Behind the Classics

JULY/AUGUST 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM BEHIND THE CLASSICS WRITTEN BY: PYE DUBOIS, GEDDY LEE, ALEX LIFESON, NEIL PEART RECORDED: FALL 1980 AT LE STUDIO, QUEBEC, CANADA PRODUCED BY: RUSH AND TERRY BROWN VOCALS: GEDDY LEE GUITARS: ALEX LIFESON DRUMS: NEIL PEART SYNTHESIZERS: GEDDY LEE FROM THE ALBUM: MOVING PICTURES (1981) Fin Costello Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart “Tom Sawyer” RUSH On July 28, 1980, the members of Rush He also devised a foreboding introduction came in, did fi ve takes, then went off and had entered Toronto’s Phase One studios to lay based around a low-end bass-pedal sound a cigarette.” (His fi nal solo was a composite of down “Battlescar,” a collaboration with their played on an Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. several takes.) Lee’s Fender Jazz bass, synth friends in fellow Canadian band Max Webster. Lifeson made his mark on the song, now parts—including the distinctive middle section, While there Max Webster lyricist Pye Dubois dubbed “Tom Sawyer,” with an aggressive featuring a Minimoog—and vocals went down shared one of his poems with Rush’s own arpeggiated riff linking the disparate parts with relatively little fuss. resident wordsmith, drummer Neil Peart. “Louis (beneath the lyric that begins “And what you When the group listened back to the the Lawyer” was a stream-of-consciousness say about his company … ”). results, however, they were crestfallen. “I ode to an imagined character that emblemized Rush cut demos at Phase One in remember being disappointed with it in the individuality and rebelliousness—qualities Peart August and early September, followed by studio when we were recording it, thinking had been examining in his own lyrics for several a 13-date U.S. tour where “Tom Sawyer” that it didn’t capture the essence of the years. Intrigued, he took the piece with him made its stage debut. In October the band song,” Lee said. “We thought it was one of and began shaping the words into song form. and producer Terry Brown headed for Le the worst songs on the record at that time.” “I added the themes of reconciling the boy Studio in snowy Quebec to make what Not until the fi nal mix in November did “Tom and the man in myself,” said Peart, “and the would become their Moving Pictures album. Sawyer” announce itself to all involved as a difference between what people are and what Among the most diffi cult songs to capture winner. “It was a dark horse,” Lee said. “Then others perceive them to be.” was “Tom Sawyer,” beginning with Peart’s in the mixing, it all came together. When we Rush reconvened that August at a almost impossibly complex drum pattern. “I’m fi nished it, we were so pleased with what cottage on Stoney Lake, Ontario, to write playing full strength for the whole track, and it happened.” The track went on to become songs for its next album. The Dubois/Peart took about a day and a half to record,” Peart a radio hit that Lee calls “the quintessential lyric was melded to a funky 4/4 groove, as well said shortly afterward. “I remember collapsing Rush song,” helping to propel Moving Pictures as a tricky 7/8-time synthesizer part that Lee afterward with raw, red, aching hands and to quadruple-platinum sales. All the members had been fi ddling with during soundchecks. feet. I had been playing the bass drum so insist that, 30 years after its release, they have Lee experimented with his vocal technique, hard that my toes were all mashed together yet to tire of playing “Tom Sawyer.” “We still deploying for the song’s various interlocking and very sore.” The remaining tracks went think it’s a wonderful thing that such a bizarre sections the high-pitched wail for which he was down relatively smoothly. “I winged it,” Lifeson song could be so popular,” Peart said. “That best known, a lower-pitched croon and what said of his guitar solo, played on a Howard alone is a miracle to us.” he calls a “faux-rap” spoken-word approach. Roberts Fusion model Gibson. “Honest! I –Chris Neal 78 M5-Vol2-Mag-BETA-v18b.indd 78 8/29/11 11:18 PM.

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