Rush v. Dirk, Pratt, & Lerxst

[jammindude]

[in my best 90 year old voice from the old folks home in the 2050s]

Ah yes...I remember when I met your grandmother...

...it was in a mosh pit at an Alice in Chains concert in the summer of aught 2.    She was wearing her nipple ring (ya see, dat was the style back in those days)...and she had the sweatpants that said "JUICY" on the back.    [getting misty eyed now] She was a pretty little philly, I'll tell ya wat.....

[TAC]

OK, just listened to Virtuality. The song still kind of blows. The riff is pretty badass, but there's just not much else there. Melody wise, I don't have a problem with the chorus, and I like the "Put your message in a modem and throw it in the cyber sea" line. I think that's great. But it's the "Net Boy, Net Girl" line that precedes it that makes the song basically unlistenable.

Says a song blows.

Picks out several things that are "badass" and "great".

Picks out one part that makes him cringe.

Uses that single part to call the song "unlistenable".   

I love you TAC, but you can be a scrooge.   

Ok ok....I'll get off your lawn now...

Hah! 

I can appreciate parts of the song. But I don't think it's a strong song to start with, and that Net Boys Net Girls part is so cringey.

[KevShmev]

It's like most of the other songs on Test for Echo: there are elements there that are really easy to like, but it just doesn't quite come together to be great.

[Mister Gold]

Lerxst has more great solos than I can count. From the debut to Counterparts, nearly every solo he did was money.  It is nearly impossible to pick a single favorite, although it is hard to not say Limelight, or Jacob's Ladder, or the one at the end of the Presentation section of 2112, or...you see what I mean.

Yeah, I'm not sure if I was clear on this at all earlier, as it seems some of my comments led to some additional talk but Lerxst is my favorite rock guitarist. I adore the man's guitarwork. 

~

Like most folks in here, I'd wager, I've been on a Rush binge lately. Easily the most expansive visit in the band's catalogue I've had since the R40 tour in 2015. While I'm not ready to give a full updated album ranking list yet, I do have the following tidbits to offer:

- Hemispheres, Power Windows and maybe Permanent Waves are tied for Rush's best ever albums. The band's firing on all cylinders on those records and the songwriting is consistent as hell from start to finish.

- Grace Under Pressure and Moving Pictures both suffer from "Epic Side A, Weak/Middling Side B" Syndrome. I rank Grace Under Pressure over MP though on account of its Side B at least wrapping things up on a high note with "Between the Wheels," while MP spends roughly a quarter of its entire runtime on arguably the band's weakest epic ("The Camera Eye") and never really recovers after that.

- I prefer the darker vibe and balance of guitar and keyboards on GUP over PoW, but at this point, it's impossible for me to deny that the production as a whole and the sheer consistent energy the band has on PoW puts that album ahead overall. Might very well be Rush's finest album.

- While I still adore the songs and consistency on Clockwork Angels, I really hope Geddy and Alex opt to invest the money and time to remix or remaster the album at some point. It's brickwalled and it's rough to listen to the whole album from start to finish these days. The band's final outing deserves to have a better listening experience IMHO, especially considering how damn remarkable the songwriting on it is.

- Both live versions of "2112" on All the World's A Stage and Different Stages are massive improvements on the original studio version. The song itself is filled with a ton of the band's finest moments and has so much energy throughout- but the studio version just loses all of the momentum out of nowhere once we get to 'Discovery.' I have no issues with a band slowing things down in an epic, but the studio version just takes far too long to get back going again IMO. The former live version fixes this by just removing that segment altogether (along with 'The Oracle') and restructures "2112" as a 16 minute long proto-prog metal fest, while the DS version has Alex playing something musically coherent almost right away in its live version of 'Discovery' so the momentum of the opening six minutes is preserved, even with the slower pace.

- "Hemispheres" is the superior sidelong epic, if we're going purely by the studio versions. It's more cohesive and naturally paced from start to finish than "2112" or "The Fountain of Lamneth," however I would also argue that "2112" has more moments that get the fist pumping. There's just something about the opening six minutes of "2112" that isn't ever quite matched in the whole of "Hemispheres" IMO.

[SoundscapeMN]

most may recall the clip with Alex's parents used in Beyond the Lighted Stage, but I had never seen the rest of this film/documentary "Come On Children" from 1973, until yesterday.

Alex would have been 19 or 20 when it was made. The others in the film seem like kids who just want to get high. Even the girl whose pregnant is smoking, which I suppose back in '73 maybe that was not stressed about the health risks.

I do sort of wonder what ended up happening to those kids some 46-47 years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8HBEZ5bFEM

[Stadler]

most may recall the clip with Alex's parents used in Beyond the Lighted Stage, but I had never seen the rest of this film/documentary "Come On Children" from 1973, until yesterday.

Alex would have been 19 or 20 when it was made. The others in the film seem like kids who just want to get high. Even the girl whose pregnant is smoking, which I suppose back in '73 maybe that was not stressed about the health risks.

I do sort of wonder what ended up happening to those kids some 46-47 years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8HBEZ5bFEM

That's weird, because I had that same thought - "what happened to them x years later" - about the girl on the cover of the "Careless Memories" single by Duran Duran (from the RnRHoF discussion).  It wasn't specifically about "her", but just generally about how many people there are and how some flit in and out of our consciousness and who knows what happens to them?  Or if they even know about their brush with wider popularity.  Do you think any of those kids think "hey, I'm in this doc with that weird kid Alexandar.  Apparently, he made something of himself!"?  (I'm joking about the Alex part).

[Anguyen92]

For some reason, in that clip when he had that conversation with his parents, this quote always stands out to me.  ""Hey, there goes Alex. He's loaded with money and, wow, he really set himself up great."  Don't know why.

[Architeuthis]

I've been going through some stuff in my attic and upstairs in my house and found "Power Windows" on tape that I bought nearly thirty years ago. It's been safe in its case and when I played last night it sounded like new. 
 I forgot I even had that, because I've been listening to it on cd over the years. The cassette has almost a warmer sound than the cd..

[SoundscapeMN]

I bought every Rush album up through Roll the Bones on cassette tape. I know how that is.

[King Postwhore]

I remember sitting in my kitchen waiting for a local radio station to play the new Rush song so I could record it. (Remember those days?!)

My girlfriend stopped by and was hanging with my mom.  I finally taped the song sitting around for 3 hours (Show, Don't tell). I played it back and the boom box started to eat the tape.  The horror!  My mom and girlfriend start to laugh at me freaking out.  Then I took that freakout to the next level.   I told them to shut up in a high, excited voice.  The startled look on both their faces realizing I was really upset.  LOL

[Setlist Scotty]

I remember sitting in my kitchen waiting for a local radio station to play the new Rush song so I could record it. (Remember those days?!)

Oh yeah - that was me in the early 80s with all the music I liked since I hadn't been old enough to go to the store to buy my own music at the time.

That brings to mind something else I was just thinking about: the first song you heard off each album. In most cases, it would be the first pre-release single from the album on the radio, the first song on the album after you purchased it and started listening to it or the "hit" song on the album being played on the radio. That was typically the case for me with almost every album.

But I remember, for whatever reason, the first song I heard from Counterparts (which was on the radio) was The Speed of Love. I don't know why they played that song because I know Stick It Out was the first single - just strikes me as such an odd choice to play on the radio. Anyone else have a similar experience?

[KevShmev]

I remember Rockline debuting Counterparts in full (as well as Test for Echo) with interviews with the band intertwined, and they never did the songs in order.  I just remember Between the Sun and Moon and Nobody's Hero being the first two they played.  Threw me off when I got the CD and they weren't the first two songs.

[Max Kuehnau]

I remember sitting in my kitchen waiting for a local radio station to play the new Rush song so I could record it. (Remember those days?!)

Oh yeah - that was me in the early 80s with all the music I liked since I hadn't been old enough to go to the store to buy my own music at the time.

That brings to mind something else I was just thinking about: the first song you heard off each album. In most cases, it would be the first pre-release single from the album on the radio, the first song on the album after you purchased it and started listening to it or the "hit" song on the album being played on the radio. That was typically the case for me with almost every album.

But I remember, for whatever reason, the first song I heard from Counterparts (which was on the radio) was The Speed of Love. I don't know why they played that song because I know Stick It Out was the first single - just strikes me as such an odd choice to play on the radio. Anyone else have a similar experience?

yes, I remember hearing Not About Us on the radio before I heard Congo on the radio (given that Congo was the first single, and so one would think that that will get the most plays on the radio.) And yes, I am aware I'm referencing Genesis and not Rush. Sorry.

[Stadler]

I remember sitting in my kitchen waiting for a local radio station to play the new Rush song so I could record it. (Remember those days?!)

My girlfriend stopped by and was hanging with my mom.  I finally taped the song sitting around for 3 hours (Show, Don't tell). I played it back and the boom box started to eat the tape.  The horror!  My mom and girlfriend start to laugh at me freaking out.  Then I took that freakout to the next level.   I told them to shut up in a high, excited voice.  The startled look on both their faces realizing I was really upset.  LOL

It didn't happen often, but it DID happen:  nothing worse than doing that wait, and just after the first chorus, the voice comes on "99 Rock, W P L R!" superimposed over the music.   

[Architeuthis]

I remember sitting in my kitchen waiting for a local radio station to play the new Rush song so I could record it. (Remember those days?!)

But I remember, for whatever reason, the first song I heard from Counterparts (which was on the radio) was The Speed of Love. I don't know why they played that song because I know Stick It Out was the first single - just strikes me as such an odd choice to play on the radio. Anyone else have a similar experience?

The first CP song the radio played in my area was Animate.  And yes, it did kind of "polarize me" because I thought it had a bit of a Pearl Jam vibe to it.  That song has aged with me quite well though. I also remember hearing Stick it Out and Nobody's Hero quite often, which I'm still indifferent to those two to this day. Cut To The Chase however, is a whole different beast!   

[Orbert]

I bought every Rush album up through Roll the Bones on cassette tape. I know how that is.

I bought every Rush album up through Hold Your Fire on vinyl.



Sorry, I just had to brag.  Fewer albums, but vinyl > cassette.

[pg1067]

I bought every Rush album up through Roll the Bones on cassette tape. I know how that is.

I bought every Rush album up through Hold Your Fire on vinyl.



Sorry, I just had to brag.  Fewer albums, but vinyl > cassette.

That's me too (pretty sure Presto was the first album I bought new on CD).  I never got the appeal of cassettes over vinyl.  Smaller lyrics sheets/liner notes (and sometimes none at all) and no ability to proceed immediately to Song X.  Portability was the only advantage for cassettes, but I could easily copy my vinyl onto a cassette.

[Orbert]

That's what I did for years.  Bought the records, copied them to cassettes (usually one album on each side of a C-90) then I could play them in the car, but always had vinyl for at home.

[TAC]

I bought every Rush album up through Roll the Bones on cassette tape. I know how that is.

I bought every Rush album up through Hold Your Fire on vinyl.



Sorry, I just had to brag.  Fewer albums, but vinyl > cassette.

That's me too (pretty sure Presto was the first album I bought new on CD).  I never got the appeal of cassettes over vinyl.  Smaller lyrics sheets/liner notes (and sometimes none at all) and no ability to proceed immediately to Song X.  Portability was the only advantage for cassettes, but I could easily copy my vinyl onto a cassette.

I actually had a tape deck in my car that I could hit FF and it would stop at the next song.

[Orbert]

Mine could do that, too.  But I noticed that after doing that, there would be an audible "click" at that point forever after.  Not really loud, but audible since it came during the quiet between tracks.  Physical inspection of the tape revealed a slight crease at that point, where the rollers had pinched the tape a little bit doing their seek-and-play thing.  I didn't skip tracks much anyway, but I stopped doing it once I figured that out.  Cool feature for an in-dash cassette deck, but not if it's going to add noise.  To me, it was like a scratch on a record.  Inexcusable.

[jammindude]

And that feature ONLY worked on albums with a silent gap between songs.   Pretty much useless on most Pink Floyd albums.   

[TAC]

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[pg1067]

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[King Postwhore]

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[Cool Chris]

Mine could do that, too.  But I noticed that after doing that, there would be an audible "click" at that point forever after.  Not really loud, but audible since it came during the quiet between tracks.  Physical inspection of the tape revealed a slight crease at that point, where the rollers had pinched the tape a little bit doing their seek-and-play thing. 

That is easily the most fascinating thing I've learned so far in 2020.

Also, I totally remember taping a song off the radio, and having a ton of them in my collection with the first 5-10 seconds left off because it took me that long to hit RECORD.

On topic, before I bought the album, I had recorded 2112 during 99.9 KISW's year-end Top 1000 one year, and at end of the song I left it recording when the DJ came on with "2112 from Rush at number 39* on our Top 1000 countdown."

I can't swear it was #39 but for some reason that number popped in to my head, so I'd bet a paycheck or two on it. Memory is funny sometimes. Why the hell would I remember that?

[jammindude]

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[IDontNotDoThings]

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[Architeuthis]

Mine could do that, too.  But I noticed that after doing that, there would be an audible "click" at that point forever after.  Not really loud, but audible since it came during the quiet between tracks.  Physical inspection of the tape revealed a slight crease at that point, where the rollers had pinched the tape a little bit doing their seek-and-play thing. 

On topic, before I bought the album, I had recorded 2112 during 99.9 KISW's year-end Top 1000 one year, and at end of the song I left it recording when the DJ came on with "2112 from Rush at number 39* on our Top 1000 countdown."

I can't swear it was #39 but for some reason that number popped in to my head, so I'd bet a paycheck or two on it. Memory is funny sometimes. Why the hell would I remember that?

Because you remember, Roll the Bones!

[The Walrus]

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ź̴̠̻͈̯̮͕̬̱͙̟̫̉́͜ǎ̷͖̲̬̓̽̀̈̔͐̊̈́̀͌̅̓͌l̶̬̐̍͐̂̏̕͝g̸̢̦̜̙̱͇͉̥̪̀̌̈́̌͂͋̈̏͒͠ͅo̵̡̗̳͕̟͓̓̆̓̌̀͜͝

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

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I bought every Rush album up through Roll the Bones on cassette tape. I know how that is.

I bought every Rush album up through Hold Your Fire on vinyl.



Sorry, I just had to brag.  Fewer albums, but vinyl > cassette.

I suppose if we are going to brag, I have all Rush albums (some of them multiple copies, such as all the 40th anniversary editions, etc.), including the live albums on vinyl (at least the live albums that were actually released on Vinyl, which I'm pretty sure is just AtWaS, ESL, ASoH, and RiR)

[Fritzinger]

I bought every Rush album up through Roll the Bones on cassette tape. I know how that is.

I bought every Rush album up through Hold Your Fire on vinyl.



Sorry, I just had to brag.  Fewer albums, but vinyl > cassette.

Since I didn't get to see Rush live 87 times like most people here, I also want to brag a little: Except for the debut, Roll The Bones, Test For Echo and Snakes & Arrows, I have all Rush albums on vinyl  And the mentioned will follow soon

[HOF]

I can’t compete with most of you when it comes to collecting all the Rush albums on vinyl or seeing every tour or whatever. What I do have is a Power Windows tour t-shirt that was previously owned by Pete Trewavas.

[Stadler]

That's what I did for years.  Bought the records, copied them to cassettes (usually one album on each side of a C-90) then I could play them in the car, but always had vinyl for at home.

This.  I still have a bag of cassettes in my basement with the albums I listened to as a young man.  I kept some of them because they have rare/as yet unreleased on CD songs from 12" singles and what not. 

[TAC]

I gave all of my cassettes away about a dozen years ago. I still have my vinyl in my attic. I've a good mind to simply give it away too. Honestly, it's useless to me. Every now and then when I have to go up there, I'll pause and look through a few albums and basically reminisce.

[Fritzinger]

I can’t compete with most of you when it comes to collecting all the Rush albums on vinyl or seeing every tour or whatever. What I do have is a Power Windows tour t-shirt that was previously owned by Pete Trewavas.

Okay, you win.