I read in Smithsonian magazine that the Andromeda galaxy is on a 60-miles-per-second collision course with the Milky Way. Okay, so it won’t be much of a collision, and our sun’s luminosity will make Earth uninhabitable before the galactic transformation, which is billions of years off. Still, it got me thinking on our need to one day leave this precious rock, which in turn called to mind one of my favorite songs since humans first made sounds, “Countdown” by Rush. Released as the closing song on Signals in 1982, it’s a tribute to NASA’s creation of the space shuttle Columbia. The song’s mating of words to subject to music is perfection itself, capturing both the heroic nature of flight and the grandeur of a space launch.
No other treatment could achieve the power, immediacy, scope, and scale of the thoughts and physical realities embodied in “Countdown.” It’s one of the great accomplishments of music and sound. You won’t find it on Chronicles, the only compendium of Rush’s conceptual clips so far, quite possibly because the song is so complete without the visuals. But you can watch and listen to it right here.
9 March 2014