"Xanadu" is a song recorded by the Canadian progressive rock trio Rush for their 1977 album A Farewell to Kings. It is approximately eleven minutes long, beginning with a five-minute-long instrumental section, then transitioning to a narrative written by lyricist Neil Peart, inspired by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem Kubla Khan.
In Peart's lyrics, the narrator describes searching for something called "Xanadu" (although it is not explicitly stat...
more
"Xanadu" is a song recorded by the Canadian progressive rock trio Rush for their 1977 album A Farewell to Kings. It is approximately eleven minutes long, beginning with a five-minute-long instrumental section, then transitioning to a narrative written by lyricist Neil Peart, inspired by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem Kubla Khan.
In Peart's lyrics, the narrator describes searching for something called "Xanadu" (although it is not explicitly stated what this is, references to the poem "Kubla Khan" imply that it is a mythical place based on the historical summer capitol of the Mongolian Empire) that will grant him immortality. The narrator finds Xanadu and attains immortality. A thousand years pass, and he is left "waiting for the world to end," bitter in the reality of his successful quest.
"Xanadu" is the first Rush song in which synthesizers are an integral part. Unlike the previous 2112 or Caress of Steel albums, "Xanadu" used both guitar and synthesizer effects, and thus...
less
