Rush’s fifth album A Farewell To Kings celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2017. To mark the discharge of a deluxe version, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson instructed Prog about recording al fresco, the literature and movies that impressed them, Minimoogs, double-neck guitars and the epic one-take marvel that’s Xanadu.
It’s a uncommon day of sunshine within the Welsh countryside. The residential Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire is a block of buildings – the outdated stables, crammed with glass sheets, act as an echo chamber – set as a quadrangle round a courtyard.
Neil Peart steps out on the cobbles, toying with percussion blocks, their zing bouncing sharply off the encircling bricks. Above the collective heads of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and producer Terry Brown, a light-weight bulb sparks into life.
Brown takes a mic out to the centre of the courtyard and wires it up as Lifeson appears on, strumming his acoustic guitar. “These knocking sounds originally of Xanadu,” says Lee, rapping on the oak desk between us, “that’s the sound of the courtyard – the pure sound of that sq.. We received such a pleasant reflection off the buildings, we knew we might use them ultimately.
“The guitar firstly of A Farewell To Kings, the title music, was recorded outdoors too. The acoustic was recorded on the market to get that actually crisp sound. I keep in mind Alex strolling across the mic. He was identical to a troubadour, taking part in as he walked round. Naturally, each troubadour has a man trailing behind him taking part in a Minimoog!
“So I’m taking part in the Minimoog outdoors and Neil’s hitting the twinklies or no matter it was – he was at all times hitting one thing – and Alex is recording the opening. It was fairly enjoyable; you possibly can hear the Welsh birds singing within the background, except they flew in from elsewhere – they may very well be accidentals, as they’re referred to as within the commerce.
“Farewell was fairly a distinct piece for us, due to the best way the intro is structured; then it is available in with a bang and there’s this bizarre time signature occurring. It’s a troublesome music to play.”
Lifeson provides: “I do recall strolling backwards and forwards, making an attempt to focus on my taking part in whereas not crashing into Neil! It was a fancy music to write down. In some ways, it’s easy and direct, however we might by no means settle for that – so dropping a observe right here or inserting a bizarre observe there made issues extra attention-grabbing for us and for the listener. Odd time signatures have been an effective way to maintain the individuals scratching their heads and relying on all fingers.
“I favored the natural nature of that recording, and it was one of many few days it didn’t rain. Although I feel it did begin once more later.”
It had been a tumultuous trip as much as A Farewell To Kings. Rush have been following the acclaimed 2112 album, which they’d launched after the poorly-received Caress Of Metal and the specter of being dropped by their label. The success of 2112 had given them their inventive freedom, and the quickly-assembled reside album All The World’s A Stage was their stopgap. Lee reveals: “Stage was undoubtedly one thing we used to purchase us extra time.”
Although Kings was to be their fifth studio album, the band members have been nonetheless barely of their mid-20s. So how do you comply with an idea album a couple of dystopian future the place music is banned, civilisation is domineered by a hierarchy of clergymen, and the lead protagonist commits suicide with a purpose to free society? Good query. For Rush, you create a report knowledgeable by socialist polemic, the films Mr Deeds Goes To City and Citizen Kane, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poetry, a nod to Don Quixote and what handed for a fiery demise within the coronary heart of a black gap. And in Madrigal, they even wrote a love music, albeit one which referenced dragons. It was a Rush album, in any case.
It was springtime in Toronto and the band had been toying with going again into work at Terry Brown’s Toronto Sound Studios (the place they’d recorded their 4 earlier albums). However because the band’s success escalated, so did calls for on their time. “We have been doing effectively in Canada,” says Lee, “and issues have been getting extra hectic. Frankly, we wished to go someplace the place there have been much less distractions. Rockfield was our first residential report – we’d by no means completed that form of factor earlier than. Terry had advised: why don’t we search for a spot the place we might keep and work? We have been all up for the journey.”
Lifeson is a bit more circumspect: “Did I point out the rain? I imply, all the time. That stated, it was thrilling to be out of the country for an prolonged interval and deal with making the report. I don’t assume we took any days off, however we by no means actually wished to. Dwelling collectively, working collectively, it’s what you dream of once you’re younger and beginning out with a band. It was a lot enjoyable.”
Xanadu was too troublesome to play to really feel magical on the time!” But it surely did really feel like we have been transferring into this entire different degree of efficiency
Alex Lifeson
“It’s a must to keep in mind we have been these dazzling urbanites on the time!” says Lee, laughing arduous. “And there we have been on a farm in Wales. It was – how do I put this? – fairly totally different. Once we arrived we had a bunch of our crew guys serving to us load in. One in every of them was nicknamed Lurch – he was 6’11. The climate was heat, moist however heat, however highway crew tends to put on shorts whether or not it’s heat or not. Anyway, a few of our guys went to city with Lurch and again you then didn’t see a whole lot of males sporting brief pants – simply youngsters often. In order that they’re strolling down the road with this tough-looking character, almost seven toes tall and sporting brief pants; and other people would flip and giggle and snigger and level.
“So it was a little bit of a tradition shock for us. You’d by no means understand it was summer season – it was Wales. It was perpetually gray. At first we’d begin at noon and work, and take our meals collectively. They cooked for you. That was our first expertise of something like that… it was an adjustment.
“After about three weeks we have been working later and later into the evening and sleeping later and later, till ultimately we received our schedule fully again to entrance; we have been having breakfast at time for dinner, working all evening lengthy and crashing after the ‘baa, baa’ [he offers a full-throated impression of a sheep] was occurring within the morning. The birds and the baas! That was bedtime for us. That’s why you hear so many birds after we recorded outdoors. I’m amazed there aren’t any sheep on the album.”
Lifeson provides: “It was quiet at Rockfield, to make sure – very conducive for working, apart from the fixed bleating of sheep.”
As a band that averaged round 250 reveals a yr, Rush – as had been the case with their three earlier albums – had little or no materials labored up earlier than they went into the studio. Lee says: “You get 10 years to write down your first album and 10 days to make each one after that. It’s the identical for each band.”
They’d road-tested a number of of the songs forward of the journey to Wales, together with one that will turn into the report’s cornerstone and a reside staple for the remainder of their careers – and was recorded in a single exceptional take. Lee says: “We’d performed Xanadu earlier than. You understand, one of many straightforward songs an viewers can absorb and respect with out realizing what the hell they’re. We definitely had the components of that, and I feel Nearer To The Coronary heart might need been written. Not a lot else – the remainder was completed on the spot. It was form of how we have been working again then; you’re on the highway on a regular basis, so it’s a must to write as you’re transferring.”
“Xanadu was effectively rehearsed earlier than going to Rockfield, I do not forget that,” says Lifeson. “On the day we recorded it, Pat Moran, the resident engineer, set all of the mics up and we ran the music down, partially to get balances and tones. As a result of it was a protracted music, we didn’t want to finish that take a look at run. Then we performed it a second time from high to backside – and that’s what you hear on the album. For sure, Pat was shocked that we ran an 11-minute music down in a single full take. Observe doesn’t at all times make excellent, however it certain helps!”
Did they realise how magical and ingenious Xanadu was? “It was too troublesome to play to really feel magical on the time!” Lifeson says. “But it surely did really feel like we have been transferring in one other route and this entire different degree of efficiency.”
It was liberating to listen to extra textures coming from the band… It was satisfying to come back off stage realizing you labored further arduous to create that wall of sound
Alex Lifeson
“I don’t assume we ever consider our music in that approach. Possibly later,” says Lee. “You may have an concept; you could have a soundscape you’re making an attempt to create. With Xanadu – I’m unsure individuals realise this – however though it’s loosely primarily based on Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, it’s additionally very influenced by Citizen Kane. In case you take a look at the opening of the newsreel of the film, they quote that poem: ‘In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree…’ and there’s a form of animated opening to that. I had that in thoughts after we created the soundscape to the opening of the music. I at all times had that visible in my mind as we have been making the music; I at all times had a connection to that entire factor. They’re intertwined for me.
The bassist provides: “Xanadu was additionally one of many biggest reside songs we’ve ever completed, it was tour de drive, it was a second for the lights, it was a second for the double-neck guitars. It was an enormous second! Although not a lot for my poor again.”
These double-necks took on a lifetime of their very own: on the R40 tour, there was a form of joyful pandemonium because the Lee and Lifeson strap them on. “Frankly, we’ve by no means lived these guitars down,” says Lee. “Can’t get previous it, mate! And also you’re proper, after we introduced them again, individuals misplaced their minds – ‘The double-necks are again! Alert the media!’
“However kind follows perform, proper? We had these double-necks for a cause. It was at all times crucial for us to have the ability to reproduce our data as precisely as we might. And since we have been doing extra overdubs and experimenting with sounds, we would have liked extra strings on stage; we would have liked extra flexibility. Alex performs a six-string and a 12-string in Xanadu, so he wanted that guitar.”
“That’s definitely the place it started in earnest,” Lifeson agrees, “however I’d been incorporating 12-string because the first album, and to have the pliability to change between the 12- and six-string opened different doorways to our sound and songwriting. It’s humorous – we didn’t use them a lot, but they turned these iconic pictures for the band. I most likely see a minimum of as many double-neck photographs of us as common ones.”
Orson Welles’ iconic Citizen Kane wasn’t the one cinematic observe to be launched into the Farewell To Kings combine. When it comes to songwriting credit, Nearer To The Coronary heart was co-written with poet Peter Talbot, whereas Lee introduced within the lyrics for Cinderella Man. “That was impressed by one in every of my favorite motion pictures, the unique Mr Deeds Goes To City, the place he’s known as a ‘Cinderella man.’ I used to be an enormous movie man as a young person, and as a younger man, I used to be actually a movie buff – I watched movies on a regular basis. I studied administrators as a result of I form of secretly wished to be a movie director.
“And once I realised that almost all administrators should be half megalomaniac, I feel I form of went off that concept. However I cherished movie – I nonetheless do. The outdated movies, my spouse and I used to observe them on a regular basis collectively. The Capra motion pictures have been massive with me; a whole lot of coronary heart, lot of soul, lot of displaying the very best and worst of America and its individuals.
“In order that music is absolutely about that film and the themes it resonated. It was my factor that I introduced in and Neil helped me clear it up a bit. One factor in Rush is that we’ve at all times allowed ourselves to go the place we need to go as people, and see it how flies. All of us should be behind it to make use of it. There have been no actual boundaries in our band.”
A lot later, Rush would report their albums in shifts, Lee in the course of the day then Peart and Lifeson late into the night – the guitarist cracking open his Tupperware field of weed earlier than going to work on his guitar components. Within the 70s, although, all three members would crowd into the studio to check the others’ work and throw concepts round, with Brown retaining a watchful eye by way of the glass.
You hear of the petty arguments and jealousies that may tear bands aside, however we have been by no means these guys. It takes a degree of maturity and confidence to rise above that
Alex Lifeson
“Again then it was all for one and one for all,” says Lee. “We have been at all times within the room on the similar time; we have been at all times leaning over one another and making feedback. It was very congenial and we have been tremendous concerned. Whereas 30 years later you need more room and also you’re much less nervous about leaving Alex alone to do his guitars! It was enjoyable. In later and newer years, we every have our personal hours we wish to work. I don’t wish to work within the evenings, however Alex does as a result of he can smoke a joint and get misplaced within the underworld!”
“Ged and I typically labored collectively in the course of the days,” Lifeson explains, ”however I at all times loved the quiet of the evenings alone to compensate for monitoring and exploring different layers for what we had written. Over time we’ve developed quite a lot of respect and belief in one another’s robust factors. We give one another area to provoke and develop concepts inside the partnership, and that’s uncommon.
”You hear of the petty arguments and jealousies that may tear bands aside, however we have been by no means these guys. It takes a degree of maturity and confidence to rise above that and settle for a associate’s concepts and tips on how to enhance them for the nice of the music. And we have been at all times about what was good for the music.”
And A Farewell To Kings had them in spades. It could be their first gold album within the US and would give them their first hit single within the form of Nearer To The Coronary heart – the polar reverse of Xanadu in scale, scope and construction, however destined to turn into as a lot part of their reside present because the Coleridge‑impressed epic.
“We needed to deliver it again into the set for the Rio reveals, as there was such a requirement to listen to it although we’d stopped taking part in it for some time,” says Lee. “It’s at all times resonated with individuals for some cause; it was successful so far as we’ve ever had successful. It received us on the radio, the form of radio that will by no means usually affiliate with us. It was as shut as we ever got here to a pop music, particularly at that time.
“It has that people protest music vibe too. That’s the primary time Neil had collaborated with one other author, Peter Talbot, so it was fairly pivotal in all kinds of how. I don’t recall how we met Peter – he lived on Vashon Island within the Pacific North West, and he had an actual West Coast, hippie life-style. He was married with a bit of child; we’d go go to them on the island and watch them smoke dope with their child, and I believed that was actually unusual, being excessive with a younger child.
“Neil and Peter received actual shut: they turned actual buddies; that they had a lot of issues in frequent,” Lee continues. “They considered a whole lot of issues in the identical approach. He gave some poems to Neil. One in every of them he ultimately hammered into Nearer To The Coronary heart. So actually, Nearer To The Coronary heart was impressed by that man.”
The album additionally noticed the band’s ever-escalating curiosity in synthesisers and Minimoogs bearing fruit. Digital instrumentation was including color and textures to the band’s songwriting. “It was liberating and thrilling to listen to extra sounds and textures coming from the band,” says Lifeson. “That grew to turn into a monster within the ensuing years, particularly after we performed reside and Ged can be caught at his keyboards at some factors within the present. But it surely was at all times satisfying to come back off stage realizing you labored further arduous to create that wall of sound and listen to the appreciation from the viewers.”
“We have been within the embryonic stage with the synths at that time,” says Lee. “There’s undoubtedly extra Minimoog on Kings, however it’s principally bass pedals, synths and a few white noise, not an entire lot of string sounds. We did try a few issues in a few of these songs, however not a lot. So it’s fairly Minimoogy – that’s a technical time period, proper?”
He continues: “The bass pedals opened up the potential of a second guitar at instances, which is what occurred in Xanadu – there have been extra colors , and it opened up Alex to play single traces a bit extra, melodic traces, as a result of I might fill within the background with guitar or bass pedals. That was an enormous change in the best way we thought and the best way we wrote.
“That’s partly why I feel Farewell was an necessary album for us. We did go into new territory with that report and it was an enormous step down a highway, sonically, that we didn’t actually ever let go of. Two albums later we’d make Everlasting Waves!
“Whenever you open that door of the synthesiser and the keyboard world, that was a Pandora’s field for us. After we’d opened it, every kind of stuff got here out over the subsequent few years. That’s what made it wonderful as a man who was in the midst of all of it. I used to be studying loads. I used to be at all times challenged and I used to be very stimulated, and the tip outcome was A Farewell To Kings, a pivotal report in that regard.”
It was additionally the one time within the band’s profession that the lead-out monitor would act because the introduction for the report that will comply with it (although the By-Tor character that had appeared on Fly By Evening did reappear on the follow-up Caress Of Metal album). Ask Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee now if that they had any concept that Cygnus X-1 can be the spark that fanned the flames for the Hemispheres report and also you’ll get a bewildered shrug.
There’s a refined theme that’s all about loss. We’ve this factor: the place are the subsequent individuals we need to look as much as going to come back from?
Geddy Lee
“No, we didn’t understand it was going there,” says Lee. “Neil could have had that at the back of his thoughts, this larger factor brewing, however on the time it was simply what got here alongside.” Listening now, it’s nonetheless a blinding, advanced affair that seems to finish in disarray, with the Rocinante spaceship perishing on the coronary heart of a black gap. To explain the association as dense can be to undersell it considerably. It’s a grandstanding instance of archetypal middle-stage Rush – music that’s chic, histrionic, fantastical and musically daunting, however nonetheless, unusually, very listenable, and nearly unimaginable to play. It’s additionally a main instance of why you continue to see so few Rush cowl bands – think about making an attempt to jam by way of that monitor in a rehearsal area! That, although, is strictly what Rush did.
“That was one thing we jammed out,” Lee confirms. “I feel that grew from all three of us sitting in a room collectively. I had an concept for the opening and Neil began taking part in the drum half; after which, simply as any band does – and maybe that’s the natural nature of a band like Rush – you determine the half and you set it collectively.
“Neil had this story in his thoughts that we actually cherished. It was actually expressive for us. That entire concept of utilizing sci-fi stuff labored for Rush as a result of there aren’t any boundaries, no limitations, and you should use all of your goofy, bizarre sounds as a result of that’s what’s occurring out in area. Didn’t you realize that?! There are every kind of echoplexes out in area – they’re dotted round like star methods. There are at all times Marshall stacks and Serbian guitarists making noises by way of echo machines in area!”
“It was an intense jam,” says Lifeson, “and I cherished the heaviness and dynamics of the monitor because it got here collectively. I additionally keep in mind being very excessive whereas we put the intro atmospherics collectively – and, let’s be sincere, it wasn’t for the primary or final time!”
“These issues are at all times enjoyable to do,” says Lee. “You do have that severe facet that wishes it to be proper – like, ‘How have you learnt this bizarre sound is best than that bizarre sound?’ It’s a must to have a modicum of restraint; it’s a must to try this, in any other case it’s simply chaos. It’s a must to have parameters to an extent, as a result of know-how is the software and it may be the factor that destroys you. It’s a must to wrestle with it, and I feel artists of each stripe have had to do this because the starting of time.
“Painters’ paints and brushes are their know-how; they should work out a approach to make use of these issues to specific what they need to categorical. It’s straightforward to go excessive, however you don’t know you’re going excessive till you’ve received there! Whenever you’re making an attempt to get your concept down, you possibly can’t edit on the similar time. It’s a must to put it down and let it’s overblown after which take a step again and see whether it is or isn’t.
“Kings wasn’t a brutal report to make – it was enjoyable; issues got here collectively comparatively rapidly. We went into Advision Studios in London to combine it, and I used to be so excited as a result of that’s the place all these nice Sure data have been made, and people ELP data. It was effectively revered by a whole lot of the blokes that we admired, in order that was a thrill for us, and it was good to get in a foreign country and into London for a number of weeks.”
Given the combination of songs on the report, the epically lengthy and overblown juxtaposed with shorter and extra succinct materials meant that balancing two sides of vinyl was one thing of a problem: the grandiose abutting the understated, but in addition making the entire thing match and circulation.
“However that’s the factor I actually miss,” says Lee. “Again then, one of many nice pleasures, and one of many hardest issues, was sequencing. That was an artwork again then – you had two sides, you had two probabilities, you had a starting and an finish twice, and in order that was cool since you had 15 to twenty minutes to work with and also you had this entire really feel, after which you could possibly change this really feel within the second half for those who wished to. And we have been the form of band who revelled in that approach of expressing issues. I feel that actually got here to bear on Farewell…, the best way it sits collectively as an album.”
We loved our time in Wales loads, a lot in order that we went again, like idiots. By no means return
Geddy Lee
As a lot because the band and Brown performed their half, long-time collaborator and canopy artist Hugh Syme’s depiction of the clown king, misplaced and alone within the city wasteland, gave the entire album an unsettling undercurrent. “That labored for us as a result of there’s a refined theme that goes by way of a part of the album that’s all about loss,” says Lee. “We’ve this factor: the place are the subsequent individuals we need to look as much as going to come back from? It’s not an unusual theme in Rush music. It’s like, everyone wants individuals to look as much as; everyone wants individuals to emulate or be impressed by, and so they’re arduous to search out. And so it’s looking for the optimistic perspective when throughout isn’t so optimistic, shall we embrace?
“The entire idea of the album is disintegrating proper now, however they’re very a lot time capsules – the place you have been at musically, socially and what sort of belongings you have been speaking about. They’re frozen in time, however that doesn’t imply you shouldn’t have stated what you stated – you possibly can’t take that again. There have been protest songs on there, sociopolitical remark, songs about area!”
The next summer season they’d be again at Rockfield to attempt to recapture the magic of A Farewell To Kings on Hemispheres, their final album of the Nineteen Seventies, and what would turn into an actual turning level of their music and the way they made it. 1980’s Everlasting Waves gave the impression of a band renewed, however its seeds had been sewn with A Farewell To Kings.
Although that was all to come back, Geddy remembers their return journey to Wales as they tried to seize that elusive magic another time. “We loved our time there loads, a lot in order that we went again, like idiots. By no means return. You may’t try this – historical past doesn’t repeat itself…”