"Presto" ovvero l'equivalente americano di formule magiche come "abracadabra" e simili.
Magia, dunque... ma si tratta di un ritorno a tematiche fantasy come ai tempi di "Caress Of Steel"? No, niente di più lontano, come genere, da questo album; quello che invece rimane come concetto è proprio quello di "magia", ad indicare la disarmante classe con cui i Rush di allora continuavano il loro percorso evolutivo rimanendo sempre perfettamente riconoscibili, e continuando a stupire i loro sostenitori.
"Presto" apre la cosiddetta fase 4, la più controversa secondo me, dopo una serie impressionante di dischi ad altissimo livello, cominciata idealmente con "2112"; questo lavoro del 1989 è, naturalmente diverso dal precedente album in studio, "Hold your Fire"; nel dettaglio, ritroviamo una maggiore presenza della chitarra, e le tastiere, sebbene sempre presenti, fungono più da completamento dell'arrangiamento delle canzoni, o comunque, vanno ad impreziosire con interventi mirati lo "scheletro" della canzone. Lifeson approfitta di questa ritrovata presenza quantitativa, ma non siamo certo agli eccessi di "Vapor trails", al contrario il suo guitar-work è eclettico ma ottimamente equilibrato con le altre componenti strumentali e vocali. Si va dai riff non-convenzionali di "Show don't tell" o "Superconductor" alle schitarrate funky di "Hand over fist" e "Scars".
Molto belli i passaggi da elettrico ad acustico e viceversa in "Presto", che dà il titolo all'album, così come sono sempre incantevoli le parti arpeggiate, rintracciabili nella maggioranza dei pezzi. Ve detto che "Presto", per qualità del suono e sonorità scelte, suona molto più moderno di "Vapor Trails"... piuttosto contraddittorio per un gruppo che è spesso stato all'avanguardia sia come idee che come produzione, no? Tornando a bomba... "Presto" contiene davvero tanta ottima musica; oltre ai brani citati, non si possono non segnalare momenti di grande potenza come "War Paint", "Chain Lightning", "Red Tide", tutte caratterizzate da ritornelli molto incisivi, e, ancora, dal perfetto equilibrio chitarra-tastiere-voce. "Anagram" è invece un pò al di sotto della media, ma rientra in una sorta di "divertissement" che i Rush si sono voluti prendere (basta leggere il testo nonsense). Meravigliosa è invece la conclusione con "Available Light", forse il pezzo con le melodie vocali più emozionate ed emozionanti, e con sprazzi di pianoforte, strumento che avrei voluto sentire più spesso nei loro dischi.
In poche parole, "Presto"... e bene, anzi, benissimo!!
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Show Don't Tell (05:01)
How many times do you hear it?
It goes on all day long
Everyone knows everything
And no one's ever wrong
Until later
Who can you believe?
It's hard to play it safe
But apart from a few good friends
We don't take anything on faith
Until later
Show Don't Tell
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
You've figured out the score
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
I've heard it all before
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
I don't care what you say
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
You can twist perceptions
Reality won't budge
You can raise objections
I will be the judge
And the jury
I'll give it due reflection
Watching from the fence
Give the jury direction
Based on the evidence
I, the jury
Show Don't Tell
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Hey - order in the court
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Let's try to keep it short
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Enough of your demands
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Witness take the stand
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Show Don't Tell
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Hey - order in the court
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Let's try to keep it short
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
I don't care what you say
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Let's see exhibit A
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
You've figured out the score
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
I've heard it all before
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Enough of your demands
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Witness take the stand
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Hey - order in the court
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
Let's try to keep it short
SHOW ME DON'T TELL ME
03 The Pass (04:50)
Proud swagger out of the schoolyard
Waiting for the world's applause
Rebel without a conscience
Martyr without a cause
Static on your frequency
Electrical storm in your veins
Raging an unreachable glory
Straining at invisible chains
And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Can't face life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be
All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back and slam the door on me
It's not as if this barricade
Blocks the only road
It's not as if you're all alone
In wanting to explode
Someone set a bad example
Made surrender seem all right
The act of a noble warrior
Who lost the will to fight
And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Done with life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be
All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back and slam the door on me
No hero in your tragedy
No daring in your escape
No salutes for your surrender
Nothing noble in your fate
Christ, what have you done?
All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back and slam the door on me
04 War Paint (05:24)
Girl before the mirror
Appraises her disguise
Child become a mother
Tries to fix her eyes.
No more of his excuses
It has to be today
She can keep her fantasy
If she can get away
Paint her name on a one-way street
Painted cheeks with angry heat
Wounded pride on painted eyes
Paint the night with battlecries.
All puffed up with vanity
We see what we want to see
To the beautiful and the wise
The mirror always lies.
Boy before the mirror
Checks his camouflage
Polishes his armor
And the charger in the garage.
No more lame excuses
It has to be tonight
He can take the princess
If he can take the fight.
Pound the drums with martial beat
Pound the streets with marching feet
Wounded pride, distorted eyes
Paint the night with battlecries.
All puffed up with vanity
We see what we want to see
To the powerful and the wise
The mirror always lies.
Boys and girls together
Mistake conceit for pride
Ambition for illusion
Dreams for self delusion.
Girls and boys together
See what it is we lack
Boys and girls together
Let's paint the mirror black
Paint it black.
All puffed up with vanity
We see what we want to see
To the beautiful and the wise
The mirror always lies.
Boy's and girls together
Paint the mirror black
The mirror always lies.
Girls and boy's together
Paint the mirror black
The mirror always lies.
05 Scars (04:07)
I've stood upon my mountaintop
And shouted at the sky
Walked above the pavement
With my senses amplified
I get this feeling.
All my nerves are naked wires
Tender to the touch
Sometimes super sensitive
But who can care to much?
I get this feeling.
Scars of pleasure
Scars of pain
Atmospheric changes
Make them sensitive again.
Each emotional injury
Leaves behind it's mark
Sometimes they come tumbling out
Like shadows in the dark
I get this feeling.
When I think about all I have seen
And I'll I've never seen
When I think about the people
Who have opened up to me
I get this feeling.
Scars of pleasure
Scars of pain
Atmospheric changes
Make them sensitive again.
Snow falls deep around my house
And holds the winter light
I've heard the lions hunting
In the Serengeti night
I get this feeling.
Forests turned to factories
And river, sea, and sky
Hungry child in the desert
And the flies that cloud her eyes
I get this feeling.
Pleasure leaves a fingerprint
As surely as mortal pain
In memories they resonate
And echo back again.
Scars of pleasure
Scars of pain
Atmospheric changes
Make them sensitve again.
06 Presto (05:46)
If I could wave my magic wand...
I am made from the dust of the stars
And the oceans flow in my veins
Here I hide in the heart of the city
Like a stranger coming out of the rain
The evening plane rises up from the runway
Over constellations of light
I look down into a million houses
And wonder what you're doing tonight
If I could wave my magic wand
I'd make everything all right
I'm not one to believe in magic
But I sometimes have a second sight
I'm not one with a sense of proportion
When my heart still changes overnight
I had a dream of a winter garden
A midnight rendezvous
Silver, blue and frozen silence
What a fool I was for you
I had a dream of the open water
I was swimming away out to sea
So deep I could never touch bottom
What a fool I used to be
If I could wave my magic wand
I'd set everybody free
I'm not one to believe in magic
Though my memory has a second sight
I'm not one to go pointing my finger
When I radiate more heat than light
Don't ask me
I'm just improvising
My illusion of careless flight
Can't you see
My temperature's rising
I radiate more heat than light
Don't ask me
I'm just sympathizing
My illusions a harmless flight
Can't you see
My temperature's rising
I radiate more heat than light
07 Superconductor (04:47)
Packaged like a rebel or a hero
Target mass appeal
To make an audience feel
He really means it
Package the illusion of persona
Careful to conceal
The fact that she's only too real
She's got to screen it
Hit you in a soft place
A melody so sweet
A strong and simple beat
That you can dance to
Watch his every move
SUPERCONDUCTOR
Orchestrate illusions
SUPERCONDUCTOR
Watch his every move
SUPERCONDUCTOR
Hoping you'll believe
Designing to deceive
That's entertainment
He can put a target on the market
Bask in your applause
Reality withdraws
Now he believes it
The role becomes the actor
She's addicted to applause
The stage a world because
She never leaves it
Hit you in a soft place
With sentimental ease
They know the fantasies
That you romance to
Watch her every move
SUPERCONDUCTOR
She can manipulate reactions
SUPERCONDUCTOR
Watch her every move
SUPERCONDUCTOR
Pin the donkeys on her tail
Fantasy for sale
That's entertainment...
08 Anagram (for Mongo) (03:59)
There's a snake coming out of the darkness
Parade from paradise
End the need for eden
Chase the dreams of merchandise
There is tic and toc in atomic
Leaders make a deal
The cosmic is largely comic
A con they couldn't conceal
There is no safe seat at the feast
Take your best stab at the beast
The night is turning thin
The saint is turning to sin
Raise the art to resistance
Danger dare to be grand
Pride reduced to humble pie
Diamonds down to sand
Take heart from earth and weather
The brightness of new birth
Take heart from the harvest
Shave the harvest from the earth
Reasoning is partly insane
Image just an eyeless game
The night is turning thin
The saint is turning to sin
Miracles will have their claimers
More will bow to Rome
He and she are in the house
But there's only me at home
Rose is a rose of splendor
Posed to respond in the end
Lonely things like nights,
I find, end finer with a friend
I hear in the rate of her heart
A tear in the heat of the art
The night turns thin
The saint turns to sin
10 Hand Over Fist (04:10)
Hand over fist, paper around the stone
Scissors cut the paper, cut the paper to the bone
Hand over fist, paper around the stone
Scissors cut the paper, and the rock must stand alone.
I could disappear into the crowd
But not if I keep my head in the clouds
I could walk away so proud
It's easy enough if you don't laugh too loud.
I thought I was okay alone
Wait for the postman and the telephone
Lost in a world of my own, I thought I could run alone
Thought I could run through the night alone.
Hand over hand
Doesn't seem so much
Hand over hand
Is the strength of the common touch.
You talk as we walk alone
You never imagined I could be so wrong
Humming your favorite song
You know I've hated that song for so long.
How can we ever agree? Like the rest of the world
We grow farther apart, I swear you don't listen to me
Holding my hand to my heart
Holding my fist to my racing heart.
Take a walk outside myself
In some exotic land
Greet a passing stranger
Feel the strength in his hand
Feel the world expand.
I feel my spirit resist
But I open up my fist
Lay hand over hand over...
Hand over fist paper
Paper around the stone
Scissors cut the paper
Cut the paper to the bone.
Hand over hand doesn't seem so much
Hand over hand is the strength of the common touch
Hand over hand doesn't seem so much
Hand over hand, Paper to the bone.
11 Available Light (05:04)
The restless wind has seen all things in every kind of light
Rising with the full moon to go howling through the night
The sleepless wind has heard all things between the sea and sky
In the canyons of the city, you can hear the buildings cry
Oh the wind can carry all the voices of the sea
Oh the wind can carry all the echoes home to me
Run with wind and weather to the music of the sea
All four winds together can't bring the world to me
Chase the wind around the world
I want to look at life - In the available light
Play of light - a photograph -
The way I used to be
Some half-forgotten stranger doesn't mean that much to me
Trick of light - moving picture -
Moments caught in flight
Make the shadows darken or the colors shine too bright
Oh the light can carry all the visions of the sea
Oh the light can carry all the images to me
Run to light from shadow
Sun gives me no rest
Promise offered in the east -
Broken in the west
Chase the sun around the world
I want to look at life - In the available light
All four winds together can't bring the world to me
Shadows hide the play of light -
So much I want to see
Chase the light around the world
I want to look at life - In the available light
I'll go with the wind...
I'll stand in the light...
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