"Red Sector A" is a song by

Rush Rush(es) may refer to: Places United States * Rush, Colorado * Rush, Kentucky * Rush, New York * Rush City, Minnesota * Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois * Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream * Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...

that provides a first-person account of a nameless protagonist living in an unspecified prison camp setting. "Red Sector A" first appeared on the band's 1984 album '' Grace Under Pressure''. 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 ...

has stated that the detailed imagery in the song intentionally evokes

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

s of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, although he left the lyrics ambiguous enough that they could deal with any similar prison camp scenario. The song was inspired in part by

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 ...

's mother's accounts of the Holocaust. In a rare instance for Rush's music, the track features no bass guitar, with Lee instead completely focusing on synthesizers and vocals.

Background

Geddy Lee explained the genesis of the song in an interview: In a 1984 interview Neil Peart describes writing "Red Sector A":

Song title

The song's title "Red Sector A" comes from the name of a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

launch area at

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

, where the band watched the first launch of Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' on April 12, 1981. This trip also inspired the song "

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

", from their previous album

Signals In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

Track listing

References

*''Rock 'N' Roll Never Forgets Holocaust's Horror'', Palm Beach Post, May 6, 2005

External links

Official Rush website

Red Sector A video on Youtube
{{Authority control 1984 singles Anthem Records singles Rush (band) songs Songs about the Holocaust 1984 songs Songs based on actual events Songs written by Geddy Lee Songs written by Alex Lifeson Songs written by Neil Peart

Background

Song title

Track listing

See also

References

External links