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Different Strings


Lady April
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What is the song Different Strings really about anyway. Is it regarding a relationship falling apart due to growth in separate directions? A relationship based on two completely separate lives bonded by love?

The song has been stuck in my head for a week. It came out of nowhere as I have not listened to it or any Rush for that matter in weeks and weeks.

 

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A wonderful song this....

 

My take on it has always been that it is similar in nature to Entre Nous, but a little more personal to Geddy (he wrote the lyrics) rather than the wider view that Pearts lyrics take.

 

I think he is describing his relationship with (presumably) his wife and aknowledging the differences between them. he is also giving thanks for the fact that mutual understanding and respect has made the marriage stronger.

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QUOTE (Fridge @ Dec 2 2007, 03:11 PM)
A wonderful song this....

My take on it has always been that it is similar in nature to Entre Nous, but a little more personal to Geddy (he wrote the lyrics) rather than the wider view that Pearts lyrics take.

I think he is describing his relationship with (presumably) his wife and aknowledging the differences between them. he is also giving thanks for the fact that mutual understanding and respect has made the marriage stronger.

Brings tears to the eyes, that does.

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QUOTE (makehaste2112 @ Dec 2 2007, 07:47 PM)
QUOTE (Fridge @ Dec 2 2007, 03:11 PM)
A wonderful song this....

My take on it has always been that it is similar in nature to Entre Nous, but a little more personal to Geddy (he wrote the lyrics) rather than the wider view that Pearts lyrics take.

I think he is  describing his relationship with (presumably) his wife and aknowledging the differences between them. he is also giving thanks for the fact that mutual understanding and respect has made the marriage stronger.

Brings tears to the eyes, that does.

sad.gif Yes, it really does.

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QUOTE (Lady April @ Dec 3 2007, 07:10 AM)
What is the song Different Strings really about anyway. Is it regarding a relationship falling apart due to growth in separate directions? A relationship based on two completely separate lives bonded by love?
The song has been stuck in my head for a week. It came out of nowhere as I have not listened to it or any Rush for that matter in weeks and weeks.

wub.gif laugh.gif Awww April you been thinking about me that is really nice. rose.gif Seriously I think you summed up pretty much what the song is about Fridge, well that is My take on it too. trink39.gif

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Okay, everybody says Geddy Lee wrote the lyrics, but my edition says Neil Peart wrote the lyrics. Can somebody please provide a solution to my confusion?
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QUOTE (Finbar @ Dec 3 2007, 07:58 AM)
Okay, everybody says Geddy Lee wrote the lyrics, but my edition says Neil Peart wrote the lyrics. Can somebody please provide a solution to my confusion?

it's a misprint on the original album

 

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QUOTE (Fridge @ Dec 3 2007, 03:02 AM)
QUOTE (Finbar @ Dec 3 2007, 07:58 AM)
Okay, everybody says Geddy Lee wrote the lyrics, but my edition says Neil Peart wrote the lyrics. Can somebody please provide a solution to my confusion?

it's a misprint on the original album

The original album? I don't have the original album! I don't even own a turntable or a single vinyl. Every Rush album I have from Rush to Hold Your Fire, including Permanent Waves, says "THE RUSH REMASTERS" on the side. So does this remaster include the same error as the original album, then?

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QUOTE (Finbar @ Dec 3 2007, 03:34 AM)
QUOTE (Fridge @ Dec 3 2007, 03:02 AM)
QUOTE (Finbar @ Dec 3 2007, 07:58 AM)
Okay, everybody says Geddy Lee wrote the lyrics, but my edition says Neil Peart wrote the lyrics. Can somebody please provide a solution to my confusion?

it's a misprint on the original album

The original album? I don't have the original album! I don't even own a turntable or a single vinyl. Every Rush album I have from Rush to Hold Your Fire, including Permanent Waves, says "THE RUSH REMASTERS" on the side. So does this remaster include the same error as the original album, then?

I have only seen it as Geddy's song.

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QUOTE (Finbar @ Dec 3 2007, 09:34 AM)
QUOTE (Fridge @ Dec 3 2007, 03:02 AM)
QUOTE (Finbar @ Dec 3 2007, 07:58 AM)
Okay, everybody says Geddy Lee wrote the lyrics, but my edition says Neil Peart wrote the lyrics. Can somebody please provide a solution to my confusion?

it's a misprint on the original album

The original album? I don't have the original album! I don't even own a turntable or a single vinyl. Every Rush album I have from Rush to Hold Your Fire, including Permanent Waves, says "THE RUSH REMASTERS" on the side. So does this remaster include the same error as the original album, then?

It's the other way around. The original vinyl, which I have, credits Geddy as lyricist, the mistake is on the remastered CD.

 

As found on Powerwindows Here ,

 

TheRemaster release gives credit for "Different Strings" to Peart, a misprint as confirmed by Anthem.

 

What Different Strings means to me is possibly the most criminal example ever of a guitar piece being cut off about two minutes too early.....and I told Terry Brown that in October!

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QUOTE (madra sneachta @ Dec 3 2007, 03:26 PM)
It's the other way around. The original vinyl, which I have, credits Geddy as lyricist, the mistake is on the remastered CD.

Doh!

 

That's what I meant to say wacko.gif

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smile.gif Yes, thank you for your input as well.
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QUOTE (LoneStar Boogie @ Dec 4 2007, 01:15 PM)
Terrible song... bolt.gif

laugh.gif I'll be seeing ya then Lone Star rofl3.gif

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QUOTE (Lady April @ Dec 2 2007, 08:02 PM)
QUOTE (makehaste2112 @ Dec 2 2007, 07:47 PM)
QUOTE (Fridge @ Dec 2 2007, 03:11 PM)
A wonderful song this....

My take on it has always been that it is similar in nature to Entre Nous, but a little more personal to Geddy (he wrote the lyrics) rather than the wider view that Pearts lyrics take.

I think he is  describing his relationship with (presumably) his wife and aknowledging the differences between them. he is also giving thanks for the fact that mutual understanding and respect has made the marriage stronger.

Brings tears to the eyes, that does.

sad.gif Yes, it really does.

sayin' ... sad.gif

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cool.gif Different Strings

 

Another geddy -penned ballad with reference to trends/waves in the question "did it go out of style"?

 

Alex has quoted in a guitar player interview in 1980 :

 

"I love this song.

"It reminds me of soldiers sitting around a piano in a smoke filled pub in England during the war..Its the type of solo I really enjoy playing- an emotive, bluesy sort of thing"

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Such a personal, deep meaningful song.

 

Subversively, I think the meaning is all in the title. Geddy clearly yearns to play the guitar. He has "string envy"; not satisfied with only 4. I'm just so happy that with the Vapor Trails tour, he finally "came out" and showed us that hidden part of himself.

 

 

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QUOTE (Alph Seeker @ Dec 4 2007, 01:03 PM)
Such a personal, deep meaningful song.

Subversively, I think the meaning is all in the title. Geddy clearly yearns to play the guitar. He has "string envy"; not satisfied with only 4. I'm just so happy that with the Vapor Trails tour, he finally "came out" and showed us that hidden part of himself.

laugh.gif string envy rofl3.gif

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QUOTE (ladirushfan80 @ Dec 4 2007, 07:34 AM)
QUOTE (Lady April @ Dec 2 2007, 08:02 PM)
QUOTE (makehaste2112 @ Dec 2 2007, 07:47 PM)
QUOTE (Fridge @ Dec 2 2007, 03:11 PM)
A wonderful song this....

My take on it has always been that it is similar in nature to Entre Nous, but a little more personal to Geddy (he wrote the lyrics) rather than the wider view that Pearts lyrics take.

I think he is  describing his relationship with (presumably) his wife and aknowledging the differences between them. he is also giving thanks for the fact that mutual understanding and respect has made the marriage stronger.

Brings tears to the eyes, that does.

sad.gif Yes, it really does.

sayin' ... sad.gif

sayin' ... I wish I didn't have a marriage that sucked. wink.gif

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Clearly "Different Strings" is a graceful song about the gift of music. Many people attribute it to a physical, personal relationship, but the true meaning behind the words of this beautiful melody expresses the wonderful spiritual gift of music that only a handful of people experience.

"Peel away the mystery, here's a clue to some real motivation..."

"What happened to our innocence, did it go out of style. Along with our naivete, no longer a a child..."

That says it all in my perspective.

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I just adore Different Strings. I always loved too how it comprises a slower-paced, more reflective facet of Permanent Waves, snuggled-in there among the flash and thunder of the other fine, fine numbers that make that album what it is. Those who know me well, know that I want this song played at my funeral (as they wheel my remains into the oven, please, no earlier than that); no ifs, no buts, they must play Different Strings.

 

To confirm what others have said in this thread, I have original vinyl of PeW, and the notes credit Ged as the lyricist. Indeed, I always understood it was the last set of lyrics he ever wrote for a Rush song.

 

On the subject matter of the song, I have always felt rather disappointed in reading that people think it is something to do with an actual relationship or relationships as a whole. For me, this is similar to the way that people mistake the meaning of Every Breath You Take by The Police, in that they think it is about two lovers celebrating their union when, in the most extreme interpretation, that song is actually about stalking. As the relevant Wikipedia article states:

 

Sting later said he was disconcerted by how many people think the song is more positive than it is. He insists it is about the obsession with a lost lover, and the jealousy and surveillance that follow. "One couple told me 'Oh we love that song; it was the main song played at our wedding!' I thought, 'Well, good luck.'"

 

By the same token, I think Different Strings is far more profound than a simple celebration of a given relationship, nor is it even about all relationships. To me, it says that of all the things around us in the world, other sentient beings, by dint of their very sentience, possess something to which no rock, river, tree etc. can ever lay claim, where the nature of that 'something' is ineffable. (I'm including dogs, cats, cephalopods etc. here - choose any class of 'sentient being' you want.) Moreover, given its ineffability, the song is saying that we can only ever get some kind of a grip on that 'something' by comparison with other ineffable things, such as the way that great music 'speaks' to us.

 

To explain in detail: there are many in my field - programming - who attempt to explain (away) consciousness (the 'hard problem' in AI - the 'dragon' in the song. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness) as a product of mere computation, when that simply cannot be the case. To wit:

 

Who's come to slay the dragon

Come to watch him fall?

Making arrows out of pointed words

Giant killers at the call

 

In other words, there are those who, by means of penetrating logic and precise language ('arrows' and 'pointed words'), would lay bare the very nature of being. It is something, they would say, that only appears to be ineffable. The song, however, says 'nuts to such machination, it doesn't work anyway', as in:

 

Too much fuss and bother

Too much contradiction and confusion

 

Instead, the song says that there is a way to get a handle (if not an understanding) on that ineffable thing:

 

Peel away the mystery

Here's a clue to some real motivation

 

...after which it asserts that, ultimately, our sentience and our recognition of sentience in others is the very root of things. It is not something that we 'possess', it is us ourselves, and we are aware of this (consciously or otherwise):

 

All there really is

The two of us

And we both know why we've come along

 

...where we can find similar ineffability in our appreciation of music:

 

Nothing to explain

It's a part of us

To be found within a song

 

The song (after a cracking solo) then suggests that, in trying to understand consciousness/sentience (call it what you will), people 'over-science' the matter:

 

What happened to our innocence

Did it go out of style?

Along with our naivete

No longer a child

 

After which it rounds things off by saying (with, for me, rare beauty) that, at the root of the matter, and whatever our distinctions, we all share this ineffable 'something':

 

Different eyes see different things

Different hearts beat on different strings

But there are times

For you and me

When all such things agree

 

For me, Different Strings is a celebration of being and the recognition of being in others, and is one of the most profound and philosophical pieces of music that has existed in all of human history (like a lot of Rush material). I think its lyrics and music should be engraved on the body of the next probe we send out of the solar system (as in the 'golden record' they bolted to each of the Voyager probes). This would give an extraterrestrial race that intercepted the spacecraft in question a fighting chance of seeing that us trousered apes understand (understood?) the bigger questions that intelligent life can ask. Hell, they can simply bolt a copy of Permanent Waves to the damn thing and have done with it - those aliens need to know we have taste.

 

I think also that the song has a clear connection to The Angel's Share on My Favorite Headache - also written (obviously) by our dear Ged. The term "angels' share" refers to the alcohol vapour that escapes from whiskey barrels as the liquor matures, but if you listen to the lyrics on that song (and it took a good while for me to realise this), you can see that the title is an allusion to the notion of a person's 'spirit'. If you like, the bit that departs the body upon death (not that I hold with that particular model - known as 'dualism'). This is clear (to me) because that song, like Different Strings, also refers to the inexplicability of being. To wit:

 

All those things we cannot know

We dream, we hypothesise

 

...and (if there is only a 'scientific' explanation for it all):

 

If we are only members of the Human race

No supernatural beings from a supernatural place

 

...after which it lays it on the line (no equivocation - good-old Ged):

 

If you can solve the problem

Come and tell me to my face

 

When this understanding of The Angel's Share slotted into place in the mind of this particular trousered ape - in the context of what I hold the meaning of Different Strings to be - it occurred to me that Ged is far more than simply(!) a very decent bloke, and one of the very finest rock musicians ever to walk the face of the Earth; he is also an intelligent, deeply thoughtful, philosophical man. This, in turn, gives us a clue as to why Rush 'worked' so very, very well. If you put two intelligent, thoughtful, philosophical musicians together, where (among other confluent roles) the one writes the lyrics (Neil) and the other sings those lyrics, then you need only light the blue touch-paper and stand well back.

 

I could, of course, be entirely wrong about all of the above - I understand from what Neil said that many interpretations of the lyrics to The Trees are very wide of the mark. Whatever the case, however, they are still playing Different Strings as they wheel me into the oven or I will rise from my box and play them Tom Sawyer… and Freewill… and Entre Nous… and Secret Touch… and The Pass... and…

 

[Made a few minor edits for clarity]

Edited by Undemanding Contact
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Well I have always loved this song but I just simply love the music. Or rather, that's what I've always thought. But then you never know if the lyrics are working on a subconscious level sometimes.

I know for many it's the weakest of a very good bunch of songs but I've always held it above Freewill, Jacob's Ladder and Entre nous - all songs I love. Although I didn't love Freewill initially but the always loved the middle section with that great bassline with Alex's solo swirling around - which is up there, to me, as some of their finest musicianship.

 

But with different strings, I always liked the song but particularly loved the way it ended with a great solo which I believe someone else on this site stated they believed it ended 2 minutes too soon. And it does give one a sense of yearning for a bit more....but that sets it up nicely as a lead in to Natural Science which vies for top spot on the album with Spirit.

So it's a great one-two ending in that they complement each other nicely.

 

To me, it's their best ballad/slow song and it's something that can also be played easily as an acoustic guitar/open mic piece, something that I have done to various degrees of success on several occasions.

 

But as to what it's really about, songs and poetry can have different meanings to different people whether they match the author's intentions or not. Doesn't the best work work on different levels which leads to this kind of discussion?

Edited by Malignant Narcissist
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