Time/Songs:

Hugh Syme on the cover of Hemispheres

"Not as well as I feel about most of them."

"The band told me, "Go ahead, we'll see it when we get back," because they were In Wales for the whole album and all my conversations with them were over the telephone. They didn't see it until it got out. Technically, it's an abomination."

"Once again, it's an effort in the progressive area of punning. They talk about Apollo and Dionysius in the lyrics, so I figured that Apollo would be the severe, Magritte business man, and that Dionysius would, again, be the reinstitution of a figure."

- Hugh Syme, 1983 interview

Have you ever written as you recorded?

- Geddy Lee, interview from 4/86 Guitar Player magazine

I. Prelude (4:27)

II. Apollo: Bringer of Wisdom (4:36)

III. Dionysus: Bringer of Love

IV. Armageddon: The Battle of Heart and Mind (2:55)

V. Cygnus: Bringer of Balance (5:01)

VI. The Sphere: A Kind of Dream (1:02)

How did the lyrics to Hemispheres come about?

- from the book Success Under Pressure

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres  I. Prelude
------ --- ---- --  -----------  -  -------
When our weary world was young
The struggle of the ancients first began.
The gods of Love and Reason
Sought alone to rule the fate of Man.

They battled through the ages,
But still neither force would yield.
The people were divided,
Every soul a battlefield.

II. Apollo: Bringer of Wisdom
--  ------  ------- -- ------
"I bring truth and understanding,
I bring wit and wisdom fair,
Precious gifts beyond compare.
We can build a world of wonder,
I can make you all aware.
I will find you food and shelter,
Show you fire to keep you warm
Through the endless winter storm.
You can live in grace and comfort
In the world that you transform."

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

III. Dionysus: Bringer of Love
---  --------  ------- -- ----
"I bring love to give you solace
In the darkness of the night,
In the Heart's eternal light.
You need only trust your feelings;
Only love can steer you right.
I bring laughter, I bring music,
I bring joy and I bring tears.
I will soothe your primal fears.
Throw off those chains of reason
And your prison disappears."

The cities were abandoned,
And the forests echoed song.
They danced and lived as brothers;
They knew love could not be wrong.
Food and wine they had aplenty
And they slept beneath the stars.
The people were contented
And the Gods watched from afar.
But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared,
Bringing wolves and cold starvation,
And the hearts of men despaired.

IV. Armageddon: The Battle of Heart and Mind
--  ----------  --- ------ -- ----- --- ----
The Universe divided
As the Heart and Mind collided,
With the people left unguided
For so many troubled years.
In a cloud of doubts and fears,
Their world was torn asunder into hollow Hemispheres.

Some fought themselves, some fought each other.
Most just followed one another,
Lost and aimless like their brothers,
For their hearts were so unclear,
And the truth could not appear.
Their spirits were divided into blinded Hemispheres.

Some who did not fight
Brought tales of old to light.
My Rocinante' sailed by night
On her final flight.
To the heart of Cygnus' fearsome force
We set our course.
Spiralled through that timeless space
To this immortal place.


V. Cygnus: Bringer of Balance
-  ------  ------- -- -------
I have memory and awareness,
But I have no shape or form.
As a disembodied spirit,
I am dead and yet unborn.
I have passed into Olympus
As was told in tales of old,
To the city of Immortals,
Marble white and purest gold.

I see the gods in battle rage on high,
Thunderbolts across the sky.
I cannot move, I cannot hide,
I feel a silent scream begin inside.

Then all at once the chaos ceased.
A stillness fell, a sudden peace.
The warriors felt my silent cry
And stayed their struggle, mystified.

Apollo was atonished;
Dionysus thought me mad.
But they heard my story further,
And they wondered, and were sad.

Looking down from Olympus
On a world of doubt and fear,
Its surface splintered
Into sorry Hemispheres.

They sat a while in silence,
Then they turned at last to me.
"We will call you Cygnus,
The god of Balance you shall be."

The Sphere: A Kind of Dream
--- ------  - ---- -- -----
We can walk our road together
If our goals are all the same.
We can run alone and free
If we pursue a different aim.
Let the truth of love be lighted,
Let the love of truth shine clear.
Sensibility, armed with sense and liberty,
With the Heart and Mind united in a single perfect Sphere.

What do the French lyrics in "Circumstances" mean?

"The more that things change, the more they stay the same."

- from the Rush FAQL

Circumstances
-------------
A boy alone, so far from home,
Endless rooftops from my window.
I felt the gloom of empty rooms
On rainy afternoons.
Sometimes, in confusion,
I felt so lost and disillusioned,
Innocence gave me confidence
To go up against reality.

All the same, we take our chances,
Laughed at by Time,
Tricked by Circumstances.
Plus ca change,
Plus c'est la meme chose,
The more that things change,
The more they stay the same.

Now I've gained some understanding
Of the only world that we see.
Things that I once dreamed of
Have become reality.
These walls that still surround me
Still contain the same old me,
Just one more who's searching for a world that ought to be.

Is there a message in "The Trees"?

"No. It was just a flash. I was working on an entirely different thing when I saw a cartoon picture of these trees carrying on like fools. I thought, "What if trees acted like people?" So I saw it as a cartoon really, and wrote it that way. I think that's the image that it conjures up to a listener or a reader. A very simple statement."

-- Neil Peart, in the April/May 1980 _Modern Drummer_ magazine

The Trees
--- -----
There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.

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

There is trouble in the forest,
And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream `Oppression`
And the oaks, just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light."
Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

La Villa Strangiato

Alex on playing the solo in concert:

- Alex Lifeson, 1984 Guitar magazine interview

What does "La Villa Strangiato" mean?

"La villa, be it Spanish or Italian, doesn't mean a village or a city, but rather a HOUSE. Strangiato is probably just pidgin Spanish, a made-up word."

The first part of "La Villa Strangiato," "Buenos Nochas, Mein Froinds!," is based on the German song "Gute Nacht, Freunde," written by A. Yondrascheck. I noted the resemblance between the two songs immediately when I first heard "La Villa." The notes until the fast part are almost identical. Also note the similarities in the titles - they have the same meaning, and the reference to German in Rush's title (Mein Froinds).

Where do the different parts of "La Villa Strangiato" start/end?

"La Villa Strangiato (An exercise in Self-Indulgence)"
                                           Studio    Live (ESL CD)
I.    "Buenos Nochas, Mein Froinds!"       0.00      0.16
II.   "To sleep, perchance to dream ..."   0.27      0.49
III.  "Strangiato theme"                   2.00      2.18
IV.   "A Lerxst in Wonderland"             3.16      3.36
V.    "Monsters!"                          5.43      6.09
VI.   "The Ghost of the Aragon"            6.09      6.30
VII.  "Danforth and Pape"                  6.45      7.07
VIII. "The Waltz of the Shreves"           7.26      7.48
IX.   "Never turn your back on a Monster!" 7.52      8.14
X.    "Monsters! (Reprise)"                8.03      8.24
XI.   "Strangiato theme (Reprise)"         8.17      8.40
XII.  "A Farewell to Things"               9.21      9.14