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The Big Money

"The Big Money"
Rush - The Big Money.jpg
Single by Rush
from the album Power Windows
B-side "Middletown Dreams" (USA)
"Territories", "Red Sector A"(live) (UK)
Released October, 1985
Format 7", 12"
Genre Progressive rock, new wave
Length 5:35
Label Mercury Records
Songwriter(s) Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee
Producer(s) Peter Collins and Rush
Rush singles chronology
"The Body Electric"
(1984)
"The Big Money"
(1985)
"Territories"
(1985)
"The Body Electric"
(1984)
"The Big Money"
(1985)
"Territories"
(1985)
Power Windows track listing
"The Big Money"
(1)
"Grand Designs"
(2)

"The Big Money" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush, originally released on their 1985 album Power Windows. It peaked at #45 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and has been included on several compilation album, such as Retrospective II and The Spirit of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974-1987.

The title of the song comes from John Dos Passos's novel The Big Money, part of his U.S.A. trilogy. Rush had previous referenced Dos Passos with the song "The Camera Eye," from the album Moving Pictures.

The lyrics, written by drummer Neil Peart, reflect on the power of "big money" and the sheer magnitude of trade in the modern global economy, particularly during the 1980s. Regarding the idea that the song's lyrics were inspired by a John Dos Passos book of the same name, Peart replied, "I am a big fan of Dos Passos’ stylistic ability, his poetic approach to prose, but the ideas presented in the songs are quite different from those which he exemplified."

The video for the track was directed by Rob Quartly, produced by Allan Weinrib (Geddy Lee's brother), and created by Green Light Productions, using, for the time, state-of-the-art computer graphics similar to those seen in the video for the song "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits. The video also features the band performing the song on an oversized Monopoly-style game board with the words "Big Money" in the middle. A full-length version of the video was included on the VHS and laserdisc releases of Rush's A Show of Hands tour concert film, while an edited version was released to MTV and other outlets, as well as on the short-lived CD Video format, directed by Weinrib.


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