WCSX Classic Cuts : Limelight
WCSX Classic Cuts
Rush: “Limelight”
The Hook: A song about how the band was going to deal with their success.
Album: Moving Pictures
Year: 1981
Writers: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart
Stats: Peaked at number-55 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number-four on their Rock Tracks chart.
Background: “Limelight” was written at a time when Rush was finally beginning to taste success for the first time. Geddy Lee tells us the song reflects the fact that it may have been a bit harder for drummer and lyricist Neil Peart to cope with it than for the other two members.
Rush singer-bassist Geddy Lee on what Neil Peart was saying in “Limelight”’s lyrics. OC:…that song. :29
”Alex and I have always adapted to the spotlight a little easier than Neil has. He’s a more intensely private person than Alex and I are. At the same time, we were all going through those feelings of coming to terms with the fact that we were starting to be successful and there were a lot more demands being made on our time. And we were trying to figure out the kind of success we wanted to have and the kind of band we wanted to be at that time. You’re preoccupied, unfortunately, with being successful at certain points of being successful and I think it came out in that song.”
