CARESS OF STEEL

RUSH
 
 

1. BASTILLE DAY
2. I THINK I'M GOING BALD
3. LAKESIDE PARK
4. THE NECROMANCER
5. THE FOUNTAIN OF LAMNETH
 
 
 
Bastille Day
(Lee, Lifeson, Peart)

Ooh, there's no bread
Let 'em eat cake
There's no end to what they'll take
Flaunt the fruits of noble birth
Wash the salt into the earth

   But they're marching to Bastille Day
   La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
   Free the dungeons of the innocent
   The king will kneel and let his kingdom rise

Ooh, there's stained velvet, dirty lace
Naked fear on every face
See them bow their heads to die
As we would bow as they rode by

   And we're marching to Bastille Day
   La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
   Sing, oh choirs of cacophony
   The king has kneeled to let his kingdom rise
 

Lessons taught
But never learned
All around us anger burns
Guide the future by the past
Long ago the mould was cast

   For they marched up to Bastille Day
   La guillotine claimed her bloody prize
   Hear the echoes of the centuries
   Power isn't all that money buys
 
 
 
I Think I'm Going Bald
(Lee, Lifeson, Peart)

I looked in the mirror today
My eyes just didn't seem so bright
I've lost a few more hairs
I think I'm, I'm going bald
I think I'm going bald

Uuh, seems like only yesterday
We would sit and talk of dreams all night
Dreams of youth and simple truths
Now we're all so involved
So involved with life

   I walk down vanity fair
   Memory lane everywhere
   Wall Street shuffles there
   Dressed in flowing hair
   ??????
 

Once we loved the flowers
Now we ask the price of the land
Once we would take water
But now it must be wine
Now we've been
And now we've seen
What price peace of mind
Take a piece of my mind

   My life is slipping away
   I'm aging every day
   But even when I'm grey
   I'll still be grey my way
   Yeh
 

Oh
 

Oh yeah
 

Oh yeah
 
 
 
Lakeside Park
(Lee, Lifeson, Peart)

Midway hawkers calling "Try your luck with me"
Merry-go-round wheezing same old melody
A thousand ten-cent wonders, who could ask for more
A pocketful of silver, the key to heaven's door

   Lakeside Park
   Willows in the breeze
   Lakeside Park
   So many memories
   Laughing rides
   Midway lights
   Shining stars
   On summer nights

Days of barefoot freedom, racing with the waves
Nights of starlit secrets, crackling driftwood flames
Drinking by the lighthouse, smoking on the pier
Still, we saw the magic was fading every year
 

   Lakeside Park
   Willows in the breeze
   Lakeside Park
   So many memories
   Laughing rides
   Midway lights
   Shining stars
   On summer nights

Everyone would gather
On the twenty fourth of May
Sitting in the sand to watch
The fireworks display
Dancing fires on the beach
Singing songs together
Though it's just a memory
Some memories last forever
 
 
 
The Necromancer
(Lee, Lifeson, Peart)

  I) Into Darkness

As grey traces of dawn tinge the eastern sky, the three travelers, men of Willow Dale, emerge from the forest shadow.
Fording the River Dawn, they turn south, journeying into the dark and forbidding lands of the Necromancer.
Even now the intensity of his dread power can be felt, weakening the body and saddening the heart.
Ultimately they will become empty, mindless spectres, stripped of will and soul.
Only their thirst for freedom gives them hunger for vengeance...

Silence shrouds the forest
As the birds announce the dawn
Three travellers ford the river
And southward journey on
The road is lined with peril
And the air is charged with fear
The shadow of his nearness
Weighs like iron tears

  II) Under the Shadow

Shreds of black cloud
Loom in overcast skies
The Necromancer keeps watch
With his magic prism eyes
He views all his lands
And is already aware
Of the three helpless invaders
Trapped in his lair...

Broading in the tower
Watching o'er his land
Holding every creature
Helplessly they stand
Gaze into his prisms
Knowing they are near
Lead them to the dungeons
Spectres numb with fear they bow defeated
 

  III) Return of the Prince

Enter the Champion
Prince By-Tor appears
To battle for freedom
From chains of long years
The spell has been broken...
The Dark Lands are bright
The Wraith of the Necromancer
Soars away... in the night

Stealthily attacking
By-Tor slays his foe
The men are free to run now
From labyrinths below
Wraith of the Necromancer
Shadows through the sky
Another land to darken
With evil prism eye
Oooh
 
 
 
The Fountain of Lamneth
(Lee, Lifeson, Peart)

  I) In the Valley

I am born
I am me
I am new
I am free

Look at me
I am young
Sight unseen
Life unsung

My eyes have just been opened and they're open very wide
Images around me don't identify inside
Just one blur I recognize the one that soothes and feeds
My way of life is easy and as simple are my needs

   Yet my eyes are drawn toward the mountain in the east
   Fascinates and captivates gives my heart no peace
   The mountain holds the sunrise in the prison of the night
   Till bursting forth from rocky chains the valley
   Floods
   With light

Living one long sunrise for to me all things are new
I've never watched the sky grow pale, or strolled through fields of dew
I do not know of dust to dust I live from breath to breath
I live to climb that mountain to the Fountain of Lamneth

   Yet my eyes are drawn toward the mountain in the east
   Fascinates and captivates and gives my heart no peace
   The mountain holds the sunrise in the prison of the night
   Till bursting forth from rocky chains the valley
   Floods
   With light

  II) Didacts and Narpets

Listen!

  III) No One at the Bridge

Crying back to consciousness
The coldness grips my skin
The sky is pitching violently
And drawn by shrieking winds

Seaspray blurs my vision
Waves roll by so fast
Save my ship of freedom
I'm lashed, helpless, to the mast

Remembering when first I held
The wheel in my own hands
I took the helm so eagerly
And sailed for distant lands

But now the sea's too heavy
And I just, I just don't understand
Why must my crew desert me
When I need, I need a guiding hand?

Call out for direction and there's no one there to steer
Shout out for salvation but there's no one there to hear
Cry out supplication for the maelstrom is near
Scream out desperation but no one cares to hear

  IV) Panacea

The whiteness of confusion
Is unfolding from my mind
I stare around in wonder
Have I left my life behind
I catch the scent of ambergris
And turn my head, surprised
My gaze is caught and held and I
Am helpless, mesmerized

   Panacea, liquid grace
   Oh, let me touch your fragile face
   Enchantment falls arond me and I
   Know I cannot leave

Here's a meaning for my life
A shelter from the storm
Pacify my troubles with
Her body, soft and warm

Naked in our unity
A smile for every tear
Gentle hands that promise me
Comfort through the years
Yet I know I must be gone
Before the light of dawn

   Panacea, passion pure
   I can't resist your gentle lure
   My heart will lie beside you
   And my wandering body grieve

  V) Bacchus Plateau

Another endless day
Silhouettes of grey
Another glass of wine
Drink with eyes that shine
To days without that chill at morning
Long nights time out of mind

   Draw another goblet
   From the cask of forty-three
   Crimson, misty memory
   Hazy glimpse of me
   Give me back my wonder
   I've something more to give
   I guess it doesn't matter
   There's not much more to
   Not much more to live

Another foggy dawn
The mountain almost gone
Another doubtful fear
The road is not so clear
My soul grows ever weary
And the end is ever near

   Draw another goblet
   From the cask of forty-three
   Crimson, misty memory
   Hazy glimpse of me
   Give me back my wonder
   I've something more to give
   I guess it doesn't matter
   There's not much more to
   Not much more to live
 

  VI) The Fountain

Look the mist is rising and the sun is peaking through
See the steps grow lighter as I reach their final few
Hear the dancing waters I must be drawing near
Feel, my heart is pounding with embattled hope and fear

Now at last I fall before
The Fountain of Lamneth
I thought I would be singing
But I'm tired, out of breath
Many journeys end here
But the secret's told the same
Life is just the candle
And a dream must give it flame

The key, the end, the answer
Stripped of their disguise
Still it's all confusion
And tears spring to my eyes
Though I've reached a signpost
It's really not the end
Like old Sol behind the mountain
I'll be coming up again
 

I'm in motion
I am still
I am crying
I am still

I'm together
I'm apart
I'm forever
At the start
Still... I am
 
 
 


Caress of Steel
Rush
1975 Mercury Records

Geddy Lee - Bass and Vocals
Alex Lifeson - 6 and 12 string electric and acoustic guitars, classical guitar and steel guitar
Neil Peart - Percussion