RUSH Drummer Explains Art, Title For New Album
March 27, 2007, 17 years ago
RUSH drummer Neil Peart has commented on the cover art and title of their new album, Snakes and Arrows, which will be released on May 1 via Anthem/Atlantic.
"To my surprise, 'snakes and arrows' called up several links to something called 'Leela, The Game of Self Knowledge,' or, incredibly, 'The Game of Snakes and Arrows.' Long story short, I followed that trail with growing enthusiasm, and learned that Leela (Hindi for 'the game') was at least 2,000 years old, and had been created by Buddhist saints and sages as a game of karma-like many games, a metaphor for life...The Leela player rolls a single die, said to be affected by his or her karma, and moves around the board. Each square on the grid represents a stage of consciousness or existence, and the player is raised to higher levels by arrows, and brought low by snakes. The children's game 'Snakes and Ladders' (sometimes called 'Chutes and Ladders') was adapted from Leela by the British during the 19th century Colonial period. After that, the original game almost disappeared-apparently only two gameboards existed in India when scholar Harish Johari revived the game and brought it to America in the 1970s...When I told Alex and Geddy about the Leela connection, and showed them the gameboard painted by Harish Johari, they were as excited by all that serendipity as I was, and we agreed to use his painting for the cover."As reported earlier today, a DVD version of Snakes and Arrows will be released on May 15, 2007. Snakes & Arrows was recorded in the fall of 2006 with Grammy Award-winner Nick Raskulinecz (FOO FIGHTERS, VELVET REVOLVER) and Rush co-producing.
Snakes & Arrows features the following tracklist: 'Far Cry', 'Armor And Sword', 'Workin' Them Angels', 'The Larger Bowl',' Spindrift', 'The Main Monkey Business', 'The Way The Wind Blows', 'Hope', 'Faithless', 'Bravest Face', 'Good News First', 'Malignant Narcissism', 'We Hold On'.
Snakes & Arrows World Tour will kick off in North America on June 13th at Atlanta's HiFi Buys Amphitheatre and will visit over 45 cities throughout the United States and Canada before traveling to the UK and Europe.
Dates can be found here.
(Thanks 2112.net/Power Windows)
