Xanadu (Rush song)

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"Xanadu"
Song by Rush
from the album A Farewell to Kings
ReleasedAugust 18, 1977
Recorded1977
VenueRockfield Studios
GenreProgressive rock
Length11:05
LabelMercury Records
Composer(s)Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson
Lyricist(s)Neil Peart
Producer(s)Rush, Terry Brown
Music video
"Xanadu" at YouTube

Xanadu is a song by the Canadian progressive rock band Rush. It is from the band’s 1977 album A Farewell to Kings. It is about eleven minutes long, starting with a five-minute-long instrumental section. Then it moves to a story written by Neil Peart. That story was inspired by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem Kubla Khan.

Lyrics[change | change source]

In the lyrics, the narrator talks about looking for a place called "Xanadu" that will make him live forever. After he finds it, a thousand years pass. The narrator is left "waiting for the world to end", talking about himself as "a mad immortal man".

The song is based on the poem Kubla Khan. This poem was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Although the song does not say where "Xanadu" is, mentions of Kubla Khan hint that it is a mythical place based on Shangdu, the historical summer capital of the Mongol Empire.

Reviews[change | change source]

Rolling Stone magazine readers asked about the top 10 Rush songs of all time voted "Xanadu" as number six.

Related pages[change | change source]