6/8: Roll The Bones (LIVE)

In defense of a CG skeleton

Lady Luck is golden;
She favors the bold. That’s cold
Stop throwing stones —
The night has a thousand saxophones.
So get out there and rock,
And roll the bones.
Get busy!

Some Rush songs just sounded better live, even when they didn’t. “Roll the Bones” was definitely one of those songs.

Concert performances of this track generally didn’t stray far from the script, but they didn’t need to. Experiencing it live was close to religious epiphany; it shook the very foundations of the stadium, every cell in one’s body vibrating with the energy of it all. Nothing in my life will ever quite match being in an amphitheater with 60,000 of my new best friends rapping along to a video of a CG skeleton:

The rapping skeleton hails from the song’s original music video. He was a tour staple for years, but I only saw him once, on the Vapor Trails set. By Time Machine, however, he had been replaced with the celebrity rap, featuring Paul Rudd, Peter Dinklage, Jason Segel, and others:

The rap was fine, I guess. But man, I loved that CG skeleton. He matched the earnest, goofy energy that makes this song so incredible to experience live.

You see, “Roll the Bones” shouldn’t work. The pop chords are sugary-sweet, the electronic church organ is over the top, and that rap is beyond cringe. Each individual element is Too Much. But somehow the Too Much-ness all smashes together into something majestic. Especially live. To paraphrase Nicole Kidman, somehow skeletons rapping feels good in a place like this.

You really could believe the night had a thousand saxophones. It made you want to get out there and—well, you know the rest.