Power Windows - The Album
Power Windows - The Album
Rush - Power Windows (1985)
Released in October 1985
Mercury/Polygram
Produced by Rush and Peter Collins
Time/Songs:
(5:36) The Big Money
(5:05) Grand Designs
(5:05) Manhattan Project
(6:09) Marathon
(6:19) Territories
(5:15) Middletown Dreams
(5:10) Emotion Detector
(5:54) Mystic Rhythms
Geddy Lee on the song:
That's an interesting sequence at the beginning of "Big Money", do you do
programming?
"Usually I'll do a basic sequence as a direction of a part, and then when
(keyboardist) Andy Richards comes in the studio he listens to what I've done.
If he can improve on it, he has full license to go ahead. And the nice thing
about working with him is he's very open to everybody's ideas. I can think up
an idea that I don't have the technical ability to play, but he does, and he'll
take that idea even farther than I imagined it. That's a real bonus for me."
- Geddy Lee, 1987 Bass Player Interview
Are there any non-guitar sounds on the Power Windows album that listeners
might mistake for guitar?
Yeah. There are a couple during the first verse of "Big Money." It sounds
like they're played with a vibrato arm and a really gritty sort of tone.
And that's actually Geddy playing the PPG synthesizer with a guitar sound
sampled into it.
- Alex Lifeson, Guitar Player April 1986 interview
The Big Money
--- --- -----
Big money goes around the world
Big money underground
Big money got a mighty voice
Big money make no sound
Big money pull a million strings
Big money hold the prize
Big money weave a mighty web
Big money draw the flies
Sometimes pushing people around
Sometimes pulling out the rug
Sometimes pushing all the buttons
Sometimes pulling out the plug
It's the power and the glory
It's a war in paradise
It's a cinderella story
On a tumble of the dice
Big money goes around the world
Big money take a cruise
Big money leave a mighty wake
Big money leave a bruise
Big money make a million dreams
Big money spin big deals
Big money make a mighty head
Big money spin big wheels
Sometimes building ivory towers
Sometimes knocking castles down
Sometimes building you a stairway --
Lock you underground
It's that old-time religion
it's the kingdom they would rule
It's the fool on television
Getting paid to play the fool
Big money goes around the world
Big money give and take
Big money done a power of good
Big money make mistakes
Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul...
Geddy talks about Grand Designs:
"Grand Designs" [from Power Windows] features a great drum part by Neil.
Some good bassists might be thrown off by that kind of part.
"I don't remember any difficulty with that song, as a matter of fact. One of
the best things about playing with the same person for a very long time is
you have this kind of telepathic connection in a way. You know each other so
well stylistically that there's a whole range of probabilities that you have in
common. So if I hear him going in a direction or he hears me going in a
direction, we can shift to that direction. I think we've figured out a way
to complement each other so that it's comfortable. It's something that comes
with time and work. And knowing when to simplify and when not to simplify.
Sometimes when a bass player is playing with a rhythmically difficult drum
part, that's the time to simplify, help the part cruise by playing more
consistently. That can help knit the parts together. At the same time, if
there's another drum part coming up where he's going to be more solid and
fundamental, that will enable the bass to stretch out a bit and get more
active. So it's give and take."
- Geddy Lee, 1987 Bass Player interview
Are there many guitar tracks in "Grand Designs"?
"I don't think that there are. Most of "Grand Designs" is one guitar that's
not even doubled. We may have put it through an AMS [digital processor]
at about 40 milliseconds and split it left and right. I know we did that
with the bouncing echoes in the first verse, where the main guitar is in
the middle and the harmonic line is on the outside. That one's fairly
straightforward, except for the acoustic guitars in the second chorus."
Parts of "Grand Designs" almost sound like slide guitar.
"Yeah. It's whammy. I was very much influenced by Allan Holdsworth a number
of years ago, the way he uses the whammy bar to slur notes and move around.
That got me interested in using one and trying to develop a style with one.
So many people use it now that it's not that unique, and actually I've started
to move away from it a bit. I've gotten a bit lazy with my natural vibrato
since I've been relying a lot more on the whammy bar. It's time for a change."
- Alex Lifeson, April 1986 Guitar Player magazine interview
Do you plan in advance for songs to fade out?
Sometimes. Sometimes we're not sure, so we ride out for a long time, and
then end it. We have the option. Invariably, every time we decide we're
going to fade out, we start getting into the fade and everyone loosens up
and the track starts getting better. That happened with "Mystic Rhythms"
[Power Windows]; the fade-out is about a minute long because we liked every
little nuance. The end of "Grand Designs" [Power Windows] is also like
that. There are about seven phrases, and they're all different. None of
that was planned; Neil was doing the drum track, and at the end, the sequencers
were going and he just kept punching-in and going, basically flailing and
hacking through it. Everybody loved it, so we decided to keep it in. Then
we had to learn to play it onstage.
- Geddy Lee, Guitar Player interview, April 1986
Grand Designs
----- -------
A to B --
Different degrees...
So much style without substance
So much stuff without style
It's hard to recognize the real thing
It comes along once in a while
Like a rare and precious metal beneath a ton of rock
It takes some time and trouble to separate from the stock
ou sometimes have to listen to a lot of useless talk
Shapes and forms against the norms --
Against the run of the mill
Swimming against the stream
Life in two dimensions is a mass production scheme
So much poison in power, the principles get left out
So much mind on the matter, the spirit gets forgotten about
Like a righteous inspiration overlooked in haste
Like a teardrop in the ocean, a diamond in the waste
Some world-views are spacious -- and some are merely spaced
Against the run of the mill
Static as it seems
We break the surface tension with our wild kinetic dreams
Curves and lines -- of grand designs...
Geddy on the song/sampling:
Sampling isn't perfect enough so that you can make it completely realistic--
you still can't get the feel, because digital recording of a sound gives every
note pretty well the same value, which you never do when you're playing a
lick. On "Manhattan Project" [Power Windows], Andy played sort of a
fretless-sounding bass line on a Roland JP-8 keyboard synthesizer. It sounded
great, so to do it live, we sampled that JP-8 sound into my Emulators. So
it worked, but it didn't work at the same time. I use it live and it sounds
okay, but every slide has exactly the same value, which you would never want.
When you play a fretless part, you slide through some notes and pass through
others at a different rate. You can't really do that with a stored sound,
unless you have a complex sampling situation where you sample each note
differently. So, it has its drawbacks, fortunately for us bass players
[laughs].
- Geddy Lee, Guitar Player magazine, April 1986
Manhattan Project
--------- -------
Imagine a time when it all began
In the dying days of a war
A weapon -- that would settle the score
Whoever found it first would be sure to do their worst --
They always had before...
Imagine a man where it all began
A scientist pacing the floor
In each nation -- always eager to explore
To build the best big stick
To turn the winning trick --
But this was something more...
The big bang -- took and shook the world
Shot down the rising sun
the end was begun -- it would hit everyone
When the chain reaction was done
The big shots -- try to hold it back
Fools try to wish it away
The hopeful depend on a world without end
Whatever the hopeless may say
Imagine a place where it all began
They gathered from across the land
To work in the secrecy of the desert sand
All of the brightest boys
To play with the biggest toys --
More than they bargained for...
Imagine a man when it all began
The pilot of "Enola Gay"
Flying out of the shockwave on that August day
All the powers that be, and the course of history,
Would be changed for evermore...
What was Marathon about?
Marathon "..is about the triumph of time and a kind of message to myself
(because I think life is too short for all the things that I want to do),
there's a self-admonition saying that life is long enough. You can do a lot --
just don't burn yourself out too fast trying to do everything at once."
"Marathon is a song about individual goals and trying to achieve
them. And it's also about the old Chinese proverb: `The journey
of a thousand miles begins with one step.'"
- Neil Peart, April 1986 Canadian Composer interview
Were any of the Power Windows guitar tracks especially difficult to cut?
It's funny. There's always one song that you're terrified of doing. You
think it's going to be really tough, and "Marathon" was the one. We wrote
it and thought, "This song is going to be like pulling teeth once we get
in the studio." Of course, we get into the studio and it's a breeze. And
a song like "Emotion Detector," which we thought would be a breeze, was
the killer. It was very, very difficult to get the mood right. I'm still
not really sold on that song. It never ended up sounding the way I had
hoped it would. But the "Marathon" solo was probably the easiest of all the
solos to do.
- Alex Lifeson, Guitar Player April 1986 interview
Marathon
--------
It's not how fast you can go
The force goes into the flow
If you pick up the beat
ou can forget about the heat
More than just survival
More than just a flash
More than just a dotted line
More than just a dash
It's a test of ultimate will
The heartbreak climb uphill
Got to pick up the pace
If you want to stay in the race
More than just blind ambition
More than just simple greed
More than just a finish line
Must feed this burning need --
In the long run...
From first to last
The peak is never passed
Something always fires the light that gets in your eyes
One moment's high, and glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightening that flashes and fades
In the summer sky
our meters may overload
ou can rest at the side of the road
ou can miss a stride
But nobody gets a free ride
More than high performance
More than just a spark
More than just the bottom line
Or a lucky shot in the dark --
In the long run...
ou can do a lot in a lifetime
If you don't burn out too fast
ou can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance --
First you've got to last...
Neil talks about Territories:
"I think what China had to offer, in terms of its impact on the world, I had
already taken advantage of in a song like _Territories_ for instance. The song
was directly influence by the Chinese attitude toward themselves."
"The title comes from an area around Hong Kong called The New Territories. I
was struck by the sound of that word, and the territorial instinct. And what
with the Northwest Territories being part of Canada, it was just the right
sort of word to describe what I was after."
"Also it had the right poetic sound and visual contact. That's important to me
in a title. So that was the essence of it."
"As for the opening line about the Middle Kingdom -- that's still what China
calls itself today. The reason for the Middle Kingdom is because it's a middle
between Heaven and Earth. In other words, it's slightly below Heaven -- but
still above everybody on Earth.
- Neil Peart, April 1986 Canadian Composer interview
Geddy talks about the song:
Sometimes it's hard to tell if you're playing a bass guitar or a keyboard.
On the verse of "Territories" [from _Power Windows_] there's a real droning
type of bass part. Then, on the B part, you get into a more staccato kind
of sound.
"Whenever you hear that low bottom end that drones underneath, it's usually my
Moog pedals. I've been using those for years and they're really great when I
have to go to keyboards and sustain the bottom end. Because they have an
unobtrusive bass that doesn't phase."
- Geddy Lee, 1987 Bass Player interview
What causes the Far Eastern tone in the opening of "Territories"?
"That's just the Ibanez HD-1000 Harmonics/Delay set at an octave above with
a little bit of modulation. The harmonics level is set at about 70%, the
direct is set at the full 100%, and I was on the middle pickup on the black
Strat. I used left-hand finger-pulls. After that, it switches to a much
crisper tone, and to do that in concert, I just switch to the back pickup."
- Alex Lifeson, April 1986 Guitar Player magazine interview
Territories
-----------
I see the Middle Kingdom between Heaven and Earth
Like the Chinese call the country of their birth
We all figure that our homes are set above
Other people than the ones we know and love
In every place with a name
They play the same territorial game
Hiding behind the lines
Sending up warning signs
The whole wide world
An endless universe
et we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don't feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can't really feel
What international means
In different circles, we keep holding our ground
In different circles, we keep spinning round and round
We see so many tribes -- overrun and undermined
While their invaders dream of lands they've left behind
Better people -- better food -- and better beer
Why move around the world when Eden was so near?
The bosses get talking so tough
And if that wasn't evil enough
We get the drunken and passionate pride
Of the citizens along for the ride
They shoot without shame
In the name of a piece of dirt
For a change of accent
Or the colour of your shirt
Better the pride that resides
In a citizen of the world
Than the pride that divides
When a colourful rag is unfurled
Neil analyzes and discusses the song and meanings:
"I used the exact thing which 'Territories' warns against as a
device in 'Middletown'. I chose 'Middletown' because there is
a Middletown in almost every state in the U.S. It comes from people
identifying with a strong sense of neighborhood. It's a way of
looking at the world with the eyeglass in reverse."
"I spent my days-off cycling around the countryside in the U.S.,
looking at these little towns and getting a new appreciation of
them. When you pass through them at 15 miles per hour, you see
them a little differently. So I was looking at these places and
kind of looking at the people in them -- fantasizing, perhaps
romanticizing, a little about their lives. I guess I was even
getting a little literary in imagining the present, past, and
future of these men, women, and children. There was that romantic
way of looking at each small town."
"But also each of the characters in that song is drawn from real
life or specific literary examples. The first character as based
on a writer called Sherwood Anderson. Late in his life, Anderson
literally walked down the railroad tracks out of a small town and
went to Chicago in the early 1900's to become a very important
writer of his generation. That's an example of a middle-aged man
who may have been perceived by his neighbors, and by an objective
onlooker, to have sort of finished his life and he could have
stagnated in his little town. But he wasn't finished in his own
mind. He had this big dream, and it was never too late for him,
so he walked off and he did it."
"The painter Paul Gauguin is another example of a person who, late
in life, just walked out of his environment and went away. He too
became important and influencial. He is the influence for the
woman character of song."
"The second verse about the young boy wanting to run away and become
a musician is a bit autobiographical. But it also reflects the
backgrounds of most of the successful musicians I know, many of
whom came from very unlikely backgrounds. Most of them had this
dream that other people secretly smiled at, or openly laughed
at, and they just went out and made it happen."
- Neil Peart, April 1986 Canadian Composer interview
A good marriage between lyrics and music:
Do you feel that your best lyrics have become your best songs?
"No, not always. It's weird how it goes. There's so much
chemistry involved and there's so many intangible things that
happen. There are ones where the music has been better than the
lyrics or the lyrics better than the music. I think 'Middletown
Dreams' is a good marriage of lyrics and music. 'Mystic Rhythms'
is another one."
- Neil Peart, Guitar for the Practicing Musician interview 1986
Alex on Middletown Dreams
The original guitar part was laid down, and then Ged redid
his bass. Because he had some time to spend, he changed some of the bass
patterns. Then the keyboards came on, and suddenly the mood of the song
was totally different. So, it was a bit of experimenting when it came to
putting down the basic tracks for the guitar. And that one took a couple
of rewrites. I'd do something, come back the next day, and they'd say,
"You know, as the night went along, we got a little bit better towards the
end there. Why don't we go back to the beginning and look at the guitar
part and maybe think about rewriting it?" This was constantly happening.
- Alex Lifeson, Guitar Player April 1986 interview
Middletown Dreams
---------- ------
The office door closed early
The hidden bottle came out
The salesman turned to close the blinds
A little slow now, a little stout
But he's still heading down those tracks
Any day now for sure
Another day as drab as today
Is more than a man can endure
Dreams flow across the heartland
Feeding on the fires
Dreams transport desires
Drive you when you're down --
Dreams transport the ones who need to get out of town
the boy walks with his best friend
Through the fields of early May
They walk awhile in silence
One close -- one far away
But he'd be climbing on that bus
Just him and his guitar
To blaze across the heavens
Like a brilliant shooting star
The middle-aged madonna
Calls her neighbour on the phone
Day by day the seasons pass
And leave her life alone
But she'll go walking out that door
On some bright afternoon
To go and paint big cities
From a lonely attic room
It's understood
By every single person
Who'd be elsewhere if they could
So far so good
And life's not unpleasant
In their little neighbourhood
They dream in Middletown...
Were any of the Power Windows guitar tracks especially difficult to cut?
It's funny. There's always one song that you're terrified of doing. You
think it's going to be really tough, and "Marathon" was the one. We wrote
it and thought, "This song is going to be like pulling teeth once we get
in the studio." Of course, we get into the studio and it's a breeze. And
a song like "Emotion Detector," which we thought would be a breeze, was
the killer. It was very, very difficult to get the mood right. I'm still
not really sold on that song. It never ended up sounding the way I had
hoped it would.
- Alex Lifeson, April 1986 Guitar Player interview
Were any of the Power Windows solos played in one pass?
I don't thinks so. Half of "Emotion Detector" was done in one pass.
Actually,that song had a whole different solo that took quite a bit of work.
We left it, went ahead with some other parts, lived with it for four or five
days, and Neil didn't feel quite right about it. He didn't think that it
made the proper kind of statement to the song, so we re-examined it and I
gave it another whirl. That was tough. It's one thing to rewrite a rhythm
guitar part--you've got stuff to lock onto. But it was so hard to divorce
what had been in my head as a solo for three months and come up with something
that was a totally different feel. But I am satisfied with the results.
- Alex Lifeson, April 1986 Guitar Player interview
Emotion Detector
------- --------
When we lift the covers from our feelings
We expose our insecure spots
Trust is just as rare as devotion--
Forgive us our cynical thoughts
If we need too much attention --
Not content with being cool
We must throw ourselves wide open
And start acting like a fool
If we need too much approval
Then the cuts can seem too cruel
Right to the heart of the matter
Right to the beautiful part
Illusions are painfully shattered
Right where discovery starts
In the secret wells of emotion
Buried deep in our hearts
It's true that love can change us
But never quite enough
Sometimes we are too tender
Sometimes we're too tough
If we get too much attention
It gets hard to overrule
So often fragile power turns
To scorn and ridicule
Sometimes our big splashes
Are just ripples in the pool
Feelings run high
A good marriage between lyrics and music:
Do you feel that your best lyrics have become your best songs?
"No, not always. It's weird how it goes. There's so much
chemistry involved and there's so many intangible things that
happen. There are ones where the music has been better than the
lyrics or the lyrics better than the music. I think 'Middletown
Dreams' is a good marriage of lyrics and music. 'Mystic Rhythms'
is another one."
- Neil Peart, Guitar for the Practicing Musician interview 1986
Do you plan in advance for songs to fade out?
Sometimes. Sometimes we're not sure, so we ride out for a long time, and
then end it. We have the option. Invariably, every time we decide we're
going to fade out, we start getting into the fade and everyone loosens up
and the track starts getting better. That happened with "Mystic Rhythms"
[Power Windows]; the fade-out is about a minute long because we liked every
little nuance. The end of "Grand Designs" [Power Windows] is also like
that. There are about seven phrases, and they're all different. None of
that was planned; Neil was doing the drum track, and at the end, the sequencers
were going and he just kept punching-in and going, basically flailing and
hacking through it. Everybody loved it, so we decided to keep it in. Then
we had to learn to play it onstage.
- Geddy Lee, Guitar Player interview, April 1986
Mystic Rhythms
------ -------
So many things I think about
When I look far away
Things I know -- things I wonder
Things I'd like to say
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
Mysteries of night escape the light of day
Mystic rhythms -- under northern lights
Primitive things stir
The hearts of everyone
We sometimes catch a window
A glimpse of what's beyond
Was it just imagination
Stringing us along?
More things than are dreamed about
Unseen and unexplained
We suspend our disbelief
And we are entertained
Mystic rhythms -- capture my thoughts
And carry them away
Nature seems to spin
A supernatural way
Mystic rhythms -- under city lights
Or a canopy of stars
We feel the powers and we wonder what they are
We feel the push and pull of restless rhythms from afar