Lakeside Park

Words by NEIL PEART
Music by ALEX LIFESON and GEDDY LEE
From the RUSH album CARESS OF STEEL (1975)

This is one of my favourite Rush songs. Every time I go back to Scotland another space associated with years past has been built on, a shop has changed hands, somebody else has died. Although the memories in this song are vastly different from mine, the songwriters have captured perfectly the sense of the magic of childhood fading slowly as one progresses through teenage years, balanced by another magic as memories are laid down that will, please God, remain forever.

Midway hawkers calling
Try your luck with me
Merry-go-round wheezing
The same old melody
A thousand ten cent wonders
Who could ask for more
A pocketful of silver
The key to heaven's door

Lakeside Park
Willows in the breeze
Lakeside Park
So many memories
Laughing rides
Midway lights
Shining stars on summer nights

Days of barefoot freedom
Racing with the waves
Nights of starlit secrets
Crackling driftwood flames
Drinking by the lighthouse
Smoking on the pier
Still we saw the magic
Fading every year

Everyone would gather
On the twenty-fourth of May
Sitting in the sand
To watch the fireworks display

Dancing fires on the beach
Singing songs together
Though it's just a memory
Some memories last forever