Sensing a Theme: When Singers Think They Can Rap · Feb 27, 10:20 PM by Don
Roll the Bones is arguably Rush’s weakest album. (Or is that Test For Echo?) The first single, the title track, was a friendly warning sign that things were amiss. Thanks for the heads up, guys! 3/4 of the way through, there is a rap by Geddy Lee, albeit in a studio-deepened voice. The rapping skull from the video (above) doesn’t help.
Jack, relax
Get busy with the facts
No zodiacs or almanacs
No maniacs in polyester slacks
Just the facts
Gonna kick some gluteus max
It’s a parallax, you dig?
You move around
The small gets big
It’s a rig
It’s action, reaction
Random interaction
So who’s afraid
Of a little abstraction?
Can’t get no satisfaction
From the facts?
You better run, homeboy
A fact’s a fact
From Nome to Rome, boy
mp3: Rush – Roll the Bones :: live version from Different Stages (1998)
One year later, in ’92, Michael Stipe of R.E.M. would work the mic on a Neneh Cherry song with equally dreadful results. Michael wants to rap but the fans say whack.
Parents and teachers get together get cool
Children need to learn about sex in school
Children need to learn about sex in school
You think they don’t do it?
Don’t get fooled
Parents don’t turn your back on the pack
Teachers want to teach but the law says whack
Don’t let your kid get caught without a jimmy hat
And that’s just the start
Take it to the heart of the matter
Talk about it
Talk about it
Let’s talk
mp3: Neneh Cherry featuring Michael Stipe of R.E.M. – Trout :: from Homebrew (1992)
Bono takes the quality of rapping up a few notches on “Kite” from U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind. It almost works…
Did I waste it?
Not so much I couldn’t taste it
Life should be fragrant
Rooftop to the basement
But then he goes off topic for no discernible reason:
The last of the rock stars
When hip hop drove the big cars
In the time when new media
Was the big idea
That was the big idea
mp3: U2 – Kite :: from All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2001)
I might be stretching it, but I think the delivery of the final verse in Cat Power’s “He War” has a rap-like quality. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment below.
I’m not that hot new chick
And if you want me to run with it
We’re on to your same old trick
Get up and run away with it
mp3: Cat Power – He War :: from You Are Free (2003)
:: :: ::
Songs in the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 format are offered for a limited time only. Songs that are no longer downloadable can be streamed at the Timedoor page at Hype Machine. Dead mp3 links take you to the top of page one.
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lol. great post. this is really embarrassing but I remember loving that rush song when I was around 7 or 8. you dug up this great memory for me of reading the liners to roll the bones on some kind of family road trip.
— brendan Feb 29, 11:57 AM #
I guess that you probably listen to everything that’s “hip” or popular there joker. Rush is the best band on the planet. I LOVE Roll the Bones-every song on that album. Dreamline and Bravado are some of their best work. RTB rap section is a bit cheesy but the music and the song performed live gives it a whole other dynamic. people like you tend to like shit bands like fall out boy and other “popular” bullshit music. fuck off rush rocks. They are only behind the Beatles, Rolling Stones, for consecutive GOLD albums…think about that. RUSH
— chris Apr 9, 04:15 AM #