Rush + Martha & the Muffins

¤  The Rush   ⇔  Alex Lifeson,  Geddy Lee  &  Neil Peart  

Story … ⇒[Part 1] ⇔ [Part 2] ⇔ [Part 3] ⇔ [Part 4] ⇔ [Part 5]⇐

◊→ ‘Xanadu‘  ⇓

In SM Coleridge’s poem, Xanadu is the fictional name of the land where Khubla Khan ordered the dome to be built: «In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree.» Coleridge goes on to describe the dome as a «Miracle of rare device, a sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice.» 

⇐ [1984]

⇓  ‘Distant Early Warning’ ⇐

An ill wind comes arising across the cities of the plain

There’s no swimming in the heavy water, no singing in the acid rain

Red alert – Red alert

It’s so hard to stay together passing through revolving doors

We need someone to talk to and someone to sweep the floors

Incomplete – Incomplete!

 

The world weighs on my shoulders but what am I to do?

You sometimes drive me crazy but I worry about you

I know it makes no difference to what you’re going through

But I see the tip of the iceberg and I worry about you…

 

Cruising under your radar, watching from satellites

Take a page from the red book – Keep them in your sights

Red alert – Red alert

Left and rights of passage – Black and whites of youth

Who can face the knowledge that the truth is not the truth?

Obsolete – Absolute!  oh!

 

The world weighs on my shoulders . . .

All that we can do is just survive

All that we can do to help ourselves is stay alive …

Ragged lines of ragged grey – Skeletons, they shuffle away

Shouting guards and smoking guns will cut down the unlucky ones

I clutch the wire fence until my fingers bleed

A wound that will not heal – A heart that cannot feel

Hoping that the horror will recede – Hoping that tomorrow we’ll all be freed

.

Sickness to insanity – Prayer to profanity

Days and weeks and months go by – Don’t feel the hunger too weak to cry

I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gate

Are the liberators here? Do I hope or do I fear?

For my father and my brother, it’s too late, But I must help my mother stand up straight

Are we the last ones left alive?

Are we the only human beings to survive?

•→   ‘The Enemy Within (part I of Fear)’ ⇐

«… I’m not giving in to security under pressure

I’m not missing out on the promise of adventure

I’m not giving up on implausible dreams

Experience to extremes – Experience to extremes…»

◊  ‘Kid Gloves’  ↓

                            ⇒  @  Chicago’s United Center   2012 ⇐

↑  01 _ The Body Electric  / 02 _ Territories← / 03 _ The Analog Kid←

One humanoid escapee – One android on the run

Seeking freedom beneath a lonely desert sun

Trying to change its program

Trying to change the mode…crack the code

Images conflicting into data overload

 

1 0 0 1 0 0 1  –  SOS

1 0 0 1 0 0 1 – In distress

1 0 0 1 0 0

 

Memory banks unloading – Bytes break into bits

Unit One’s in trouble and it’s scared out of its wits

Guidance systems break down

A struggle to exist – To resist

A pulse of dying power in a clenching plastic fist

 

1 0 0 1 0 0 1  –  SOS . . .

 

It replays each of the days a hundred years of routines

Bows its head and prays to the mother of all machines

•→ «BU2B»← [2011]

«…The universe has a plan – All is for the best

Some will be rewarded and the devil will take the rest…»

♦  ‘Leave That Thing Alone’ ↓  [2011]

…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 wasteland and another lost generation 

•→‘The Garden’⇐[«Clockwork Angels»_2012]

♠  Rush on Q TV ↓

÷      ÷      ÷                  ÷      ÷      ÷

¤  Martha & the Muffins  [M+M]

• Formation and early years (1977 – 1978)

Martha and the Muffins (aka M+M) are a Canadian New Wave band, active from 1977.  They chose the name «Martha and the Muffins» to distance themselves from the aggressive names adopted by many punk bands of the era. According to Mark Gane: «We decided to use it as a temporary name until we could all agree on something better.» The name ended up sticking for the next seven years.

Saxophone player Andy Haas began performing with the band in early 1978. Founding-member Millar left the band shortly thereafter and was replaced by Martha Ladly, who had attended high school with the Ganes. She became the group’s second keyboardist/vocalist named Martha, although Martha Johnson remained the group’s primary lead singer. In 1978, they released their first independent single, «Insect Love». This and a demo tape recorded in June 1978 quickly garnered them a recording deal with the DinDisc offshoot of Virgin Records.

• International success (1979 – 1982)

In 1979, the band travelled to England to record their first album, Metro Music (1980) for the DinDisc Label, which gave Martha and the Muffins a major international hit single with «Echo Beach». In October 1980, the band released their second album, Trance and Dance, which was less successful, and Ladly left the band…

In 1981, bassist Finkle quit too, and was replaced by Jocelyne Lanois, the sister of then-unknown record producer Daniel Lanois, who produced  ‘This is the Ice Age’. Shortly after the album’s release, Tim Gane decided he did not want to tour, and left the band; he was replaced by new drummer Nick Kent. Despite critical acclaim, This Is The Ice Age didn’t spin off any hit singles outside of Canada, and Virgin dropped the band from their roster.

• The M+M years (1983 – 1986)

After the tour for This Is the Ice Age, Haas left the band. The band, now a quartet (Martha Johnson, Mark Gane, Jocelyne Lanois, and Nick Kent), signed to Canadian indie label Current Records, distributed by RCA.

1983’s Danseparc was produced by Daniel Lanois, Gane, and Johnson. Gane, eager to drop the name «Martha and the Muffins», proposed that the group be now called «M + M». In a compromise, both names were used for a time, and the Danseparc album cover had both «M + M» and «Martha and the Muffins» printed on it. At the end of the Danseparc tour, Gane and Johnson (now a couple) announced that, although they wanted to continue as a recording act, they also wanted to branch out in new directions by using new collaborators. In essence, Gane and Johnson decided that «M + M» was now Martha + Mark, along with studio musicians and sidemen.

The duo’s 1984 album Mystery Walk was again co-produced by Daniel Lanois with Gane and Johnson, and it gave M + M/Martha and the Muffins their biggest hit in years with «Black Stations/White Stations», an anti-racist anthem whose first verse took radio stations to task for refusing to play a song about mixed-race romance…

In 1985, Johnson and Gane started work on their next album in Montreal before heading to Bath, England to work with producer David Lord, resulting in the album The World is a Ball (1986). Although the lead single, «Song in My Head», garnered them some airplay, the album sold poorly, and Gane and Johnson subsequently moved to England for a time.

From then on, Martha & The Muffins recorded sporadically, releasing Modern Lullaby in 1992 and Delicate in 2010.

 

 

← Living life as if life were safe

Forty years without a hiding place
One day a friend, the next a foe
Never-ending tension lying low
Targets from the cradle to the grave
Every day another borrowed day.

 

I am singing.
I am singing: World, world without borders
World without end.

Your future stolen from behind closed doors

Busy leaders busy breeding wars

The world is yours but they don’t let on

Always claiming that they’re never wrong

«VICTORY AT ANY COST!»

Have they won or have both sides lost?

 

I am singing   –   I am singing:

World, world without borders

World without end.

<

  [World Without Borders, from ‘Danseparc’]

 [Mark Gane & Martha Johnson in their home studio, The Web]

↑  «. . . That’s another fine mess you got me into . . .» 

◊   ‘Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing’ ⇓

Carry me to your blue bed  . . .

My memory was not serving me so correctly

(I walked in and kissed the wrong one.)

Is that what I want or is that what I am?

I respect you!   (I inspect you.) I respect you!    I respect you!

Carry me to your blue bed.

 

Watching you move is like sensing

The scheme of things pushing apart at the seams.

Your gesture is knocking a hole in the air!

You perceive me.  You receive me. You retrieve me.   You reprieve me.

Carry me to your blue bed.

Rushing up to meet me…

 

Knocking a hole I walked in and kissed  –  Is that what I want!

Sensing the scheme  –  Watching you move  I should know better. . .

 

I calculate, the buildings change and there I go again

Emerging from the underground not knowing where I am

A verdant park of small proportions underneath the sky

The turtles’ eggs, the dancing suns, the things I can’t explain

Mating monkeys filled the trees thus breaking all the rules

The music that we danced to wasn’t anything like this . . .

♦→  ‘Echo Beach‘  ↓

I know it’s out of fashion  –  And a trifle uncool

But I can’t help it  –  I’m a romantic fool

It’s a habit of mine  to watch the sun go down

On Echo beach, I watch the sun go down

From nine till five I have to spend my time at work

The job is very boring, I’m an office clerk

The only thing that helps pass the time away

Is knowing I’ll be back at Echo Beach some day

 

On a silent summer evening  – The sky’s alive with light

Building in the distance – Surrealistic sight

On Echo Beach – Waves make the only sound

On Echo Beach – There’s not a soul around

From nine till five I have to spend my time at work

The job is very boring, I’m an office clerk

The only thing that helps pass the time away

Is knowing I’ll be back at Echo Beach some day

 

Echo Beach – Far away in time Echo Beach – Far away in time

 

•→’Boy Without Filters’⇐

«…Only in moments of weakness, does she need him now…»

◊  ‘This Is The Ice Age’  ↓

Riding our bicycles down on the freeway,

Leaving distorted cars trailing behind,

We move like bullets!

No danger, no danger – We take that for granted.

Crossed the bridge, left the network behind,

I could feel it in my heart.

We gauge ourselves and the scenery too,

We push on forever and a day.

This is the Ice Age…

 

Feeling the trees and the wind on my face,

Passing along single file,

Might be autumn but we know it’s not,

Cynosures hiding in the air.

 

All we did was close our eyes,  A moment come unhinged.

All we did was close our eyes,  A world falling into shape.

 

The wind purls over a hinterland of long grass,

gold, where tiny black horses play.

Distant mountains move like water.

My friend is with me, a familiar voice, an unfinished memory:

«This is the Age of Innocent Passion.»

•→‘Boys in the Bushes’ ⇔[lyrics]

‘…Tourists are always looking up – Never watching where they step

Snapshots capturing the wrong things – Missing the forest for the trees….’

◊  ‘Women Around the World at Work’  ↓

In a hundred wars across the earth, men and guns are thought to prove their worth,

Women stay behind and grow the food, placing soldiers in a dangerous mood.

Women around the world at work . . .  Working, working…

There’s a man who must be sixty-five, Makes his living running other lives,

Tells them when they can’t and when they can, They’re so busy they don’t give a damn.

Women around the world at work…  Working, working…

In The Daily X, May ’81, back-page human interest story runs:

«GIRLS OF TWELVE STILL SOLD FOR LOVE TODAY»,

Just so men can have their bloody way.

Women around the world at work…

♦  ‘Danseparc  (Everyday is Tomorrow)’ ↓ (1983)

In a crowd, in a city I call my home

Undercover on the edge I move alone

Faces stare across at me with eyes that look but cannot see

Out of reach, out of lave- stepping out of bounds.

  

Every day it’s tomorrow and I never know what tomorrow will be

Every day it’s tomorrow and I feel someone move close to me

Every day it’s tomorrow and I never know what tomorrow will be

Every day it’s tomorrow and to dance with you is all I need.

 

(Into the thick, into the night, into your arms in the failing light.) Danse parc!

 

In a park, in a city I call your name

Will the way that we dance always be the same?

Hold me fast, draw me near Don’t let love disappear

Come to life, come together, steal me from my sleep.

 

Every day it’s tomorrow . . .

◊  ‘Cooling the Medium’  ↓  [Mystery Walk, 1984]

When the sun begins to fill her – When the foreground disappears

She’s waving to the river – She’s walking on the water

Carry me down, Carry me down,  Carry me down into the river …

 

Hold me close so I don’t fall

Cooling the medium – Wash the water from my eyes

Cooling the medium – Rest my head inside your hands

Cooling the medium – Walk me back to life again

Cooling the medium   (Coolin’, Coolin’)

In her eyes the line is shifting

In her hands, she feels the tension

All resistance paralyze

She looks the spirits in the eyes (In the eyes)

Carry me down, Carry me down,  Carry me down into the river …

 

Hold me close so I don’t fall

Cooling the medium – Wash the water from my eyes

Cooling the medium – Rest my head inside your hands

Cooling the medium – Walk me back to life again

Cooling the medium   (Coolin’, Coolin’)

Carry me down, Carry me down,  Carry me down into the river . . .

 

Hold me close so I don’t fall

Cooling the medium – Wash the water from my eyes

Cooling the medium – Rest my head inside your hands

Cooling the medium – Walk me back to life again

Cooling the medium – Hold me close so I don’t fall

Cooling the medium (Coolin’, Coolin’)

Wash the water from my eyes

Cooling the medium

•→«The World is a Ball»_[1986]  ⇐

∇   ‘Only You’  ← [2013]  ⇓

Well I made through the window – Now I’m on my way

I couldn’t take the weather for another day

Where I’m going to end up only heaven knows

Expect the unexpected – That’s the only road

Every word an open book – Watch your dreams don’t eat you up

Ask the questions with your eyes – Realize

Only you can set the world on fire

Only you can take my breath away

Only you can see my dreams

Only you can make the heavens cry

 

Got my feet in heavy water and my head in the clouds

Heartbeat oscillation, laughing right out loud

Everybody has a theory – It’s a search without clues

Expect the unexpected coming out of the blue

Every word an open book – Watch your dreams don’t eat you up

Ask the questions with your eyes – Realize

Only you can set the world on fire

Only you can make my dreams

Only you can take my breath away

Only you can set the world on fire

 

Waiting for a signal from the other side

Trying to close the distance in the great divide

Aurora Borealis  shiver down my spine

This time I’m going to make it to the end of the line

Every word an open book – Watch your dreams don’t eat you up

Ask the questions with your eyes – Realize

Only you can set the world on fire

Only you  […?]  Only you can take my breath away

Only you can make the heavens cry