Different Strings

[RushFanForever]

From Classic Rock via Louder.

 

Rush: how we reinvented ourselves and made Permanent Waves

 

It was at one of those extended stays at Le Studio that Hugh Syme was invited to play piano on Different Strings, another new curve ball in Rush’s canon. With lyrics by Lee, it was plaintive yet rich. and examined the way in which the listener, or critic, consumed art and music. So far, so very Rush.

 

Its inclusion on the record hinted even more at the way the band were now willing to play with form and the sort of music people might yet expect from them. I tell Geddy that I had always assumed Different Strings was a simple love song coming from a very sincere place.

 

“No it’s not, actually,” he says. “That song was really born out of the idea that: here we were, this band that had been together for quite a long time and we had this ability to polarise people, our music did that. And in writing that song I was addressing that, about what we do and about art. And it really is about that individual way one reacts to it.

 

"Whether it’s music or visual or whatever, it’s an emotional response. It’s about our differences. It’s like Entre Nous and Different Strings are sort of two parts of the same concept. They are sister and brother.”

[Weatherman]

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.

 

I love playing it too. The guitar part is challenging.