Artist: RUSH
Album: CARESS OF STEEL REMASTERED (CD)

Year: 1975/ 1997
EAN/UPS: 0731453462526
Media type: CD

The album is often considered notable for the inclusion of the band's first epic piece, "The Fountain Of Lamneth", which runs to nearly 20 minutes and comprised the whole of side two of the original vinyl release. Intended to be Rush's breakthrough album, it sold lower than their previous record and was considered a failure, with the tour becoming known as the "Down The Tubes Tour". The next year's follow-up album, 2112 would pave the way for Rush to super-stardom with its own 21 minute epic.

This album shows more of Rush's adherence to the standards of progressive rock. Long pieces, pieces broken up into parts, and solo passages of speed and agility are all included.

A necromancer is one who practices necromancy, a type of divination involving the summoning of Operative Spirits to discern information about the future. "The Necromancer" starts with heavy influence from the Lord of the Rings with Frodo, Samwise, and Gollum as the "three travellers" and Sauron as the Necromancer. The song obviously departs from the story of the book as Part III sees the return of By-Tor from Fly by Night, this time as a hero and not a villain. "Return of the Prince" was also released as a single in some countries.

The final song on the album — "The Fountain of Lamneth" — predates epics like 2112 and the Cygnus X-1 series, and is only 34 seconds shorter than 2112. It also forms a complete story, this one about a man in search of the Fountain of Lamneth, presumed to be the Fountain of Youth and chronicles the individual occurrences of his journey, presenting all of them, in the end, as being negative and merely impeding his progress.

Regarding "Didacts and Narpets" (which consists mostly of a drum solo), in the October 1991 news release from the Rush Backstage Club, Neil Peart said: "Okay, I may have answered this before, but if not, the shouted words in that song represent an argument between Our Hero and the Didacts and Narpets - teachers and parents. I honestly can't remember what the actual words were, but they took up opposite positions like: "Work! Live! Earn! Give!" and like that." A didact is a teacher, and "narpet" is an anagram of "parent". This song was never played live[citation needed].

Rush's Led Zeppelin influence is still prominent on this record, most obviously in the song "Bastille Day", though it is apparent on all three of the shorter songs on the album.

Originally, the album cover was supposed to be in silver hue to give it a "steel" appearance. A printing error resulted in a copper color for the album cover.

Despite its poor sales, the album charted higher in the US than Rush's previous release Fly by Night (as stated in the liner notes to Rush's The Spirit of Radio Greatest Hits 1974-87 album). The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in 1993.

TRACKLIST:

01 "Bastille Day" – 4:37
02 "I Think I'm Going Bald" – 3:37
03 "Lakeside Park" – 4:08
04 "The Necromancer" – 12:30
"I. Into Darkness" – 4:12
"II. Under the Shadow" – 4:25
"III. Return of the Prince" – 3:52

05 "The Fountain of Lamneth" – 20:03
"I. In the Valley" – 4:18
"II. Didacts and Narpets" – 1:00
"III. No One at the Bridge" – 4:19
"IV. Panacea" – 3:14
"V. Bacchus Plateau" – 3:16
"VI. The Fountain" – 3:49

LINE-UP:

Geddy Lee - bass guitar and vocals
Alex Lifeson - 6 and 12 string electric and acoustic guitars, classical guitar, steel guitar
Neil Peart - lyrics and percussion