Presto (album)

Did You Know?

• The album's sleeve, designed by Hugh Syme, depicts a levitating magician's hat on a hill with a rabbit emerging from it, with many rabbits in the foreground.
• Rush produced three music videos for Presto: 'Show Don't Tell', 'The Pass', and 'Superconductor'.
• The drum pattern in 'Scars' was derived from a tribal rhythm Peart heard while on a bicycle tour of Africa, later chronicled in his book The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa.

Background

After touring Hold Your Fire in 1988, Rush released the live album A Show of Hands in early 1989. The group chose not to renew their contract with Mercury Records, feeling the relationship had become stale. With no deadlines for the first time in 15 years, they took a six-month break before gathering in December 1988 to plan a new album.

Writing

Rush rented a country studio to write and rehearse, using their usual method of Lifeson and Lee working on music while Peart wrote lyrics separately. Peart would listen to their progress at the end of the day. Presto marks the start of a return to a guitar-driven sound after the band's synthesizer period; Lifeson and Lee agreed that the guitar had been the core of their sound and emotion, and they wanted to restore that. Lee described the album as more of a singer's album with arrangements supporting the vocal, and noted a pact to avoid strings, pianos, organs, and digital technology, though they eventually used them for colour. Unlike the previous three albums, Presto has no overall lyrical theme; Peart described the lyrics as a collection of individual statements, with a motif of looking at life and acting within it. The title was originally considered for A Show of Hands, but was used for this album after Peart wrote a song called 'Presto'.

Recording

After working out several songs, Rush approached Peter Collins to co-produce, but he declined. They then hired Rupert Hine, who laughed at some of their ideas—a reaction they initially found bemusing but later understood as pleasure. At Hine's suggestion, Stephen W. Tayler was brought in as engineer. Pre-production, scheduled for 10 days, was completed in one and a half. Recording took place from June to August 1989, partly in London as part of the deal with Hine, and finished about four weeks early. After completion, Rush signed with Atlantic Records after executive Doug Morris made an attractive offer.

Songs

Presto continues the treble-heavy, light progressive rock of the band's previous two studio albums. 'The Pass' was inspired by a friend of Peart's who discussed juvenile suicide during a cycle ride; Peart considered it the song he worked hardest on due to the delicate subject. 'Scars' features a complex drum pattern derived from a tribal rhythm Peart heard on a bicycle tour of Africa, and uses a sequencer in place of what is often mistaken for a bass guitar. The title track, according to Lifeson, is about feeling more active in one's heart than one's head. 'Superconductor' addresses the superficiality of mainstream music, a topic also touched on in 'Grand Designs' from Power Windows. 'Anagram (for Mongo)' contains anagrams within its lines; its title was inspired by the character Mongo from the 1974 film Blazing Saddles. 'Hand over Fist' was originally an instrumental, but Peart's lyrical ideas fit the music and the instrumental plan was dropped; the song uses the symbolism of rock-paper-scissors.