Rush's "Tom Sawyer" -- Classic or Dud?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Tom_Sawyer.gif

So, on a whim, I went to see Rush with a few friends who have kept up a lot more with the band than I have over the last 20 years. On the tour, they played the entirety of Moving Pictures, which prompted me to revisit a song I hadn't thought about in years.

And I was pretty blown away with what I heard. I get why so many folks don't like Rush -- but truth be told, Geddy's voice is probably the culprit for 9 out of 10 people. Still, this song is undeniably chock full of classic moments. The resonant Oberheim sound that opens the song. The thunderous drum fills (that should put to rest any idea that Peart is a "clinical" drummer). Outstanding lyrical couplets like "No his mind is not for rent/To any god or government." An unbelievably catchy repeating synthesizer figure that takes the song just a hair out of the rock mainstream. And so on. As Peart says in the Classic Albums episode on this record, it's kind of bizarre that such a patently weird song became their signature cut and such a stoner anthem.

So, ILM, do you get by on this? Do you get high on this?

Probably the best lyrics Rush ever had, largely because they used an outside lyricist for this one.

I played bass on a cover of this song for someone's b/day last year, fuck me the middle section is tricky. It was the drummer's b/day too, boy did he end up regretting it! Next year we'll stick to All Right Now and Johnny B Goode I think.

Classic, but "Subdivisions" remains the "classic" Rush lyric.

great song. metallica totally bites it here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eMQyX-zAhQ

classicest

all time fucking jam y'all

if you don't get down to this i don't really know.

I don't even LIKE Rush but my sister had this album when I was a kid and everything on it is k-classic.

Here in Brazil during the 80s a TV channel put Tom Sawyer as the 'MacGyver' main theme. And people who were not very familiar to Rush always referred to them as 'uh, the MacGyver band'.

VH1 Classic is running a documentary about Rush right now fyi

but my sister had this album

wau

It's played out by classic rock radio, but still an amazing song. And a huge hit that gets outside of 4/4 time signature.

Undeniable classic, even if I lean towards their epics a bit more.

If you're loving this now, you owe it to yourself to buy/download the new single Caravan. What a great fucking track.

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

Caravan and BU2B are both great!!! can't wait for the new one

"Kittens: Classic or Dud?"

beyond classic obv....

such a weird structure for a song....when you think about it...it's very skeletal, just those guitar hits...ominous synth drones...honestly it's almost like a hip hop production more than a traditional rock song (esp in the verses)

It feels like it tips it's hat to The Who's minimal stuff (BabaO, Eminence, etc) in that respect.

Geddy's rick bass lick on the uh... part of the song "whachoo say about..." is like the most perfect advertisement for rick basses imho.

It feels like it tips it's hat to The Who's minimal stuff (BabaO, Eminence, etc) in that respect.

yeah that's a good call, seems like something they would have liked...

tho in the Classic Albums on Moving Pix, Peart def says they were influenced by new wave or the new wave bands that "could play"....obv the police were huge for 80s rush...but also he said (lol) Ultravox

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