TEST FOR ECHO
GEDDY LEE: Bass guitar, vocals, synthesizers
ALEX LIFESON: Electric and acoustic guitars, mandola
NEIL PEART: Drums, cymbals, hammer dulcimer
Released September 10, 1996 by Atlantic Records
Went Gold (500,000 copies) on October 21, 1996
1. Test For Echo (5:55)
2. Driven (4:26)
3. Half The World (3:42)
4. The Color Of Right (4:48)
5. Time And Motion (5:01)
6. Totem (4:57)
7. Dog Years (4:54)
8. Virtuality (5:43)
9. Resist (4:23)
10. Limbo (5:28)
11. Carve Away The Stone (4:05)
"TEST FOR ECHO"
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
Lyrics by Neil Peart and Pye Dubois
Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"DRIVEN"
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
Lyrics by Neil Peart. Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"HALF THE WORLD"
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
Lyrics by Neil Peart. Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"THE COLOR OF RIGHT"
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 my 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
Lyrics by Neil Peart. Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"TIME AND MOTION"
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
Lyrics by Neil Peart. Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"TOTEM"
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
Lyrics by Neil Peart. Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"DOG YEARS"
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 those 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
Lyrics by Neil Peart. Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"VIRTUALITY"
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
Lyrics by Neil Peart. Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"RESIST"
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
Without ever winning
But never ever win
Without a fight
Lyrics by Neil Peart. Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"LIMBO"
Instrumental
Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
"CARVE AWAY THE STONE"
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 the 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
Lyrics by Neil Peart. Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
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
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 Mastering Studios, Portland, Maine
Management by Ray Danniels, SRO Management Inc., Toronto
Executive Production by Anthm Entertainment: Liam Birt & Pegi Cecconi
Ar Direction, Design and Digital Illustration by Hugh Syme
Photogarphy 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, Stve 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: Laim 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, Pook�, 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, P��l, & 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 fromleast--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--Omega�
Brought to you by the letter "R-R-R-R"
All lyrics � 1996 Core Music Publishing (SOCAN) except "Test For Echo"
� Core Music Publishing/Pysart Music
(SOCAN)
All Rights Reserved. Used by Permssion