line
And keep his self-control
Trying to save the day for the Old World man
Trying to pave the way for the Third World man
He's not concerned with yesterday
He knows constant change is here today
He's noble enough to know what's right
But weak enough not to choose it
He's wise enough to win the world
But fool enough to lose it --
He's a New World man...
This song is about a writer/dancer who've both "lost it", the magic touch
of their respective skills. Neil discusses this song in
Modern Drummer
magazine, in the April 1984 issue.
The writer represents Ernest Hemingway.
The dancer "... drew a bit from that film with Shirley MacLaine called
The Turning Point ..."
Losing It
------ --
The dancer slows her frantic pace
In pain and desperation,
Her aching limbs and downcast face
Aglow with perspiration
Stiff as wire, her lungs on fire,
With just the briefest pause --
The flooding through her memory,
The echoes of old applause.
She limps across the floor
And closes her bedroom door...
The writer stares with glassy eyes --
Defies the empty page
His beard is white, his face is lined
And streaked with tears of rage.
Thirty years ago, how the words would flow
With passion and precision,
But now his mind is dark and dulled
By sickness and indecision
And he stares out the kitchen door
Where the sun will rise no more...
Some are born to move the world --
To live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about
The things we'd like to be
Sadder still to watch it die
Than never to have known it
For you -- the blind who once could see --
The bell tolls for thee...
What inspired the song Countdown?
During spring of 1982, the band watched the launching of the Columbia space
shuttle from Cape Kenedy, Florida.
"It was an incredible thing to witness," Neil Peart reflects, "truly a
once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Neil later wrote Countdown as a result of the experience.
Who are Young and Crippen?
They were the astronauts on the first shuttle flight.
- from the Rush FAQL
Alex Lifeson on the song:
A song like "Countdown" has a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 11/8. Was this
rhythmic twist the core idea for writing the song?
"It's more of a feel thing than a conscious effort. The way we
write, we have the lyric or an idea of what the song is going to be.
That idea sets a mood. By changing the time signature you can
change the whole effect of the song. I guess in that respect we do go
off into those changes without making a conscious effort. Yet it does
make the song more complex. That influence came from the British
progressive movement and bands like Yes and Genesis. They had a
big influence on us. I guess you're always picking something that is
around that has an effect on the way you hear music. As long as you
can hear those things and apply them, you're growing. A lot of times
bands lock into something and stay there and that's the end. They
make two or three records of the same thing, which happen to be
their most popular, and that's it for them."
- Alex Lifeson, 1984 Guitar magazine interview
Countdown
---------
Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon
Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount
The air is charged -- a humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick -- you could cut it with a knife
Technology -- high, on the leading edge of life
The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding
Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound
Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
High in the air
In fascination -- with the eyes of the world
We stare...