Losing It: Background

“Losing It’ is a gentle, peaceful song on which Ben Mink plays eloquently a beautiful violin part. The production sound works in this song’s favor: Jean Luc Rush in action. Missing in action: Alex Lifeson.”—Bill Banasiewicz, Rush Visions

Ben Mink is long-time k.d. lang collaborator and in 2000 collaborated with Geddy on My Favorite Headache. “Jean Luc” refers to French-born jazz violinist Jean-Lun Ponty who joined Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on several projects.

“We had talked for a while about getting Ben Mink to play electric violin somewhere on this album, and this seemed like the perfect track. Once we got into the studio, we developed the jazzy solo section, recorded the basic track, and gave Ben a call. Fortunately, he was able to get away from his group FM for a couple of days, and bring his unique instrument up to play his heart out for us. We worked him hard, squeezed him dry, and threw him away. He just stood there in front of the console, taking it and and giving it, fueled by occasional sips of C.C. Not only the monumentally fantastic solo did we demand, but we had him multiple-tracking an entire string section as well. That’ll teach him to be our friend!” (Stories From Signals)—Neil in Merely Players

“The writer referred to in the song is Ernest Hemingway, not only his writings (The Sun Also Rises—‘the sun will rise no more’—and For Whom the Bell Tolls—‘the bell tolls for thee’), but also his physique. But the song was inspired by the film The Turning Point.”—Robert Telleria, Merely Players

“It drew a bit from that film with Shirley MacLaine about the two ballet dancers. One of them had continued on and was getting to be a bit of a has-been. The the had given it up to to get married and raise a family. I was a bit inspired from that. You have to respond to that kind of tragedy compassionately. It’s a horrible thing. You spend all your life learning how to do a thing and then because of something beyond your control, all of a sudden you can’t do it anymore. It’s very sad. There’s an essential dynamic to life that you have a prime, and you have something leading up to that prime. The essence was whether it was worse to lose something great or whether it was worse to have never known it.” (Modern Drummer)—Neil in Merely Players

More about “Losing It”

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