Exit.Stage Left

Rush Exit.Stage Left Lyrics
1.A Passage To Bangkok

Words:neil peart
music:geddy lee and alex lifeson

Our first stop is in bogota
To check columbian fields
The natives smile and pass along
A sample of their yield
Sweet jamaican pipe dreams
Golden acapulco nights
Then morocco, and the east,
Fly by morning light

We're on the train to bangkok
Aboard the thailand express
We'll hit the stops along the way
We only stop for the best

Wreathed in smoke in lebanon
We burn the midnight oil
The fragrance of afghanistan
Rewards a long day's toil pulling into katmandu
Smoke rings fill the air
Perfumed by a nepal night
The express gets you there


2.Beneath, Between And Behind

Words:neil peart
music:alex lifeson

Ten score years ago, defeat the kingly foe
A wondrous dream came into being
Tame the trackless waste, no virgin land left chaste
All shining eyes, but never seeing

Beneath the noble birth
Between the proudest words
Behind the beauty, cracks appear
Once, with heads held high
They sang out to the sky
Why do their shadows bow in fear?

Watch the cities rise
Another ship arrives
Earth's melting pot and ever growing
Fantastic dreams come true
Inventing something new
The greatest minds, and never knowing...

The guns replace the plow, facades are tarnished now
The principles have been betrayed
The dreams's gone stale, but still, let hope prevail
History's debt won't be repaid


3.Broon's Bane


4.Closer To The Heart

Words:neil peart and peter talbot,
Music:geddy lee and alex lifeson

And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones to start
To mould a new reality
Closer to the heart

The blacksmith and the artist
Reflect it in their art
Forge their creativity
Closer to the heart

Philosophers and ploughmen
Each must know his part
To sow a new mentality
Closer to the heart

You can be the captain
I will draw the chart
Sailing into destiny
Closer to the heart


5.Freewill

Words:neil peart
music:geddy lee and alex lifeson

There are those who think that life
Has nothing left to chance
With a host of holy horrors
To direct our aimless dance

A planet of playthings
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
'the stars aren't aligned ---
Or the gods are malign'
Blame is better to give than receive

You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice

You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose free will

There are those who think that they've been dealt a losing hand
The cards were stacked against them ---
They weren't born in lotus-land

All preordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate
Kicked in the face
You can't pray for a place
In heaven's unearthly estate

Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt
That's far too fleet...


6.Jacob's Ladder

Words:neil peart
music:geddy lee and alex lifeson

The clouds prepare for battle
In the dark and brooding silence
Bruised and sullen stormclouds
Have the light of day obscured
Looming low and ominous
In twilight premature
Thunderheads are rumbling
In a distant overture

All at once,
The clouds are parted
Light streams down
In bright unbroken beams

Follow men's eyes
As they look to the skies
The shifting shafts of shining
Weave the fabric of their dreams...


7.La Villa Strangiato

(an exercise in self-indulgence)
Music:geddy lee, alex lifeson, and neil peart

Instrumental

I. buenas noches, mein froinds!
Ii. to sleep, perchance to dream ...
Iii. strangiato theme
Iv. a lerxst in wonderland
V. monsters!
Vi. danforth and pape
Vii. the waltz of the shreves
Viii. never turn your back on a monster!
Ix. monsters! (reprise)
X. strangiato theme (reprise)
Xi. a farewell to things


8.Red Barchetta

Inspiried by 'a nice morning drive', by richard s. foster
Words:neil peart
music:geddy lee and alex lifeson

My uncle has a country place, that no one knows about
He says it used to be a farm, before the motor law
And on sundays i elude the 'eyes' and hop the turbine freight
To far outside the wire, where my white-haired uncle waits.

Jump to the ground
As the turbo slows to cross the borderline
Run like the wind,
As excitement shivers up and down my spine
Down in his barn
My uncle preserved for me, an old machine ---
For fifty-odd years
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream

I strip away the old debris, that hides a shining car
A brilliant red barchetta, from a better, vanished time
I fire up the willing engine, responding with a roar
Tires spitting gravel, i commit my weekly crime...

Wind in my hair ---
Shifting and drifting ---
Mechanical music ---
Adrenalin surge ---

Well-weathered leather
Hot metal and oil
The scented country air
Sunlight on chrome
The blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware

Suddenly, ahead of me, across the mountainside
A gleaming alloy air-car shoots towards me, two lanes wide
I spin around with shrieking tires, to run the deadly race
Go screaming through the valley as another joins the chase

Drive like the wind
Straining the limits of machine and man
Laughing out loud
With fear and hope, i've got a desperate plan

At the one-lane bridge
I leave the giants stranded
At the riverside
Race back to the farm
To dream with my uncle
At the fireside...


9.The Spirit Of Radio

Inspired by 'the spirit of radio' in toronto, alive and well (so
far).
Words:neil peart
music:geddy lee and alex lifeson

Begin the day
With a friendly voice
A companion, unobtrusive
Plays that song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood

Off on your way
Hit the open road
There is magic at your fingers
For the spirit ever lingers
Undemanding contact
In your happy solitude

Invisible airwaves
Crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle
With the energy
Emotional feedback
On a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price ---
Almost free...

All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty

One likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity

'for the words of the profits
Are written on the studio wall,
Concert hall ---
Echoes with the sounds...
Of salesmen.'


10.The Trees

Words:neil peart
music:geddy lee and alex lifeson

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunligh
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
(and they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade?

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream 'oppression!'
And the oaks, just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'the oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet,
Axe,
And saw ...


11.Tom Sawyer

Words:neil peart and pye dubois,
Music:geddy lee and alex lifeson

A modern-day warrior
Mean mean stride
Today's tom sawyer
Mean mean pride

Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events ---
The river

What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
,- catch the mist --- catch the myth
,- catch the mystery --- catch the drift

The world is the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide

Today's tom sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you

No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent ---
But change is

What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
,- catch the witness --- catch the wit
,- catch the spirit --- catch the spit

The world is the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide

Exit the warrior
Today's tom sawyer
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to
The friction of the day


12.Xanadu

'to seek the sacred river alph
To walk the caves of ice
To break my fast on honey dew
And drink the milk of paradise....'

I had heard the whispered tales
Of immortality
The deepest mystery
From an ancient book. i took a clue
I scaled the frozen mountain tops
Of eastern lands unknown
Time and man alone
Searching for the lost ---- xanadu

Xanadu ---- to stand within the pleasure dome
Decreed by kubla khan
To taste anew the fruits of life
The last immortal man
To find the sacred river alph
To walk the caves of ice
Oh, i will dine on honey dew
And drink the milk of paradise

A thousand years have come and gone
But time has passed me by
Stars stopped in the sky
Frozen in an everlasting view
Waiting for the world to end
Weary of the night
Praying for the light
Prison of the lost ---- xanadu

Xanadu ---- held within the pleasure dome
Decreed by kubla khan
To taste my bitter triumph
As a mad immortal man
Nevermore shall i return
Escape these caves of ice
For i have dined on honey dew
And drunk the milk of paradise
More than paradise


13.Yyz

Music:geddy lee and neil peart

Instrumental