A Farewell To Kings

A Farewell to Kings is the fifth studio album by Canadian progressive rock band Rush, released in 1977. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales and mixed at Advision Studios in London.

A Farewell to Kings would become Rush’s first US Gold selling album going Gold in almost two months of its release and eventually Platinum.

Geddy Lee played his bass lines on acoustic bass while writing them and came up with guitar lines also. The birds heard on “A Farewell to Kings” & “Xanadu” were recorded outside near Rockfield Studios.

Track listing
All songs music written by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee with lyrics by Neil Peart, except where noted.

“A Farewell to Kings” (Music: Lee, Lifeson, Peart) – 5:51
“Xanadu” – 11:08
“Closer to the Heart” (Lyrics: Peart, Peter Talbot) – 2:53
“Cinderella Man” (Lyrics: Lee) – 4:21
“Madrigal” – 2:35
“Cygnus X-1” (Music: Lee, Lifeson, Peart) – 10:25

Song information

A Farewell to Kings
The name of the album itself is clearly derivative of Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel A Farewell to Arms. It often deals lyrically with the theme of departure, and through departure, a sort of ascension to a state of better being; this can be said to echo the evolution of society from the days of medieval feudalism and autocratic monarchy, hence “a farewell to kings”.

Xanadu
The lyrics for the epic “Xanadu” were inspired by the 56-line poem Kubla Khan, written about 1797 by British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.