Cygnus X-1 (the whole piece) and Xanadu

Are they connected to each other, since the riff of Xanadu is kind of the same as the one in Cygnus X-1 Book II?

I agree. That Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem which inspired Xanadu is an enjoyable read. I remember the first couple of lines ... In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree, where Alph the sacred ran ... through caverns measureless to man ... and down to a sunless sea. Or is it sunlit sea? I can’t remember. Something about ... twice five miles of fertile ground ... yada yada yada. It’s good! Very descriptive. Got me reading some poets like Walt Whitman at the time. There is a riff in Circumstances that reminds me a bit of Xanadu. It has a chord form that moves upward on the fretboard and keeps some open string notes while the one in Xanadu sounds more like a Carcassi style classical guitar riff (thumb picked on low strings) in first position, although he probably uses a pick. It also relies on some open strings but doesn’t move position. Both are beautiful riffs using open strings.

Edited by Jaketejas - June 27 2020 at 19:00

Sorry for being off-topic, but Rush could have written far more interesting music than they did about Kublai Khan in Xanadu. Virtually unknown Kagans of the Mongol Empire, for instance, Mongke Khan, achieved far more than he did. Mongke Khan conquered the entire Ayyubid Sultanate (now all Middle East + Egypt, whose sultans were descended from the legendary Saladin), not to mention Korea and Dali, a small bit of China (pun intended). All Kublai Khan did finish of the already weakened Chinese Song Empire (his predecessors had already conquered half of it) and twice failed to invade Japan. Unimpressive.

Edited by FatherChristmas - July 11 2020 at 07:24

I've always thought they were related and in the world of CD's you could have put the two together to form one album. I wouldn't change one note on either album, just put the two together.

Never noticed any connection.