Different Strings

I see this song as possibly being about two(or more) types of relationships:

1. A long-term relationship in which two people truly love each other, but their differences have made it very difficult and inharmonious, yet for the distance created by it, their bond and love for each other remains. It's hard to tell if they are still together, but the line: "but there are times for you and me when all such things agree," seems like an indication that they WANT to remain together & get along in the face of the "differences."

"different eyes see different things different hearts beat on different strings." The above line about differences reminds me of when the emotional security within a relationship is shaken by realizing that as years have gone by, they have changed and where they maybe both once agreed about virtually everything now have strong differences of opinion about individually important issues and their once simple relationship became very complicated. "What happened to our innocence, did it go out of style along with our naivete no longer a child"...

Yet, on a positive note, "but there are times for you and me when all such things agree."

2. I could be alone in this, but I have a very close friend that I've known since 3rd grade. We grew up together, listened to Rush albums in his room for years, played in bands together, etc. Best buds, right? Well, since we've gotten married and are raising kids, we have our differences, and we very rarely talk but there's a bond there still that in spite of that, when we call each other up once or twice a year it's as though we've been together all along. And if I put that song on in his presence, we'd just look at each other, smile & nod, having a mutual understanding of how our friendship (totally hetero) is reflected in the song - "nothing to explain, it's a part of us, to be found within a song."

Point being, this song could apply to relationships that are non-gender specific and platonic in nature.

I agree with lerxstqk's opinion but the song was written by Geddy Lee

I agree with lerxstgk's take on the song, but the chorus always seemed like an untraditional love song, something like "We don't need fancy metaphors to say that we love each other."

I feel that that this song is about Geddy and Alex, their friendship as well as their professional relationship. In that perspective the lyrics expains themselves relatively easily but here are two examples.

"Who's come to slay the dragon, Come to watch him fall? Making arrows out of pointed words, Giant killers at the call? " - Rush recieved some pretty nasty critisism at the time.

"What happened to our innocence, Did it go out of style?" - The new wave scene gained alot of popularity at the time and maybe Rush felt their style is getting a little "old".

I think this is Neil's opinion that traditional love songs are dangerous - they fill peoples' minds with all these images of happy life and it's not always like that. "Nothing to explain, it's a part of us to be found within a song" seems to be all it takes!

I think this is one of their best songs lyrically (after 2112 of course...).

Neil didn't write this song. Geddy did!

Anyway, it's a great song off of a really solid album...one of my favorites!

It's the type of song that will mean something different to all of us, but it is so beautiful. This and Entre Nous are the real high points of Permanent Waves.

I always believe this and Entre Nous are like a point and counterpart..... Entre Nous strikes me as being a sort of "let's embrace our differences and find common ground" whereas Different Strings seems more along the lines of "let's agree to disagree and not argue"... one example of a Rush trick that I always liked, which was that they didn't necessarily write albums that were overtly conceptual, but yet seems to have some kind of common theme or link between them, especially lyrically.