I Think I’m Going Bald: Background

“‘I Think I’m Going Bald’ opens with an echoed shriek from Geddy that sounds as if he has just seen what he is about to describe. It is about waking up, looking in the mirror, and thinking that you are going bald. The song has an amusing closing lyrical prophecy: ‘But even when I’m grey I’ll still be grey my way.'”—Bill Banasiewicz, Rush Visions

“We were touring a lot with Kiss in those days, and they had a song called ‘I Think I’m Going Blind’ [actually just ‘Goin’ Blind’]. So we were kind of taking the piss out of that title by just coming up with this. . . . Pratt [a nickname for Neil, another one being The Professor] came up with this line, “I think I’m going bald,” because Alex is always worried about losing his hair. Even when he was not losing his hair, he was obsessed with the fact that he might lose his hair. So he would try all kinds of ingredients to put on his scalp. And I think it just got Neil thinking about aging, even though we weren’t aging yet and had no right to talk about that stuff yet. It would be much more appropriate now [2004]. And it just became a kind of funny song. And even though the song is not funny, in terms of sentiment, it kind of is, and the music is really goofy. A lot of people mistake us for being deadly serious, but some of our songs are just plain goofy.”—Geddy in Contents Under Pressure

In an early draft of the lyrics, another verse was to follow “But now it must be wine:” “Kitchen table hours / Building castles in the sand / (Now we’ve been)”—Robert Telleria, Merely Players

“I think I’m Going Bald” is a “curious case . . . a boogie rocker similar to ‘In the Mood’ and a host of blues-derived hard rock hits and also-rans from years such as 1972.”—Martin Popoff, Contents Under Pressure

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