White Flag: Recording and Lyrics

Long-time Rush keyboard and guitar tech Jack Secret (Tony Geranios) in 2008 recorded a piece called “White Flag” with guitarist Paul Crook, most recently with Meatloaf but also with Anthrax and Sebastian Bach. The lyrics are attributed to Neil, and I’ve transcribed them here. Musically, the piece is a slow-cooking rocker that combines a Power Windows-era keyboard sound with a very non-Rush-like guitar and Jack’s gravelly voice. Lyrically, the piece is about refusing to give up, possibly in the context of a revolution. After the piece was recorded, two blogs, Counterparts and Rush is a Band, gave some background on it and linked to the recording.

Years earlier, Jack had recorded a piece called “Tough Break” he wrote with stage technician Skip Gildersleeve. That was back in the 1980s, and Neil, Geddy, and Alex had joined in to add their signature sound to the piece.

Listen to “White Flag” on Jack Secret’s MySpace page.

White Flag

This is all we care to see
Madness in the streets
Talk about a sorry state
Talk about the heat
If caught take it easy
While many take it hard

It seems we always play the dealer
Who holds the winning card
Someone rise in anger
Someone raise a voice
Someone ask a question
Someone make a choice
There’s no time to surrender
No time to rejoice
We’ve been a long, long, long time

Watchful and cool
We can ride out the hurricane
Restless and wet
Pretend to fight again and again
Steady and strong
We can learn to clean the earth and sky
We can learn to laugh and cry
It’s a long, hard climb

Watchful and cool in the heat of a dangerous summer
It’s been a long, long, long time
Restless and wet
With the storm and the sweat of the struggle
It’s been a long, long, long time
Steady and strong like the struggle of a long-distance swimmer
Spirits may sag, but we can’t show the flag or surrender

It’s been a long, long, long time
It’s been a long, long, long time

Read post on how Jack Secret enabled Geddy to play two different instruments at the same time through his Taurus pedals.

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