Mystic Rhythms: Background

The piece is a very different one for the band. “Instead of describing what should be done, it tries to capture things we feel but can’t describe. Musically, it goes after that sense of wonder which occurs when that feeling of something far beyond us grips our imagination. Neil beats his electronic primitive drum kit on the choruses to capture an exotic sound, using African rhythms, while the keyboards play an Oriental pattern. It is hard to pin down all the musical styles and elements that are being employed.”—Bill Banasiewicz, Rush Visions

“I don’t really believe in astrology, but I don’t discount it out of hand either. It’s one of those things the piece talks about. ‘We suspend our disbelief, and we are entertained.’ As long as the President isn’t being guided by astrologers (I know, I know), then it doesn’t hurt anybody.” (Backstage Club, 1990) I’m agnostic, but curious, and romantic enough to want [astrology] to be true. (1986)—Neil in Merely Players

The President being guided by astrologers refers to news reports at the time that President Ronald Reagan revised travel plans based in part on recommendations from a mystic his wife Nancy consulted regularly.

It “seems to sum up the collective mind-space of neo-prog positors and those old proggers renewed such as Yes, Genesis, and Peter Gabriel, the track lunging forward into six minutes of eastern exotics.”—Martin Popoff, Contents Under Pressure

“Chaos theory, circadian rhythms—everything is revolving in the universe to an unknown mystic rhythm. ‘Canopy of stars’ is a term referring to astrological beliefs, another mystic rhythm.”—Robert Telleria, Merely Players

The piece was used as the opening song for the NBC show 1986.—Wikipedia

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