Held within the pleasure dome
Decreed by Kubla Khan,
To taste my bitter triumph
As a mad, immortal man.
Never more shall I return
’scape these caves of ice.
For I have dined on honey dew
And drunk the milk of paradise—
Oh, is it paradise?
Back in the saddle, and I’ve got some fightin’ words for ya: “Xanadu” is great, but it isn’t even the best song off A Farewell to Kings.
That’s no knock on “Xanadu,” which is rightfully considered a masterpiece. Rather, it speaks to the overall quality of A Farewell to Kings, which is the best of their 70’s era albums.
A Farewell to Kings is also where Rush started to organize their albums as concept albums in earnest. Fly By Night, Caress of Steel, and 2112 had a lot of story-based songs, but it was on A Farewell to Kings where the disparate songs expressed one, coherent theme: Bidding farewell to great heroes of old.
“Closer to the Heart” and “Cinderella Man” take that theme figuratively, but “Cygnus X-1” and “Xanadu” offer a very literal interpretation as they are both songs literally about kings yeeting themselves into untouchable realms, the first into a black hole and the second into an inescapable pleasure dome.
“Xanadu” was inspired by Kubla Khan: Or, A Vision In A Dream. A Fragment, a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that was published this day in 1816. (Heavy metal bands love Coleridge; Iron Maiden also adapted his The Rime of the Ancient Mariner into song, while Nightwish used Christobel as the inspiration for “Beauty of the Beast.”)
What on earth can I say about this song? “Xanadu” is brilliant, a work of art. For more insight, I turn to The Charismatic Voice. (thanks
, who turned me onto her!) The below video is 45 minutes of a trained opera singer being adorably astonished at how good “Xanadu” is, and I was rapt for every second of it:As for me, well, my strongest memory of “Xanadu” is of a project from 12th-grade English class, where we were assigned a partner and tasked with interpreting a song as we might a literary poem. I wanted to do “Xanadu.” My partner preferred Blink-182’s “Going Away To College.”
We ended up doing Blink-182. It was fine. Just. Well. Not “Xanadu.” I always wished I’d pushed harder. Weird the regrets that stick in our brains.
Anyway, enough rambling. Behold, the pleasure dome decreed by Kubla Khan:
Yes, for sure one of my favorites. I can’t recall if it was Beyond the Lighted Stage where I first learned about how Kiss would relentlessly tease Rush about Xanadu and specifically the “I will dine on honeydew” lyric. But I always loved that story. Especially as it was the era of them dressed in flowing kimonos.
I was supposed to see Primus play A
Farewell to Kings in 2020 and I had great seats. unfortunately, when it was eventually rescheduled, I couldn’t go, so that was a bummer. and yes, the video you shared from The Charismatic Voice is so great.
Didn't realize it was a Coleridge poem. I actually think I prefer "Xanadu" to "...Kings". Weirder and lengthen but pretty much as catchy. At least to a certain type: Me