VI. "The Sphere A Kind of Dream"

"Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres" was composed by bassist and lead vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, its lyrics penned by drummer Neil Peart. It was arranged and produced by the band and Terry Brown. It is the opening side-long suite of Hemispheres (1978), Rush's sixth studio album. The album was recorded in June and July 1978. The music was tracked at Rockfield Studios in Rockfield, Monmouthshire and the vocals Advision Studios in London. Trident Studios in Soho was the location of mixing in August. After getting sucked into the black hole of Cygnus X-1 in the previous Cygnus X-1 suite, A Farewell to Kings (1977) closer "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage", the unnamed astronaut, with a memory and voice but no physical presence, finds himself in a world divided by the suite's titular "Hemispheres". These represent two battling factions for a different god, bringer of wisdom Apollo and bringer of love Dionysus. He is declared "God of Balance" by Apollo and Dionysus in the movement "Cygnus Bringer of Balance", leading into the sixth and final movement "The Sphere A Kind of Dream". Lasting 18 full measures and a coda, "The Sphere A Kind of Dream" is played in D major and following a chord progression of D–G–Bm–Asus4–Cm–G–Esus4–E–F–D–G–Bm–A–A(add B)–Cm–G–Bm–A–A(add B)–Cmaj7–F–G–D. For little more than a minute, Lee, over a soft 12-string acoustic guitar and simple synthesizer, sings the suite's message, the importance of the balance and unity between heart and mind into a "single, perfect sphere": "Sensible, armed with sense and liberty". == Release ==

Hemispheres was released on October 24, 1978 by Anthem Records, the title suite taking up the A-side. The vinyl of Hemispheres correctly present the timestamps of the suite and its movement except the 1:02 "The Sphere", where it was marked as 1:06. == Reception ==

In Hemispheres initial reviews, Conrad Bibens wrote the end of the title suite showed Lee "can sing in a softer and more gentle vein", while Len Senecal criticized "The Sphere" as a "pseudo climax with an acoustic guitar and moralizing vocals". Decades later, Trebles Langdon Hickman claimed "Cygnus Bringer of Balance" and "The Sphere A Kind of Dream" "the strongest closing to an epic they ever pieced together, like the thesis statement of this phase of their career—a combination of Yes and Led Zeppelin cloaked in royal thunder". Richard James and Jon Collins painted the sound and listening experience as "pretty", "melodic", and "like waking from a dream". Collins similarly suggested the promotion of "collective individualism" ("We can walk our road together if our goals are all the same, we can run alone and free if we pursue a different aim") a "thinly-disguised" debunk of anti-socialist allegations made by journalists such as Barry Miles. NME, in a contemporaneous review, highlighted the closing lines "Armed with sense and liberty/With the Heart and Mind united/In a single perfect sphere." Alex Body acclaimed the complexity of the line "Sensibility armed with sense and liberty", especially in comparison to what he perceived to be the simplicity of the stories of Rush's previous two side-long epics, "The Fountain of Lamneth" (1975) and "2112" (1976). == Legacy ==

As part of her journey getting into Rush, experimental artist Fire-Toolz remembered reading the lyrics to "The Sphere" as an elementary school student "and for some reason, at such a young age, I knew exactly what the lyrics meant. Talking about the balance between heart and logic, or emotion and scientific thinking — that kind of left brain/right brain dichotomy." It heavily influenced her visual style, which she described as a combination of the balls of the cover art of Hold Your Fire (1987) and "The Sphere"'s lyrics. == Notes ==