Musical Memory Bank - Countdown

Today's muscial gem is a song from 1982 by the Canadian progressive rock band, Rush.  This one comes from the album, Signals.  The album also included the songs "New World Man" and "Subdivisions", which recieved a lot of airplay and are firmly established in most Best-of-Rush song lists.

Countdown is about the first launch of the space shuttle, Columbia, on April 12, 1981.  The two astronauts on board were John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen.  The members of Rush had front row seats and watched the launch from a VIP area at the Kennedy Space Center.

This may not be Rush's best song, but it is a gem of a song nonetheless.  The lyrics are great and the playing is right on.  It's a quintessential Rush song.

Getty Lee does lead vocals, bass, and keyboards.  Alex Lifeson on guitar.  Niek Peart on the drums.  As with most Rush songs, Lee and Lifeson wrote the music and Peart penned the lyrics.

Lit up with anticipation

We arrive at the launching site

The sky is still dark, nearing dawn

On the Florida coastline

Circling choppers slash the night

With roving searchlight beams

This magic day when super-science

Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams

Floodlit in the hazy distance

The star of this unearthly show

Venting vapors, like the breath

Of a sleeping white dragon

Crackling speakers, voices tense

Resume the final count

All systems check, T-minus-nine

As the sun and the drama start to mount

The air is charged, a humid, motionless mass

The crowds and the cameras

The cars full of spectators pass

Excitement so thick, you could cut it with a knife

Technology high, on the leading edge of life

The earth beneath us starts to tremble

With the spreading of a low black cloud

A thunderous roar shakes the air

Like the whole world exploding

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

Excitement so thick, you could cut it with a knife

Technology high, on the leading edge of life

Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers

High in the air

In fascination with the eyes

of the world we stare

Songwriters: Neil Elwood Peart / Gary Lee Weinrib / Alex Zivojinovich

Countdown lyrics © Ole Media Management Lp

I picked this song because I have very specific memories associated with it.  The album came out in September of 1982 and I bought a copy of it on cassette tape sometime during the Fall of that year.  I was attending BYU then after having served a two-year LDS mission in Busan, Korea between January 1980 and December 1981.  I made a decison sometime during that Fall to participate in a BYU Study Abroad tour to Japan, Korea, and China in the summer of 1983.  I don't have enough money to pay for the trip at the time, so I took a semester off starting in January 1983 and moved back to Idaho Falls, Idaho where my parents lived and where I had graduated from high school in 1978.

I worked a large number of odd jobs from January through April.  It was hard to find full-time employment when I was only looking to stay around for four months.  I took jobs as a substitutue teacher at the local junior high and high schools.  I also signed up as a substitute janitor for the school district.  I have very vivid memories of working several evenings at Skyline High School waxing the floors and listening to the Signals album on headphones.

Eventually, that long winter ended and I took off for Study Abroad at the end of April.  I stayed in Korea until the end of 1983 and it was during the Fall of 1983 that I met my future wife, Yeongmi.

So this song brings back lots of memories for me.  And it's a great song, so enjoy!