Red Lenses
"Red Lenses" | |
---|---|
Song by Rush | |
from the album Grace Under Pressure | |
Released | 12 April 1984 |
Genre | |
Length | 4:42 |
Label | Anthem |
Composer(s) | |
Lyricist(s) | Neil Peart |
Producer(s) |
|
Grace Under Pressure track listing | |
7 tracks Side one
Side two
|
"Red Lenses" is a song by the Canadian
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
Although
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.[9]
References
- ^ "Revisit: Rush: Grace Under Pressure". 16 February 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ "Grace Under Pressure (1984) Stereogum". Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ Geddy, Lee; Alex, Lifeson; Rush; Neil, Peart (8 December 2008). "Red Lenses". Musicnotes.com.
- ^ "Red Lenses by Rush - BPM - Key - Find Song Tempo". findsongtempo.com.
- ^ ""Grace Under Pressure" linernotes and more from Power Windows: A Tribute To Rush". www.2112.net.
- ^ "Red Lenses". 6 February 2011.
- ^ "ShieldSquare Captcha".
- ^ Clouse, Matthew (21 June 2017). "Rush: Grace Under Pressure Album Review". theodysseyonline.com. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^ Thelen, Christopher (2019). "The Daily Vault Music Reviews : Grace Under Pressure". dailyvault.com. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
- ^ Reed, Ryan. "All 167 Rush Songs Ranked Worst to Best". Ultimate Classic Rock.