Rush: Classic or Dud?

Rush Rock Like No One Ex-Cept May-Be Pla-Ce-Bo Neil Peart, Wow, He's Good.

you and my spacey invade

ers get by on you

"Non. Vous etes Le Chien d'Neige." <------------

"Les pommes frites! Mon dieu!!!"

"Begin the day with a friendly voice/A companion, unobtrusive/ Plays the song that's so elusive/And the magic music makes your morning mood"

Dud for that alone.

x0x0

Are you describing your personal development or that of the band? Because, if anything, the band got less and less showy as the years went on. "Counterparts" (the last one I heard) was even "grunge" influenced, allegedly. Rush was my favorite band all throughout high school.

Guitar mag gruel
Less smart than it wants to be
Pretty harmless now

Hey, gimme a break, I've never written a haiku before.

'Tom Sawyer' plays through art class

Turn that shit off now!

*( I reluctantly but freely admit that both Tom Sawyer and YYZ are both decent songs.)

da BA BA BA BA da-da

BA da BA BA BA...

subdivisions rocks
which counters all that i've been
told about this band

the lyrics are too
obvious but what can you
expect from hosers?

http://www.clevernet.on.ca/pierre_trudeau/images/pic_trudeau_beer.jpg

DUD thereafter

Space-jazz-rock-tronic
If rednecks didn't like them
They'd be Kraftwerk-hip

Geddyvox

Less boy or girl than
Alien; Precise
Enunciation

Great band, I think.

When I saw this existed I was sure it would be Soto (it's not):

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/rush-power-windows/

(Should say there are some factual flubs in it, too, sorry if another one of you wrote it, but regardless, the more love for this album the better. Def. their biggest hooks and imo Peart's best collection of lyrics; dude was definitely into John Dos Passos.)

I like how an unfairly maligned album got a neat and tidy 8.3, but to say "Power Windows was one of the last gasps of that truly open-hearted version of the band, before they felt pressured to rock out" is a stretch. Snakes & Arrows and Clockwork Angels returned to that kind of stylistic inclusivity (borne more from wisdom than curiosity) and I can't think of two Rush albums that are as truly open-hearted as those.

80s Rush is the best Rush

Co-sign. I also think "Power Windows" was the real *start* of open-hearted Rush, a shift from "Grace" (which I also love), which marked Peart at his gloomiest ("You know how that rabbit feels, going under your speeding wheels"). As I think I've posted before, "Power Windows" marks the start of the band's (which is to say, Peart's) humanist run. "Windows," "Hold Your Fire," "Presto," "Roll the Bones," "Counterparts," there are some beautiful passing lines and observations in there.

I prefer Grace (because the darkness of the lyrics speaks to me; there are many days when I'll say "Red Sector A" is my favorite Rush song) but Power Windows is great too.

I do love Grace

I like Hold Your Fire a lot too

"Hold Your Fire" and "Presto" are both good, but with a couple of exceptions I agree with that Fork review that notes they (esp. Presto) *sound* thin and weak. "Fire," for example, features some of my favorite fills and solos and riffs from the guys, but you have to pay attention for them in the mush. "Presto" is super pristine and homogenous, like one of those early CD-era experiments that boasts of an all-digital production. It's got some really cool stuff on it, too, but it sounds restrained. "Roll The Bones" sort of splits the difference and gets them to "Counterparts" (which is not the grunge album people state it to be, it just rocks a little harder again).

Gotta admit, I don't know anything about "Test for Echo." But unrelated to the discovery, I did order one of these, because I think it's cute:
https://store.anikanilles.com/cdn/shop/files/AN_T_WM.jpg?v=1782756184&width=1646

When I saw this existed I was sure it would be Soto (it's not):

I already wrote a Moving Pictures reappraisal for'em four years ago.

This is a lovely review and I know it because I immediately wanted to play "Marathon."

Except Moving Pictures didn't need a reappraisal, but this one did, and it called for a particular Soto-strain of writer/Rush fan. You would have killed it!

I think Clockwork Angels was a really strong album

I think Power Windows was the last in an incredibly strong run of top tier albums, after that quality got a bit spotty. My favorites post-Power Windows are Counterparts, Vapor Trails (despite sound quality issues), and Clockwork Angels. The rest are a mixed bag at best for me.

This is a lovely review and I know it because I immediately wanted to play "Marathon."

"Marathon" was the song in my brain when Peart died, for at least a couple of days. The live version on A Show of Hands, even more so than the Hold Your Fire singles, is what finally got me to pick up my first album from them (so yeah, my full introduction to Rush was indeed their third live album).

Iirc, me too, honestly. For the life of me I can't recall why I bought that one first. Clearly I was familiar with at least some stuff from the radio, but this live album doesn't even have many/most of those hits. The corresponding live video, I think I still have that thing memorized.

The "Mystic Rhythms" on A Show of Hands is, what, a note-for-note replication?

Boy, Lifeson's solo on "Marathon" (starting at 3:45) is a killer.

xpost Aside from the vocals, lots of the live stuff, especially from that era, is pretty well reproduced. Peart didn't make it easy for himself by being so specific and orchestrated, there's really no way to deviate, and that song is pretty percussion and keys driven. "Mystic Rhythms" specifically, there's very little bass save the solo, and the guitar is pretty spare, too.

On one of the earlier live albums Peart does break a snare head, a rare mistake captured!

It was a snare drum, during Temples of Syrinx. It’s didn’t break completely, just the snares broke off, so it then sounded like a tom tom. Listen to the 2nd chorus closely and you can hear it..

xpost Aside from the vocals, lots of the live stuff, especially from that era, is pretty well reproduced. Peart didn't make it easy for himself by being so specific and orchestrated, there's really no way to deviate, and that song is pretty percussion and keys driven. "Mystic Rhythms" specifically, there's very little bass save the solo, and the guitar is pretty spare, too.

On one of the earlier live albums Peart does break a snare head, a rare mistake captured!

It was a snare drum, during Temples of Syrinx. It’s didn’t break completely, just the snares broke off, so it then sounded like a tom tom. Listen to the 2nd chorus closely and you can hear it..

For funsies, it is amusing to find youtube videos of stuff going wrong live. It doesn't happen often, but it makes the band improvise!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_mbYzM8axo

There is a better than zero chance of me catching the 7/22, but not much. Nosebleeds are $200, which are ... too much. This week I paid $80 for an awesome Dylan seat, then $80 for Lionel Richie/Earth Wind Fire nosebleeds. The idea of paying more than both of those tickets combined to hang from the rafters at the United Center ... I dunno, man. It bums me out. So does the rumor that the band may play the Sphere, but that is more whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wome8H0GSCo

didn't get to see the show but looking forward to catching up with all these videos.

The bag returns!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ynUa9TBuM

This is a great interview!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycX4nuUU0gM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69RmD4P1ZzY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gkam227u_g

Night One of Rush in Montreal exceeded all my expectations. The band was on fire: Geddy's voice was the strongest I've heard in a very long time, 25 years at least. He and Lerxst were clearly having so much fun up there. And Anika, oh my goodness she is a force on drums, capturing Neil's force but with more of a slight nimbleness than the Professor. Honoring him, faithful to the material, but I loved it when she put a little mustard on the odd fill.

The video editing was really cool, too. Neil didn't allow cameras near his office at all, so it was neat to see the band get creative with the camera positions and angles.

Big highlights: "2112" in its entirety, a scorching "Distant Early Warning", "La Villa Strangiato". "Bravado", "Time Stand Still", and "Animate" hit hard. However, "Anthem" kicked so much ass, the three of them locked in, Anika nailing those triplets.

Trilling, magical night. In 30 hours we do it all over again!

Roll the Bones released thirty years ago today!

Er, thirty-five.

let's all get busy with the facts in honor

It's a parallax, you dig?

"2112" in its entirety

I would die.

why does it happen?
because it happens

I'm gonna start setting aside some money for the Sphere show (assuming it happens). I want the most full-on version of this show, especially if I can catch it with "The Camera Eye" in the setlist

"The Pass" in NYC sounded so full and glorious, making me wonder if the inch-wide (or, sorry, 2.54 cm wide) production on Presto was a psy-op to encourage fans to see the band live if they sought to hear those songs in the equivalent of Technicolor instead of Rupert Hine's ASCII Art. I'd love to hear what "Superconductor", "Chain Lightning", and "Show Don't Tell" in this "remastered" fashion

I loved The Pass so much as a mopey teen.

I had to use some willpower not to buy the OG copy of Presto on vinyl I saw the other week. I only had it on cassette.

I loved The Pass so much as a mopey teen.

I had to use some willpower not to buy the OG copy of Presto on vinyl I saw the other week. I only had it on cassette.

Hell yeah! The cassette's insert featured full-page pictures of each band member, and I liked folding it in a manner where Neil was the cover instead of the silly rabbits. I "borrowed" a vinyl version of Presto from my college radio station, and wow, it's as if a magazine page had grooves stamped upon it!

Night Two on Friday night was great fun, got to hear A Farewell to Kings, Red Sector A, By-Tor. They absolutely crushed on "Headlong Flight", that instrumental jam in the middle was ferocious.

Anika's beoming a star. When Ged introduced her on night two the crowd was about to lean into a classic Montreal Standing Ovation That Refuses To Die, and Geddy barely managed to nip it in the bud. She's so fun to watch; Neil's precision and power was thrilling to watch of course, but Anika has a cool, dynamic presence, clearly has fun tackling those parts. At the end of Natural Science she let out a huge *WHEW* of relief, which was hilarious. And the baguette gag at the end was great, it's nice to see her getting silly with the boys.

I loved seeing Alex in Montreal on YT being told 'you're the boss..' by Ged and immediately firing everyone.

it's nice to see her getting silly with the boys

I think that was the fundamental core of the band.

and there i think were times - Red Sector A, written about Geddy's parents experience in the concentration camps is probably the best example - where Neil was expressing stuff they all felt in ways that Geddy and Alex couldn't

Oh, Neil was very silly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjbvZJaxcbw

RIP Pye Dubois.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPAJytx3juY

I went to my brother's to watch the Peart documentary on CBC on Wednesday night. A really good editing job combining his life story, old interviews with Neil, new interviews with Geddy and Alex and his (mostly drummer) friends, and the tribute rehearsal/performances with some of those drummers, cutting away from each strand of the documentary when the pace might have slowed down. I was especially pleased at the mention of(and photograph!) of Michael Giles as one of Neil's influences because "he never played the same fill twice".

RIP Pye Dubois.

...and two days later, Gary McCracken, also of Max Webster.

The Neal documentary is up for free viewing, no ads on youtube for those who haven't seen. Presume this was a decision by the band to not profit and have as many people see as wanted too. It's a lovely piece from start to finish. I've watched it twice so far. Danny Carey comes off a bit tentative/unprepared but the other guests (Chad S, Stewart C, Gavin H) blew me away with their precision, intensity and reverence.

Really great film - so much love, so many stories. What a special person he was. No One's Disciple.

Well scratch the first two sentences of my post (somehow scrolled right by Maresn3st's above) but it was truly enjoyable.

Yeah, watched it the other night, a lovely experience. Love when Geddy and Alex do imitations of his speaking style.

I read Ghost Rider years ago on holiday in Greece, kinda anomalous to be poolside reading such a haunted book, it was totally heartbreaking but wasn't a great read, if I'm honest.

However, the passage that Peart reads in the documentary is the one part that has stuck with me all this time, especially the way he used the phrase 't'aint so...' :(