Rush - The 1982-1987 albums POLL

Well, he doesn't comment on the last line there. I thought that the whole story of Jesus's martyrdom might be part of the 'mythology' that he's trying to take apart. Just a thought, though (although apparently many people on songfacts saw it that way too:P), especially since it seems unlike Peart to write a heart-on-sleeve exclamation. I'm not actually sure what Peart's intent was wrt that line. It's OT in this thread so maybe there's somewhere else we should discuss it?

(I like singles from this era but don't listen to the albums all the way through.)

Awwww yeah!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRw9wlOZ9Lg

Isn't The Weapon from Signals? Oh, I get it, that's from the Grace Under Pressure tour

has to be signals for me but only barely over Grace. Power Windows I like a lot, Hold your Fire I never bought back then for some reason so it's still a very unfamiliar album to me. Signals was the first Rush album I ever heard though and the first I ever owned. I sing Subdivisions in my head to myself every day.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

One of my first concerts was seeing Rush on the Grace Under Pressure tour, so that record I have heard just boodles of times. When I was in middle school, I just burned out a copy of that one, The Police's Synchronicity and U2's The Unforgettable Fire. Maybe it is just because I listened to those tapes over and over, but I think there is some similar sheen to them all.

I think Grace Under Pressure is the best group of songs out of those four albums.

Conform or BE CAAAAASTTT OUT

Lifeson was so hugely influenced by Andy Summers and The Edge. Probably a big reason why they wanted Liklywhite to produce Grace Under Pressure.

My problem with keyboard heavy Rush is that Geddy Lee's bass playing under vocal lines in three- and four- chord songs is a freaking miracle and I miss it when the keyboards take over that sonic space.

I've never heard Lifeson talk about U2 or the Edge. Certainly Summers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBJO3Zj-Sv0#t=26

My problem with keyboard heavy Rush is that Geddy Lee's bass playing under vocal lines in three- and four- chord songs is a freaking miracle and I miss it when the keyboards take over that sonic space.

― Three Word Username, Wednesday, July 2, 2014 7:37 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's loads of intricate bass playing all over these albums, though! Some incredible stuff on Power Windows in particular!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

These results do not surprise me at all.

Alex Lifeson interviewed backstage at Irvine Meadows, 1984 (dude I was at this show!) about his 80s guitar sound.
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/rock_chronicles/rock_chronicles_1980s_alex_lifeson.html

tl;dr
Lifeson switched to using Fenders after a PA fell on his 335 and double-neck at a Blue Oyster Cult show in 1979. Namechecks Andy Summers and Midge Ure.

Also, on Hold Your Fire, Lifeson had switched amplifiers from the usual Marshalls to Gallien Kruegers. Blecchy sound to me - I'm tired out by the time you get to side two. I waited for a half-hour for Tower Records El Toro to open so I could buy both HYF and A Momentary Lapse Of Reason.

This is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fufng_oC410

Blame thread for causing me to fall into a black hole of Rush videos for a hour. YouTube has tons of live clips of current Rush playing the new wave era songs and they sound massive (Lifeson back on Gibsons)

Yeah, for me, HYF was the beginning of the crappy guitar tone and production that didn't really get fixed until Counterparts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukhdUkRFBa0

Wow, Geddy vox sound terrible in that "Force Ten" clip.

I like how Neil and Geddy have apparently fundamentally changed their physical approach to their instruments over the years.

Lifeson was so hugely influenced by Andy Summers and The Edge. Probably a big reason why they wanted Liklywhite to produce Grace Under Pressure.

― A. Begrand, Wednesday, July 2, 2014 2:06 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is interesting re: the Edge. Is this the one time in music history that a guy with light years more talent was influenced by an inferior player?

Is this the one time in music history that a guy with light years more talent was influenced by an inferior player?

Probably not, but you're also talking about technical ability rather than talent. I'd say they're on about the same level talent-wise, in that they make noises with the guitar that people like to hear.

Also, on Hold Your Fire, Lifeson had switched amplifiers from the usual Marshalls to Gallien Kruegers.

Aha! This might get at the kernel of the problem for me.

Researching the Stereogum thing I had tracked down a quote by Lifeson where he specifically mentions the Police and U2 being a huge influence on his playing in the early 1980s, and now I can't find it.

Zero votes for HYF = crazy

yeah i'm so sad but i can't front like its actually my favorite of these 4

Re: the Edge. He was sounding like Andy Summers as early as the late '70s/early '80s, c. "Perm. Waves" and "Moving Pictures," when the Police were huge. So it seems odd that that he would cite the Edge as an influence, because by the time U2 was big enough to likely be on his radar - say, "War" or "Unf. Fire" - Lifeson was already well in that mode, and really specifically Summers vs. the Edge's, er, delay tactics.

His admiration for The Edge might have been a "keeping up with the Jonses" kind of thing.

keeping up with the Evans

Or maybe he just mentioned the Edge (if he did) because he was a popular guitarist at the time that people imitated. I mean, one of the few contemporary drummers I ever heard Peart express his admiration for was the dude from Live, of all bands, and I suspect that was c. the first Live album, when the band had a little buzz but no buzzkill. They were on the radio, and maybe someone gave him the album and he wanted to seem "hip" to what the kids were into.

unrelated but that makes me think of tom verlaine namechecking warpaint in one of his most recent interviews

I feel like I remember a guitar mag interview from the Vapor Trails era where Lifeson talked about the Edge's influence on him.

That's almost like Hendrix saying the hack from Janis joplins group influenced him. Wtf.

You might think The Edge is a shitty guitar player, but he's a shitty guitar player with a very identifiable approach—one that was definitely picked up by Lifeson on a song here and there.

(For the record, I don't think The Edge is a shitty guitar player. In fact, he and EVH were my biggest influences when I was first sorting out how to play a guitar at age 13.)

I defer to you , sir, as I have no abilities on guitar whatsoever. Edge could be Segovia for all I know.

"That was early Police influence. Their rhythms, their sounds… It was as exciting as when Cream came out. For us, it was a matter of using those new wave influences in ways that enhanced, but didn't degrade, what we were doing.

"There was the Edge too. What he did with the echo pedal is beyond measure. Yeah, the Edge and Andy Summers were very high on my list in those days. Still are."

http://www.guitarworld.com/rush-vital-signs-0?page=0,1

Can't listen to Bravado without hearing a U2 influence.

the Edge is a fucking excellent guitarist who writes shitty songs for a shitty band. absolutely nobody dislikes U2 more than me but the Edge is a really good player.

Really interesting to see you say that, Aero. I think the Edge is a really cool guitarist, but I've never rated him much as a player. He is the best Edge we will ever get, but it's kind of a means to an end compromise - he can do his one thing and really nothing else. The more I learn about his playing, the less I sort of respect it. Every song is pretty much wed to its one set of lots of effects, a unique combo of pedals and amps and other stuff. And he can't play those songs without that unique combination of stuff and gadgets. Which is cool, in its own right, but I've never heard anything from the Edge to make me think he could sit in with any band but U2.

Again, LOOOOOVE the effects. And also like/love U2 a lot. Just don't think of him as much of a player, as opposed to., I don't know, a human synth. Esp. vs Summers, who is as technically adept as it gets.

no I'd agree with that, I have a broad definition of "excellent guitarist" (should probably not have said "player" - yr right that that term generally means "can play whatever, with whoever") that includes having crafted a distinctive enough sound that it belongs to you. I think the early U2 stuff had a pretty nice approach but yeah, he is the sum of his gear

Lifeson definitely has a gearhead side to his playing that probably came a lot from guys like Summers and The Edge.

Or Gilmour. Or Page. Or whomever. But again, by the time Lifeson was likely to be hearing the Edge, he was nearly a decade and several albums into his career. In the sense that dudes weren't really using too much delay or echo in that kind of context before U2 and Police, sure, but I've always heard a ton of the Police, specifically, in Rush, but virtually no U2. Especially the way Lifeson offers these swooping washes of weird chord sound to fill space.

I'd like to think that Lifeson had also run across John McGeoch, but I've always thought there was a hidden Siouxsie influence in how Rush was structuring songs around this time.

Have much more mixed feelings about the Edge these days - was actually put off by his segment in the It Might Get Loud. Classic case of being adrift and unfocused once you have all the gear money can buy. I went through a phase of listening to a lot of 1991/1992 live bootlegs and being happily surprised whenever he cuts loose and makes a statement, but nothing since has the excitement and urgency of say War. There's a great bit in the movie when Edge is playing "I Will Follow" then Page jumps in and instantly it's Led Zep.

Is that the bit where Page and White watch a bemused Edge and you can practically see them pretending to be impressed?

Lifeson's solos when I saw Rush were the high point of the show for me - they were so engaged and present, just gorgeous and exciting

one of the (many) great things about rush is that they've always been totally open about pretty much everything (and haven't had cause to regret it).

could lifeson play rings around the edge? perhaps, but that doesn't mean he couldn't learn anything from him. and the same thing with geddy and peart, who seems to be always honing his craft.

learning stuff is never a negative

Lifeson definitely has a gearhead side to his playing that probably came a lot from guys like Summers and The Edge.

― odd proggy geezer (Moodles), Friday, July 4, 2014 12:46 PM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He'd ready done a shitload of kickass stuff before either guy put anything on wax

. . . therefore he should ignore them

I see what you are trying to Do and don't buy it. I'm merely saying lifeson may have been influenced by those guys , but when all is said and done they would be lucky to shine his shoes. Just like Bradshaw should be kissing greene's and lambert's and ham's ass for eternity

This guy rules:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3nTy6wQ3Bk

or would

search for user tjh3113 marathon cover

and the masks were hanging on the studio walls

That link brought me to this tribute band. These nerds nail it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SWgkyhM1-4