Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson voice a pair of oblivious cops in Rush’s new animated “YYZ” video, which promotes their upcoming deluxe reissue of 1981’s Transferring Footage.
The clip, produced by Fantoons Animation Studios, unfolds like a shadowy noir comedy starring the varied characters who seem on designer Hugh Syme’s pun-laden Transferring Footage cowl — particularly, a gaggle of “mourners” and a crew “shifting” massive work (together with considered one of Rush’s iconic Starman brand).
The story primarily reverse-engineers the picture, cleverly bringing all of these individuals collectively in that one spot. Towards the tip, the band’s three members — Lee, Lifeson and Neil Peart — are gagged and sure as thieves make off with the art work, leaving the native authorities none the wiser.
Lee and Lifeson undertake goofy voices for his or her cameo, creating some banter for the post-climax. “Hey, Dirk, let’s return to the station,” Lifeson’s cop says. “Nice, I acquired the brand new Rush cassette for the highway,” Lee’s sidekick provides. Wanting on the cassette, they ponder what “YYZ” means (mispronouncing it “Yiz”) and theorize that it’s “in all probability some new time period for marijuana.” They even slip in a joke about Rush’s infamous kimonos from the 2112 period.
You possibly can watch the video beneath.
Syme spoke to UCR concerning the Transferring Footage cowl in 2020, noting that Rush didn’t initially perceive his imaginative and prescient. “The band did not get it at first,” he recalled. “I mentioned to Neil, ‘We have gotta have some individuals shifting photos.’ It was one other a kind of ‘What?!’ form of moments. It took a bit extra description from me to fill within the particulars.”
Rush not too long ago teased the Fortieth-anniversary version of Transferring Footage with a reside model of the album’s closing monitor, “Important Indicators.”
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