Rush: Classic or Dud?

And as I've observed before, in the '80s there are as many references to John Dos Passos as there were to Rand in the '70s.

The earlier Dos Passos, one hopes, as opposed to:

In the 1960s, he actively campaigned for conservative presidential candidates Barry Goldwater and Richard M. Nixon, and became associated with the group Young Americans for Freedom.

I presume. C. USA Trilogy. Says wiki:

Beyond his writing, Dos Passos is known for his shift in political views. Following his experiences in World War I, he became interested in socialism and pacifism, which also influenced his early work. In 1928, he traveled to the Soviet Union, curious about its social and political experiment, though left with mixed impressions. His experiences during the Spanish Civil War disillusioned him with left-wing politics while also severing his relationship with fellow writer Ernest Hemingway. By the 1950s, his political views had changed dramatically, and he had become more conservative. In the 1960s, he campaigned for presidential candidates Barry Goldwater and Richard M. Nixon.

The stuff Peart references is from the early 1930s. "The Big Money," "The Camera Eye."

yeah he used several things from Dos Passos as song titles.

I think "Power Windows" is peak humanist Rush.

So much poison in power, the principles get left out
So much mind on the matter, the spirit gets forgotten about
Like a righteous inspiration overlooked in haste
Like a teardrop in the ocean, a diamond in the waste
Some world-views are spacious
And some are merely spaced

Also, "Territories," "Manhattan Project," etc.

listened to Clockwork Angels today, they really did go out with their best album in many years

i think it's just straight up my favorite rush album

Clockwork Angels might be the most hard-rocking of all their return to hard rock records. It's got a great heft to it.

agreed but it also has great songs and doesn't feel like it's trying to hard to be "heavy" like Vapor Trails

I prefer Vapor Trails, at least the remixed version. Clockwork Angels has some filler and some embarassing bits to it, IMO, and steampunk makes me cringe.

I spent a lot of time with most of the Rush albums over the past week and have come to the conclusion that Power Windows is my favorite one. It's got the most synths on it and the whole thing has a murky, dark, mysterious and foreboding air about it. If I think of a rush song, two songs immediately come to mind: Tom Sawyer, and the intro to Big Money.

albums I still can't get into at all: Snakes and Arrows, Test for Echo, most of Roll the Bones. Surprises while revising: how good Presto is. I basically got off the Rush train after Hold your Fire because my tastes went elsewhere and as a result I didn't hear Presto until it's been out for a decade already. It's really good! I love the poppy bits in the Pass.

Power Windows is their most exuberant album. It's like they are just all going for it all at once through the whole thing.

I also noticed that were really into ending songs on that album. Lots if fade outside and extra codas and ending jams.

It's extra cool how so many songs shift back and forth from these really atmospheric, bottomless reverb parts to gritty rock riffing. And every guitar solo is a cinematic, multi segment composition.

yeah it's so well done. the one criticism against it could be that the songs are rather samey (which could also be said of Grace) but it's the kind of samey I like so I don't care that much. To me, sonically, it really perfects that lush, thick, heft that started with Tom Sawyer.

Not samey, cohesive!

I think Grace Under Pressure is far darker than Power Windows. Power Windows is more day glo, state of the world, while Grace has a dystopian, android feel to it. Very 1984, though this might be the year and Red Sector A talking. I probably like Power Windows better: more distinctive non-single songs. Senior year of high school I did an art project with the lyrics to Manhattan Project.

Presto was the first Rush album I bought in stores when it came out. I still think it's a great album, perhaps hampered only by that thin, crystalline guitar sound.

Turn around and walk the razors edge, motherfuckers.

yeah Power Windows is great but "Red Sector A" kinda swings it in favor of GUP

in terms of darkness

Power Windows might be Peart's best lyrics.

Presto tour was when I first saw them live, I have a lot of affection for that album

kind of a transitional album maybe why it gets ignored

really wish I'd been into Rush earlier and subsequently seen them sooner. I didn't make my first mad dig into Rush beyond, say, 2112 until 2010. I like a lot of the later 80s stuff too even Hold Your Fire

PW could only have been released in 1985/86 IMO to my ears...that bright, crystalline sheen to the production and how the synths integrate w/ the guitars

plus power windows were realy popular

Does anyone else feel like "Snakes and Arrows" and "Clockwork Angels" have too much of an assembled-in-the studio quality to them? All their career long, the three guys went to the studio together for a few weeks to record, and though they laid down their parts separately at least for the later albums, the results still sounded like a band in perfect sync, "live" in a way. But the last two albums, to my ears, have a spliced-together quality about them typical of rock acts whose members are no longer friends or even not on speaking terms with one another.

Presto tour was when I first saw them live, I have a lot of affection for that album

same, but yeah i wish it didn't sound so thin

Presto tour was when I first saw them live, I have a lot of affection for that album

Same here and first concert ever for me! 4/24/90 at the Spectrum in Philly. First time I ever got drunk (vodka and Pepsi). I was sheltered.

two xposts but that may be my issue with those albums. clockwork angels is mostly fine while I listen to it but it's not very memorable to me. I guess I like Rush when they have really strong hooks.

dud

Power Windows is when the synth presets match the ambitions of those kids with Middletown dreams imo

Ok, I realized Power Windows has no filler.

A (former?) denizen of these parts weighs in

http://dominiqueleone.com/2020/01/14/rip-neil-peart/

Great read. The graphic showing Peart's drums landing perfectly on the 16th note repeatedly was fantastic

Same here and first concert ever for me! 4/24/90 at the Spectrum in Philly.

I was at the same show (probably)! Mr. Big opened. They played a song called "Addicted to that Rush."

Power Windows is when the synth presets

I'll try to dig up this list of tech they used on tour for this album. Downright ... progressive.

Here a 1997 one, I'll keep digging. Still interesting!

http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/19970700eq.htm

OK, it popped up in the text here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=9tCGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT62&lpg=PT62&dq=rush+samplers+used+power+windows&source=bl&ots=MN39resbme&sig=ACfU3U34dsuchLCa4rSYV8LAfcMvxLSSew&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijzN_yzYrnAhWYKM0KHZznB2kQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=rush%20samplers%20used%20power%20windows&f=false

Didn't realize Anne Dudley did the string arrangements on "Power Windows"!

I've been going back to "Mystic Rhythms" a lot lately. Neil plays such a cool pattern, and it remains one of Rush's most unique pieces.

His China accents have always been the best.

When you say "china"… Sirius has surrendered the Deep Tracks channel (typically the redoubt of mummies like Earl Bailey and Jim Ladd) to the music of Neil. Yesterday, they played "Tai Shan," which I had never heard before and very much liked. Yet I see that Alex and Geddy think that it is completely misconceived…I dunno, I guess it sounds like "Oh chinese classical music is so exotic, let's use it indiscriminately!"

I've thought about staring a rolling Sirius -XM thread, but I dunno if enuff people have it, think anything of it…

Mr. Big opened.

did billy sheehan do a bass solo with a power drill y/n

Lol, I believe so.

When you say "china"…

I think he was referring to Peart's use of China cymbals, not any particular composition.

i understand that, but surely you can understand how that could remind me…

I don't know what you're talking about, tbh, Oh, wait, maybe I get it. No, China cymbals, not a stereotypical "Asian" accent, hah. (Assuming that's what you mean?)

Anyway, check this out:

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

Weird coincidence, both Neil Peart and Elizabeth Wurtzel are both on the panel. They died the exact same day ...

Mr. Big def did the power drill thing

Rush also jammed with them on "Wipeout" at the show I went to

https://youtu.be/0h2eaEpekLk

Lifeson and Peart jam with Sheehan before a show on the ‘90 tour (Geddy was running late in traffic)

For a Danny Carey, Stewart Copeland and Neil Peart jam, this kinda sucks, and not in a "Primus sucks!" sort of way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elKAILyE1b8

Sully Erna from Godsmack divulging some truly tragic details:

"I knew when they were ending the Rush tour [R40, in 2015], that he was sick.

“And then I knew it, even up to a year ago or so, he was in a wheelchair and he couldn’t speak. And it was just becoming more and more sad to me.”

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/godsmacks-sully-erna-says-neil-peart-was-in-a-wheelchair-and-he-couldnt-speak-in-months-leading-up-to-his-death/

Maybe he just didn't want to talk to the Godsmack guy...

seems kind of shitty to divulge that stuff since Peart was supposed private