Rush Songs - Force Ten Lyrics

Rush - Force Ten

Rush - Force Ten Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Hold Your Fire
Released: 1987

Force Ten Lyrics

Tough times demand tough talk
Demand tough hearts demand tough songs
Demand

We can rise and fall like empires
Flow in and out like the tide
Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
We can hit and miss like pride

We can circle around like hurricanes
Dance and dream like lovers
Attack the day like birds of prey
Or scavengers under cover

Look in
To the eye of the storm
Look out
For the force without form
Look around
At the sight and the sound
Look in look out look around

We can move with savage grace
To the rhythms of the night
Cool and remote like dancing girls
In the heat of the beat and the lights

We can wear the rose of romance
An air of joie de vivre
Too-tender hearts upon our sleeves
Or skin as thick as thieves'

Rising falling at Force Ten
We twist the world and ride the wind

Look in
Look the storm in the eye
Look out
To the sea and the sky
Look around
At the sight and the sound
Look in look out look around

Writer/s: ALEX LIFESON, GEDDY LEE WEINRIB, NEIL PEART, PAUL PHILIP WOODS
Publisher: OLE MEDIA MANAGEMENT
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Force Ten

Geddy Lee (on Rockline, 10/5/87): "It was more or less an afterthought in the writing stage. We took two months to do all of our writing and preproduction, you know, preparation for the making of the record, and we had nine songs, and we had about a day and a half left of time booked before we were supposed to leave and get ready to make the record. And our producer and all of us were pushing for ten tracks on the album, and some lyrics had been submitted to us by a friend of ours, Pye Dubois, who co-wrote 'Tom Sawyer' with us in years gone by. And Neil was able to put some of his own thoughts to one of the songs that he had and present it to us in the morning of the last day that we were there, and we loved the results, so we got together and brainstormed for about 2 or 3 hours, and we had Force Ten."

When asked what the title meant, Neil Peart said: "The Beaufort scale - look it up!"

Peart: "The song expresses ways to face barriers and urges people not to be afraid of failure - one of our basic temperamental traits."

Geddy Lee (Bass Player, 1987): "Before I had a visit from Jeff Berlin, who's a friend, on the tour I had the opportunity to watch him goofing around backstage with a bass, and was just amazed at his knowledge of bass chords. That's something I had never really exploited in my playing, so he inspired me to play around more with it. He probably doesn't know it, and would be embarrassed to hear it. I ended up using bass chords on "Force Ten" and "Turn The Page." Not so much in the sense of strumming them as using my thumb more, almost like a fingerpicking style of playing, which is something that I'm still working on. Just plucking with my thumb and going back and forth between the thumb and the first two fingers and pulling. Almost like a snapping technique. It's opened up a bit more range for me. There's more melodic possibilities and rhythmic possibilities too, which is an important role for the bass player. If you can establish not only a melody but a rhythmic feel, that's an extra tool."

The song opens with the sound of a jackhammer. The session keyboard player Andy Richards had a sample of it that the band used. (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington, for all above)