Red Sector A

Of course this song refers Geddy's parents but it is also about the book "I Have Lived a Thousand Years" about a 13 year old girl growing up in the holocaust. The girl in the book had a father and a brother that were lost, and she had to help her mother constantly to survive in the prison camps. The line "But I must help my mother stand up straight", refers to the chapter in the book "The Selection" where her mother can no longer stand due to weakness, and she must support her and keep her standing to pass the roll call. Quote from the book: "When the SS brass approaches, several girls help me pull Mommy up on her feet. I stand behind her, my body giving her support. And so she stands for the few moments it takes for the SS to count the heads of the first row nearby. It works. Thank God. But how long can this be kept up? Two days? Three Days? And what then?" Its a really good, eye opening book, everyone should read it. The line "a pounding in my temples" can also be found in the book. :)

I had the honor of seeing rush perform this and many other songs during their 30th anniversary tour as well as on their roll the bones tour,and I was really overtaken by how fucking enerjetic they are during their shows.Especially neil peart.that guy is hands down the greatest drummer alive,and the fact that he could rebound from losing his wife and his daughter just command's the absolute upmost of respect.

such a haunting and touching song. like everyone else, said its about what the Jewish people went through in the Holocaust. and yes both of Geddy's parents survived it. this song just makes me so pissed off at all of those racist fuckers out there and what they are supporting.

When Geddy was out promoting his album "My favorite headache" I was lucky enough to have won a seat in the 933.3 WMMR studios in philadelphia. I sat about 4 feet away from Geddy and was able to ask him a few questions. ! of which was about this song. He explained to me that Alex was talking to Geddys' parents about the holocaust. Alex was so moved about what Geddys' parents told him he wrote this song. This was straight from Geddys' mouth.

kjg2266 on 02-13-2008 @ 12:25:03 PM - - -

Great story. Though I thought Neil wrote the lyrics and not Alex?! Are you sure he said Alex?

This song is one of their best, and I agree with you masterofpuppets. I hate all those racist nazi whores.

hagar, maybe those guys in the bathroom actually said this bong was built in a prison in Africa...

the song is ostensibly about some bleak situation in the future, but in reality is a description of what it must have felt like to have been liberated by allied forces at the end of WWII... the camp survivors had been imprisoned and starved for so long and none of them had any idea of whether the outside world had any idea of what was going on inside the camps or whether they had been totally forgotten... when the American soldiers came at last to liberate the camps, the prisoners probably could not be sure that what was happening was true... were they liberators or were they German soldiers coming to finish the Jews off? "Do I hope, or do I fear?"

Comments from Rush's Lee and Peart on conceiving and writing Red Sector A are available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sector_A.

Lyricist Neil Peart has stated that the detailed imagery in the song intentionally evokes concentration camps of The Holocaust.

This song is from the perspective of a person who is surviving some Holocaust like event.

I find the lyrics:

"Are we the last ones left alive? Are we the only human beings To survive?"

particularly moving. His references to helping his mother stand up straight implies that despite all of the pain and torture they have been through, they have still retained their humanity and their pride. Now they are asking whether or not they are the only ones who have.