Rush: Classic or Dud?

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

Man, I wish him well, and I'm glad he's built a career for himself, but do I not like his essay writing. He's like music's version of Joel Stein.

have you read Love is a Mixtape?

Way back when? Yeah. I didn't like it, which given the tragic subject matter seemed a pretty not nice thing to admit.

Been listening to "Counterparts," and it's better than I remember! And what other hard rock band could get away with a song that begins:

I knew he was different in his sexuality
I went to his parties as a straight minority
It never seemed a threat to my masculinity
He only introduced me to a wider reality
As the years went by, we drifted apart
When I heard that he was gone
I felt a shadow cross my heart

I'm surprised at that Counterparts doesn't get more love, I think it's one of their best albums. I love the meaty, stripped down tone of the album, especially the more focused, backbeat-driven drumming from Neil.

Also, I'm psyched for this:
http://www.rush.com/vapor-trails-remixed/

Vapor Trails is a really great album with a really terrible mix, so this was a long time coming.

A few points:

1) Fuck Rob Sheffield. I hate his writing, I hate his philosophy on art and culture as expressed in that writing, I hate his voice, I hate his to my mind astonishingly punchable face. My loathing of him is way on the far side of rational. (We work in the same building, but I have never seen him. If I ever did, I would probably burst into Alex in NYC-esque rage-flames.)
2) The headline on that piece is loathsome. A multi-platinum band with a planet's worth of devoted fans needs some scumbag hack's "forgiveness"?
3) I don't know anyone who hates Rush. I know people who don't like Rush, of course, and plenty of people who are neutral about them (like I was until seeing them live in 2011 - prior to that, I was of the mind that their radio hits were OK, but that was all I needed to hear; now, I am a big fan, and Counterparts is one of my favorite albums btw). But I don't know anyone who would say with a straight face, "I hate Rush."

I definitely know people who would say they hate Rush, but my guess is that has more to do with their own insecurities rather than any failing on Rush's part.

I think I've said it here before but I'm another Rush convert after seeing them live two years ago - they put on a hell of a show, even if it does creep into Spinal Tap-ism at times.

I still haven't delved much into the catalogue beyond Moving Pictures (recommended by a friend) but they've got a gazillion albums and I've got a lifetime to hear them so I'm in no rush. No pun intended.

Hah, I know tons of people who will state that they hate Rush with a straight face, to this day! This is a widely popular stance, like hating the Grateful Dead. I mean, I love Rush, and get where you are coming from, but this is no surprise at all.

Also, I can understand why people do not like Rob's deal at all, and more power to you, but calling him a "scumbag hack" is pretty rich. If this is a professional thing only then cool I guess, whatever works for you is fine, but I just want to personally state that Rob is one of the nicest people I have met in "the industry" (for lack of a better term). Very far from anyone I would call "a scumbag", but whatever, I have a feeling that this all about his opinions/writing style and nothing to do with him as a person.

I have a feeling that this all about his opinions/writing style and nothing to do with him as a person.

We've never met, so yeah, 100%.

Cool man, fire away. Not trying to crusade here at all.

My wife hates Rush. Cannot stand Geddy's voice.

Plenty of people hate Rush, even the eighties stuff.

I think they hate Geddy's voice, and if that alone is enough to make them "hate" Rush - fair enough - then they sure haven't bothered to listen to the music.

Rob Sheffield is indeed one of the nicest people in the world. But I don't like his writing, and while he is no scumbag, he is something of a hack. Which is also fair enough, because the only way to make a living as a music writer these days is to hack away.

I hate Geddy's voice, but I hate post-Signals earnest mid-rangy Geddy; I love screechy Geddy.

In any case, Rush hate is pretty on the down-low, because unlike the Dead (for example) there's very little cultural creep on Rush's part. At worst they're a punchline, at best, well, world't biggest cult band. That isn't the Dead. But the Dead hate I believe comes as much from its cultural connotations and traits as much as the music, which is in a lot of ways the anti-Rush: the albums are pretty worthless, but live is where the music happens. Rush is great live, but the band's stock in trade is replicating the perfect arrangements of the albums. Bar a goof-reggae "Working Man" or two. And Rush fans are an innocuous bunch who only make a target because they like Rush - nerds! - not because of how they dress, or what they drive, or being trustafarians or dirty hippies or whatever.

xpost Now, see, I think you're an outlier! Just as some still connect Rush to Rand based on that one aspect of that one album, I think Rush for a lot of people means Geddy's early years screech (similarly c. "2112"). But every aspect of the band mellows out after the '70s without, imo, a drop in quality. Just a shift.

Yeah, I tried listening to Counterparts, but the layered Geddy harmonies were an insurmountable hurdle. Which is too bad, because I kinda liked what I heard otherwise.

i really don't see how they are the most hated band ever

listened to Clockwork Angels again yesterday, like it even more now than when it came out

however - can ANYONE understand how those songs fit into the "story"...even by loose concept album standards, idgi

tbh, sheffield's thing seems a bit dated to Gen X...i think ppl of our generation there was still more a reaction against some aspects of classic rock (look at almost any early part of a classic rock thread on ILM for example)...because of what i do, i work with lots of ppl 10 yrs younger than me (or younger) and i feel like they just LIKE classic rock, even if it's not what they listen to all the time, they respect it just as "quality music" and like the big hits and the song from Guitar Hero and Rock Band...so I think he's describing stuff that doesn't exist anymore...

if you asked a lot of them what "shit music" was it would be Skrillex probably or like Creed or ICP or something

Yeah, Gen X rebelled against classic rock by, um, listening to Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

Is it self-parody if I wish Clockwork Angels broke out of 4/4 a little more?

Yeah, Gen X rebelled against classic rock by, um, listening to Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, August 9, 2013 11:24 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i know it was dumb but again read all the classic rock threads on ILM, there was a certain mentality

My embarrassing story of 'how I got into Rush' was having to sing Limelight on Rockband and going 'wow this song is really awesome' and then I wanted to listen to them all the time.

I had always liked 2112/the Temples of Syrinx song but none of their songs had ever really drew me in.

Honestly? I think part of it is the weird timing changes in the songs made me have towork a bit harder to like them and I wasn't ever really patient enough to try til I was older.

M@tt: no, I totally remember.

i think the change is maybe due to the fact that it's not your parent's music, it's your grandparent's music....not necessarily something to rebel against, just a part of the cultural landscape, a relic of a time when things were cooler than they are now

trying to picture my grandma listening to Rush. failing.

Haha all I can think of is Geddy's mom in "Beyond the Lighted Stage" saying "It wasn't my kind of music...Perry Como was my kind of music"

Yeah, my second cousin who was 15 for Moving Pictures and played Rush and Police covers in high school just had his first kid a couple of years ago. Mark S's theory that rock movements are about rebelling against your older brother as opposed to your parents is probably OTM.

I think it is true that younger generations who didn't read alternative music mags from late 70s to the 90s go in for classic rock easier.

Johnny Marr hates Rush and it makes me like him slightly less.

doesn't he like the Jam or some shit

I doubt Johnny Marr has given Rush enough thought to provide a valuable opinion. My guess would be he, like many, use Rush as a sort of dismissive shorthand while what they probably mean to vocally "hate" is Yes.

one of the big revelations of the news Smiths book was that Johnny Marr was a huge Tom Petty fan

i actually don't totally see Rush as a "prog band" proper

I don't consider Rush a prog band at all. No more than Zeppelin, really.

Or the Police.