Test For Echo

Test For Echo

Released: September 10, 1996
Certified Gold by RIAA: October 23, 1996
Highest Billboard Chart Position: 5

Geddy Lee - bass guitar, vocals, synthesizers
Alex Lifeson - electric and acoustic guitars, mandola
Neil Peart - drums, cymbals, hammer dulcimer

Produced by Peter Collins and Rush
Recorded by Clif Norrell
Mixed by Andy Wallace
Project assistant engineer: Simon Pressey
Recorded January--March 1996, at Bearsville Studios, Bearsville, New York, assisted by Chris Laidlaw and Paul Marconi, and Reaction Studios, Toronto, April 1996, assisted by Tom Heron
All songs by Lee, Lifeson, & Peart, except "Test For Echo": Lee, Lifeson, Peart, & Dubois
Arrangements by Rush and Peter Collins

Preproduction at Chalet Studio by Lerxst Sound and Everett Ravestein
Mastered by Bob Ludwig, Gateway Studios, Portland, Maine
Management by Ray Danniels, SRO Management Inc., Toronto
Executive Production by Anthem Entertainment: Liam Birt & Pegi Cecconi
Art Direction, Design and Digital Illustration by Hugh Syme
Photography by Dimo Safari, Anthony Frederick, Andrew MacNaughtan, Richard C. Negus, Eugene Fisher
"2001: A Space Odyssey" images © 1968 Turner Entertainment Co. All Rights Reserved (page 12)

Tour Manager and President: Liam Birt / Production & Stage Manager: Dan Braun / Production Assistant: Jimmy Joe Rhodes / Concert Sound Engineer: Robert Scovill / Lighting Director: Howard Ungerleider / Stage Left Tech: Skip Gildersleeve / Centre Stage Tech: Larry Allen / Stage Right Tech: Jim Johnson / Keyboard Tech: Tony Geranios / Monitor Engineer: Phil Wilkey

Personal Assistant: Sean Son Hing / Concert Sound by Electrotec: Ted Leamy, Larry (Kahuna) Vodopivec, David (H.B.) Stogner, Brad Judd / Lighting by See Factor: Jack Funk, Ed Duda, Mario Corsi, Steve Kostecke, Donny Lodico / Icon lighting by LSD: Matt Druzbik, Julian Winters / Pyrotechnics: Reid Schulte-Derne, Doug Adams, Randy Bast / Projectionists: Bob Montgomery, Conrad Coriz, Sam Raphael / Concert Rigging by IMC (Billy Collins): Mike (Frank) McDonald, Brian Collins, Rick Mooney / Carpenters: George Steinert, Sal Marinello, Joe Campbell
Drivers: Tom (whitney) Whittaker, Arthur (Mac) MacLear, Lennie Southwick, Tom Hartman, Stan Whittaker, Dave Cook, Red McBrine, Don Hendricks, Phil Dunlap, Ken Bosemer
Tour Merchandise: Mike, Shannon & Pat McLoughlin / Tour Accountants: Liam Birt & John Whitehead (Drysdale & Drysdale) / Booking Agencies: International Creative Management, NYC, The Agency Group, London, The Agency, Toronto

Friendly help and helpful friendship provided by D.I.Y Studios, B. Zee Brokers, Candlebox & Primus and crews, Westbury Sound, Reely Unique Studio Rentals, Neal Dibiase, Wee Kiltie, haggis, Tom Cochrane, Pooké, Martian Dweller (for the dulcimer), Food To Go caterers, and at the Chalet: Koopster, David, Mike (the Real Owner), Zalia, George, Perry, & Compost Pit; at Bearsville: Mark, Patty, Chris, Paul, Päûl, & Jill; at Reaction: Ormond, Claire, Tom, & Chris; and at McClear: Bob, Denis, Pam, & Tony, At SRO: Ray, Pegi, Sheila, Anna, Stephanie, Shelley, Steve, & Bob; and at home--last but far from least--our families.

For technical help, our thanks to Walter Ostanek's Music Centre, Jim Burgess and Saved By Technology (Carl Petzelt), Paul Reed Smith guitars, DOD Digitech, Godin guitars, Trace Elliot amplifiers, Coll Audio, Drum Workshop drums, Avedis Zildjian cymbals, Promark drumsticks, Freddie Gruber, and--Ω™

Brought to you buy the letter "R-R-R-R"

© 1996 Atlantic Records © 1996 Anthem Entertainment

Test For Echo

Lyrics by Neil Peart and Pye Dubois, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

Here we go - vertigo
Video vertigo
Test for echo

Here we go - in slo-mo
Video vertigo
Test for echo

Some kind of trouble on the sensory screen
Camera curves over caved-in cop cars
Bleacher-creatures, would-be desperados
Clutch at plausible deniability
Don't touch that dial -
We're in denial
Until the showcase trial on TV

Some kind of pictures on the sense o'clock news
Miles of yellow tape -- silhouetted chalklines
Tough-talking hood boys in pro-team logo knock-offs
Conform to uniforms of some corporate entity
Don't change that station
It's Gangster Nation
Now crime's in syndication on TV

What a show - vertigo
Video vertigo
Test for echo

Touch and go - in slo-mo
Video vertigo
Test for echo

Some kind of drama live on satellite
Hidden camera coverage from the crime scene to the courtroom
Nail-biting hood boys in borrowed ties and jackets
Clutching at the straws of respectability
Can't do the time?
Don't do the crime
And wind up in the perp walk on TV

Driven

Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

Driven up and down in circles
Skidding down a road of black ice
Staring in and out storm windows
Driven to a fool's paradise

BUT IT'S MY TURN TO DRIVE

Driven to the margin of error
Driven to the edge of control
Driven to the margin of terror
Driven to the edge of a deep, dark hole

Driven day and night in circles
Spinning like a whirlwind of leaves
Stealing in and out back alleys
Driven to another den of thieves

BUT IT'S MY TURN TO DRIVE

Driven in - Driven to the edge
Driven out - On the thin end of the wedge
Driven off - By things I've never seen
Driven on - By the road to somewhere I've never been

IT'S MY TURN TO DRIVE

The road unwinds towards me
What was there is gone
The road unwinds before me
And I go riding on

Half The World

Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

Half the world hates
What half the world does every day
Half the world waits
While half gets on with it anyway

Half the world lives
Half the world makes
Half the world gives
While the other half takes

Half the world is
Half the world was
Half the world thinks
While the other half does

Half the world talks
With half a mind on what they say
Half the world walks
With half a mind to run away

Half the world lies
Half the world learns
Half the world flies
As half the world turns

Half the world cries
Half the world laughs
Half the world tries
To be the other half

Half of us divided
Like a torn-up photograph
Half of us are trying
To reach the other half

Half the world cares
While half the world is wasting the day
Half the world shares
While half the world is stealing away

The Color Of Right

Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

I don't have an explanation
For another lonely night
I just feel this sense of mission
And the sense of what is right

Take it easy on me now -
I'd be there if I could
I'm so full of what is right
I can't see what is good

It's a hopeless situation
Lie awake for half the night
You're not sure what's going on here
But you're sure it isn't right

Make it easy on yourself
There's nothing more you can do
You're so full of what is right
You can't see what is true

A quality of justice
A quantity of light
A particle of mercy
Makes the color of right

Gravity and distance
Change the passage of light
Gravity and distance
Change the color of right

Time And Motion

Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

Time and motion
Wind and sun and rain
Days connect like boxcars in a train

Fill them up with precious cargo
Squeeze in all that you can find
Spontaneous elation
And the long-enduring kind

Time and motion
Flesh and blood and fire
Lives connect in webs of gold and razor wire

Spin a thread of precious contact
Squeeze in all that you can find
Spontaneous relations
And the long-enduring kind

The mighty ocean
Dances with the moon
The silent forest
Echoes with the loon

Time and motion
Live and love and dream
Eyes connect like interstellar beams

Superman in Supernature
Needs all the comfort he can find
Spontaneous emotion
And the long enduring kind

Totem

Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

I've got twelve disciples and a Buddha smile
The Garden of Allah - Viking Valhalla
A miracle once in a while

I've got a pantheon of animals in a pagan soul
Vishnu and Gaia - Aztec and Maya
Dance around my totem pole

I believe in what I see
I believe in what I hear
I believe that what I'm feeling
Changes how the world appears

Angels and demons dancing in my head
Lunatics and monsters underneath my bed
Media messiahs preying on my fears
Pop culture prophets playing in my ears

I've got celestial mechanics
To synchronize my stars
Seasonal migrations - daily variations
World of the unlikely and bizarre

I've got idols and icons, unspoken holy vows
Thoughts to keep well-hidden -
Sacred and forbidden
Free to browse among the holy cows

That's why I believe

Angels and demons inside of me
Saviors and Satans all around me

Sweet chariot, swing low, coming for me

Dog Years

Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

In a dog's life
A year is really more like seven
And all too soon a canine
Will be chasing cars in doggie heaven

It seems to me
As we make our own few circles 'round the sun
We get it backwards
And our seven years go by like one

Dog years - It's the season of the itch
Dog years - With every scratch it reappears

In the dog days
People look to Sirius
Dogs cry for the moon
But these connections are mysterious

It seems to me
While it's true that every dog will have his day
When all the bones are buried
There is barely time to go outside and play

Dog years - It's the season of the itch
Dog years - With every scratch it reappears
Dog years - For every sad son of a bitch
Dog years - With his tail between his ears

I'd rather be a tortoise from Galapagos
Or a span of geological time
Than be living in these dog years

In a dog's brain
A constant buzz of low-level static
One sniff at the hydrant
And the answer is automatic

It seems to me
As well make our own few circles 'round the block
We've lost our senses
For the higher-level static of talk

Virtuality

Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

Like a shipwrecked mariner adrift on an unknown sea
Clinging to the wreckage of the lost ship Fantasy
I'm a castaway, stranded in a desolate land
I can see the footprints in the virtual sand

Net boy, net girl
Send your signal 'round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free

Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse 'round the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea

Astronauts in the weightlessness of pixellated space
Exchange graffiti with a disembodied race
I can save the universe in a grain of sand
I can hold the future in my virtual hand

Let's dance tonight
To a virtual song
Press this key
And you can play along

Let's fly tonight
On our virtual wings
Press this key
To see amazing things

Like a pair of vagabonds who wave between two passing trains
Or the glimpse of a woman's smile through a window in the rain
I can smell her perfume, I can taste her lips
I can feel the voltage from her fingertips

Net boy, net girl
Send your heartbeat round the world

Resist

Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

I can learn to resist
Anything but temptation
I can learn to co-exist
With anything but pain

I can learn to compromise
Anything but my desires
I can learn to get along
With all the things I can't explain

I can learn to resist
Anything but frustration
I can learn to persist
With anything but aiming low

I can learn to close my eyes
To anything but injustice
I can learn to get along
With all the things I don't know

You can surrender
Without a prayer
But never really pray
Pray without surrender

You can fight
Fight without ever winning
But never ever win
Win without a fight

Limbo

Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

Instrumental

Carve Away The Stone

Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

You can roll that stone
To the top of the hill
Drag your ball and chain
Behind you

You can carry that weight
With an iron will
Or let the pain remain
Behind you

Chip away the stone
(Sisyphus)
Chip away the stone
Make the burden lighter
If you must roll that rock alone

You can drive those wheels
To the end of the road
You will still find the past right
Behind you

Try to deny
The weight of the load
Try to put the sins of the past night
Behind you

Carve away the stone
(Sisyhpus)
Carve away the stone
Make a graven image
With some features of your own

You call roll that stone
To the top of the hill
You can carry that weight
With an iron will
You can drive those wheels
To the end of the road
You can try to deny
The weight of the load

Roll away the stone
(Sisyhpus)
Roll away the stone
If you could just move yours
I could get working on my own