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Mystic Rhythms Video Explain Please


madrushian
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I am good at understanding the visuals of rush video concepts. Mystic rhythems has me confused. Please explain it the meaning of the video (fyi is was just on vh1 classics) Thats why I am asking.
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weirdness for the sake of weirdness

 

Al and Ged wanted to show the world their glowing balls.

 

I do like the spinning tube of rush toward the end though.

Edited by 2112FirstStreet
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Thank for the variety of answers and for the abstract answes that seems to be the answer

 

I just took it as some artsy fartsy video. Not sure if there is any meaning.

 

I appreciate the "giudo the killer pimp" refrence from risky business

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Probably about the as-yet unknown mechanics of the universe etc, i can definitely see references to the fabric of space-time and other more exotic concepts of infinity and such..

 

the forces that drive human creativity itself even

 

Capture my thoughts. Carry them away...

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Well, the video starts with a shot of Peart and his awful 80s haircut, playing the "back kit" which has the electronic drums. It cuts to a shot of what looks like molecules and some kind of scanner/grid thing. This is our life now - saturated by technology. Then it shows Lifeson playing an Ovation guitar, which in spite of its "nature imagery" soundboard is mostly made of some kind of space-age composite material.

 

Suddenly Lee appears on the screen, wearing that crazy hat (oh . . . sorry, that's his hair) against some kind of leafy backdrop--again, not a real leafy backdrop, but obviously some kind of bad green screen composite. So far the song doesn't seem to be about anything mystical or metaphysical at all. The pull-back reveals that the whole thing is just an image on a screen that's part of some kind of large machine made of gears and pipes. Then we cut to a shot of Lee with his little plastic Steinberger bass strapped on while he plays a synthesizer. He is staring vacantly off into the distance, as if he wishes he were somewhere else and not making this video. Perhaps he is "someplace mystical" in his mind, while his body mechanically plays these cold synthetic notes. It's hard to know for sure.

 

Suddenly Lee's image becomes part of some kind of wacky collage made of photographs and plastic limbs and a doll's head. One wonders why they didn't call this song "Synthetic Rhythms." Maybe it's meant to convey some disaffection with the state of modern life. Suddenly Lee is staring right at us! Freaky! So intense. There he is back behind his keyboard, and he makes this groovy sort of gesture with his right hand - that's this video's version of him "rocking out." Cut now to an image of some kind of bug, maybe a cicada, which seems to be struggling - maybe it's caught in a web; the branches are devoid of leaves, and this is clearly a winter scene, which reinforces how cold this song is. The camera pans across to the interior of a room which is again dominated by technology, in particular a television screen which shows our heroes gamely trying to emote something - Lee is in colour and superimposed against a washed-out image of Lifeson. I don't want to speculate about the symbolism of that.

 

The camera pans over to a shot of one of those cool marble contraptions - the ones where the marbles roll along a track, endlessly, like in an Escher print. But wait! Some of the marbles are shooting off the track and falling into a blackness. They drop past a weird sideways picture of Lee and Lifeson, both looking kind of like they have to pee. Where are their instruments? Well, they don't really need them at this part of the song, dominated as it is by synthetic sounds. More molecules, then a shot of Alex staring intently into a glowing orb. Maybe he's looking intently for his purpose in this song, who knows? Then there's Lee, also looking into the glowing orb. Hmmm....

 

Now we cut to these admittedly cool little toys that Rush were very proud to have featured in this video. A figure sleeps in his(?) bed while some kind of monster comes out of the closet - perhaps a nightmare. But the whole thing is just a production of gears in a wind-up toy. Is that all our subconscious is? A product of mechanical processes set into motion? We cut to a shot of Neil and his weird haircut as viewed through a ship's portal. Why? You'd have to ask the guy who made this video, I guess. There are Lifeson and Lee - Lee's got some energy going on now that he's playing his little plastic toy bass. The camera lingers on a shot of Peart playing on a TV screen, then starts to tilt up . . . and up . . . as if it can go over the two-dimensional image. But that's impossible, isn't it? No! Look, now we have a bird's eye view of the band, Lee spinning around over top of the drum kit in a way that foreshadows that awful Time Stand Still video. There's Alex in there two, looking every inch the rock star . . . oh, no, wait - no he's not. This is kind of nauseating to look at, actually, all that spinning. Maybe that's what they mean by restless rhythms - that weird feeling you get in your gut watching three musicians spin around from a bird's eye view.

 

Now we get to perhaps the most symbolic image in the video. This weird toy that has a bunch of folks having lunch in a diner while a big skeleton-looking thing, representing death, seems to be pushing a bunch of naked figures through its ribcage. Maybe it's eaten them and is digesting them. As they reach the pelvic region, they stare down at the people eating in the diner. They're thinking, "that used to be me" or maybe "that's me" or maybe "hey, I know that guy!" Who knows? They complete the cycle and up they go again. The video ends with the skeleton's skull opening up to show six little figures opening and closing their mouths while they examine their fingernails. This is deep, deep, symbolic stuff. I can't even begin to venture to hazard a guess.

 

So there you go. My little analysis. Not very helpful, is it? I kind of hate music videos.

Edited by toymaker
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Well, the video starts with a shot of Peart and his awful 80s haircut, playing the "back kit" which has the electronic drums. It cuts to a shot of what looks like molecules and some kind of scanner/grid thing. This is our life now - saturated by technology. Then it shows Lifeson playing an Ovation guitar, which in spite of its "nature imagery" soundboard is mostly made of some kind of space-age composite material.

 

Suddenly Lee appears on the screen, wearing that crazy hat (oh . . . sorry, that's his hair) against some kind of leafy backdrop--again, not a real leafy backdrop, but obviously some kind of bad green screen composite. So far the song doesn't seem to be about anything mystical or metaphysical at all. The pull-back reveals that the whole thing is just an image on a screen that's part of some kind of large machine made of gears and pipes. Then we cut to a shot of Lee with his little plastic Steinberger bass strapped on while he plays a synthesizer. He is staring vacantly off into the distance, as if he wishes he were somewhere else and not making this video. Perhaps he is "someplace mystical" in his mind, while his body mechanically plays these cold synthetic notes. It's hard to know for sure.

 

Suddenly Lee's image becomes part of some kind of wacky collage made of photographs and plastic limbs and a doll's head. One wonders why they didn't call this song "Synthetic Rhythms." Maybe it's meant to convey some disaffection with the state of modern life. Suddenly Lee is staring right at us! Freaky! So intense. There he is back behind his keyboard, and he makes this groovy sort of gesture with his right hand - that's this video's version of him "rocking out." Cut now to an image of some kind of bug, maybe a cicada, which seems to be struggling - maybe it's caught in a web; the branches are devoid of leaves, and this is clearly a winter scene, which reinforces how cold this song is. The camera pans across to the interior of a room which is again dominated by technology, in particular a television screen which shows our heroes gamely trying to emote something - Lee is in colour and superimposed against a washed-out image of Lifeson. I don't want to speculate about the symbolism of that.

 

The camera pans over to a shot of one of those cool marble contraptions - the ones where the marbles roll along a track, endlessly, like in an Escher print. But wait! Some of the marbles are shooting off the track and falling into a blackness. They drop past a weird sideways picture of Lee and Lifeson, both looking kind of like they have to pee. Where are their instruments? Well, they don't really need them at this part of the song, dominated as it is by synthetic sounds. More molecules, then a shot of Alex staring intently into a glowing orb. Maybe he's looking intently for his purpose in this song, who knows? Then there's Lee, also looking into the glowing orb. Hmmm....

 

Now we cut to these admittedly cool little toys that Rush were very proud to have featured in this video. A figure sleeps in his(?) bed while some kind of monster comes out of the closet - perhaps a nightmare. But the whole thing is just a production of gears in a wind-up toy. Is that all our subconscious is? A product of mechanical processes set into motion? We cut to a shot of Neil and his weird haircut as viewed through a ship's portal. Why? You'd have to ask the guy who made this video, I guess. There are Lifeson and Lee - Lee's got some energy going on now that he's playing his little plastic toy bass. The camera lingers on a shot of Peart playing on a TV screen, then starts to tilt up . . . and up . . . as if it can go over the two-dimensional image. But that's impossible, isn't it? No! Look, now we have a bird's eye view of the band, Lee spinning around over top of the drum kit in a way that foreshadows that awful Time Stand Still video. There's Alex in there two, looking every inch the rock star . . . oh, no, wait - no he's not. This is kind of nauseating to look at, actually, all that spinning. Maybe that's what they mean by restless rhythms - that weird feeling you get in your gut watching three musicians spin around from a bird's eye view.

 

Now we get to perhaps the most symbolic image in the video. This weird toy that has a bunch of folks having lunch in a diner while a big skeleton-looking thing, representing death, seems to be pushing a bunch of naked figures through its ribcage. Maybe it's eaten them and is digesting them. As they reach the pelvic region, they stare down at the people eating in the diner. They're thinking, "that used to be me" or maybe "that's me" or maybe "hey, I know that guy!" Who knows? They complete the cycle and up they go again. The video ends with the skeleton's skull opening up to show six little figures opening and closing their mouths while they examine their fingernails. This is deep, deep, symbolic stuff. I can't even begin to venture to hazard a guess.

 

So there you go. My little analysis. Not very helpful, is it? I kind of hate music videos.

 

Can't even begin? To venture?? To hazard??? A guess???? Dude after diving in head first in that long description, you sure jumped out of the pool quick and ran for the hills when the skeleton came up..!!! Haha

 

I won't even attempt explaining this video because as most Rush videos go, it's just a third party's interpretation of the song ;)

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Well, the video starts with a shot of Peart and his awful 80s haircut, playing the "back kit" which has the electronic drums. It cuts to a shot of what looks like molecules and some kind of scanner/grid thing. This is our life now - saturated by technology. Then it shows Lifeson playing an Ovation guitar, which in spite of its "nature imagery" soundboard is mostly made of some kind of space-age composite material.

 

Suddenly Lee appears on the screen, wearing that crazy hat (oh . . . sorry, that's his hair) against some kind of leafy backdrop--again, not a real leafy backdrop, but obviously some kind of bad green screen composite. So far the song doesn't seem to be about anything mystical or metaphysical at all. The pull-back reveals that the whole thing is just an image on a screen that's part of some kind of large machine made of gears and pipes. Then we cut to a shot of Lee with his little plastic Steinberger bass strapped on while he plays a synthesizer. He is staring vacantly off into the distance, as if he wishes he were somewhere else and not making this video. Perhaps he is "someplace mystical" in his mind, while his body mechanically plays these cold synthetic notes. It's hard to know for sure.

 

Suddenly Lee's image becomes part of some kind of wacky collage made of photographs and plastic limbs and a doll's head. One wonders why they didn't call this song "Synthetic Rhythms." Maybe it's meant to convey some disaffection with the state of modern life. Suddenly Lee is staring right at us! Freaky! So intense. There he is back behind his keyboard, and he makes this groovy sort of gesture with his right hand - that's this video's version of him "rocking out." Cut now to an image of some kind of bug, maybe a cicada, which seems to be struggling - maybe it's caught in a web; the branches are devoid of leaves, and this is clearly a winter scene, which reinforces how cold this song is. The camera pans across to the interior of a room which is again dominated by technology, in particular a television screen which shows our heroes gamely trying to emote something - Lee is in colour and superimposed against a washed-out image of Lifeson. I don't want to speculate about the symbolism of that.

 

The camera pans over to a shot of one of those cool marble contraptions - the ones where the marbles roll along a track, endlessly, like in an Escher print. But wait! Some of the marbles are shooting off the track and falling into a blackness. They drop past a weird sideways picture of Lee and Lifeson, both looking kind of like they have to pee. Where are their instruments? Well, they don't really need them at this part of the song, dominated as it is by synthetic sounds. More molecules, then a shot of Alex staring intently into a glowing orb. Maybe he's looking intently for his purpose in this song, who knows? Then there's Lee, also looking into the glowing orb. Hmmm....

 

Now we cut to these admittedly cool little toys that Rush were very proud to have featured in this video. A figure sleeps in his(?) bed while some kind of monster comes out of the closet - perhaps a nightmare. But the whole thing is just a production of gears in a wind-up toy. Is that all our subconscious is? A product of mechanical processes set into motion? We cut to a shot of Neil and his weird haircut as viewed through a ship's portal. Why? You'd have to ask the guy who made this video, I guess. There are Lifeson and Lee - Lee's got some energy going on now that he's playing his little plastic toy bass. The camera lingers on a shot of Peart playing on a TV screen, then starts to tilt up . . . and up . . . as if it can go over the two-dimensional image. But that's impossible, isn't it? No! Look, now we have a bird's eye view of the band, Lee spinning around over top of the drum kit in a way that foreshadows that awful Time Stand Still video. There's Alex in there two, looking every inch the rock star . . . oh, no, wait - no he's not. This is kind of nauseating to look at, actually, all that spinning. Maybe that's what they mean by restless rhythms - that weird feeling you get in your gut watching three musicians spin around from a bird's eye view.

 

Now we get to perhaps the most symbolic image in the video. This weird toy that has a bunch of folks having lunch in a diner while a big skeleton-looking thing, representing death, seems to be pushing a bunch of naked figures through its ribcage. Maybe it's eaten them and is digesting them. As they reach the pelvic region, they stare down at the people eating in the diner. They're thinking, "that used to be me" or maybe "that's me" or maybe "hey, I know that guy!" Who knows? They complete the cycle and up they go again. The video ends with the skeleton's skull opening up to show six little figures opening and closing their mouths while they examine their fingernails. This is deep, deep, symbolic stuff. I can't even begin to venture to hazard a guess.

 

So there you go. My little analysis. Not very helpful, is it? I kind of hate music videos.

 

Can't even begin? To venture?? To hazard??? A guess???? Dude after diving in head first in that long description, you sure jumped out of the pool quick and ran for the hills when the skeleton came up..!!! Haha

 

I won't even attempt explaining this video because as most Rush videos go, it's just a third party's interpretation of the song ;)

 

It's all done in complete and utter goofiness!

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Well, the video starts with a shot of Peart and his awful 80s haircut, playing the "back kit" which has the electronic drums. It cuts to a shot of what looks like molecules and some kind of scanner/grid thing. This is our life now - saturated by technology. Then it shows Lifeson playing an Ovation guitar, which in spite of its "nature imagery" soundboard is mostly made of some kind of space-age composite material.

 

Suddenly Lee appears on the screen, wearing that crazy hat (oh . . . sorry, that's his hair) against some kind of leafy backdrop--again, not a real leafy backdrop, but obviously some kind of bad green screen composite. So far the song doesn't seem to be about anything mystical or metaphysical at all. The pull-back reveals that the whole thing is just an image on a screen that's part of some kind of large machine made of gears and pipes. Then we cut to a shot of Lee with his little plastic Steinberger bass strapped on while he plays a synthesizer. He is staring vacantly off into the distance, as if he wishes he were somewhere else and not making this video. Perhaps he is "someplace mystical" in his mind, while his body mechanically plays these cold synthetic notes. It's hard to know for sure.

 

Suddenly Lee's image becomes part of some kind of wacky collage made of photographs and plastic limbs and a doll's head. One wonders why they didn't call this song "Synthetic Rhythms." Maybe it's meant to convey some disaffection with the state of modern life. Suddenly Lee is staring right at us! Freaky! So intense. There he is back behind his keyboard, and he makes this groovy sort of gesture with his right hand - that's this video's version of him "rocking out." Cut now to an image of some kind of bug, maybe a cicada, which seems to be struggling - maybe it's caught in a web; the branches are devoid of leaves, and this is clearly a winter scene, which reinforces how cold this song is. The camera pans across to the interior of a room which is again dominated by technology, in particular a television screen which shows our heroes gamely trying to emote something - Lee is in colour and superimposed against a washed-out image of Lifeson. I don't want to speculate about the symbolism of that.

 

The camera pans over to a shot of one of those cool marble contraptions - the ones where the marbles roll along a track, endlessly, like in an Escher print. But wait! Some of the marbles are shooting off the track and falling into a blackness. They drop past a weird sideways picture of Lee and Lifeson, both looking kind of like they have to pee. Where are their instruments? Well, they don't really need them at this part of the song, dominated as it is by synthetic sounds. More molecules, then a shot of Alex staring intently into a glowing orb. Maybe he's looking intently for his purpose in this song, who knows? Then there's Lee, also looking into the glowing orb. Hmmm....

 

Now we cut to these admittedly cool little toys that Rush were very proud to have featured in this video. A figure sleeps in his(?) bed while some kind of monster comes out of the closet - perhaps a nightmare. But the whole thing is just a production of gears in a wind-up toy. Is that all our subconscious is? A product of mechanical processes set into motion? We cut to a shot of Neil and his weird haircut as viewed through a ship's portal. Why? You'd have to ask the guy who made this video, I guess. There are Lifeson and Lee - Lee's got some energy going on now that he's playing his little plastic toy bass. The camera lingers on a shot of Peart playing on a TV screen, then starts to tilt up . . . and up . . . as if it can go over the two-dimensional image. But that's impossible, isn't it? No! Look, now we have a bird's eye view of the band, Lee spinning around over top of the drum kit in a way that foreshadows that awful Time Stand Still video. There's Alex in there two, looking every inch the rock star . . . oh, no, wait - no he's not. This is kind of nauseating to look at, actually, all that spinning. Maybe that's what they mean by restless rhythms - that weird feeling you get in your gut watching three musicians spin around from a bird's eye view.

 

Now we get to perhaps the most symbolic image in the video. This weird toy that has a bunch of folks having lunch in a diner while a big skeleton-looking thing, representing death, seems to be pushing a bunch of naked figures through its ribcage. Maybe it's eaten them and is digesting them. As they reach the pelvic region, they stare down at the people eating in the diner. They're thinking, "that used to be me" or maybe "that's me" or maybe "hey, I know that guy!" Who knows? They complete the cycle and up they go again. The video ends with the skeleton's skull opening up to show six little figures opening and closing their mouths while they examine their fingernails. This is deep, deep, symbolic stuff. I can't even begin to venture to hazard a guess.

 

So there you go. My little analysis. Not very helpful, is it? I kind of hate music videos.

 

what an EPIC post!!!

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At 2:30am after a few Southern Comforts and Pepsi I didn't catch a theme or meaning. Just some funky visuals and the band playing with Alex guitar face. Edited by JohnRogers
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wow, I just watched Mystic Rhythms again - for the first time in years

 

... please excuse me as I now must clean up the blast of explosive diarrhea I experienced less than a minute in

 

.

 

.

Edited by Lucas
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Well, the video starts with a shot of Peart and his awful 80s haircut, playing the "back kit" which has the electronic drums. It cuts to a shot of what looks like molecules and some kind of scanner/grid thing. This is our life now - saturated by technology. Then it shows Lifeson playing an Ovation guitar, which in spite of its "nature imagery" soundboard is mostly made of some kind of space-age composite material.

 

Suddenly Lee appears on the screen, wearing that crazy hat (oh . . . sorry, that's his hair) against some kind of leafy backdrop--again, not a real leafy backdrop, but obviously some kind of bad green screen composite. So far the song doesn't seem to be about anything mystical or metaphysical at all. The pull-back reveals that the whole thing is just an image on a screen that's part of some kind of large machine made of gears and pipes. Then we cut to a shot of Lee with his little plastic Steinberger bass strapped on while he plays a synthesizer. He is staring vacantly off into the distance, as if he wishes he were somewhere else and not making this video. Perhaps he is "someplace mystical" in his mind, while his body mechanically plays these cold synthetic notes. It's hard to know for sure.

 

Suddenly Lee's image becomes part of some kind of wacky collage made of photographs and plastic limbs and a doll's head. One wonders why they didn't call this song "Synthetic Rhythms." Maybe it's meant to convey some disaffection with the state of modern life. Suddenly Lee is staring right at us! Freaky! So intense. There he is back behind his keyboard, and he makes this groovy sort of gesture with his right hand - that's this video's version of him "rocking out." Cut now to an image of some kind of bug, maybe a cicada, which seems to be struggling - maybe it's caught in a web; the branches are devoid of leaves, and this is clearly a winter scene, which reinforces how cold this song is. The camera pans across to the interior of a room which is again dominated by technology, in particular a television screen which shows our heroes gamely trying to emote something - Lee is in colour and superimposed against a washed-out image of Lifeson. I don't want to speculate about the symbolism of that.

 

The camera pans over to a shot of one of those cool marble contraptions - the ones where the marbles roll along a track, endlessly, like in an Escher print. But wait! Some of the marbles are shooting off the track and falling into a blackness. They drop past a weird sideways picture of Lee and Lifeson, both looking kind of like they have to pee. Where are their instruments? Well, they don't really need them at this part of the song, dominated as it is by synthetic sounds. More molecules, then a shot of Alex staring intently into a glowing orb. Maybe he's looking intently for his purpose in this song, who knows? Then there's Lee, also looking into the glowing orb. Hmmm....

 

Now we cut to these admittedly cool little toys that Rush were very proud to have featured in this video. A figure sleeps in his(?) bed while some kind of monster comes out of the closet - perhaps a nightmare. But the whole thing is just a production of gears in a wind-up toy. Is that all our subconscious is? A product of mechanical processes set into motion? We cut to a shot of Neil and his weird haircut as viewed through a ship's portal. Why? You'd have to ask the guy who made this video, I guess. There are Lifeson and Lee - Lee's got some energy going on now that he's playing his little plastic toy bass. The camera lingers on a shot of Peart playing on a TV screen, then starts to tilt up . . . and up . . . as if it can go over the two-dimensional image. But that's impossible, isn't it? No! Look, now we have a bird's eye view of the band, Lee spinning around over top of the drum kit in a way that foreshadows that awful Time Stand Still video. There's Alex in there two, looking every inch the rock star . . . oh, no, wait - no he's not. This is kind of nauseating to look at, actually, all that spinning. Maybe that's what they mean by restless rhythms - that weird feeling you get in your gut watching three musicians spin around from a bird's eye view.

 

Now we get to perhaps the most symbolic image in the video. This weird toy that has a bunch of folks having lunch in a diner while a big skeleton-looking thing, representing death, seems to be pushing a bunch of naked figures through its ribcage. Maybe it's eaten them and is digesting them. As they reach the pelvic region, they stare down at the people eating in the diner. They're thinking, "that used to be me" or maybe "that's me" or maybe "hey, I know that guy!" Who knows? They complete the cycle and up they go again. The video ends with the skeleton's skull opening up to show six little figures opening and closing their mouths while they examine their fingernails. This is deep, deep, symbolic stuff. I can't even begin to venture to hazard a guess.

 

So there you go. My little analysis. Not very helpful, is it? I kind of hate music videos.

 

Funny analysis.. I love this part..

 

Cut now to an image of some kind of bug, maybe a cicada, which seems to be struggling - maybe it's caught in a web....

 

 

 

 

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Well, the video starts with a shot of Peart and his awful 80s haircut, playing the "back kit" which has the electronic drums. It cuts to a shot of what looks like molecules and some kind of scanner/grid thing. This is our life now - saturated by technology. Then it shows Lifeson playing an Ovation guitar, which in spite of its "nature imagery" soundboard is mostly made of some kind of space-age composite material.

 

Suddenly Lee appears on the screen, wearing that crazy hat (oh . . . sorry, that's his hair) against some kind of leafy backdrop--again, not a real leafy backdrop, but obviously some kind of bad green screen composite. So far the song doesn't seem to be about anything mystical or metaphysical at all. The pull-back reveals that the whole thing is just an image on a screen that's part of some kind of large machine made of gears and pipes. Then we cut to a shot of Lee with his little plastic Steinberger bass strapped on while he plays a synthesizer. He is staring vacantly off into the distance, as if he wishes he were somewhere else and not making this video. Perhaps he is "someplace mystical" in his mind, while his body mechanically plays these cold synthetic notes. It's hard to know for sure.

 

Suddenly Lee's image becomes part of some kind of wacky collage made of photographs and plastic limbs and a doll's head. One wonders why they didn't call this song "Synthetic Rhythms." Maybe it's meant to convey some disaffection with the state of modern life. Suddenly Lee is staring right at us! Freaky! So intense. There he is back behind his keyboard, and he makes this groovy sort of gesture with his right hand - that's this video's version of him "rocking out." Cut now to an image of some kind of bug, maybe a cicada, which seems to be struggling - maybe it's caught in a web; the branches are devoid of leaves, and this is clearly a winter scene, which reinforces how cold this song is. The camera pans across to the interior of a room which is again dominated by technology, in particular a television screen which shows our heroes gamely trying to emote something - Lee is in colour and superimposed against a washed-out image of Lifeson. I don't want to speculate about the symbolism of that.

 

The camera pans over to a shot of one of those cool marble contraptions - the ones where the marbles roll along a track, endlessly, like in an Escher print. But wait! Some of the marbles are shooting off the track and falling into a blackness. They drop past a weird sideways picture of Lee and Lifeson, both looking kind of like they have to pee. Where are their instruments? Well, they don't really need them at this part of the song, dominated as it is by synthetic sounds. More molecules, then a shot of Alex staring intently into a glowing orb. Maybe he's looking intently for his purpose in this song, who knows? Then there's Lee, also looking into the glowing orb. Hmmm....

 

Now we cut to these admittedly cool little toys that Rush were very proud to have featured in this video. A figure sleeps in his(?) bed while some kind of monster comes out of the closet - perhaps a nightmare. But the whole thing is just a production of gears in a wind-up toy. Is that all our subconscious is? A product of mechanical processes set into motion? We cut to a shot of Neil and his weird haircut as viewed through a ship's portal. Why? You'd have to ask the guy who made this video, I guess. There are Lifeson and Lee - Lee's got some energy going on now that he's playing his little plastic toy bass. The camera lingers on a shot of Peart playing on a TV screen, then starts to tilt up . . . and up . . . as if it can go over the two-dimensional image. But that's impossible, isn't it? No! Look, now we have a bird's eye view of the band, Lee spinning around over top of the drum kit in a way that foreshadows that awful Time Stand Still video. There's Alex in there two, looking every inch the rock star . . . oh, no, wait - no he's not. This is kind of nauseating to look at, actually, all that spinning. Maybe that's what they mean by restless rhythms - that weird feeling you get in your gut watching three musicians spin around from a bird's eye view.

 

Now we get to perhaps the most symbolic image in the video. This weird toy that has a bunch of folks having lunch in a diner while a big skeleton-looking thing, representing death, seems to be pushing a bunch of naked figures through its ribcage. Maybe it's eaten them and is digesting them. As they reach the pelvic region, they stare down at the people eating in the diner. They're thinking, "that used to be me" or maybe "that's me" or maybe "hey, I know that guy!" Who knows? They complete the cycle and up they go again. The video ends with the skeleton's skull opening up to show six little figures opening and closing their mouths while they examine their fingernails. This is deep, deep, symbolic stuff. I can't even begin to venture to hazard a guess.

 

So there you go. My little analysis. Not very helpful, is it? I kind of hate music videos.

 

Thank you dr Freud(Rushaholic) for that anlysis. Honestly your analysis is spot on. Especially Geedy's hair looking like a hat may even a coon skin cap that davy crocket would of worn.

Edited by madrushian
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