Music of the Day, 7 July 2025
get ready for 18 minutes of symphonic rock
These 18 minutes are just the second part of the masterpiece! Oh, and use good headphones/earbuds for maximum immersion and enjoyment.
You may think me cruel to focus on “Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres” today without having featured the first “book.” Well, that’s the order in which I discovered them; and I doubt that I need to elaborate on why this Rush masterpiece from their 1978 album Hemispheres came to mind.
I didn’t become a Rush fan until the mid ‘80s, when I was in graduate school. My then-husband was earning decent money as a medical resident, but on top of the usual household expenses, we were paying on my undergrad student loans, and we wanted to save as much as we could for buying a house at some point. So even though we’d splurged on a good stereo system, I didn’t immediately buy every extant Rush album. All the music I bought came out of my own meager teaching assistant salary, as did my loan payments—and also, I didn’t have a lot of free time for listening to music.
My brother encouraged me1 in my explorations, but I don’t recall asking him for advice on which albums to buy first. What guided me was what I found in the used CD sections, so that’s why I bought Hemispheres before A Farewell to Kings (AFTK). And seeing the title of the first track didn’t give me cause for concern; just because “Book II” was part of its title didn’t necessarily mean there was a “Book I” in existence. Silly me. Even then I should have known better than to think that Neil Peart would do that.
But we’re wasting time here—too much of my prattle and not enough music. Hemispheres is arguably Rush at its epic best, and with just four tracks to the album, “Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres” is a big part of why. The story Neil tells is terrific and timeless, but don’t sleep on the music. It truly is symphonic.
Today’s a busy day, but having listened to this piece, I absolutely must make time to listen to all of AFTK and then Hemispheres. It’s been far too long since I’ve listened to any Rush album all the way through.
I’m sure that making a Rushhead out of me was part of his diabolical plan when he first played “Closer to the Heart” for me
It's been ages since I listened to those early Rush albums. On Hemispheres I was always fond of The Trees, and on A Farewell to Kings of Xanadu. I'll need to re-listen soon!