Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Countdown

Wed, Apr 12, 2006@7:55AM | comments removed/disabled

25 years ago today, the first NASA space shuttle, Columbia, embarked on her maiden voyage. This is a special day in Rush history as the band had the honor of witnessing this spectacular event. This excerpt from the Jon Collins Rush biography, Chemistry discusses this experience:

On April 10, a day off, the band took a jaunt to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia, invited by NASA director Gerry Griffin. Due to computer problems the launch had to be postponed until two days later, when the band was playing Fort Worth in Texas, but nothing was going to prevent the threesome from attending. "It was an amazing thing, an ammazing sight to witness," said Alex, who watched with the others from the viewing area called Red Sector A. "I've never heard anything so loud in my life. Your pants are flapping, you could feel the ground vibrating and this was three miles away. That's the closest you could get." "Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Neil. As a token of their appreciation, the band planned on the spot to write a song about the experience. They made it to the Texas gig - just!

The song ended up being titled Countdown and was the last track on the album Signals. The dedication for the song reads: Dedicated with thanks to astronauts Young & Crippen and all the people of NASA for their inspiration and cooperation. They also made a video for the song which includes a lot of footage of the launch. You can watch it here. Here's an excerpt from the lyrics:

Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound

Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
High in the air
In fascination - with the eyes of the world
We stare...

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