"La Villa Strangiato" is the fourth and closing song from Rush's sixth studio album "Hemispheres". The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire (southeast Wales) and Trident Studios in London with longtime engineer and arranger, Terry Brown (Vocals were recorded at Advision (London) in June and July of 1978 and released on October 29, 1978. The album's two shorter tracks, "Circumstances" and "The Trees" were released as singles in 1978 and 1979, respectively. In 1993, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling one million copies.
"La Villa Strangiato" is Rush's first solely instrumental track and is widely regarded as one of their most ambitious and impressive pieces. Running at just over 9 minutes & split into twelve parts, the piece was apparently inspired by vivid dreams (or nightmares) experienced by Lifeson. Geddy Lee was, on occasion, equally disturbed by these dreams: "Alex doesn't really call them nightmares. Their just strange dreams. He's plagued with them and he drives us crazy by calling us up all the time to tell us about them until we just say 'Stop, you're giving me a headache." Despite being an instrumental, the song tells a complete story, complete with plot and characters.
La Villa Strangiato is an apt title for this wildly shifting piece that encompasses hard rock, jazz, big band, and cartoon music. While numerous people have accused Rush of pretentiousness in this era, it is almost unbelievable that a band would create music like this in attempt to appeal to anything other than their own tastes; the piece is, after all, subtitled "An exercise in self-indulgence."
So ambitious was this piece that after countless attempts to record it in one take, the band finally relented and split the take into three (some interviews say four) and spliced the takes together. Lee has remarked that Rush spent more time recording "La Villa Strangiato" than they did recording the entire "Fly by Night" album.
The repeating jazzy pattern that is known as "Monsters" is a stylized approximation of another piece called "Powerhouse" by Raymond Scott. This piece was used in numerous Warner Brothers cartoons and is, to this day, a staple piece for the use of cartoon animators. Not only was "Powerhouse" used in the old "Merrie Melodies" and "Looney Tunes" cartoons, it has been sampled more recently by other bands such as Devo and They Might Be Giants; more recently cartoons including The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Duckman, Batfink and Animaniacs, also the Cartoon Network's theme song. Rush did not initially credit Scott for the use of the piece and, years later, Scott's estate requested recompense from the band. By this time, however, the statute of limitations had expired and the band had no requirement to pay, but Rush's management, out of deference to Mr. and Mrs. Scott (Raymond was still alive at that point), and being the class act that they are, offered a one-time "penance" payment, feeling it was the ethical thing to do. All involved were happy with the resolution, and Rush has no further financial obligations. Under the settlement, they were not required to accord Raymond Scott partial songwriting credit on the piece.
"La Villa Strangiato" was a regular part of Rush set lists and was a piece that was regularly toyed with. It has on various separate occasions had added to it: nonsense lyrics, a stream of consciousness rant by Lifeson, and a polka styled introduction (which is used in this video's version of the song).
The song is divided into twelve sections:
I. "Buenos Nochas, Mein Froinds!"
II. "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream..."
III. "Strangiato Theme"
IV. "A Lerxst in Wonderland"
V. "Monsters!"
VI. "The Ghost of the Aragon"
VII. "Danforth and Pape"
VIII. "The Waltz of the Shreves"
IX. "Never Turn Your Back on a Monster!"
X. "Monsters! (Reprise)"
XI. "Strangiato Theme (Reprise)"
XII. "A Farewell to Things"
* "Buenos Nochas, Mein Froinds!" Translates to "Good night, my friends!"
* "Danforth and Pape" is an intersection in downtown Toronto. It is well known for being somewhat chaotic during "rush hour."
* Villa Strangiato is a real place in Italy. It was the home of the late Barone (Baron) Strangiato, an Italian nobleman, but it is not a major Italian landmark.
* “Lerxst” is one of Alex's knicknames, which came from a long-ago, exaggerated pronunciation of his name as “Alerxt.”
* The name "Shreves" comes from when one of the family worked as a person who held the office of sheriff. The founding heritage of the Shreves family is in the Anglo-Saxon culture that once dominated in Britain.
* La villa means "city" in Spanish, while Strangiato is made up, a fusion of Spanish and Italian to mean "strange." The images in the suite titles were inspired by dreams Alex was having.
Alex Lifeson - Guitar
Geddy Lee - Bass, Synthesizers
Neil Peart - Drums
#MysticRhythmsLive