Limelight

"Limelight" is a song by the Canadian progressive rock band Rush. It first appeared on the 1981 album Moving Pictures. Written by Rush's primary lyricist Neil Peart, "Limelight" expresses Peart's discomfort with Rush's success and being in the "limelight." Limelight also employs a number of Shakespearian phrases. Neil Peart (Source Limelight Songfacts): "Success puts a strain on the friendship and it puts the strains on your day-to-day relationship, and it's something that we did go through, you know, we're not immune to it. But we were able to overcome it just through our closeness and we were able to help each other with difficulties like that and then we could deal with the pressures and things and that." Limelight is featured in the film Adventureland and I Love You, Man.

[Verse 1] Living on a lighted stage Approaches the unreal For those who think and feel In touch with some reality Beyond the gilded cage [Pre-Chorus] Cast in this unlikely role Ill-equipped to act With insufficient tact One must put up barriers To keep oneself intact [Chorus] Living in the limelight The universal dream For those who wish to seem Those who wish to be Must put aside the alienation Get on with the fascination The real relation The underlying theme [Verse 2] Living in a fisheye lens Caught in the camera eye I have no heart to lie I can't pretend a stranger Is a long-awaited friend [Pre-Chorus] All the world's indeed a stage And we are merely players Performers and portrayers Each another's audience Outside the gilded cage [Chorus] Living in the limelight The universal dream For those who wish to seem Those who wish to be Must put aside the alienation Get on with the fascination The real relation The underlying theme [Guitar Solo] [Chorus] Living in the limelight The universal dream For those who wish to seem Those who wish to be Must put aside the alienation Get on with the fascination The real relation The underlying theme [Outro] The real relation The underlying theme