"Jacob's Ladder" is a song by the Canadian

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band Rush. It was released on their 1980 album ''

Permanent Waves ''Permanent Waves'' is the seventh studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released January 14, 1980, through Anthem Records. After touring to support their previous album, '' Hemispheres'' (1978), the band began working on new material for a ...

''.

Composition and recording

The song was developed on the band's warm-up tour during soundchecks. "Jacob's Ladder" uses several time and key signatures, and possesses a dark, ominous feel in its first half. The lyrics are based on a simple concept; a vision of sunlight breaking through storm clouds. The song's title is a reference to the

natural phenomenon A natural phenomenon is an observable event which is not man-made. Examples include: sunrise, weather, fog, thunder, tornadoes; biological processes, decomposition, germination; physical processes, wave propagation, erosion; tidal flow, and natur ...

of the sun breaking through the clouds in visible rays, which in turn was named after the

Biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

ladder to heaven on which

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

saw

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

s ascending and descending in a vision. Drummer and lyricist

Neil Peart Neil Ellwood Peart OC (; September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian-American musician, best known as the drummer and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush. Peart earned numerous awards for his musical performances, including an ...

said of the song:

Whereas most of the ideas we were dealing with this time were on the lesser side, and in some cases, like in "Jacobs Ladder", looked at as a cinematic idea. We created all the music first to summon up an image – the effect of Jacob's Ladder – and paint the picture, with the lyrics added, just as a sort of little detail, later, to make it more descriptive.

Robert Telleria said in the Rush book ''Merely Players'':

Part heavy metal, part
New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
, this song is not about the vision seen by Jacob in the Bible but rather the atmospheric phenomena that has been named after that image. The tympani pounding parts rock like apocalyptic earthquakes.
Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...
plays like he’s ascending the ladder in the clouds.

Live performances

In early 2015, during Rush's

R40 Live Tour The R40 Live Tour was the final tour by Canadian rock band Rush that commemorated the 40th anniversary of drummer Neil Peart joining the band in July 1974. The title hearkens back to Rush's 2004 R30: 30th Anniversary Tour that celebrated the 3 ...

, frontman

Geddy Lee Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib; July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968, at the re ...

incorrectly stated that the song had never been played live before, but he was corrected by fans on the internet. The live albums '' Exit...Stage Left'' (1981) and ''

R40 Live ''R40 Live'' is the name for both the last live audio album release, and the live video release, of Canadian rock band Rush's R40 Live Tour. Both formats were released November 20, 2015. The performances were filmed on June 17 and 19, 2015, at ...

'' (2015) include performances of this song.

Reception

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

rated "Jacob's Ladder" 5/5, writing "It's 'sic''repetitiveness and unique sound make it great". They ranked the song number 41 on their ranking of every Rush song. ''

Ultimate Classic Rock Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...

'' ranked the song 17th best on their list of "All 167 Rush Songs Ranked Worst to Best".

References

{{authority control Rush (band) songs 1980 songs Songs written by Geddy Lee Songs written by Alex Lifeson Songs written by Neil Peart Song recordings produced by Terry Brown (record producer)