Rush: Classic or Dud?

Rush is so genuinely inspirational. Irony free, but totally with a sense of humor. Utmost respect.

" I was worried they'd gloss over the 82-87 era, which I'm fondest of."

That's probably my least favorite Rush era. And they are by far one of my favorite bands.

I've been in northeast Ohio visiting family and I've heard "Tom Sawyer" 2x and "Working Man" once on the radio. <3

Must be listening to WNCX 98.5!

I'm seeing the film tonight!!!

That's the station!!

The Rush doc is on VH1 Classic at 9 tonight (EST), kids!

oh man subdivisions

If I only had cable...

Oh sweet! Half an hour away!

It's also showing on plain ol' VH1, FYI. Watching now.

The Rush doc is excellent, except my god were they weird, even weirder than I though

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OK, wow, Neal Peart is freaking me out...I am going to have to read this thread carefully after this things ends.

lol @ teenage Alex being a little shit at his parents' dinner table.

After that, it got really really good. And I'd forgotten what a demanding listen Hemispheres is. I'm going to have to dig it out asap.

lol @ teenage Alex being a little shit at his parents' dinner table.

What killed me was, who thought, "Hey man, Alex is telling his parents he's quitting school; we gotta get this on film!" ?

Also got a laugh at the RATM dude being escorted out of the backstage room Neil Peart was in at Neil's request. I can understand shying away from throngs of yelling, grabby fans because it makes you anxious, but what the hell was RATM guy doing that warranted a forceful ejection? Inquiring minds...

I'm so pissed I missed it. Again. No listings for it to show again.

I enjoyed it overall (it definitely made me want to listen to a lot more of their music); I just wish it had more hardcore musical discussion. Oh, well.

but what the hell was RATM guy doing that warranted a forceful ejection?

"I heard you like that Ayn Rand shit."

"SECURITY!"

I think being in RATM is reason enough.

I got a lot of enjoyment out of this film, but I am definitely the target audience.

My biggest complaint is that they could have spent more time on the post-Moving Pictures albums. It felt like the 80s to present day piece went by too quickly compared to the 70s portion.

I loved all the celebrity interviews though, especially Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor, Jack Black, and Gene Simmons. It's just great to hear these guys geek out about Rush in the same way that I would. You don't necessarily expect to hear Trent Reznor waxing nostalgic about the synths on Power Windows, but why wouldn't he? I know I do.

Also, the clips of Rush playing high school dances and discussion of kimonos was A+.

The part about about them playing Caress of Steel for Paul Stanley in the back of the tour van and him not getting it was completely lolz for me, because I can just imagine the dumbfounded look on his face upon hearing something like "The Necromancer."

"I'm not quite sure where I'll stop, but it'll probably be somewhere around Presto."

Personally Phil, I'm not so keen on Presto and Roll the Bones as I am on their "return to rock" album Counterparts. I think you'd find some songs you like on that one.

As for wanting more discussion of the music, buy the Popoff book!

You have a lot to look forward to. I recently played 2112 for my brother and his reaction was "wow, this sound like Iron Maiden, only it's from 1976."

I really like Presto. It was a little more back-to-basics without completely shedding the synthy stuff from the 80s. Counterparts/Test For Echo/Vapour Trails really did nothing for me, but Snakes & Arrows was a huge return to form.

i don't think they really captured what a cultural landmark album 'moving pictures' was. everyone in my junior high school had that record, not just the rush geeks, everyone. maybe it was a michigan thing, the same as the tragically hip selling out arenas once upon a time. but yeah they are some weird dudes, neil peart most especially, watching him made me feel really uneasy except for maybe during the mullet and handlebar moustache phase.

I finally saw it on the big screen tonight. It's gotten a second run at another cool indie theater in Portland.

Still the most profound part of the film for me is when they describe how 2112 set them free for the rest of their career.

Will be loading the first 12 albums (debut through Hold Your Fire, no live albums) into my iPod today. The Project Begins!

"My biggest complaint is that they could have spent more time on the post-Moving Pictures albums"

That's because if you watch the movie, most of the interviewees, especially Alex Lifeson, describe those albums as completely sucking, which, for the most part, they do. I'm glad after watching this movie that opinion has been vindicated, none of this "Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows are the two greatest albums ever made" challopsy bullshit.

I guess I missed the part where Alex Lifeson said "All the albums we've recorded for the last 30 years completely suck."

Not sure where anyone is saying that Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows are two of the greatest albums ever made, but they are both really good. So are Signals, Counterparts, Vapor Trails, and Snakes and Arrows. All the rest have their fair share of great tunes as well.

I don't think that Rush is trying to disown any of these albums. Their live show tends to have quite a lot of songs from the post-Moving Pictures era. It would have been nice to take a little more time with these past 30 years in the film, but it probably would have been a much longer film.

this reminds me to mention the major larfs in the restaurant when the waitress only recognized geddy lee
i liked that facet of the movie, the "look how NICE these guys are" -- i realize that doesn't have anything to do with the music, like at ALL, but i will listen to rush if i want to think about the music. i really liked the personal aspect of the movie.

i wanted to hug these guys at the end of the movie, i just LOVED them. i never knew much about them beyond their music, so it was all pretty new to me. i knew they were smart, Canadian, and pretty clean cut comparatively, but nothing more than that.

I guess I missed the part where Alex Lifeson said "All the albums we've recorded for the last 30 years completely suck."

^ You must have seen an edited version of the movie.

It would have been nice to take a little more time with these past 30 years in the film

^ no, it would have been better to have said what they did, that they made some serious mistakes in the '80s, and then beefed it up with more '70s stuff. If you dont think they were trying to back away from some of their '80s stuff, especially Lifeson, then please send me some of what you were smoking while you were watching it.

The part in the diner with Lee, Lifeson and the waitress was total gold.

i will stump for "hold your fire" too...i love 80s rush a lot. signals rules...tons of that stuff rules...i actually prefer their in thrall to the police/synth era stuff....(peart loved ultravox lol, that makes SO MUCH sense in retrospect)

but yeah i watched about half of this last night before i had to go to bed.

was sort of great too see all the different musicians that they touched....i suddenly felt a weird kinship to like, sebastian bach and vinnie paul, like i can relate to what they were saying about it....

rush is really the first band of nerds, like true nerds.

thought the early days stuff with rutsey was great, and i'm glad they didn't ignore rutsey, he gets kind of written out of their history sometimes.

really charming, can't wait to finish it.

also was happy to see a dude from death cab for cutie on there...because their song for the twilight soudntrack sounds SOOOO 80s rush, esp. the beginning. glad i'm not crazy for hearing that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DxUWGSiyt4

something about the vocal line at the beginning of the song...where he goes "when the sun in perched at its highest peak in the MID-dle of the day"

^^there is something distinctly Rush about how he emphasizes the first syllable of middle and takes it like a note higher than you'd expect, plus the guitar arpeggios under it are SOOO rush....but it's mostly in the intro not the whole song

Bill Magill will now be sad and cry about vampires ruining his rock experience.

Bill Magill will now be sad and cry about vampires life ruining his rock experience.

also,

i was first suprised to see trent reznor in it, but at the same time it made total sense, i think someone else upthread had the same experience

also, sebastian bach was SOOOOO cuet, he went out and bought the fountainhead when he was 12 awwwwww

Bach looked awful.

Bill Magill will now be sad and cry about vampires life ruining his rock experience.

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 28, 2010 11:20 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I dont even know what this means. If you dont like 80s Rush, you dont like life? Guilty as charged, I guess.

bill don't hardman my naive love of canadian rock!!!!!!!!!!! okay???? not today man, i'm feeling all warm and fuzz abt rush!!!!!

Man, I love Rush, and I loved the movie. you guys have my take, no need for me to beat it into the ground.

I guess I'm just trying to point out that there is a difference between you not liking anything they've done since Moving Pictures and Rush not liking anything they've done since then.

What I got from the movie was that Alex Lifeson was unhappy with how much the synths were taking over their records around Power Windows and that he wanted the records to become more guitar focused, which is exactly what happened. I did not get the impression that he was saying all these albums he created suck and should be erased from everyone's memories.

He did not like those records. That's my interpretation of what he said. I didnt like them either. If you like them, that's cool.

Well, the band likes the period enough to still perform quite a few songs.

yeah they did between the wheels off grace under pressure last i saw them and the crowd was loving it

and that's like a weird album cut too, not like some huge single or something that people would expect or that the band would somehow feel obligated to play

Alex was just as guilty of diluting his guitar potency with fx pedals as Geddy was with introducing keyboards into the band, so for him to complain around the time of Power Windows is kind of like pot meet kettle. Anyway, it seems like around the time of Hold Your Fire they brought the guitar back to the forefront (though to say that they'd done away with synths at that point is kind of ridiculous). That whole part of the doc was kind of muddy with its intent, but I can put the pieces together of how things went down just by listening to the records.

see, i sorta love that era of alex's playing...very weird and fractured type stuff...one of the only OG classic rock dudes that seemed to take anything valuable from new wave/post punk....

they were using synths well before the that era anyway, this idea that using synths or efx is "diluting" Rush seems very odd to me, as if ppl think of Rush as some primal rock dudes like Motorhead or AC/DC or something

Oh no, you misread me (probably because I didn't elaborate). I love fx-heavy guitar, always have. I appreciate that he was all about textures for the Signals/Grace/Windows era. I just meant "diluted" in the traditional rock sense.