| Red Sector A | |
| Cover: | Red Sector A.gif |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Rush |
| Album: | Grace Under Pressure |
| B-Side: | Red Lenses |
| Released: | May 1984[1] |
| Length: | 5:09 (album version) 4:10 (single edit) |
| Label: | Anthem |
| Producer: |
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| Prev Title: | The Body Electric |
| Prev Year: | 1984 |
| Next Title: | Afterimage |
| Next Year: | 1984 |
"Red Sector A" is a song written and performed by Rush, from their 1984 album Grace Under Pressure. It provides a first-person account of a nameless protagonist living in an unspecified prison camp setting.
Lyricist Neil Peart has stated that the detailed imagery in the song intentionally evokes concentration camps of the Holocaust, although he left the lyrics ambiguous enough that they could deal with any similar prison camp scenario.[2] The song was inspired in part by Geddy Lee's mother's accounts of the Holocaust.
In a rare instance for Rush's music, the track features no bass guitar, with Lee instead completely focusing on synthesizers and vocals.
Geddy Lee explained the genesis of the song in an interview:
In a 1984 interview Neil Peart describes writing "Red Sector A":
The song's title "Red Sector A" comes from the name of a NASA launch area at Kennedy Space Center, where the band watched the first launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981.[3] This trip also inspired the song "Countdown", from their previous album Signals.