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To live between a rock and a hard place
In between time --
Cruising in prime time -- soaking up the cathode rays
To live between the wars in our time --
Living in real time --
Holding the good time -- Holding on to yesterdays...
You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb -- but the wheels of time --
Just pass you by...
Wheels can take you around
Wheels can cut you down
We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust
We can fall from rockets' red glare
Down to "Brother can you spare --"
Another war -- another waste land --
And another lost generation...
It slips between your hands like water
This living in real time
A dizzying lifetime
Reeling by on celluloid
Struck between the eyes
By the big-time world
Walking uneasy streets --
Hiding beneath the sheets --
Got to try and fill the void...
In between time --
Cruising in prime time -- soaking up the cathode rays
To live between the wars in our time --
Living in real time --
Holding the good time -- Holding on to yesterdays...
You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb -- but the wheels of time --
Just pass you by...
Wheels can take you around
Wheels can cut you down
We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust
We can fall from rockets' red glare
Down to "Brother can you spare --"
Another war -- another waste land --
And another lost generation...
It slips between your hands like water
This living in real time
A dizzying lifetime
Reeling by on celluloid
Struck between the eyes
By the big-time world
Walking uneasy streets --
Hiding beneath the sheets --
Got to try and fill the void...
Lyrics submitted by shed27
Track duration: 05:44
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The lyrics practically describe what America has been living through in the last decade or so.
The juxtaposition of a pop culture awash in stupidity and meaningless affect while soldiers come home and drown in their own shattered psyches, alcohol & drugs and (for far too many) eventual suicide.
We are two very separate and incongruous nations in that respect.
Neil was looking at what happened to those who lived between the two World Wars (often called the "Lost Generation" - a phrase used by Hemingway who, as another commenter mentioned, was the source of the album title) and was beginning to see parallels to our own modern culture in the early 80s and now the 21st century.
Considering the tone of his disappointment with what we've become (excellently expressed on Snakes & Arrows with Armor And Sword and The Way The Wind Blows) it didn't surprise me that the band played this two tours in a row probably at the suggestion of Peart.
What scares me is we have enough ego-maniacs who believe in "American exceptionalism" who somehow think that the "boom" will never go "bust" so we're burning America out as a world power. I think we're past the point of....
"Wheels can take you around
Wheels can cut you down
We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust"
"You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb -- but the wheels of time --
Just pass you by... "
I must tell, I bought this record beacause my friend was playing drums in a swedish coverband playing Rush (only).
I bought it lissened to it and put it away. For about a year. Didn't like it.
When I then lissened to it again i got stuck. It was a strange feeling. Like the feeling a get from Edward Hoppers paintings. I dont like the "form" but a kind of like the "message", if there is a massage.
Just "Grace under pressure" is telling what I feel.
This song I like because it goes from one tempos to another. From darkness to a more constructice beet. From the bottom you try to get to the surface.
Strange and beautiful.
All the songs on "Grace Under Pressure" have a common thread...the album is all about living on the brink and somehow finding it within yourself to forge ahead.
This song addresses the wastefulness of the Cold War. The "Reeling by on celluloid" reference is stating that people sometimes seek refugee in entertainment and mindless activities instead of facing their fears and responsibilities.
The opening lines of this song bring to mind a person who has either become a TV junkie, living life through fiction, or so afraid of what is happening in the real would (on TV), they cut themselves off from society.
Life can go by so fast and seem overwhelming.
"What is my purpose?" "What should I do?" Do something. Anything. Don't just sit there.
The song seems to suggest everyone's imput is needed. As another Rush song says, "Get out there and rock, and roll the bones."