I'll play along with the disclaimer that you don't have to be Rush fan to appreciate his talent and legacy. Neil Peart was not only one of the greatest — if not the greatest — percussionists ever, but he was without question one of the most underrated and under-appreciated lyricists.
Limelight was probably their most commercial hit, but there was nothing common or cliche about the lyrics Peart wrote. To me, that's what separated him from most other great musicians.
Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality
Beyond the gilded cage
Cast in this unlikely role
Well equipped to act
With insufficient tact
One must put up barriers
To keep oneself intact
Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme
Living in a fisheye lens
Caught in the camera eye
I have no heart to lie
I can't pretend a stranger
Is a long awaited friend
All the world's indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers
Each another's audience
Outside the gilded cage
Neil Peart was an exceptional songwriter/lyricist. My favorite Rush tune is Vital Signs from Moving Pictures. An excerpt:
Unstable condition–
a symptom of life,
in mental and environmental change,
atmospheric disturbance,
the feverish flux
of human interface and interchange.
The impulse is pure.
Sometimes our circuits get shorted
by external interference.
Signals get crossed
and the balance distorted
by internal incoherence.
I mean, b e a u t i f u l g e n i u s, p u r e b r i l l i a n c e!
