Where's My Thing by Rush

Album: Roll The Bones (1991)

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This is an instrumental. It was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental in the 1992 Grammy's, losing to Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover."
As a joke, this was subtitled "Part IV, Gangster of Boats trilogy." There is no "Gangster of Boats" trilogy, nor was one ever planned. Trilogies, by definition, can only have three parts, thus part IV of a trilogy is impossible, or at least very difficult. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Jeff - Haltom City, TX, for above 2
Geddy Lee ("RTB CD Launch radio broadcast" on recording an instrumental): "It's so much fun to do, too. We tried to do one on Presto.... and every time we started writing it, you know, we played this piece of music and be like, 'Oh. This lyric fits perfectly with it.' So we'd go off, we'd steal from the instrumental and it would become another song. And it kept happening over and over again. And finally Neil said, 'Okay. You keep promising to do this instrumental, and I'm not giving you any more lyrics until you write the thing.' So we sat down and wrote it."
Neil Peart ("Roll The Bones Radio Special"): Well it actually was; I was really proud of our record company, that they released "Dreamline" as the first track and then they put out "Where's My Thing?" for alternative stations or basically anyone who had the nerve to play it. And it made a great alternative for college radio in the States or alternative radio anywhere that exists, which isn't very far but at the same time it was just a very creative thing for a record company to do, I thought. Not just to be worried, "Ok, here's our marketing strategy," they would say, "Let's do this because it would be fun and unusual, and the song is there." So I thought that was really a good thing to do. A friend of ours says that it's just another version of "Telstar" like all instrumentals are, which is funny. And very true! >>>
Suggestion credit:
Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington, for above 2

Comments: 3

Brad from Chicago, Ilhi-ho...I think everyone's possibly missing the Rush scheme. Aside from the blatant Douglas Adams reference, there's the fact that Rush has most recently finished one such quartet of songs in the "Fear" catagory. Fear is set up a little out of timelines in the order that the band themselves have made. Part "three" came out in 1981 with the song Witch Hunt: Part Three of Fear. The next song in the foursome came out on the following album, Signals, under the moniker of The Weapon: Part 2 of Fear. The third installment was on the album Grace Under Pressure(1984) named Enemy Within: Part 1 of Fear. Finally with the 2002 album Vapor Trails, the song Freeze: Part 4 of Fear. I have heard that originally the band was only going to have three parts to that particular four-part look into the psyche of the human mind and what makes things frightening. So, my opinion is that, being the jesters they are on stage, this is another humerous approach to letting us know they plan on being around for a couple of years at least:). Thanks, just thought I'd try to clear that up. Now if someone knows the REAL reason behind it, I'd be delighted to know.
Jeff from Haltom City, TxIt might have also had something to do with the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Dave, which is regarded by many of it's fans as being, with the book "The Hobbit", a four part trilogy. This is pure speculation, though.
Dave from Cardiff, WalesThe "Part IV, 'Gangster of Boats' Trilogy" subtitle joke may have been inspired by sci-fi writer Douglas Adams' trilogy of four, as his epic work The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy" was often referred to before the fifth and final book came out.

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