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.

I finally got into Caress of Steel after being a Rush fan since 88, the only album of their pre-91 albums that I never connected with. I never owned the album back in the day even though I've probably heard it a handful of times. Just cleaned a rough vinyl copy someone a number of years ago and it sounds good now. It reminds me of Led Zeppelin III - that mix of rock and the pastoral. The Necromancer is just the best.

I think it's one of their best

I'm still working up to my Caress of Steel phase

Lifeson's closing solo on The Necromancer is so good.

I mean he's playing metallic versions of the spare atmospheric riffs he plays on the mid-80s albums.

"No One at the Bridge" is my favourite song from those first four albums. They were listening to a lot of Genesis at the time, which is maybe reflected in the minor add 9 chords they use in the main riff.

Musically, a stone classic. Individually and collectively, these guys were as good as anyone from their era, and better than most.

Lyrically? I always figured Neil got the last laugh, since he didn't have to sing the words he wrote.

Tbf, my engagement with them pretty much ended at Signals. I need to get hip to their work after that album (which coincided with the beginning of my senior year in high school and my interest in much less baroque bands).

made another attempt but still cannot get into caress of steel, sorry

now listening to zep iii and . . . that is a really rough comparison

Hmm. I guess the part that feels similar is the blend of acoustic and electric and the pastoral folk elements with bursts of "metallic" heaviness. Probably the song it reminds me most of is The Rain Song (obv not LZ3).

Either way, that's not a terrible night imho.

love the B side fantasy epic on caress of steel but its definitely a bit weaker record than fly by night and 2112

That's the Way seems very Caress of Steel or the other way around. Obv Caress of Steel is more progressive in structure.

I'm mostly familiar with the tracks from All the World's a Stage.

Either way, that's not a terrible night imho.

fair

dont see the zeppelin 3 comparison at all, if anything it reminds me more of wishbone ash

It's a logical but still dramatic step from Caress to 2112.

I wish Didacts & Narpets was much longer but Lamneth is amazing

Those who wish to beer
Must put aside the hydration
Get on with the fermentation
The real libation
The underlying beer https://t.co/BcGrq5vUPH

— Marc Masters 🌵 (@Marcissist) August 10, 2022

It's been out for a while here. The can is better than the beer.

I thought someone bumped this to post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lel5JGJfwqQ

I was driving around yesterday listening to this station

https://wshechicago.com/

Their tagline is "SHE Loves the 90s & 2000s!", summed up by wiki with "WSHE-FM is a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois with an adult contemporary format focused on the 90s and 2000s with some 80s and 2010s music."

Out of nowhere I hear a familiar space sound, and then, with no explanation, the station launches into "2112"'s "Overture /The Temples of Syrinx," in its entirety. I thought I had the wrong station, but it was followed by "Wildest Dreams" by Taylor Swift, and then "Counting Stars" by One Republic. Blame an intern, blame a robot, but it was an awesome moment in radio history. When I looked online for their posted playlist, there is a big, Rush epic sized time gap between Rihanna and Taylor Swift, so clearly the station is just pretending this didn't happen. But it did and it ruled.

lol that’s awesome

For those minutes, Rush had assumed control.

"SHE Loves the 2110s!",

Apparently this was Neil Peart's bird-feeding station at his lakehouse in Quebec. Of course he wouldn't have just one ...

https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/324658705_506426998146463_5171991724953394768_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=XJn8NAVpYVQAX8PxqIH&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.xx&oh=00_AfAijgRbZ2z1KE3mJStV4v2szoaqvOWlihE177D6Jfkv7g&oe=63C6663E

(RIP about three years ago, Neil)

Really enjoying "Snakes & Arrows" tonight.

I had to take my daughter to school really early this morning, 5:30 or so. Pretty sleepy, coffee in my to-go container, radio tuned to classic rock in time for their wacky AM crew Monkey & the Turd or whatever to be up and at 'em. They introduce a new feature, something along the lines of the Got to Get You Moving song, a pick to pep up your morning. The idea is that one DJ picks one song, one DJ picks another, and then they take calls to vote. The first guy plays the telltale start of "Spirit of Radio" and I'm, like, yeah, duh, that's the one. The other guy goes it's OK, but you get more bang for your buck with the Stones' longer "Can't You Hear Me Knocking." And I think, I mean, no contest, right? So the first caller immediately says "Rush, I've been listening to them since I was 13, then later when I was DJing parties ..." (which turned out to be make-out parties. To Rush? To each their own, I guess). The second caller immediately says "Rush, I've been a fan for 40 years." And the third caller comes on and says "I guess I'm going to make it a sweep, because ... Rush." Well, duh. It's around 5 degrees this morning, and I still almost waited it out in the car to hear the whole thing.

which turned out to be make-out parties. To Rush? To each their own, I guess

Mad neckin to "Red Sector A"

Heavy pettin’ to By-Tor and the Snow Dog.

At my childhood home right now, still some vintage Peart posters where my drums used to be.

<3

Revisited Clockwork Angels tonight after nearly a decade. What a flawed album, especially lyrically. Peart apparently wrote elaborate lyrics, but Geddy chose to junk most of them and just repeat the lame choruses again and again.

Even on its release, the steampunk world seemed a mere cash-grab by Peart, who post-comeback was concerned about financial stability. So, why not team up with one of the most bestselling (but least esteemed) sci-fi writers and create a universe that will generate revenue outside recordings?

Didn't Peart publish it as a novel?

The novelization was written by Kevin J. Anderson, based on ideas that he and Peart discussed.

I've got to admit, as with most concept albums I've never really paid much attention to any sort of narrative through line. Like, Lamb Lies Down? No clue what's going on!

the lamb lies down in a street on Broadway and gets run over, come on man

And turns into a phallic pupa, iirc.

"cash grab" I highly doubt that

I remember liking the album (though I had a vested interest, since I worked for the label at the time). The book was OK. I interviewed Anderson for the Roadrunner website.

I like Clockwork Angels, but also don't pay much attention to the concept.

Geddy bio on the way
https://blabbermouth.net/news/rush-bassist-vocalist-geddy-lees-memoir-my-effin-life-now-due-in-november-2023

Great title.

https://i.imgur.com/WL7PUr4.jpg

I swear I remember a Peart interview where he was asked why he switched to Ludwig. “Because they paid me. It doesn’t matter anyway; all drums sound the same.”

Neil Peart's reputation as a great drummer was of course earned, but listening to "Hold Your Fire" today I was still reminded as always by just how creative the guy was: his arrangements, his fills, his use of triggers to enhance the aforementioned, even his tuning. Just so distinctive. He clearly put a ton of thought into what he was doing.

I found this dude playing the drums to "Second Nature," a pretty minor Rush song, and it's kind of incredible to consider the amount of concentration this must take:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdMvfrAmjc4

> his use of triggers to enhance the aforementioned

I regret that Peart left behind digital drums in the late 1980s and went back to a purely acoustic kit (except when performing some 1980s material in concert). He felt forced to retire in his early sixties because his body wasn't physically up to the same sort of drumming he had done before, but digital could have potentially compensated for that and let him be creative for another decade.

I think he never stopped triggering stuff, but yeah, at some point he stopped using electric drums as a sub for real drums. Though as I understand it, it was his feet/legs giving him the most trouble, at least at first, brought on by either a bike injury or just wear and tear from biking so much.

iirc, he developed a foot infection from hours of motorcycling in the rain.

wrt his tendonitis, he sat too low, and/or most of his drums and cymbals were positioned too high and out-of-reach, necessitating extra effort, causing him to keep his shoulders raised, and leading to tendonitis.

I'm assuming when he went to study with that jazz guru guy it was motivated by wanting to play with less force and wear and tear on his body

He definitely changed up his style immediately after that, but it seemed like he gravitated back towards his old ways later on.

the drum guru was freddie gruber, and one of the ways he changed his shit up was that he swore by traditional grip, like "this is the best way to hold the sticks, what was I thinking, that did so much damage to my hands," and then after the hiatus re: Jackie and Dominique's demises in 2002, he went back to matched grip…