Available Light
by Rush

Album: Presto (1989)
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Songfacts®:

  • Geddy Lee (Guitar World, March 1990): "On a tune like 'Available Light,' where the bass just provides some simple, low-end support, I'd rather play the keyboards and sing. It's just a question of what instrument will be rewarding to play from a player's point of view. If the keyboard is simply playing a strict, four-chord repeating pattern, then I'd rather just program it into some MIDI pedal and have some fun playing bass." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington

Comments: 5

  • Moosehead from Scthis one stays consistently in my top 10 for Rush. the order varies, but it is always there. 9-6-23
  • Lennon from Plainview, NyOne of Rush's greatest and one of my favorites ever!
  • John from Asheville, NcNow here's an overlooked song. Great verse melody by Geddy and some really wonderful blues fills underneath by Alex. The song has a very strong chorus as well. That more people don't know or appreciate this tune is a real shame. The lyrics are marvelous too, as Joe Public points out some very cool lines below.
  • Joe Public from Anytown, AlThis is one of my favorite songs ever, and one of Rush's most ignored. Everything that we don't experience at this present time is just a memory, a sound byte, a picture, an image, and it is so old and bygone when it is still and far away. "Play of light / A photograph / The way I used to be / Some half forgotten stranger / Doesn't mean that much to me." There also seems to be an allusion to us being unable to know the entirety of something when we haven't experienced it firsthand; the media coverage isn't enough for us to be there. "All four winds together / Can't bring the world to me."
  • Jesse from L.a., CaThis song is very fun to listen to because the lyrics and the music go perfectly.
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