Background
The music of "Roll the Bones" was written by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, and its lyrics by Neil Peart. The lyrics reflect on taking chances in life, and urging those unsure to "roll the bones," a term used for dice. Additionally, the song has strong secular and evolutionary themes.
"But the bottom line...is to take the chance, roll the bones, if it's a random universe and that's terrifying and it makes you neurotic and everything, never mind. You really have to take the chance or else nothing's going to happen."
- Neil Peart, "It's A Rap" interview, February 1992
As a "lyrical experiment", Peart wrote a "rap" section in his lyrics, as a result of listening to "the better rap writers", like LL Cool J and Public Enemy. The band considered seeking out a real rapper to perform this section of the song, or even considered approaching the section with a camp or comedic sensibility, and hiring singer-songwriter Robbie Robertson or actor/comedian John Cleese. According to Geddy Lee, "We couldn't make up our minds really if we wanted to be influenced by rap or satirize it, so I think that song kind of falls between the cracks and in the end I think it came out to be neither, it came out to be something that is very much us." Ultimately, the "rap" was performed by Lee, his altered voice is achieved through a drastic lowering of pitch and adding various effects.
The song follows in the vein of tracks such as "Show Don't Tell" from Presto, and helps to establish what would become Rush's musical style for the 1990s.
Read more about this topic: Roll The Bones (song)
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