3)
Rush,
A Farewell To Kings (1977)
After the success and attention that
Rush gained with
2112, expectations were pretty high, and man did they deliver! There isn’t one thing to highlight above another here… Peart’s vivid and colorful lyrics are beyond compare, and his work on the drums is jaw dropping. Not chaotic, or filled with any unnecessary ‘need for speed’ or flamboyant fills, just an absolute perfect demonstration of progressive percussion. Geddy slappin da bass as good as anything else he did on their 20 studio albums (he was so creative and inventive here); Alex’s guitar performance is controlled and crisp and defined (I’m not really sure what I mean by that, but it’s just the only word that comes to mind); and the keyboards/moog just completes the overall fantasy sound that the lyrics/stories provide. When you pack on two truly epic masterpieces like
Xanadu (my favorite Rush track period… musically and lyrically it is just perfect – there are so many moments in the song that just leave me breathless and in awe at how three guys can make such amazing music) and
Cygnus X-1, there’s really no other place for this album to fall but in the top 10 (at least for a guy like me for whom Rush is my #2 band behind Zeppelin). Geddy could’ve been reciting the alphabet with Twinkle Twinkle playing in the background for the other four tracks, and this would still be a top 10 album. That’s not to say the other four tracks are weak… they are not. The opening track contains catchy riffs, a jazz rock interlude, and a dramatic and blistering guitar solo.
Closer to the Heart is probably their second most recognizable and accessible song, but I’ll tell you this, the studio version of it is hard to listen to, given they’ve had so many incredible live versions (I’m talking about you,
Different Stages). This album is a perfect combination of basic rock riffs and sounds, along with just enough exploration to take (and keep) you into the prog domain.
Xanadu was probably the first truly progressive song that ever captured me. As I mentioned in my OP (and as you can probably tell now that we’re almost at the end of the list), I was a bit of a classic/hard/glam rock snob in the mid-late 80s. It wasn’t until about ‘88 or ‘89 when I started getting into Rush (beyond the radio hits) that I found their earlier work. Then, in preparation for their Roll the Bones Tour (where they brought back
Xanadu in its entirety), I became fully consumed with 70s Rush, and in turn, more exploration into Progressive Rock. It took me a while to really ‘get’
Cygnus X-1 (at first I found it a bit bizarre), but once I did, it just further cemented my preference for this as my favorite Rush disc.
Fav Songs –
Xanadu, Cygnus X-1, A Farewell to Kings