"Snakes & Arrows" - General and Lyrics Quiz

Answer: "The Main Monkey Business", "Hope", "Malignant Narcissism"

This is the most instrumental songs Rush has ever had on one album; before "Snakes & Arrows", the band had one per album at most. However, "Hope" and "Malignant Narcissism" are only approximately two minutes long.

Answer: Far Cry

"Far Cry" was not only released on the radio well before the release of the album, but it was also available to be played on the official Rush site. Even before that, the introduction of "Far Cry" was the very first sound of "Snakes & Arrows" to be released, and this was exclusively on their web site.

Answer: Armor and Sword

"Armor and Sword" starts with: "The Snakes and Arrows a child is heir to are enough to leave a thousand cuts". Rush often chooses their album titles from among the lyrics or titles of the songs (or parts of songs) on the album.

Answer: Earthshine

"Earthshine" is from "Vapor Trails", the studio album released last before "Snakes & Arrows" (a five year difference, 2002-2007). "Rush in Rio" and "R30" were released in between, but have no new songs: they are live DVDs.

Answer: The board of an ancient game referred to as "Snakes & Arrows"

The three wrong answers are images that appear elsewhere in the album. The snake chasing a baby is on the cover of the lyrics booklet; the hands holding a snake and arrow are on the back of the CD; and the snake in the circular shape is on the CD itself.

The cover is in fact an ancient board game called "Leela, the game of self-knowledge" which originated over 2000 years ago in India, which was referred to sometimes as "The game of Snakes & Arrows" because of the snakes and arrows on the board. Yes, this game was in fact the original version of the modern popular games "Snakes & Ladders" and "Chutes and Ladders".

Answer: fight

From "Armor and Sword". This line can illustrate a concept present in an earlier song, "Something for Nothing". It can mean that you have to work for what you want, and life isn't handed to you on a silver platter.

Answer: wheel

From "Far Cry". If you said "world", likely it's because there are actually two very similar lines: "One day I feel I'm on top of the world, and the next it's falling in on me" and "One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel, and the next it's rolling over me". Both are repeated a few times.

Answer: squeaky

From "Bravest Face". This line is one of many lines in the song that are similar in concept and structure, including "In the oldest eyes there's a soul so young" and "In the sweetest child there's a vicious streak".

Answer: Faithless

These lyrics start the vocals in the song. "Faithless" can be interpreted as being about freedom from organized faith (or religion) and following your own heart. This subject matter is along the lines of one of the band's earlier songs, "Freewill".

Answer: Workin' Them Angels

This line is written in italic characters in the lyrics booklet, and is sung in the same fashion as the other lines in this song that are also in italics. It is sung for the first time just before the chorus.