Open Secrets: Background

“‘Open Secrets’ describes the inwardness and isolation that results from hiding feelings and keeping private secrets from one’s intimate circle. The relationship described [in the piece] is full of miscommunication and irritation, because the parties are distracted by their own concerns, even as they try to open up to each other. ‘I was looking out the window,’ Lee sings, ‘I should have looked at your face instead. The things we keep inside are barriers, the things we conceal will never let us grow.’ Bringing these barriers down, learning to empathize, learning to be vulnerable to another person takes real courage.”—Christopher McDonald, Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class

The piece ‘came out of a conversation between Neil and Geddy about people they knew and how they went through life without properly addressing problems that were affecting them. ‘Quite a lot of my ideas come from having conversations with other people. I take their observations and viewpoints and personalize them. Unfortunately a lot of people think these songs are personal statements. I don’t want that to happen because it would seem I’m unburdening myself and that would be tiresome. . . . One thing I personally hate is confessional lyrics. The one where people reach down into their tormented souls and tell me how much they hurt. That’s really selfish and petty.” (Metal Hammer)—Neil in Merely Players

“That song went through a lot of changes, and by the end of it, we had established this bass riff near the top of it. At the end we got into this groove when we were in the demo stage that we knew would be fun. So when Neil locked into that groove and went with it, he felt so good that we just let him go. And I just jammed to what he already put down.” (Bass Player, 1988)—Geddy in Songfacts

“It’s more the musicality of the song than the lyrical content. For the solo I think it’s the mood that’s created by the music. I suppose in a way that makes it attached to the lyrics. But it’s more the music that provides the trigger for what the solo does. If it’s a dark, melancholy sound to that particular song, then the solo will reflect that. ‘Open Secrets’ has that lonely mood to it from a musical point of view. I think the solo in that song reflects that wailing loneliness.” (Guitar, 1988)—Merely Players

“The line ‘That’s not what I meant at all’ is from T.S. Eliot’s poem, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'”—Robert Telleria, Merely Players

More about “Open Secrets”

Back to Rush Vault