Rush drummer Neil Peart wrote this song about the Internet experience; specifically cyber-relationships, chatting and the ability of people to communicate with each other from all around the world. It relates to the whole delusive nature of interaction with unknown others in an uncertain environment
[Verse 1]
Like a shipwrecked mariner adrift on an unknown sea
Clinging to the wreckage of the lost ship Fantasy
I'm a castaway, stranded in a desolate land
I can see the footprints in the virtual sand
[Chorus]
Net boy, net girl
Send your signal 'round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free
Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse around the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea
[Verse 2]
Astronauts in the weightlessness of pixellated space
Exchange graffiti with a disembodied race
I can save the universe in a grain of sand
I can hold the future in my virtual hand
[Chorus]
Net boy, net girl
Send your signal 'round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free
Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse around the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea
[Bridge]
Let's dance tonight
To a virtual song
Press this key
And you can play along
Let's fly tonight
On our virtual wings
Press this key
To see amazing things
To see amazing things
[Verse 3]
Like a pair of vagabonds who wave between two passing trains
Or the glimpse of a woman's smile through a window in the rain
I can smell her perfume
I can taste her lips
I can feel the voltage from her fingertips
[Chorus]
Net boy, net girl
Send your heartbeat round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free
Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse around the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea
[Outro]
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea
Virtuality was written by Alex Lifeson & Geddy Lee & Neil Peart.
Virtuality was produced by Rush & Peter Collins.
Rush released Virtuality on Tue Sep 10 1996.