ENCARTE: RUSH [4]
Parte do gigantesco (e em irritantes fontes minúsculas) release sobre “Hemispheres” (1978) contido no “Hemispheres 40th Anniversary” (2018), com depoimentos de Geddy Lee (inicial), Alex Lifeson e Terry Brown (produtor) acerca de “La Villa Strangiato”:
“‘La Villa Strangiato’ was fun. It was bits and bobs. It was just let’s take these great instrumental ideas we have and loosely connect them with a theme like a dream. Anything works in a dream sequence. We had rhythmic ideas we want to put down. We had all kinds of wacky bits that we felt were fun and gave them names afterwards. We had fun with [the names]. Like the word ‘Strangiato’: we don’t even know there was such a word. We just invented it. ‘Strange village’ is what it’s supposed to represent but it’s not one language. It’s French, Spanish and Italian”.
At the time Alex was spending a lot of time listening to classical music while Geddy was exploring jazz fusion, becoming particulary enamored with Weather Report. Both of these influences are manifest on ‘La Villa Strangiato’.
At the time Alex refeered to ‘La Villa Strangiato’ in a interview with Geoff Barton of Sounds, stating: “it’s really peculiar, really off the wall and totally unlike anything we’ve ever done before”. He told Guitar Player, “After we were finished, none of us thought we’d ever be able to play it again. But now I can do it while watching TV’.
In 2018 Terry Brown reflected about recording ‘La Villa Strangiato’: ‘There’s a lot of wacky stuff in that tune. It’s not exactly what you’d call your average instrumental. We were constantly pushing the envelope and going for something a little more outside and yet very melodic. It’s like good jazz players who play outside but just mesmerize you with melody and tonality. They were always coming up with stuff that was a little off the wall and unusual. It was a challenge getting it on tape to make it feel like it was a really great rock piece and yet it had all these weird little angles to it. I loved it ‘“.