Rush - Limelight

Sad Sunday, one of the greatest drummers has signed off. Neal Peart has died after fighting brain cancer for years.

On December 7, 2015, Peart announced his retirement from music in an interview with Drumhead Magazine, though bandmate Geddy Lee insisted Peart was quoted out of context and suggested Peart was "simply taking a break". However, in January 2018, bandmate Alex Lifeson confirmed that RUSH was retiring due to Peart's health issues. During his last years, Peart lived in Santa Monica, California, with his wife, photographer Carrie Nuttall, and daughter Olivia. After a three-year illness, Peart died of glioblastoma on January 7, 2020, at age 67.

To celebrate his family and bandmates we will play a tune in their honors, so today's Sunday classic is for you Neil Peart, RIP.

"Limelight" is a song by the Canadian progressive rock band RUSH. It first appeared on the 1981 album "Moving Pictures". The song's lyrics were written by Neil Peart with music written by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. "Limelight" expresses Peart's discomfort with Rush's success and the resulting attention from the public. The song paraphrases the opening lines of the "All the world's a stage" speech from William Shakespeare's play As You Like It; the band had previously used the phrase for its 1976 live album.

Released as a single, it charted at No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Top Tracks chart and No. 55 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and remains one of Rush's most popular songs. "Limelight" was one of five Rush songs inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on March 28, 2010.

The phrase "In the limelight" means the center of attention. In the early days of theater, limelight was a device used to brightly illuminate the front of a stage, which put the main performer in a spotlight. The light was made by focusing a flame at a cylinder filled with lime that was projected through a lens - lighting technicians had to be creative before electricity.

Invented by the Scottish engineer Drummond in 1816, he used a core of limestone (calcium) that was heated to a glow by burning a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen which created a brilliant light that could be focused. The Limelight was first used in the theatre in 1855 and then became widely used by the 1860s. The advantage of the limelight was its realistic light production, but the limestone had to be turned as it burned and the gases adjusted to keep the light constant.

Drummer and lyricist Neil Peart: "Success puts a strain on the friendship and it puts the strains on your day-to-day relationship, and it's something that we did go through, you know, we're not immune to it. But we were able to overcome it just through our closeness and we were able to help each other with difficulties like that and then we could deal with the pressures and things and that."

Lead singer and bass player Geddy Lee: "Limelight was probably more of Neil's song than a lot of the songs on that album in the sense that his feelings about being in the limelight and his difficulty with coming to grips with fame and autograph seekers and a sudden lack of privacy and sudden demands on his time... he was having a very difficult time dealing with. I mean we all were, but I think he was having the most difficulty of the three of us adjusting; in the sense that I think he's more sensitive to more things than Alex and I are, it's harder for him to deal with those interruptions on his personal space and his desire to be alone. Being very much a person who needs that solitude, to have someone coming up to you constantly and asking for your autograph is a major interruption in your own little world. I guess in the one sense that we're a little bit like misfits in the fact that we've chosen this profession that has all this extreme hype and this sort of self-hyping world that we've chosen to live in, and we don't feel comfortable really in that kind of role."

Guitarist Alex Lifeson: "We were very, very careful not to let it get the best of us. That sudden success can really change you and you become lazy and you constantly have other people doing things for you and you lose perspective on why you're there and really what you're doing." William Shakespeare's 1599 play As You Like It contains the line "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players" - a similar phase appears in the lyrics - "All the worlds indeed a stage, and we are merely players." Rush named one of their albums All The Worlds A Stage. >> Lifeson has said in interviews that the song's solo is one of his favorites to play live. He explained why to Musicradar.com: "I've always enjoyed the elasticity of that solo, particularly the way it sounds on the record. It has a certain tonality I just love. I do like playing the solo live, but I think I prefer listening to it on the album. On record, it has a magical quality to it - it really conveys the pathos of the song and the lyrics. I've never been able to re-create that live. I get pretty close, but it's never exactly the way it is on record. I'll keep trying, though." Rush appeared in the 2009 movie I Love You Man playing this song. Geddy Lee told Entertainment Weekly the shoot was a blast: "For us it was easy. We just played the same song over and over again 150 times. So we're playing and we got the pleasure of watching these comic actors do take after take. We were being entertained the whole time. I loved it. They're so nice, those guys: Paul Rudd and Jason Segel and Rashida Jones. And it came at a tough time, because we were on tour. It was right between a couple of gigs. That was our day off. So it was nice that it was such a fun experience, because we were pretty beat."

Giddy Lee told The Plain Dealer newspaper how the song's use in the movie has led to a more animated reaction when they play this at gigs: "The characters are going nuts while we're playing that song. Now I see kids in the audience imitating them and climbing on each other's shoulders. It's given them license to go completely crazy during the song. It's pretty funny from our point of view."

Enjoy today's tune!



More info @

Official Neil Peart Web

Official Rush Web

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Strängen - Bangatan

”Strängen” (The String) or as Robert Dahlqvist (16 April 1976 – February 2017) was a Swedish guitarist and vocalist best known for his tenure with the rock band THE HELLACOPTERS. He was also the lead singer and guitarist in THUNDER EXPRESS (DUNDERTÅGET), a band originally started as a side project to his work with THE HELLACOPTERS. At the time of his death, aged 40, Dahlqvist had nearly completed his first solo album.

It’s with big sadness to say goodbye to ”Strängen”. I hardly knew him, I met him on several occasions, a really good man, always pleasant, arrived and greeted, chatted happily about the discs which was our common interest. During the last year, was invited to his "Vinyl Club" as he had at home, an opportunity to share music and play music. A very nice initiative of string, a meeting that I looked forward, a meeting that unfortunately will never occur. Strängen was a real rocker, something we needed in this strange up fucked world. I would like to say something to avoid speculation, He did not kill himself, he died of an accident.

One of his best friend wrote an very good article about him in the Swedish newspaper SVD Read it.

Today’s tune ”Bangatan” was a single from his ”upcoming” (dunno if it’s ever going to be released) album. And as Stefan Sundström said about the tune.

Listen to the string and listen to the alarm bells from Bangatan. Four Horsemen ride down the lamb and soon break the seventh seal. Hallelujah and Hail Rock n 'Roll! Smash all prejudices!

CREDITS, Directed & Edited by Emil Klinta, DOP & Grade: Johan Forsberg, VFX: Joakim Millqvist, Sound FX: Per Laxvik Melodibyrån



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Official Strängen Web

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Fanfare For the Common Man

Sunday, time for a classic.

"Fanfare for the Common Man" is a song by the English progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), from the group's 1977 Works Volume I album. Adapted by Keith Emerson from Aaron Copland's 1942 piece of the same name, it is one of their most popular and enduring pieces.

ELP had previously adapted Copland's "Hoedown" for the band's Trilogy album in 1972. Although ELP did not always initially attribute the classical source for some of their pieces (only attributed in later releases of the albums), Copland was attributed as the source for both Hoedown and Fanfare. Unlike Bartók and Janáček, Copland was still alive at the time of the recording.

According to Emerson,

...it needed transposing, so I did that first. I wanted to improvise in a key that was sort of bluesy. It ended up in E. The rest of it was straightforward, really. You know, in order to get the shuffle sound, the timing had to be changed, but it was common sense.

Greg Lake remembers the first time ELP played the adaptation:

It was just wonderful how it came about: We were recording in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1976, and Keith was playing it as a piece of classical music. I played this shuffle bass line behind him and all of a sudden it started to connect. Then Carl came in and we three started to play it. Luckily, the engineer had a two-track running, and that is what’s on the record - the first time we played through the piece.

Stewart Young, ELP's manager from 1972–present, made this comment on the documentary Beyond the Beginning:

The interesting thing... was that we had to get the permission of Aaron Copland, the composer. The publishing house said forget it. So I got Mr Copland's home number, called him up and he was very friendly on the phone. And he says "Send it to me, let me listen." And he loved it. He called me and said "This is brilliant, this is fantastic. This is doing something to my music. 

Emerson, Lake & Palmer were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The group consisted of keyboardist Keith Emerson, singer, bassist, and producer Greg Lake, and drummer and percussionist Carl Palmer. They were one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock bands in the 1970s.

Emerson died on 10 March 2016 in Santa Monica, California, of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. His body was found at his Santa Monica home. It was later reported that Emerson had 'recently' been suffering from depression and a degenerative nerve issue that hampered his keyboard playing capabilities".

Former ELP bandmate Carl Palmer said, "Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come."

On March 12, former ELP bandmate Greg Lake released a statement which said in part, ″As sad and tragic as Keith’s death is, I would not want this to be the lasting memory people take away with them. What I will always remember about Keith Emerson was his remarkable talent as a musician and composer and his gift and passion to entertain. Music was his life and despite some of the difficulties he encountered I am sure that the music he created will live on forever″

Keith Noel Emerson (2 November 1944 – 10 March 2016) was an English keyboardist and composer. Early in his career he played in the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, Gary Farr and the T-Bones, the V.I.P.s and P. P. Arnold's backing band the Nice. Emerson found his first commercial success with the Nice in the late 1960s, before becoming a founding member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), one of the early supergroups, in 1970. Emerson, Lake & Palmer were critically and commercially successful through much of the 1970s, becoming one of the best-known progressive rock groups of the era.

Today's tune "Fanfare For the Common Man" is for Keith Emerson. R.I.P.



More info @

Official Emerson, Lake & Palmer Web

Official Keith Emerson Web

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Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

Sunday, the last day of this week, a week which is lined with several deaths of various stars, a heavy week specially for the metal world, it was probably the news of Jeff Hanneman death that hit hardest of them all. I was working with Bruce at Friends Arena when the news arrived, A moment of silence was issued among the hardcore metal heads, where I also was included. Very sad news, sad employees wiped thier eyes before it was time to start work again.

By 2012, bandmate Tom Araya had announced his recovery from the disease. However, later in February 2013, Kerry King revealed continuing health problems that kept him from working with Slayer. Hanneman died of liver failure on May 2nd, 2013, in a local Los Angeles hospital near his home in Southern California's Inland Empire.

Jeffrey John "Jeff" Hanneman (January 31, 1964 – May 2, 2013) was an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the American thrash metal band Slayer. Influenced by punk music growing up, Hanneman stated that the genre influenced Slayer's sound to create a faster and more aggressive approach. His punk influences were also evident through his placement of a "DK" symbol from the California punk band the Dead Kennedys and likeness of Johnny Rotten on his guitar.

Hanneman had contributed both lyrical and musical material to every Slayer album and wrote the songs "Raining Blood", "War Ensemble", "South of Heaven", "Seasons in the Abyss" and "Angel of Death", which are played at almost every live Slayer show. He had his own signature guitar, the ESP Jeff Hanneman Signature model.

Todays tune a metal classics, "Seasons in the Abyss" is the title track from the the fifth studio album by the thrash metal band Slayer. It was released on October 9, 1990, Jeff, rest in peace.



More info @

Official Slayer Web

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Bruce Springsteen - Spirit in the Night

Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985 had a hit single with "You're a Friend of Mine", a duet with Jackson Browne. As a guest musician he also featured on Aretha Franklin's classic "Freeway of Love" and on Twisted Sister's "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" as well as performing in concert with The Grateful Dead and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. As an actor Clemons featured in several films, including New York, New York and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. He also made cameo appearances in several TV series, including Diff'rent Strokes, Nash Bridges, The Simpsons and The Wire. Together with his television writer friend Don Reo he published his autobiography, Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales, in 2009.

Clemons suffered a stroke on June 12, 2011. He underwent two surgeries after which he was in serious, but stable condition. However, Clemons died from complications caused by the stroke on June 18.

Bruce Springsteen said of Clarence Clemons: "Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band.” Clemons was not the first member of The E Street Band to die; in 2008 Danny Federici succumbed to melanoma.

In July 1972, Springsteen began recording his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and during breaks from recording, he jammed with Clemons and The Joyful Noyze on at least two occasions at The Shipbottom Lounge in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. When Springsteen then decided to use a tenor saxophone on the songs "Blinded By The Light" and "Spirit In The Night" it was Clemons he called. By October Springsteen was ready to tour and promote Greetings… and he put together a band featuring Clemons, Tallent, Danny Federici and Vini Lopez. Clemons played his last gig with Norman Seldin & The Joyful Noyze at the Club Plaza in Bayville, New Jersey on October 21, 1972. Four days later Clemons made his debut with the formative E Street Band at an unadvertised, impromptu performance at The Shipbottom Lounge.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Clemons featured prominently on Springsteen albums. On Born to Run he provided memorable saxophone solos on the title track, "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" while Darkness on the Edge of Town featured another notable solo on "Badlands". The River saw Clemons feature on songs such as "The Ties That Bind", "Sherry Darling", "I Wanna Marry You" and "Independence Day" while Born in the U.S.A. saw solos on "Bobby Jean" and "I'm Goin' Down”.

At the end of shows, while recognizing members of the E Street Band, Springsteen referred to Clemons as "The Biggest Man You Ever Seen". He sometimes changed this depending on where the E Street Band performs — at their 2009 concert in Glasgow he introduced Clemons as "the biggest Scotsman you've ever seen”.

Todays tune "Spirit in the Night” is a song written and originally recorded by New Jersey based singer/songwriter Bruce Springsteen for his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973). It was also the second single released from the album.

Live 1973 in Los Angeles



Live 2009 in Bilbao



Another tracks that CC did contribute on.

Great White - Gone With The Wind with Clarence Clemons that plays the sax solo.



Twisted Sister - Be chrool to your scuel - 1985 with Alice Cooper and Clarence Clemons that plays the sax solo



The list with other artists that he have worked with is enormous, here is a selected one.

Dan Hartman: Images (1976)
Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes: I Don’t Wanna Go Home (1976)
Ronnie Spector & The E Street Band:
"Say Goodbye To Hollywood" / "Baby, Please Don't Go" (1977)
Scarlet Rivera: Scarlet Rivera (1977)
Carlene Carter: Two Sides to Every Woman (1979)
Joan Armatrading: Me Myself I (1980)
Greg Lake: Greg Lake (1981)
Blue Steel: Nothing But Time (1981)
Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul: Men Without Women (1982)
Ian Hunter: All of the Good Ones Are Taken (1983)
Aretha Franklin: Who's Zoomin' Who? (1985)
Twisted Sister: Come Out and Play (1985)
Soundtrack: Porky's Revenge (1985)
The Four Tops: Indestructible (1988)
Todd Rundgren: Nearly Human (1989)
Soundtrack: Home Alone 2 (soundtrack) (1992)
Joe Cocker: Unchain My Heart (1990)
Nils Lofgren: Silver Lining (1991)
Alvin Lee: Zoom (1992)
Roy Orbison: King of Hearts (1992)
Great White: Sail Away (1994)
Various artists: Humanary Stew – A Tribute to Alice Cooper (1999)
Lady Gaga: Born This Way (2011)

RIP Clarence Clemons

More info @ Official CC Website

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