Editing Signals (Rush album) (section)

===Side two===
"The Weapon" is the second part of Rush's "Fear" song series. During a writing session at a northern Ontario manor home in 1981, Lee and his friend Oscar devised what Peart described as the foundation of "a highly mysterious and bizarre drum pattern" with his [[drum machine]].<ref name=tourbook/> At a subsequent rehearsal, Peart learned to play the part on his own drum kit which required him to alter his usual technique, but took the experience as an enjoyable challenge.<ref name=tourbook/>

"New World Man" was put together in May 1982 when the backing tracks for the album's other seven tracks were completed, and there was enough space on the vinyl for a song under four minutes.<ref name=tourbook/> Had the track become too long, the band would have put it down and used it for a subsequent release. "New World Man" began with Peart writing lyrics that tied in themes from other songs on the album, "and came up with a straightforward, concise set of lyrics consisting of the two verses and the two choruses".<ref name=tourbook/> The group adopted a "fast and loose" approach for its corresponding music and worked swiftly, with the song fully arranged in one day and recorded in the course of the next.<ref name=tourbook/>

"Losing It" originated from a theme Lifeson had come up with which was used in subsequent rehearsal sessions to produce a demo with keyboards and drums.<ref name=tourbook/> In June 1982, when the band revisited the song in the studio, they discussed the possibility of [[Ben Mink]] of the band [[FM (Canadian band)|FM]] playing the [[electric violin]] somewhere on ''Signals'', and decided that "Losing It" was the best track for his contribution.<ref name=tourbook/> To cater for the part, Rush put down the basic track for a jazz-oriented solo section and invited Mink to the studio which included him multi-tracking various notes to resemble a complete [[string section]].<ref name=tourbook/> The lyrics include references to the latter years of writer [[Ernest Hemingway]]–"For you the blind who once could see, the bell tolls for thee". It was not played live until 2015 when Rush performed it at five concerts on their [[R40 Live Tour]].

"Countdown" was inspired by the band attending the launch of the [[STS-1]] ''Columbia'' space shuttle in April 1981, the first of NASA's [[Space Shuttle program]]. They had been invited to the launch and observed it from a VIP area at an air base in [[Cape Kennedy]], Florida.<ref name=tourbook/> The song features samples of radio communications recorded before and during the flight.