Album: Power Windows (1985)

Charted: 46 45

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• Big money goes around the world
  Big money underground
  Big money got a mighty voice
  Big money make no sound
  Big money pull a million strings
  Big money hold the prize
  Big money weave a mighty web
  Big money draw the flies
  
  Sometimes pushing people around
  Sometimes pulling out the rug
  Sometimes pushing all the buttons
  Sometimes pulling out the plug
  It's the power and the glory
  It's a war in paradise
  A Cinderella story
  On a tumble of the dice
  
  Big money goes around the world
  Big money take a cruise
  Big money leave a mighty wake
  Big money leave a bruise
  Big money make a million dreams
  Big money spin big deals
  Big money make a mighty head
  Big money spin big wheels
  
  Sometimes building ivory towers
  Sometimes knocking castles down
  Sometimes building you a stairway
  Lock you underground
  It's that old-time religion
  It's the kingdom they would rule
  It's the fool on television
  Getting paid to play the fool
  
  It's the power and the glory
  It's a war in paradise
  A Cinderella story
  On a tumble of the dice
  
  Big money goes around the world
  Big money give and take
  Big money done a power of good
  Big money make mistakes
  Big money got a heavy hand
  Big money take control
  Big money got a mean streak
  Big money got no soul Writer/s: Alex Zivojinovich, Gary Lee Weinrib, Neil Elwood Peart
  Publisher: Anthem Entertainment
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 11

• George Pope from Vancouver - CanadaEric from Beaverton, OR Maybe he meant sandwich as in a guy wearing a sandwich board advertising thing? As in the guy wearing one attacked him -- he probably told it as he did because it sounded more zany. . . :) but was still a true story.
• Alex Lifeson from TorontoWhat key is this in - B major? It says A major everywhere but that is wrong because of the tuning up
• Nickster from Minneapolis, MnOne of the first music videos on MTV to make significant use of computer animation.
• Drake from Huntington Beach, CaBig Money as an overall song tells about money's opportunities to people and when it doesn't. The Power Windows album is really about power hungry ideas people push out like the atom bomb in Manhattan Project. In my view and few others its perhaps the final great RUSH album of their old music. To me I understand the lyrics but I don't follow them all the time though, sorry. Having a lot of dough sounds good, but it just seems like trouble to others including to me, it can lead to devastating devices and ideas that are dangerous. Money does have a good side though, it help others who don't have any.
• Connor from Dallas , TxPower Windows is a favorite Rush album. The theme of power hungry people is shown in The Big Money and Manhattan Project.
• Eric from Beaverton, OrDavid from Mesa: Rush can be a bit wacky at times. A long time ago, I heard a rumor about Alex Lifeson's stage antics, acting like he's drunk sometimes. I went to my first Rush concert in 2002, and there was a part where they were jamming along, and then Alex starts going into a silly story about him being attacked by a sandwich while walking along a sidewalk. I saw Rush during their 2007 Snakes & Arrows tour, and although it was a good concert, they didn't do anything wacky like that.
• Chuck from Houston, TxOne connection I can make for you David, is that when Neil Peart first met his newest band mates, Alex and Geddy back in 1974 prehaps, right after John Rutsey left... one of the things they talked about, to get to know each other, was there faviort Monty Python videos. I'm guessing they used it in there tours not to connect to the song, but as a tribute there comical influnce growing up in there younger years.
• David from Mesa, AzThere have been a few occasions where the song has ended with a riff from Cheech and Chong's hard rock parody "Earache My Eye".
• David from Mesa, AzRecent live versions of this song have been interesting for the soundbite which appears near the end (as documented in the above RUSH IN RIO songfact). To date, Rush has used the Simspons "D'oh! A deer! A female deer!" as well as Monty Python's "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" and "Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!" I don't see much connection with the song itself. I suppose Rush has to let out some steam while doing Peart's heady lyrics. They certainly seem a bit wackier in their later years.
• Greg from Oakville, CanadaBeing a huge rush fan and a bass player for 7 years, I love this song because of Geddy Lee's bass playing and solo. Even though Hemispheres is by far his best bass song hands down, he gives the bass in this song a distinctive sound by playing a Stienberger bass guitar which is the only bass he used for the whole Power Windows album!
• Dee from Indianapolis, In"Power Windows" was the 1st cassette I ever bought. I got my 1st job at McDonalds and was hooked on Rush by listening to "Exit Stage Left" till I wore out the copy I had. To me, this is the last "GREAT" all around Rush album. Not that I don't like some of their newer stuff, but it was the end of an era in my book. "Big Money" ranks as one of my all time favorite Rush tunes, but it's hard to choose a best when there are way to many great ones throughout the ages.

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