Rush - The Camera Eye
Rush - The Camera Eye


Rush - The Camera Eye Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Moving Pictures
Released: 1981

The Camera Eye Lyrics


Grim-faced and forbidding
Their faces closed tight
An angular mass of New Yorkers
Pacing in rhythm
Race the oncoming night
They chase through the streets of Manhattan
Head-first humanity
Pause at a light
Then flow through the streets of the city

They seem oblivious
To a soft spring rain
Like an English rain
So light, yet endless
From a leaden sky

The buildings are lost
In their limitless rise
My feet catch the pulse
And the purposeful stride

I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city

Wide-angle watcher
On life's ancient tales
Steeped in the history of London
Green and Grey washes
In a wispy white veil
Mist in the streets of Westminster
Wistful and weathered
The pride still prevails
Alive in the streets of the city

Are they oblivious
To this quality?
A quality of light
Unique to every city's streets

Pavements may teem
With intense energy
But the city is calm
In this violent sea

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

The Camera Eye
  • This song highlights the cultural differences between the cities of New York and London.
  • At 10:56, this was the last song Rush recorded that was over 10 minutes long.
  • This is the #1 fan requested song for Rush to perform live. Rush has not performed it completely live since Tour of the Nadars in 1982. They performed it in an abbreviated version the following tour, and it was last played live May 1983. (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington, for all above)
  • 8:56 into the song, in the background you can hear what appears to be Geddy, burp and say "Oh gawd." Most Rush fans believe this is an "English greeting," something like, "Ello, Mornin' Gov'ner." Another possibility is that he's saying, "More Dub," requesting a monitor adjustment in his headphones. (thanks, Eddy - Ilion, NY)