Red Lenses

Last updated
"Red Lenses"
Song by Rush
from the album Grace Under Pressure
Released12 April 1984 (1984-04-12)
Genre
Length4:42
Label Anthem
Composer(s)
Lyricist(s) Neil Peart
Producer(s)
  • Rush
  • Peter Henderson
Grace Under Pressure track listing
7 tracks

Side one

  1. "Distant Early Warning"
  2. "Afterimage"
  3. "Red Sector A"
  4. "The Enemy Within"

Side two

  1. "The Body Electric"
  2. "Kid Gloves"
  3. "Red Lenses"
  4. "Between the Wheels"

"Red Lenses" is a song by the Canadian rock band Rush. It was released on their 1984 album Grace Under Pressure . In the album's liner notes, the song's title and lyrics are in lower case only.

Contents

Composition and recording

The song was composed in the key of C-sharp minor, and is played in common time. [3] [4]

News stories from the Toronto-based newspaper The Globe and Mail inspired the song's lyrics. [5]

Drummer and lyricist Neil Peart said of the song:

This was probably the hardest song I ever worked on, in spite of the pleasure it gave me. It went through so many rewrites and changed its title so many times. Each little image was juggled around and I just fought for the right words to put each little phrase and to make it sound exactly right to me, so that it sounded a little bit nonsensical. I wanted to get that kind of jabberwocky word game thing happening with it, and also there are little things going on that your mind sort of catches without identifying, like a lot of poetic devices. You take the number of words that sound the same or start with the same letter or whatever. You just certainly don't start in the middle of it and go, "Oh, that's alliteration". [6]

Lee said in an interview: "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". [7]

Reception

Christopher Thelen of The Daily Vault wrote that the song "adds a dimension of funk to Rush", and that Geddy Lee's bass work is perfectly suited to the genre. [8]

Ultimate Classic Rock ranked the song number 75 on their list of "All 167 Rush Songs Ranked Worst to Best" and wrote: "This one's a mixed bag, with Lee throwing down on some campy synth-horns that probably made Lifeson – and a lot of Rush fans – furious. But there are too many distinct moments to write it off, like Lee's funky slap-bass; some spooky, Talking Heads-ish synth and Peart's tightly wound tom fills on his Simmons SDS-V kit". [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geddy Lee</span> Canadian musician (born 1953)

Geddy Lee Weinrib is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the rock group Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968 at the request of his childhood friend Alex Lifeson, replacing original bassist and frontman Jeff Jones. Lee's solo effort, My Favourite Headache, was released in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rush (band)</span> Canadian rock band

Rush was a Canadian rock band that primarily comprised Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson (guitar) and Neil Peart. The band formed in Toronto in 1968 with Lifeson, drummer John Rutsey, and bassist and vocalist Jeff Jones, whom Lee immediately replaced. After Lee joined, the band went through several line-up changes before arriving at its classic power trio line-up with the addition of Peart in July 1974, who replaced Rutsey four months after the release of their self-titled debut album; this line-up remained intact for the remainder of the band's career.

<i>Signals</i> (Rush album) 1982 studio album by Rush

Signals is the ninth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 9, 1982 by Anthem Records. After the release of their previous album, Moving Pictures, the band started to prepare material for a follow-up during soundchecks on their 1981 concert tour and during the mixing of their subsequent live album Exit...Stage Left. Signals demonstrates the group's continuing use of synthesizers, sequencers, and other electronic instrumentation. It is the last album produced by their longtime associate Terry Brown, who had worked with them since 1974.

<i>2112</i> (album) 1976 studio album by Rush

2112 is the fourth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in March 1976 by Mercury Records. It reached No. 5 in Canada and became the band's commercial breakthrough in the US, peaking at No. 61.

<i>Fly by Night</i> (album) 1975 studio album by Rush

Fly by Night is the second studio album by the Canadian rock band Rush, released on February 14, 1975, by Mercury Records. It was the first Rush album to showcase elements of progressive rock for which the band has become known. It was also the first to feature lyricist and drummer Neil Peart, who replaced original drummer John Rutsey the previous summer just prior to the band's first North American tour. Peart took over as Rush's primary lyricist, and the abundance of fantastical and philosophical themes in his compositions contrasted greatly with the simpler hard rock of the band's debut album.

<i>Caress of Steel</i> 1975 studio album by Rush

Caress of Steel is the third studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 24, 1975, by Mercury Records. It was recorded immediately after the band concluded touring in support of their previous album, Fly By Night, and marked a development in the group's sound, moving from the blues-based hard rock style of their debut towards progressive rock. Songs such as "The Necromancer" furthered Rush's advancement into narrative-driven, fantasy-based compositions, while "The Fountain of Lamneth" was their first prog-rock "epic" to span an entire side of vinyl. Other tracks like "Bastille Day" and "Lakeside Park" became staples of the band's live setlists.

<i>Grace Under Pressure</i> (Rush album) 1984 album by Rush

Grace Under Pressure is the tenth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released April 12, 1984, on Anthem Records. After touring for the band's previous album, Signals (1982), came to an end in mid-1983, Rush started work on a follow-up in August. The band had decided not to work with longtime producer Terry Brown, who had collaborated with Rush since 1974. The new material accentuated the group's change in direction towards a synthesizer-oriented sound like its previous album. After some difficulty finding a suitable producer who could commit, the album was recorded with Peter Henderson.

<i>Hold Your Fire</i> 1987 studio album by Rush

Hold Your Fire is the twelfth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 8, 1987. It was recorded at The Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey, Air Studios in Montserrat and McClear Place in Toronto. Hold Your Fire was the last Rush studio album released outside Canada by PolyGram/Mercury. 'Til Tuesday bassist and vocalist Aimee Mann contributed vocals to "Time Stand Still" and appeared in the Zbigniew Rybczyński-directed video.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Sawyer (song)</span> 1981 song by Rush

"Tom Sawyer" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush, originally released on their 1981 album Moving Pictures as its opener. The band's lead singer, bassist, and keyboardist, Geddy Lee, has referred to the track as the band's "defining piece ... from the early '80s".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Closer to the Heart</span> 1977 single by Rush

"Closer to the Heart" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush. It was released in November 1977 as the lead single from their fifth studio album A Farewell to Kings. It was the first Rush song to feature a non-member as a songwriter in Peter Talbot, a friend of drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. It was Rush's first hit single in the United Kingdom, reaching number 36 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1978. It also peaked at number 45 in Canada and number 76 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on March 28, 2010.

"2112" is a song by the Canadian rock band Rush. It was released as a 20-minute song on their 1976 album of the same name and is the longest single song by the band. The overture and the first section, "The Temples of Syrinx", were released as a single. The song was adapted into a comic booklet, which used the lyrics of the song as lines for the characters and the narrations from the cover as intros.

"Red Barchetta" is a song by the Canadian rock band Rush, from their 1981 studio album Moving Pictures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limelight (Rush song)</span> Rush song

"Limelight" is a song by Canadian progressive rock band Rush. It first appeared on the 1981 album Moving Pictures. The song's lyrics were written by Neil Peart with music written by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. "Limelight" expresses Peart's discomfort with Rush's success and the resulting attention from the public. The song paraphrases the opening lines of the "All the world's a stage" speech from William Shakespeare's play As You Like It. The band had previously used the phrase for its 1976 live album. The lyrics also refer to "the camera eye", the title of the song that follows on the Moving Pictures album.

<i>Gold</i> (Rush album) 2006 compilation album by Rush

Gold is a compilation album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on April 25, 2006.

"A Farewell to Kings" is a song by the Canadian progressive rock band Rush. It was released as the title track to their 1977 album A Farewell to Kings. A music video to the song was uploaded to YouTube in March 2018.

"A Passage to Bangkok" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush, released in March 1976 by Anthem Records. The song appears on the band's fourth studio album 2112 (1976). With the album's title track comprising the first half of the record, "A Passage to Bangkok" opens the second side of the album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lakeside Park (song)</span> 1975 single by Rush

"Lakeside Park" is a single from Rush's third album Caress of Steel. The music was written by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, and the lyrics were written by Neil Peart.

"Witch Hunt" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush. It was released on their 1981 album Moving Pictures, and unlike many other Rush songs it was a true studio production, with a variety of percussion instruments and overdubs, and a separate keyboard player. It is the first of four songs in what has been called the band's "Fear" series, the other three being "The Weapon", "The Enemy Within", and "Freeze", although this song is the third part of the series in order, and went on reverse chronological order by the album.

References

  1. ↑ "Revisit: Rush: Grace Under Pressure". 16 February 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Grace Under Pressure (1984) Stereogum" . Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  3. ↑ Geddy, Lee; Alex, Lifeson; Rush; Neil, Peart (8 December 2008). "Red Lenses". Musicnotes.com.
  4. ↑ "Red Lenses by Rush - BPM - Key - Find Song Tempo". findsongtempo.com.
  5. ↑ ""Grace Under Pressure" linernotes and more from Power Windows: A Tribute To Rush". www.2112.net.
  6. ↑ "Red Lenses". 6 February 2011.
  7. ↑ "ShieldSquare Captcha".
  8. ↑ Thelen, Christopher (2019). "The Daily Vault Music Reviews : Grace Under Pressure". dailyvault.com. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  9. ↑ Reed, Ryan. "All 167 Rush Songs Ranked Worst to Best". Ultimate Classic Rock.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.