I believe that this song is about electricity. Electricity is the prime mover of the universe! Nikola Tesla knew it, Hannes Alfve'n knew it, Kristian Birkeland knew it too! Gravity is a weak and local force but electricity and magnetism are everywhere! "Wall Thornhill, Anthony Paratt" "Thunderbolts project" "Saphire Project"
IIrc Laurie Anderson's 1984 live album has a story about Tesla and Edison when they worked together. Edison apparently didn't like the fact that Tesla always wore a suit to work, and constantly invented better things than Edison. I could be mistaken, i often am. :)
@@samuelharvey3496 Edison was working with Direct current, DC, electricity which was not very efficient and difficult to send down a wire very far. Tesla suggested a current that alternates its charge back and fourth, AC, would help move itself down a transmission line much much further and far more efficiently. Edison gets the "Name" while the world gets wired with Tesla's genius science.
@@samuelharvey3496 Niel was so well read, that im sure he would have read worlds in collision. Im sure plasma cosmology was on his radar. He's got other lyrics that suggest he was open to the idea.
Awesome break down! Looking at the Lyrics makes all the difference! Especially anything Neil Peart wrote. I think he's one of the Greatest Thinkers of our time!
"Lock and Key" is about how risk is the price of being free and of tapping into the vibrant animal courage that we're all born with, and we'd rather not pay it. So we settle for a safe, robotic existence instead. We're mindful of how some couldn't handle the explosion of freedom and became psychopaths, and we want to avoid that fate more than we want to experience life in a daring way.
That fill we hear at the very last moment! Flam,kick,flam,kick,flam,kick,flam,kick..crash! You just try it. There is only one other place in all Rush recorded music that this fill is ever done, and that's at the end of the instrumental section of Red Barchetta.
It’s crazy to think that a band starting off being confused with Led Zeppelin, then incorporating Black Sabbath, The Who, Yes influences to eventually morphing into a New Age, Tears for Fears mash up. Only for a limited time of course…
It’s funny that so many fans, including myself, considered this and power windows to be very heavily synth and pastel, uncharacteristic for Rush….. but when I relisten I can totally hear very complex bass playing, intricate guitar (and heavy too) and Neil’s typical drumming awesomeness. Very typical Rush attributes. Just samples and synths thrown in. Nothing to hate at all.
A few of my friends who were Rush fans, didn't care for the album when it released (they've changed their minds since). I was just learning synths at the time and this album was just in my wheelhouse. Love this album.
That's cool bro such a great song. Seen rush 20 time's live never disappointed there live show of hands vhs lol they played it and it just jams the whole way through.
@@allisongilmore8522 awsome, yea i have seen every Rush show since Signals, except when they toured for the MOVING PICTURES or Time Capsule tour. They bring it every show. I just forgot how great this record is...
@@justincamp5716 I'm partial to Middletown Dreams, oh and all of Signals. I get the dilemma, Rush wrote nothing but great music from start to finish. I can't think of another rock band that hits hard every song on every album, not one...maybe Cheap Trick?
Holy crap! I never noticed it till this very minute when you were reading the lyrics that they referenced a show of hands which is the name of the next live album how did I miss this?
@@ginamarandino6451 Been a fan since 1978 and I loved all the eras and styles- but the 80s were great. Lucky to have seen them something like 32 times and met them on the Signals tour. Best band ever 👍
this is basically a perfect album. people argue tai shan but its beautiful. corny yes. this album is amazing rush at their best progressing pushing themselves and our tolerances as well
Agree. I think Tai Shan could have worked a lot better if it wasn't produced with such an incessant synth-wall-of-sound throughout the entire song. It needed more space to breathe, but as it is it laid it on too thick for the listener. Oh well, you probably rarely heard "Strip it back a little!" in the recording studios in the 80s lol.
It's so nice to see how you react when you hear that for the first time. Ixh remember my first time on all albums up to at least Presto (+ many songs from Roll the Bones). I, like you, was mesmerized every time.
The lyrics in prime Mover are referring to Aristotle's belief that the universe must a have a force or being that is responsible for all the movement within it.The lyrics in Lock and Key are dealing with how we must find a balance between silencing and giving in to the killer instinct we posses.
I've been a Rush fan since early 1976 when I was in high school. I'm really enjoying watching you discover the music 🎶 that has been the soundtrack to my life and times. "Prime Mover" is a very positive, uplifting song for me. One of my favorite lines is: "The point of the journey is not to arrive" - which to me has been a reminder that, whether on a road trip or on life's journey, there may be a destination in mind, it's what we experience/learn along the way that really matters. Keeping an open mind is always good as well because"Anything can happen". BTW, the guitar tone Alex gets on "Prime Mover" is so cool. I spent a year or more trying to figure out how to get my guitar to sound like that. Then one day in a music store in Portland, OR around 1990-91, I was trying out effect pedals and playing the guitar line under the verses - still searching for "that sound". The salesperson who was helping me recognized the riff. They mentioned that they were also at Rush fan and that Alex doubled his parts for "Prime Mover" on a guitar string/tuned to "Nashville tuning" which I hadn't heard of. Creating that chorusy 12 string sound, except not quite. It sounds like Alex might have done that, or something similar, on several songs on this album.
The song you were humming is Grand Designs from Power Windows album. Lock and Key is one of my favorite Rush songs even if Hold Your Fire is not in my favorite albums list.
This song was written about the difficulties of touring,as a rock band. I heard that it was intended as a tribute to their drivers and road crew who set up their live shows.
Love Prime Mover but Lock and Keys so bad ass! Alex's ticking guitar part at beginning wow, but the bass drum section omg! Solo section and drum fills in outro!
Not an album I listen to very often as I prefer their heavier stuff but these songs are still catchy. I think out of the two Lock and Key is the favourite. Not that I don't like the first song but I really enjoyed Alex's solo in Lock and Key.
You know I never thought about it before but you're right kid gloves is very similar to prime mover, but I think you're thinking of grand designs. Kid Gloves also reminds me a bit of the song face up and you'll discover that a couple albums from now
Neil saw this entire Trump/GOP disaster coming from a mile away. Read his books. It's all there. From the cop state of Florida, to anti-abortion slogans on state license plates, to cruelty of GOP trying to take away healthcare rights, to fake Christianity trying to impose their will on the rest of us through hijacking government, to the hidden racism that people liked to pretend went away, but never did by a long shot. Despite all this, Neil still loved America in so many ways.
Prime mover is about what God did, in setting up the universe. Prime Mover, is another word for God. Not that Neil was religious in a traditional sense. Just questioning, as we all do. He imagine someone, God, for example, setting the wheels in motion, and watching what happens. Ie: anything that can happen.
No, Neil did not believe in any supreme deity. He refers to *inner* will, not external forces. Or do already forget "why does it happen? because it happens."...
Grand Designs is the song you're thinking of.
Yes..Prime Mover is one of my favorites too.
Grand Designs is the song you're thinking of... oh Michael Enos got it too...
I believe that this song is about electricity. Electricity is the prime mover of the universe! Nikola Tesla knew it, Hannes Alfve'n knew it, Kristian Birkeland knew it too! Gravity is a weak and local force but electricity and magnetism are everywhere! "Wall Thornhill, Anthony Paratt" "Thunderbolts project" "Saphire Project"
IIrc Laurie Anderson's 1984 live album has a story about Tesla and Edison when they worked together. Edison apparently didn't like the fact that Tesla always wore a suit to work, and constantly invented better things than Edison. I could be mistaken, i often am. :)
@@samuelharvey3496 Edison was working with Direct current, DC, electricity which was not very efficient and difficult to send down a wire very far. Tesla suggested a current that alternates its charge back and fourth, AC, would help move itself down a transmission line much much further and far more efficiently. Edison gets the "Name" while the world gets wired with Tesla's genius science.
@@samuelharvey3496 Niel was so well read, that im sure he would have read worlds in collision. Im sure plasma cosmology was on his radar. He's got other lyrics that suggest he was open to the idea.
Awesome break down! Looking at the Lyrics makes all the difference!
Especially anything Neil Peart wrote. I think he's one of the Greatest Thinkers of our time!
I totally agree 💯 percent!!
If you were telling a lie, I would call you out on it!
"Lock and Key" is about how risk is the price of being free and of tapping into the vibrant animal courage that we're all born with, and we'd rather not pay it. So we settle for a safe, robotic existence instead. We're mindful of how some couldn't handle the explosion of freedom and became psychopaths, and we want to avoid that fate more than we want to experience life in a daring way.
John - watch the video for Lock and Key also...
That fill we hear at the very last moment! Flam,kick,flam,kick,flam,kick,flam,kick..crash! You just try it. There is only one other place in all Rush recorded music that this fill is ever done, and that's at the end of the instrumental section of Red Barchetta.
When dealing with emotions and feelings....anything can happen...lol
Great reaction!! 2 of my faves. Really tough stuff. These guys were so energizing. They had to be to keep the tempo. Wowee!
Great album. Had it on cassette, when I met my now wife, in 1989. Great memories.
It’s crazy to think that a band starting off being confused with Led Zeppelin, then incorporating Black Sabbath, The Who, Yes influences to eventually morphing into a New Age, Tears for Fears mash up. Only for a limited time of course…
Both stellar. Neil's drumming at the end of 🔐 He's the 🐐
It’s funny that so many fans, including myself, considered this and power windows to be very heavily synth and pastel, uncharacteristic for Rush….. but when I relisten I can totally hear very complex bass playing, intricate guitar (and heavy too) and Neil’s typical drumming awesomeness. Very typical Rush attributes. Just samples and synths thrown in. Nothing to hate at all.
A few of my friends who were Rush fans, didn't care for the album when it released (they've changed their minds since). I was just learning synths at the time and this album was just in my wheelhouse. Love this album.
Me too! Love this Album.
Favorite song on this album!!! Prime Mover...
Totally agree with you bud.awesome song deep cut.
For a long time, I couldn't answer the question of favorite Rush song, but after30 something years and can say without question that it's Prime Mover
That's cool bro such a great song. Seen rush 20 time's live never disappointed there live show of hands vhs lol they played it and it just jams the whole way through.
@@allisongilmore8522 awsome, yea i have seen every Rush show since Signals, except when they toured for the MOVING PICTURES or Time Capsule tour. They bring it every show. I just forgot how great this record is...
@@justincamp5716 I'm partial to Middletown Dreams, oh and all of Signals. I get the dilemma, Rush wrote nothing but great music from start to finish. I can't think of another rock band that hits hard every song on every album, not one...maybe Cheap Trick?
the outro section (just after the last lyrics) to lock and key is fantastic! 13.03- end
Holy crap! I never noticed it till this very minute when you were reading the lyrics that they referenced a show of hands which is the name of the next live album how did I miss this?
I was at the gig where A Show of Hands was recorded 🤘
@@seano2112 Sooo jealous!!! That's my favorite live album!!
@@ginamarandino6451
Been a fan since 1978 and I loved all the eras and styles- but the 80s were great.
Lucky to have seen them something like 32 times and met them on the Signals tour.
Best band ever 👍
this is basically a perfect album. people argue tai shan but its beautiful. corny yes. this album is amazing rush at their best progressing pushing themselves and our tolerances as well
Agree. I think Tai Shan could have worked a lot better if it wasn't produced with such an incessant synth-wall-of-sound throughout the entire song. It needed more space to breathe, but as it is it laid it on too thick for the listener.
Oh well, you probably rarely heard "Strip it back a little!" in the recording studios in the 80s lol.
Grand Designs. That's the song you're trying to remember.
The syncopated break in Prime Mover...
My Favorite song in Hold Your Fire Album
I’m a really huge fan of that era … well early to mid 80s … I’ve been on this for a good long time in my short 35 years
The song you're thinking of is Grand Designs.
Prime Mover…about life and death..and Afterlife, God
It's so nice to see how you react when you hear that for the first time. Ixh remember my first time on all albums up to at least Presto (+ many songs from Roll the Bones). I, like you, was mesmerized every time.
The lyrics in prime Mover are referring to Aristotle's belief that the universe must a have a force or being that is responsible for all the movement within it.The lyrics in Lock and Key are dealing with how we must find a balance between silencing and giving in to the killer instinct we posses.
Went to this concert way way back in the day (1987) still got the tour program and the solid red tour t- shirt. love this album
This album was my summer go-to music in 1987. Travelling sales job and got lost in this album in my car over and over. Lock & Key was my favorite.
I've been a Rush fan since early 1976 when I was in high school. I'm really enjoying watching you discover the music 🎶 that has been the soundtrack to my life and times.
"Prime Mover" is a very positive, uplifting song for me. One of my favorite lines is: "The point of the journey is not to arrive" - which to me has been a reminder that, whether on a road trip or on life's journey, there may be a destination in mind, it's what we experience/learn along the way that really matters. Keeping an open mind is always good as well because"Anything can happen".
BTW, the guitar tone Alex gets on "Prime Mover" is so cool. I spent a year or more trying to figure out how to get my guitar to sound like that. Then one day in a music store in Portland, OR around 1990-91, I was trying out effect pedals and playing the guitar line under the verses - still searching for "that sound". The salesperson who was helping me recognized the riff. They mentioned that they were also at Rush fan and that Alex doubled his parts for "Prime Mover" on a guitar string/tuned to "Nashville tuning" which I hadn't heard of. Creating that chorusy 12 string sound, except not quite. It sounds like Alex might have done that, or something similar, on several songs on this album.
The song you were humming is Grand Designs from Power Windows album. Lock and Key is one of my favorite Rush songs even if Hold Your Fire is not in my favorite albums list.
best drum outro ever made
Remember to look up Geddy's comments about the last tune on the album, and how it could never be played live. He felt it was too "different".
John you have to listen to another trio from Toronto Canada, Triumph. Rik Emmett is an amazing singer and guitarist.
This song was written about the difficulties of touring,as a rock band. I heard that it was intended as a tribute to their drivers and road crew who set up their live shows.
Prime Mover is one of my favorites from the album. I wish they had played it live in the later years.
Geddy once said that this was there top album. Of course you must see this in time.
My favorite Rush album.
For years I struggled to find the appropriate words but 'So many little things' is the perfect description.
Love Prime Mover but Lock and Keys so bad ass! Alex's ticking guitar part at beginning wow, but the bass drum section omg! Solo section and drum fills in outro!
ain't they just the best fucking band ever ? 🤘
Not an album I listen to very often as I prefer their heavier stuff but these songs are still catchy. I think out of the two Lock and Key is the favourite. Not that I don't like the first song but I really enjoyed Alex's solo in Lock and Key.
That bass line while singing...near impossible!
One of their very best albums!
Just listen to it again if you can't recall!
Lock n key is smokin
Grand designs!! 🤘
Grand Designs
Sept.11-2001!
HYF is fire !!!
🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽
Geddy first started harmonizing his vocals on Power Windows, and from that point forward they used it regularly on subsequent albums
You know I never thought about it before but you're right kid gloves is very similar to prime mover, but I think you're thinking of grand designs. Kid Gloves also reminds me a bit of the song face up and you'll discover that a couple albums from now
Peart had no misperception that the world would one day become a "better" place.
Neil saw this entire Trump/GOP disaster coming from a mile away. Read his books. It's all there. From the cop state of Florida, to anti-abortion slogans on state license plates, to cruelty of GOP trying to take away healthcare rights, to fake Christianity trying to impose their will on the rest of us through hijacking government, to the hidden racism that people liked to pretend went away, but never did by a long shot. Despite all this, Neil still loved America in so many ways.
John Slop, tune your fucking guitar.
Three words, Don't like it. I had to run away from rush 2 or 3 times.
Prime mover is about what God did, in setting up the universe. Prime Mover, is another word for God. Not that Neil was religious in a traditional sense. Just questioning, as we all do. He imagine someone, God, for example, setting the wheels in motion, and watching what happens. Ie: anything that can happen.
No, Neil did not believe in any supreme deity. He refers to *inner* will, not external forces. Or do already forget "why does it happen? because it happens."...