Rush Release ‘Closer to the Heart’ from ‘R40 Live’

Rush have released the second video from their upcoming R40 Live CD/DVD-Blu-ray set. Three weeks after giving us "Roll the Bones," they have unveiled "Closer to the Heart," which is embedded above.

Geddy Lee introduces the song by calling it "a pretty little number.' The camera then cuts to Alex Lifeson playing the 12-string acoustic riff heard in guitar shops across the world. Lifeson soon abandons the acoustic for a Gibson Les Paul for the power chords in the song's second half.

Arriving on Nov. 20, R40 Live was recorded during the band's two-night stay at the Air Canada Centre in their hometown of Toronto on their tour last year. It contains three CDs and a DVD/Blu-ray with songs covering all phases of their 40-year career. Rush have said that the R40 Live tour is very likely to have been the last major tour they will undertake due to the physical toll that being on the road has taken on their bodies over the years.

“His job is really tough," Lifeson said of Neil Peart. "Playing the way he does is very, very difficult on his body. He has chronic tendonitis in his arms and he’s had problems with his shoulders. It’s just getting to the point, no matter how much we love doing it, that it’s much more demanding and much more difficult.”

Originally released on 1977's A Farewell to Kings, "Closer to the Heart is one of Rush's best-loved songs. It was the second single of theirs to dent the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 76. The lyrics were co-written by Peter Talbot, a friend of Neil Peart.

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