Malignant Narcissism is an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

track from Rush's 2007 album ''

Snakes & Arrows ''Snakes & Arrows'' is the 18th studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on May 1, 2007, by Anthem Records. After their R30: 30th Anniversary Tour ended in October 2004 the band took a one-year break, during which they agreed to star ...

''. "Malignant Narcissism" was nominated for a 2008 Grammy under the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance, Rush's fifth nomination in said category. However, the song lost to Bruce Springsteen's "Once Upon a Time in the West" making it their fifth defeat in that category.

Song title inspiration

The band found inspiration for the title of the song in the dialogue from the

Trey Parker Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and '' The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Matt Stone. ...

and

Matt Stone Matthew Richard Stone (born May 26, 1971) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and ''The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Trey Parker. Stone was interes ...

film '' Team America: World Police''. In that film, the psychological term

malignant narcissism Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior, aggression, and sadism. Grandiose, and always ready to raise hostility levels, the malignant narcissist undermines families and organiz ...

is used in reference to Islamic terrorists. The only voice heard is from an audio sample taken from the film, appearing at 1:08 in the song featuring a female voice saying, "Usually a case of malignant narcissism brought on during childhood".

Composition and production

Bassist/vocalist

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 ...

describes the development of the song in an interview with Toronto rock station Q107 (CILQ-FM). "Malignant Narcissism" was the last song recorded during the production of ''Snakes & Arrows'', and was completed in a few days. While guitarist

Alex Lifeson Aleksandar Živojinović, (born 27 August 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Rush. In 1968, Lifeson co-founded the band that wo ...

was away from the studio, Lee contacted Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and requested a

Jaco Pastorius John Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987) was an American jazz bassist, composer and producer. He recorded albums as a solo artist and band leader and was a member of Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. ...

signature

fretless A fretless guitar is a guitar with a fingerboard without frets, typically a standard instrument that has had the frets removed, though some custom-built and commercial fretless guitars are occasionally made. The classic fretless guitar was first ...

bass delivered to the studio, on evaluation from Fender. According to Lee, he was interested in the bass for several reasons, including his lack of familiarity with fretless basses. While Lee was experimenting with the bass in the studio, co-producer

Nick Raskulinecz Nick Raskulinecz () (born February 4, 1970) is an American record producer. He resides in Nashville, Tennessee. Production career Raskulinecz is from the Bearden area of Knoxville, Tennessee. He first produced and recorded bands in Knoxville ...

overheard Lee playing a catchy riff and suggested this be incorporated into a new song (this exchange was captured on film, and is part of the documentary section of the MVI edition of ''Snakes & Arrows''). Rush drummer

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 ...

was present, but his expansive drum kit had already been shipped off from the studio. With Raskulinecz's encouragement, Peart decided to challenge himself with an unfamiliar instrument setup, like Lee had done with fretless bass. Peart assembled a small kit composed of four drums, the smallest kit he had ever used when recording for a Rush album. Peart recorded drum parts for "Malignant Narcissism" with this minimal kit. Like Lee's bassline, the opening drumming of counting off on the snare rim, was also a bit of a fluke. As Neil Peart describes in a 2007 Modern Drummer article, "Booujze heard me counting off the tempo on my snare rim, and wanted me to start the song like that". When Lifeson returned to the studio, he had one day to compose a guitar part to play over Lee's fretless riffing, which he did. The piece was added to the nearly finished album, thus making ''Snakes & Arrows'' the first Rush album to contain more than one instrumental, this album ending up with three.

References

# Peart, Neil
''The Game of Snakes and Arrows''
(accessed May 19, 2007) #
Grammy.com
# # ''Power Windows'' Rush fan site
"Rush Inspirations"
# Interview with Neil Pear

# Q107 Interview with Geddy Lee
"Legends of Classic Rock - Rush, the Snakes & Arrows World Album Premiere"
{{authority control 2007 songs Rock instrumentals Rush (band) songs Songs written by Geddy Lee Songs written by Alex Lifeson Song recordings produced by Nick Raskulinecz

Song title inspiration

Composition and production

See also

References