![]() "YYZ" was the first of six Rush songs (over three decades) to be nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The piece evolved into a drum/bass solo during the 1980s. "YYZ" (natively pronounced why-why-zed) is the airport code for the Toronto Pearson International Airport, and the instrumental opens with a rhythm in 10/8 that is Morse code for "YYZ" (-.-.-.). Ĭlassic Rock ranked the instrumental number 2 on their list of The 50 Greatest Rush Songs Ever. Rolling Stone readers voted the piece number 9 on their list of The Top 10 Rush songs. We got in trouble later because we used music from a cartoon from the 1930s. There's also a big band section in there, which was absolutely for me because I always wanted to play that approach. "La Villa Strangiato" means strange city, and there was so much going on in that. This is Alex's brain, and every section of that song is different dreams that Alex would tell us about and we'd be, "stop, stop." It was these bizarre dreams that he would insist on telling you every detail about, so it became a joke between Geddy and me. ĭrummer Neil Peart said of "La Villa Strangiato": "La Villa Strangiato" translates roughly to "The Strange Village" or "Weird City". Yes, it is an indulgence, but it seemed to be a pivotal moment for us in creating a fan base that wanted us to be that way. They just love it when we go into that crazy mode. I included it here because it surprised me how popular that song was among our fans. We thought: "We're going to write this long piece and then we'll just record it live off the floor and boom!"īut it was really difficult. That was a song where I would have to say our ideas exceeded our ability to play them. Although the statute of limitations for copyright infringement had expired by the time Scott's publishers attempted to take legal action, the band paid some monetary compensation to him and his wife, feeling an ethical obligation to do so. The segments titled "Monsters!" and "Monsters! (Reprise)" are an adaptation of Raymond Scott's popular composition "Powerhouse". ![]() ![]() So each section had to stand up with a theme and musical structure of its own." It was our first piece without any vocals at all. According to Lee, "We spent more time recording 'Strangiato' than the entire Fly by Night album. The band set out to record the song in one take however, it ultimately required three separate takes. ![]() During the 2010–2011 Time Machine Tour, the piece began with a polka rendition of "To sleep, perchance to dream," then transitioned into the original arrangement. The classical guitar introduction was either played on electric guitar or, more commonly, cut out altogether. Stage Left, Lee sings part of a nursery rhyme over "Danforth and Pape" (the liner notes include a translation of his words) and adds a short bass solo during "Monsters! (Reprise)." During later tours, as documented on Rush in Rio and the Blu-ray release of R30, a drum/bass vamp was inserted before "Strangiato Theme (Reprise)," over which Lifeson sang nonsense or made a stream of consciousness rant. Live versions of "La Villa Strangiato" have often featured altered sections. IX: "Never turn your back on a Monster!" (7:52–8:02).The Strangiato theme is then revisited before the song ends abruptly with phased bass and drums. The song progresses to include an increasingly complex guitar solo backed by string synthesizer, followed closely by bass and drum fills. The next segment introduces the main theme of La Villa, the Strangiato theme. The opening segment was played on a nylon-string classical guitar. The multi-part piece was inspired by a dream guitarist Alex Lifeson had, and the music in these sections correspond to the occurrences in his dream. The 9:37 song, the fourth and final track of the album, was Rush's first entirely instrumental piece. "La Villa Strangiato" was released on the 1978 album Hemispheres, and is subtitled "An Exercise in Self-Indulgence".
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