Time to touch on another milestone album in my musical journey, “Permanent Waves” by Rush. I first heard this album in early 1980, shortly after its release. It wouldn’t take long before the band became the most significant influence in both my musical adventures and my personal growth. Some four-plus decades later this album still resonates with me and is the reason why Rush will always hold that “number one” spot in my list of all-time favorite artists.

During the second half of my final year in junior high school, a friend of mine played a new record he had just picked up, “Permanent Waves”. Up to this point, I had never heard anything by the band Rush and had been devouring material by (my then-favorite band) Styx primarily, with a mix of other rock bands from the late 1970s including Foreigner, Boston, Bad Company, and the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). I sat in my friend’s room, looking at the sort of humorous album cover, and trying to imagine what was going to emerge from the speakers as my friend put the record on his turntable.

[For a look at my introduction to Styx, see: Styx - The Grand Illusion / Man in the Wilderness]

I was not prepared for the explosive beginning of the first song on that album, “The Spirit of Radio”. Wow, this album really came out of the gate blazing with that opening guitar riff. I was instantly captivated by all of it. The guitars, the frenetic drumming, the shifts in tempo, a quick jump into a reggae style, and then back to rock, etc. It was amazing. There was just so much going on in that first song, that I knew I would be spending many more listens to it. I don’t think we listened to the whole album outside of the first track, maybe a quick sampling of the rest of it. That was quite alright because I was already sold. So, I was either going to have to steal my friend’s album or go out and spend some of my hard-earned money on my own copy. I chose the latter and had a copy of my own in record time (pun totally intended).

“Permanent Waves” would be played non-stop for quite a while, as I devoured each track, and studied the liner notes and lyrics. This album was so influential in those formative teen years, that I could have written this article about any of the tracks on this album. I choose “Freewill” because it had some lyrics that really got my young mind thinking, and it is a fantastic song filled with incredible playing. Let’s take a listen to it and follow the lyrics below before diving in to analyze it.

Play

Rush - Freewill

There are those who think that life
Has nothing left to chance
With a host of holy horrors
To direct our aimless dance

A planet of playthings
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
“The stars aren’t aligned –
Or the gods are malign”
Blame is better to give than receive

You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that’s clear
I will choose free will.

There are those who think that
They were dealt a losing hand
The cards were stacked against them
They weren’t born in Lotus-Land.

All pre-ordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate
Kicked in the face
You can’t pray for a place
In Heaven’s unearthly estate

Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt
That’s far too fleet…

The track opens with a little descending guitar riff punctuated with drums and bass, then jumps into a tight staccato rhythm pattern that drives the song. “Tight” is certainly the keyword here as the band is locked together during this intro like fine clockwork. The musical themes throughout the first couple of minutes of this song will repeat throughout the song, striking a balance between repeated musical hooks and complex song structure. Permanent Waves was the album where Rush really started to whittle down longer epics into more compact pieces. This song certainly drives the listener forward and steers deftly in between the shifting time signatures. The time changes and lock-step instrumentation are so finely tuned that they never feel jarring or abrupt. It’s a rather insidious plan to sneak complexity into an accessible song that really hooks into your brain.

About 20 seconds into the song, Geddy Lee jumps in to sing Neil Peart’s treatise on the subject of free will - the ability of humans to make decisions or take actions independently of any outside intervention, state of the universe, fate, etc. The first two stanzas pretty much define the concept of free will, while sort of taking a shot at those who feel that we are not in control of our own actions and destiny. By using the phrases “aimless dance”, “planet of playthings”, “dance on the strings”, and especially “blame is better to give than receive”, Neil is really expressing how meaningless our lives really are if we believe that something else is in control of our actions and how easy it is to dodge responsibility for our choices by laying the blame on some uncontrollable force (i.e., astrology, gods, etc.). That’s just about a philosophy 101 course packed into ten lines of lyrics.

Then we get to the chorus, where Neil makes his personal statement on choosing to believe in his own free will over any other guiding force. While also questioning the listener to examine their own thoughts on the topic. This is especially apparent in the famous line “if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice”, which sort of implies that this concept of free will and whether or not you believe in it, is an important piece of self-awareness to contemplate. Such a fundamental concept, that even choosing not to think one way or another about it, is really determining where you stand on the subject. A really brilliant and insightful chorus for just a “rock” song.

Sidenote about that famous line…
For many years there was much discussion about how Geddy was singing something different than what was in the printed lyrics, which was an unheard-of deviance in Rush lore. Many arguments were had throughout Rush fandom over why Geddy chose to sing “you still have made a choice” instead of the printed lyric “you can not have made a choice”. The themes of these arguments ranged from a simple change to make the sung line flow better to a full-out philosophical disagreement between Geddy and Neil that was so powerful that they chose to keep the discrepancy documented in the album liner notes by not changing the printed lyrics to match the song. Music fans are a passionate bunch after all.

But, the real answer is actually much more mundane…a simple typo. The topic eventually made it all the way to Neil himself when he was asked about the difference and shrugged it off in a 1985 Backstage Club newsletter:
“That’s a funny question. I’ve had a few lately from people who are so sure that what they hear is correct, that they disbelieve what I’ve put in the lyric sheets! Imagine! People have quoted me whole verses of what they hear, as opposed to what’s printed, sure that they are right and the cover (me) is wrong. Scary stuff, these egocentric individuals. I assure you, other than perhaps dropping an “and” or a “but,” we take great care to make the lyric sheets accurate.”

It took another fan who wrote directly to Neil and included copies of the liner notes from the album to show the discrepancy. Neil wrote back with the following:
“You and James of New York are right about this thing. I don’t know how it happened- the lyrics are right on the Canadian sleeve- I can only imagine that our American record company got hold of an uncorrected typeset. I hate that!”

Mystery solved.

From the Rush FAQ

Another brilliant thing that Neil, a consummate wordsmith, did was to name the song “Freewill” (single word), which is an adjective meaning self-imposed or voluntary. While the content of the song and the mention in the chorus refer to “free will” (two words) which is a noun describing the freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or outside intervention. That subtle difference shows the care that Neil took in crafting his lyrics. He’s basically saying that he is voluntarily choosing to present his thoughts on the subject of “free will” and not being forced to do so. They do not call him The Professor for nothing! Even though he earned that nickname more for his resemblance to the professor on Gilligan’s Island than for his mental acuity. Haha!

Anyway, back to the song. After the chorus, we return to another two stanzas (again consisting of ten lines) that dive more into the concepts of fate and pre-determination. Addressing folks who believe that their life is all planned out or are bemoaning the lot they were cast in life. They weren’t born in a perfect utopia (i.e., Lotus-Land) and are a prisoner or victim of fate. They believe their only option is to pray for something better after they die. I know many people discussing these lyrics in the past have stated that they come across as mean-spirited or very atheistic, but I see it more as a suggested way out. You could choose to believe you have no control over your circumstances, or you can choose to take the reins and responsibility to guide your own destiny.

Then it is back to the chorus, which leads us to a brief pause in the underlying rhythms. It’s a nice chance to catch our breath before a Geddy signature bass riff sets the stage for one of Alex Lifeson’s most frenetic guitar solos. A nice juxtaposition to the precise nature of the rest of the song. I really enjoy this solo of his with its crazy whammy bar bending, almost out-of-control speed, and the call-and-response section towards the end mixing chords and flurries of notes. There are some really nice stereo panning effects throughout too like the guitar is bouncing around inside your head. It almost suggests the mental turmoil occurring for those contemplating the lyrical content of the song. All the while, Geddy continues his bass riffage (really a bass solo) under Alex’s crazed guitar solo.

The solo section packs a lot of excitement and energy into a relatively short period of time before we decelerate and head into the coda verse of the lyrics. Here we have Geddy channeling some of his vocal stylings from songs earlier in their career, like Cygnus X-1 (from the album A Farewell To Kings). It seemed fitting to resurrect the upper-register wail (one last time), after coming out of the explosion that was the solo section. The lyrics in this last verse really sum up Neil’s basic thoughts for everyone to contemplate.

We are all imperfect individuals, still growing and evolving.
The future is not set in stone and our end is not pre-determined.
We’re all searching for something during our very short journey here on Earth…

As if in answer to the statements of the last verse, we return to the chorus, where we are urged to contemplate once more how we perceive our path… self-determined or laid out like train tracks that we are destined to follow.

The song ends shortly after that last chorus, with a total length of just under five and a half minutes that really fly by like three. So much music and thought packed into such a short period of time. It is the formula that Rush would craft into sonic perfect on their next album “Moving Pictures.”

I’m forever indebted to Neil, Alex, and Geddy for being a huge part of my youth and remaining a constant source of enrichment ever since. The impact of Rush on me is incalculable, so they’ll always occupy a special place in my life. This article is being published fairly close to the 43rd anniversary of the release of “Permanent Waves,” and I can still listen to that album with the same excitement today as I had all those years ago as a young kid hearing it for the first time. Now that is something truly magical.

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It has also been three years since losing Neil Peart to brain cancer, and that loss is still reverberating for all Rush fans. It’s hard to express how big of a blow that was to myself and everyone else. It left an immense hole for everyone who had been inspired by his words and music. Luckily, that hole can still be filled by all of the art he left behind. RIP