| Rush – Limelight Lyrics | 5 years ago |
|
“LIMELIGHT” BY RUSH ON RECONCILING SHYNESS AND ADULATION Neil Peart’s composition “Limelight” includes a first verse, a pre-chorus, the chorus, a second verse, a second pre-chorus, a return to the chorus, a guitar solo, and a concluding repetition of the chorus. The notion of the gilded cage occurs in the first verse and in the second pre-chorus, and to my reading, it has different meanings in the two usages. It’s important to know that the phrase “gilded cage” means circumstances that appear wonderful (“gilded”) but indeed present serious constriction (“cage”). In the first usage, I read Neil to be referring to the gilded cage that is the life of a rock star, which in our imagination would seem to be a wonderful life, and yet with any type of stardom comes a near total loss of public autonomy and privacy – a constriction. Neil both sees this gilded cage and also sees beyond it. He writes, “Living on a lighted stage approaches the unreal for those who think and feel in touch with some reality beyond the gilded cage.” In the pre-chorus, Neil expands on this theme in a very personal way that describes his introversion and how he deals with it, writing: “Cast in this unlikely role ill-equipped to act, with insufficient tact, one must put up barriers to keep oneself intact.” Then comes the chorus, which is the broadest, most ontological statement to repeat throughout the song: “Living in the limelight, the universal dream for those who wish seem; those who wish to be must put aside the alienation, get on with the fascination, the real relation, the underlying theme. This chorus applies universally and sets up its personal application to Neil as depicted in the second usage of the term “glided cage.” To that end, the second verse takes us back to Neil and his trouble interrelating with fans about whom he knows nothing, yet they act toward him as if they’re longtime best buddies: “Living in a fisheye lens caught in the camera eye, I have no heart to lie: I can’t pretend a stranger is a long awaited friend.” In the second pre-chorus, there’s an epiphany wherein Neil expresses the second meaning of the gilded-cage: here it’s the seeming luxury – for an acute introvert – of living secluded whenever possible, a luxury that is belied by disconnection and loneliness. Borrowing from Shakespeare, he writes: “All the world’s indeed a stage and we are merely players, performers, and portrayers, each another’s audience outside the gilded-cage.” What this means to me is that inherently an introvert is focused on himself, and yet all the world’s a stage and everyone is here to be an actor observed (“Living in the limelight, the universal dream), and thus “each another’s audience” turns Neil being lost in ruminating over himself to being an audience for others – perhaps referring some to the public but also to his band mates (a photo of Neil reveals him back in the old days sitting alone reading a book just before going on stage, yet later video shows him standing among and paling around with Alex and Geddy as they wait to go on) and even to his first wife and daughter, who likely felt somewhat estranged by Neil’s need to withdraw to decompress when coming off the road. Next come a return to the chorus, then Alex’s signature guitar solo, and finally the chorus again. These repetitions of the chorus – beginning with “Those who wish to be” – return us to the essential ontological message about putting aside alienation to “get on with the fascination, the real relation – the underlying theme.” DANIEL PATRICK HILLYARD JAN 10, 2020 |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.