Victor

Victor
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Don't Care (4.04)
Promise (5.44)
Start Today (3.48)
Mr. X (instrumental 2.21)

Music: Alex Lifeson

At The End (6.07)

Lyrics: Alex Lifeson
Music: Alex Lifeson & Adrian Zivojinovich

He opens the books-looks at the scenes from yesterday
How they laughed and loved and lived before they grew old and grey
Now he sits alone in his room, and the clock ticks away

Together they enjoyed all life's beauty and all its fears
The lonely cry of his soul falls only on his ears
Each page's photo marked with the stain of his tears

He didn't know what to do
He didn't know what might come
Nothing was all that was left to him
Nothing was left when she was gone

The heart has a memory so strong
It remembers every right and every wrong
On those pages of his long, lonely life
He can only see his wife
He said 'Pluck out my eyes'
He said 'Plug up my ears'
He said 'Silence my tongue'
He said 'Take away my empty years'

One last wish
To see her face
One last breath
He's calling out to death
One last look up at the sun
As he picks up the gun
As he steadies the gun
As he finally aims the gun

Sending Out A Warning (4.11)

Lyrics: Alex Lifeson
Music: Alex Lifeson & Bill Bell

Tender is the nerve that leads straight to his heart
Sender sends the spit that streams down his face
Want and need are just two useless words
The third, if she knew it, would be grace
Her grip is tight as a vice-smothers like a killer, stealing
someone's life
His guilt controls his every move-nothing seems to work, what's
he got to prove
Their war was just like any war-all the pain for nothing, double
bladed sword

Sending out a warning
Sending out a warning
He's on the edge, everything is up or down
She's in his face, he feels like he may drown
Relentless is the scope of her revenge
She'll give then take then push him off the ledge

His guilt is tight as a vice-smothers like a killer, stealing
someone's life
Her grip controls his every move-nothing seems to work, what's
he got to prove
Their war was just like any war-all the pain for nothing, double
bladed sword

Sending out a warning
Sending out a warning
He's on the edge, everything is up or down
She's in his face, he feels like he may drown
Relentless is the scope of her revenge
She'll give then take then push him off the ledge
She's gone too far, he knows her subtle tricks
He's tried to hard, there are some things you can't fix
Cross too many lines, be prepared to pay the price
All the warmth you knew will forever turn to ice

Sending out a warning
Sending out a warning

Shut Up Shuttin' Up (instrumental 4.02)

Words: Charlene and Esther
Music: Alex Lifeson and Bill Bell

I don't ask for much, I really don't. I just want him to put the seat down

What are you talking about 'you don't ask for much'? You ask for everything!

Well, I just want him to put the seat down when he goes to the bathroom at night.
I go in there and I sit down and it's cold and wet and there's more hair on his feet then on his head!

No, I like the hairs on the floor!

What are they doing?

Oh, there's a shag carpet everyday and this above the toilet. What are they so tall that they have to lean over? Is it that heavy?

It's so heavy

Oh my god their only good for one thing and we know what that is...

What is that?

Don't tell me

I keep forgetting

Just play the guitar


He's still talking to me about that vacation we took, he still wants the details.

Come on!

Like, I can't take it anymore. What am I suppose to do?

Did you throw away the pictures?

Oh, those pictures! If he saw those pictures, he'd have a heart attack!

Those guys were gorgeous

Oh were they ever, but he wants to know, 'where did you go, did you go to a bar, did you dance close, did you dance far?'

I know, 'what were you wearing?'

Oh my god, 'were they looking at you. who danced with you, did they come home with you? who drove you home? Were they younger then me, older then me, did they treat you better then me?'

But you know what?

Oh god it was awful!

I always tell him, 'honey, just shut up and play the guitar!'


Has he asked you to play a hooker?

Ah... I can't believe you're saying that, he does that to me all the time! All the time

They're all the same, it's sickening! Hookers, lipstick, big hair, makeup, the sluty outfits, mascara, false eye-lashes. The thing with the false eye-lashes! Does he want you to shave?

The whole thing, everything, dye things

Oh my, their all the same, I'm so sick of it. We're different, women are so different

The only thing is, we wouldn't get paid for it

Oh god, well, they pay for it okay

In the long run?
Oh, in the short run because they just have to play the guitar!


Do you find that he always want's attention, it's (constantly) always him him him him him ?

Constant attention

I can't take it, he comes home, and he wants me to caress him and tell him how great he is and this and this

Shut Up!

I love you, I love you, you're the best, there is no one else

Like really, how many time am I suppose to tell him that? All I want to do is relax, have a nice little drink

Shut Up!

Give him a little hug, but it always leads to something else

Yea, you can't just hug, you have to go on and on and then the comes out

It always turns sexual

Just Shut Up!

unbelievable it just goes on and on and on

Just Shut Up Shuttin' Up!

Their only good for one thing, just play the guitar!

SHUT UP! AH, JUST SHUT UP! MAN! SHUT UP SHUTTIN' UP! SHUT UP, SHUT, SHUT, SHUT IT, SHUT IT ALL UP. SHUT UP... SHUTTIN' UP!

Strip And Go Naked (instrumental 3.57)
The Big Dance (4.14)
Victor (6.25)
I Am The Spirit (5.31)
Bill Bell - Guitars
Edwin - Vocals
Alex Liefson - Guitars/Bass/Keyboards/Programming/Vocals
Blake Manning - Drums

Additional Musicians:
Peter Cardinali - Bass (Tracks 7 and 10)
Les Claypool - Bass (Track 9)
Dalbello - Vocals (Track 3)
Adrian Zivojinovich - Programming
(Tracks 5 and 9)

Produced and Mixed by Alex Liefson
Assisted by Bill Bell

Atlantic/Anthem/Lerxt Music Inc.,
January 9, 1996

In Memory of Randy Knox

Notes:

  • Highest Billboard Chart Position: 99
  • "I opened a book that I had of [Auden's] collected poems to 'Victor', and I read it through. Although 'Victor' the poem is very, very long, I condensed it for the song. It really caught the essence of what the record was about, dealing with the dark side of love and how it can push you to do things that are pretty horrific. So, it seemed to suit the record quite well." - Alex Lifeson, Rockline, Jan. 15, 1996
  • "As for the anger on the album, there were relationships breaking down all around me, I was having problems in my relationship. My wife and I realised that we'd started to take each other for granted; there'd been a lot of work, I'd been away a lot. It's uncommon to have stayed together as long as we have stayed together. We'd reached a crisis in our relationship and we needed to strip it down and analyse it and find where we were going. Other relationships around me were breaking down also, a lot of my friends who are the same age were really reaching a mid-life crisis. ... All this stuff was happening around me, and I just thought about the darker side of relationships and love. By nature I'm very optimistic, a little romantic, a little funny maybe, but I felt really impassioned by all the stuff that was going around, and that was reflected in that album." - Alex Lifeson, Classic Rock, July 2002
  • "There's a drink that [Bill Bell] invented called 'Strip and Go Naked,' which after you've had a couple, that basically is what happens. On the other side, we thought that was kind of what the song was about. We stripped the whole song down to very basic elements - it goes through a lot of different changes musically, but it's basically stripped down." - Alex Lifeson, Jam Music, Feb. 8, 1996
  • "...my solo work in 'At the End' - all of that bluesy stuff, especially at the end of it, is really emotion-packed. Actually, there's a really good story behind that one. I had a rough day that day. I'd had a couple of meetings that didn't go so well, and I was feeling uptight; I was really pissed off. So I plugged the guitar straight into the amp, said, 'Screw this,' and started working. It got really edgy. Bill Bell was there, and I said to him, 'We need a drink.' I went upstairs and got half a bottle of Jack Daniels and a sixpack of beer, and we sat there and drank the stuff down in a matter of minutes. Then we did some more takes. The next day, I came back downstairs to listen to it and I'm thinking, 'Well, we had quite a bit to drink last night, so maybe this one didn't turn out so well.' But I listened to it and went, 'Wow, this is great!'" - Alex Lifeson, Guitar For The Practicing Musician, Februrary 1996
  • "Alex is a complete sweetheart. I was just finishing mixing the Whore CD at a studio where as it happens Alex was recording his solo record, and not long after I was finished with my record, I got a call from him asking if I'd be interested in coming in and having a listen to one of his songs with the idea of having me sing the lead vocal and hey - I said yeah right away. It was a great day and the song is intense and personal for Alex and being given the privilege step inside of his world and allowed to be his 'voice' and represent his feelings by singing 'Start Today' was something I'll not forget. What a rush - no pun intended." - Lisa Dalbello, rockreunion.com, ~2001
  • I Mother Earth opened the last show of the Counterparts tour, in Toronto. Alex later asked IME's lead singer, Edwin, to sing the male vocals on his solo project Victor, and it was not long after that Alex performed on I Mother Earth's Scenery and Fish.
  • Alex later performed on Tara MacLean's Passenger, 1999. Tara is the wife of Victor guitarist Bill Bell.
  • It is rumored that lack of support from Atlantic records meant the end of a followup album to Victor, which would have featured at least some vocals by Sarah McLachlan. When asked in 1998 if there would be a followup, Alex answered: "I wouldn't say soon. But I'd like to do something like that. I had a lot of fun. It was a very satisfying experience for me and rewarding because I did it all by myself. Worked very hard on it and got to play with some other people which was kinda fun. But it seems that it was something that I needed at that time in my life and sort of satisfied that urge that I had...I have no overwhelming desire right now to get into that kind of a project. It's a very time consuming thing that takes a lot out of you. I'd like to pursue some other things." - Alex Lifeson, Different Stages Fancast, Nov. 1998