p/g is a wasted opportunity for one of my favorite bands, and a low point in the catalogue.
Stadler, I'm sure you've waxed poetically on this claim before. Perhaps someone can link me to this discussion.
Or Stadler, perhaps you could run through Grace Under Pressure compared to the whole Signals through Presto era. Seriously.
it's in the "Dirk, Lexst, Pratt" whatever-the-f*** that thread is called (their names are Geddy, Alex and Neil!) about four times.
I got into Rush with Power Windows. Marathon and Manhatten Project; woof! Saw them live and LOVED it. So I went back and got Moving Pictures. Loved it then, love it now, still think Tom Sawyer is one of the greatest songs of all time ever by any band. Signals next. Blown away. Subdivisions. That drum fill (you know the one I mean; it ends the intro to Subdivisions and segues into the first verse. The Analog Kid (I've written about that before; the boy lying in the grass with one blade stuck between his teeth is me as a kid). New World Man! LOSING IT! Fucking RUSH, man!! Then...
p/g. Wow. That sound you hear is the air coming out of the balloon. WTF. When did Andy Summers join Rush? Who sabotaged Neil's drums/forced him at gun point to use those stop-sign thingies that Bill Bruford was using? That fill on Red Sector A just before the "I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gates..." section sounds like it was sampled from an Atari game. Or that stupid song by Naked Eyes. It was pretty decent live, too, so what happened??
Really liked Hold Your Fire (the melodies rule, and that bass line on "Prime Mover"!!). Presto is a top five Rush album for me. I LOVE that record. Even the songs that others despise, like "Superconductor". Excellent stuff. "...Pressure" is like a pothole on Interstate Rush to me.