The Camera Eye by Rush

The longest song on Moving Pictures, this was the last Rush song over ten minutes long…and the first Rock Band track to reach that length.

Like other songs on that album, it reflects the amount of travelling Rush was doing at the time; the lyrics are about the cultural gaps between New York and London.

Though much-loved by fans, “The Camera Eye” is the only Moving Pictures song that hasn’t been played in Rush’s last few tours; in fact it hasn’t been played since the Signals tour in 1983, despite fan requests. The band dropped hints that it might be played in 2008 but didn’t follow through; now they’re hinting that it may appear next time around.

In a nifty reprise of a song from earlier on the album, Neil Peart plays the opening “YYZ” riff on woodblocks during the first section of “The Camera Eye.”

Two words: Pace yourself. It’s a three-part song and if you’re playing guitar, all the challenging bits come at the end. The opening section is slow and mellow by Rush standards, with enough long single notes to keep you in the game.

For the next section, about two-thirds of the way through, the tempo speeds up and there’s a series of two-finger chords that you’ll need to stay awake for. Don’t be faked out by the false ending, because the solo comes afterward and that’s where you’ll be put through the paces.

On drums, well, it’s eleven straight minutes of Neil Peart licks. Eat your Wheaties.

"The Camera Eye" as performed by Rush courtesy of Universal Music Enterprises and Core Music Publishing
Neil Peart, Gary Weinrib, Alex Zivojinovich
© 1981 Core Music/All Rights Reserved (SOCAN/SECSAC-USA)