Rush Songs - The Body Electric Lyrics

Rush - The Body Electric

Rush - The Body Electric Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Grace Under Pressure
Released: 1984

The Body Electric Lyrics

One humanoid escapee
One android on the run
Seeking freedom beneath the lonely desert sun

Trying to change its program
Trying to change the mode, crack the code
Images conflicting into data overload

One zero zero one zero zero one
SOS
One zero zero one zero zero one
In distress
One zero zero one zero zero

Memory banks unloading
Bytes break into bits
Unit One's in trouble and it's scared out of its wits

Guidance systems break down
A struggle to exist
To resist
A pulse of dying power in a clenching plastic fist

One zero zero one zero zero one
SOS
One zero zero one zero zero one
In distress
One zero zero one zero zero

It replays each of the days
A hundred years of routines
Bows its head and prays
To the mother of all machines

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

The Body Electric

This is based on Twilight Zone episode #100 - "I Sing the Body Electric." The episode originally aired in 1962. It's about a family who orders a robot "Grandmother" after the death of their young mother. Written by Ray Bradbury, the name came from a Walt Whitman poem. The story was later included in a short stories collection with the same title in 1969.

Some believe the song was inspired by the movie THX 1138, one of the first films made by Star Wars creator George Lucas. (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington, for above 2)

The song describes a robot who struggles to break free of the hegemony of the robots' social structure. The chorus repeats several times:
one-zero-zero-one-zero-zero-one SOS
one-zero-zero-one-zero-zero-one In Distress
1001001 is ASCII code for the letter 'I.' This could indicate the robot's motivation for escape - it's attainment of self-awareness. (thanks, Michael - Torrance, CA)