Rush: Classic or Dud?

On the (Spirit of the) Radio would be kinda pleasantly weird

oh man: Chuck D rapping the "Roll The Bones" part.

i could kinda hear it in chuck's post-terrordome type flow

Jack, relax.
Get busy with the facts.
No zodiacs or almanacs,
No maniacs in polyester slacks.
Just the facts.
Gonna kick some gluteus max.
It's a paralax, you dig? (Flavor does this line)
You move around
The small gets big. It's a rig
It's action -- reaction
Random interaction.
So who's afraid
Of little abstraction
Can't get no satisfaction
From the facts?
You'd better run, homeboy (Flavor does this line)
A fact's a fact
From Nome to Rome, boy.

It's a paralax, you dig? (Flavor does this line)

laughed so hard at this

LOL

It must happen!

Intriguingly, the Rush installment of the "Rockabye Baby!" series credits the guys with their given names: N. Peart, G. Weinrib, A. Zivojinovich.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/arts/music/rock-hall-of-fame-embraces-randy-newman-public-enemy-and-others.html?hpw

As the night went on, the mood continued to lighten. Flavor Flav of Public Enemy no doubt assumed he had given the longest, most haphazard speech when he went on about his children and the clock he wears around his neck (among other subjects) until even his band mate, Chuck D, was giving him wrap-it-up signals on the stage.

“I only get to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame one time in my life,” Flavor Flav said. “I’m enjoying this.”

Not to be outdone, Alex Lifeson, Rush’s singer and guitarist, then gave an acceptance speech in which he repeated “blah blah” over and over for several minutes while aggressively gesticulating, leaving the crowd in hysterics.

I'm so psyched for this collab:

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/p480x480/553051_10151326500647062_1814178872_n.jpg

apparently Rush fans behaved boorishly?

who are all those old men standing next to geddy lee

the universal dream, for those who wish to seem

tom hanks accepted on behalf of the band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7M7AEi68a20#!

apparently Rush fans behaved boorishly?

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, April 20, 2013 1:22 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i imagine many of them were socialized at hockey games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSu3qXZxIdc

i imagine many of them were socialized at hockey games

you meant subdivisions

any escape might help to mellow the unattractive truth

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

This so should have been a roast of Rush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-xEr489gHY

miles of smiles

UK tour starts today,
I'll see them on Friday - first
time since '81!

How well do they go over there? How many people, etc.? There's something almost defiantly North American about Rush.

Back in the late 70s/early 80s, they were adored here: could sell out five nights straight at the Hammersmith Odeon. But in those days, I think their appeal was more international. This tour they're doing five arena-sized shows across the UK and I think a few tickets are still available for most of them.

Aren't they huge in South America? The biggest shows they ever played were in Brazil, right?

What's interesting is that I also feel like there's something North American about Rush. Yet, their major influences are pretty much all British: Zep, Cream, the Who, Yes, other classic prog (Geddy's a Genesis and Tull fan iirc), the Police and new wave. I think what makes them seem North American is that they started playing a progressive/hard rock synthesis at a time when those styles were becoming unfashionable in the UK but were retaining their popularity in North America.

it's so hard to say, sometimes it seems like any hard rock-ish band that released more than 3 major label records in the 70s and 80s can play soccer stadiums in brazil

I've never got a strictly 'North American' vibe from Rush, ever, and I'm from the UK. Maybe some elements have felt 'North American', but they don't come across to me as being 'North American' in the same way that, say, ZZ Top do. Rush were quite popular here for a spell: Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, Signals and Grace Under Pressure went Top 5, and Power Windows and Hold Your Fire went Top 10. Not to mention A Farewell To Kings and Hemispheres were recorded here (Rockfield Studios in South Wales), as well as most of Power Windows and Hold Your Fire (in Oxford, Surrey and London).

i dunno rush seems sooo suburban & north american to me

Well, first things first. Rush has been a round a long time and is probably popular everywhere. Second, I believe that Brazil show they played may have been their first ever Brazilian, or even South American, show, which combined with the general Brazilian draw for any rock band made for a real event. But third, yeah, there's a real suburban vibe to Rush, probably particular to North America. (And for the record, I would say a band like ZZ Top is distinctly American, which is a different animal). Like, what would be some good examples of music with a suburban UK vibe? It seems to me from this vantage that British music that expresses a similar sense of anomie and isolation to prime Rush largely stems from the cities and less from cookie-cutter neighborhoods of big houses with big yards and sidewalks and SUVs in the driveway and stuff, which seems a mostly American/Canadian thing.

Yeah, I don't know exactly what "North American" really means. I will say Rush seem very individualist, in an us-against-the-world kind of way, and that could perhaps be construed as North American, or even just US-American. And despite Peart's often pretentious lyrics, they have always seemed "of the people" to me, almost blue collar in a weird way -- this IMO isn't North American, it's pretty universal, and I think accounts for a lot of their popularity. They're good-natured, inquisitive white dudes, who happen to get off practicing their instruments, being a tight band and musing about various life themes. It's funny, nothing about the vibe I get from Rush suggests to me that they HAD to be a prog-ish band, but the fact they are is kind of fascinating.

I think "suburban" is a valid descriptor, because even when they sing about modern life and technology or whatever, it always seems from the point of view of an outsider, someone who's not comfortable with the hustle-bustle of a big city. In contrast, ZZ Top is not "North American" or necessarily suburban -- tho they're def some sub-sect of US-American. Essentially, ZZ Top don't give a shit about anything except playing rock music, getting high and girls' legs. Couldn't be further from Rush's point of view.

They also like butts.

http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/tours/750427KissRushRichmondVA.jpg

so funny when gene is all perplexed about how rush didn't want to party and get with chicks on those tours, he sounds mystified

Be cool or be cast out.

I heard "Time Stand Still" on the radio this morning, which is cool, because it's a lovely song, but it occurred to me that not only have I never heard it on the radio before, but I rarely hear any post-Signals, pre-new album Rush on the radio. Not even "Distant Early Warning" or "Red Sector A," let alone stuff from "Power Windows" or "Hold Your Fire" or "Presto." I wish they would shake things up a bit beyond the "Permanent Waves"/"Moving Pictures" warhorses.

Ha, I actually heard "Distant Early Warning" the other day on the local "classic rock" station (and that's probably my favorite Rush song of that era). But with the exception of "Roll The Bones," that's the only post-Signals Rush song I've heard on the radio, ever.

Wow. Classic rock stations up here love 80s and 90s Rush, I thought. I definitely hear "Big Money", "Time Stand Still", "The Pass", "Ghost of a Chance", "Dreamline", "Show Don't Tell". I've definitely heard the latter in Syracuse.

I heard them a lot in the early nineties. "Roll The Bones" and "Show Don't Tell" particularly.

The Ottawa station played "New World Man" and "Ghost of a Chance" in the last 24h: http://www.chez106.com/on-air/playlists-charts/#

xpost

Funny enough, I only heard "Roll The Bones" on an "alternative rock" station, in 1991.

(Why is "Roll the Bones" a staple??)

xpost!

For being their only American top 40 hit "New World Man" rarely gets/got airplay down here.

Stanley Cup made an appearance tonight!

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/p480x480/946833_10151658366733718_2142667632_n.jpg

That's awesome .... how's the setlist these days? Caught 'em on Time Machine tour first time through Chicago and kinda wished they played a bit more Clockwork Angels tracks.

Nothing like Americans rubbing the Cup in the face of some Canucks, huh?

I thought it was sort of a dream setlist for me. "Analog Kid!" A bunch of '80s stuff! And if they played anymore of "Clockwork," people would have left.

Set1:
Subdivisions
The Big Money
Force Ten
Grand Designs
Limelight
Territories
The Analog Kid
The Pass
Where's My Thing?
(including drum solo)
Far Cry

Set2: (with Clockwork Angels String Ensemble)
Caravan
Clockwork Angels
The Anarchist
Carnies
The Wreckers
Headlong Flight
(including drum solo)
Halo Effect
(guitar solo intro)
Wish Them Well
The Garden
Dreamline
Drum Solo
(the Percussor)
Red Sector A
(Stanley Cup!)
YYZ
The Spirit of Radio

Encore
Tom Sawyer
2112 Part I: Overture
2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

http://i.imgur.com/H2giBD6.jpg

Guess it was Carbomb Carcillo who brought it.

Nice! Analog Kid into The Pass no less! Marathon was the one that stunned and rocked me and my friends when they played the shed on Meigs Field...

How Rob Sheffield learned to love Rush.

i always hope these are going to be "i fell for them through their '80s material" bc that is my story